Penguin Army

Sunday Mom and Dad went to Lowe's to get holiday lights.  They saw a display with bricks painted as snowmen and bought a brick to bring home to show me.  Dad wanted to buy a bunch right away for me to paint for the yard, but Mom said to just get one because sometimes I shoot down her project ideas as silly.  I did not shoot it down this time, but I did immediately decide the brick should be painted as a penguin and not a snowman.

After going back to Lowe's for paint and 11 more bricks, I got home and told Mik I was making a penguin army.  I finished one that day and placed it outside by the sidewalk.

Yesterday, I painted more of the bricks and also came up with the idea of painting one of them to have his belly look like the number 1.  Then when placed next to two with their regular bellies looking like zeros we have our house number.  In putting the three for that with Dad, I dropped one and Mik was sad he did not get it on video because I "killed" a penguin.

Today I finished painting the rest of the bricks and fixed the injured penguin, so we now have a dozen penguins in our yard as part of our holiday decor.  Now to get the inflatable ones out of the attic, which are involved in my scheme to earn us another warning letter from the HOA.

Valentine's Day: 1st Holiday in Our New Home

Wednesday Dad and I planned how to celebrate Valentine's Day on the actual day, but Mom had forgotten to tell us she was going out of town that evening.  Thus, we celebrated it a day late tonight.

My plan was to make a heart shaped cake with cupcakes as Mom thought that was cool when we were in Target the other day.  Since the kitchen is only partially unpacked I had to improvise a little in how I made it.  For one, we had no mixing bowls unpacked when I was mixing up the batter, so I ended up using a pot.  Of course, the one box I unpacked while the cupcakes were baking was the one with some of the mixing bowls!

Secondly, we have not found the pans, so I could not make regular sized cupcakes.  What I had unpacked already, though, was my mini cupcake maker, which ended up being a better way of making them anyways.  However, it took forever to use up all the batter (about 8 batches at 8 minutes each).

I topped the cupcakes with cream cheese frosting and strawberries after arranging them in a heart shape.

Our First and Last Christmas at Mom & Dad's in Tucson

Last night we opened our Christmas presents at Mom and Dad's house. With us moving to Alabama in January, it will likely be the one and only time we do Christmas at that house. In fact, I think it was the first and probably only time Mik went to that house when it was where they were living.

Opening presents before Christmas has been pretty traditional for us and continued this year with Mom and Dad going to Chicago for Christmas and Mik and I deciding to stay home to celebrate Christmas in Tucson for what may be the last time for awhile.

Mom and Dad ended up copying what Mik and I did a few years ago and got each other the same exact present. A few years ago Mik and I got each other the same Harry Potter movie on Blu-Ray and this year Mom and Dad got each other a 2013 runners calendar (they are both going to do the Chicago marathon next year).

Here is Mik getting nothing! He opened the card and thought he got nothing. He was expecting an iTunes card, which is all he asked for this year, and didn't read the tag inside that said good for an iTunes card from Mom. More importantly, though, the other tag in the card said good for tickets to the Lakers @ Suns game, so he will get to go to the game he has been wanting to see right before we move.