Marx Mania...

We have four March birthdays in our family. One of those is Andie's.

Earlier Michael and I came across a notice that James Taylor was coming to Louisville. Andie loved James Taylor when she was a teen. One of my fondest memories was staying up all night on Christmas making a jigsaw puzzle with Andie while listening to James Taylor CD's. Great fun. I told Michael I would watch the kids if he wanted to take Andie to see James Taylor. Tickets were bought, plans were made and Andie got James Taylor tickets for her birthday this year from Michael.

Friday Claude and I journeyed to LaGrange to play with the Mini-Marx's. We arrived while Andie was watching a friends little ones. There had been a playdate with these kids earlier in the day, the mom wanted to go to a consignment sale, Andie suggested she leave her kids and enjoy the sale, the mom agreed. So we entered with three extra kids in the house just before time to go to the bus stop to pick up Hayden. I took baby Hazel and rocked her while Andie took the oldest boy to the bus stop to pick up Hayden.

Bailey accompanied Hazel and I upstairs to the rocking chair. Hazel was sooooo tired and not with her mom. She was crying and her little nose was running. I asked Bailey if she would help me and get me a Kleenex. Bailey found a Kleenex and brought it to me. Then she pushed the computer chair over by the rocking chair, brought the box of tissues and placed them on the computer chair by me and announced, "This a yittle table for you to put the Kleenex on." I just wanted to squeeze her for being so sweet.

Hayden got home, the mommy returned from the consignment sale and took her kidlings home to rest, and we began our evening with Hayden and Bailey. Hayden had Rocket, Bailey had an airplane and I was given the helicopter to play with. The pretend game moved in flying formation from the living room to the family room through the kitchen several times. We played under the dining table and ended the game by flying the aircraft down the landing strip (a.k.a. Bailey's ballet mat).

We had a cute moment occur when we were trying to determine what to do for dinner. Mention was made of this and Hayden overheard. He quickly chimed in, "Well, after we order dinner we can watch our movie."  There was no question in Hayden's mind that we would order and pick up dinner. Guess we have created a habit there. It was funny to hear him state is so matter of factly.

We did order a pizza and Claude picked it up. My grandsons are both pizza lovin' guys.

After dinner, Claude headed to the Louisville Temple to help with the youth in our home ward doing baptisms. Andie headed to Louisville to have dinner and enjoy James Taylor with Michael. Hayden set up the DVD player for Bailey, Hayden and me to watch Cinderella III.

Hayden and Bailey enjoyed their movie so much. After it was over, Hayden wanted to watch some of the bonus features. He was stretched out on the big footstool getting the TV to that point. Bailey strolled over and layed across her big brother and gave him a big hug. How sweet can life get? I never had a big brother and I think that may have been a lot of fun.

I curled up in the family room after getting Hayden and Bailey to bed. At one point I decided I would really like a treat. I got up and checked out the pantry. As I closed that door and started to go back to my Sudoku book empty handed, my hubby came in the door with McFlurries for us. What a guy!!!

We got a call from Katelyn in the evening. She was hired by Office Depot and was anxious to share her excitement. This is a great job opportunity for her. It is not too far from her home and will be a good work environment. I was very proud of her.

One of the things she did in High School was community service. Part of that was helping a man run for political office. She worked very hard and did a good job with this service. When she walked into Office Depot to put in an application, the manager of the store was the person she had helped with his campaign. He rememberd what a great worker Katelyn was and had to remove himself from her job interview because he was very biased in her favor. His recommendation of her personality and work ethic were instrumental in her success in getting this job. This is just good on many levels that end with her having a great part-time job this summer and during the school year to come.

Saturday morning I heard Hayden wake up early. He has to get up early for school and his body was ready to be up. He was very kind and played in his room before knocking on the wall. That is my signal he is ready to have me be awake and come in to play. Our day was about to begin.

Andie had a cake to decorate for Hayden's school carnival that day. I wish I had taken a picture of it. It is a Weber grill with burgers and hot dogs, onion and tomato slices. We would play with the kids while she finished her decorating process.

Hayden suggested we could clean the tadpole habitat. Andie helped us set up and Hayden and I cleaned Galileohopper Jupiter Marx's habitat. (I hope I got that name right.) The habitat was a Christmas gift for Hayden and the tadpole arrived a couple of weeks ago. It was fun to clean and talk with Hayden. Hayden is an interesting young man with lots of facts and ideas to share to anyone who will listen. He told Andie after we went home that he thought I really enjoyed cleaning the tadpole habitat with him. He was right!

Andie finished her cake decorating and needed to take the cake to school by 11:30am. Hayden and I would accompany her on this trip. Hayden entered a Lego Star Wars diorama in the display in the school library. We wanted to be able to see it, if possible. We were able to get in the library, found the diorama, got pictures of it and Hayden as the Buckner Bear mascot and with Darth Vader.

We determined a stop at Subway would be a great idea for lunch. Lunch was enjoyed and chips were shared. That Bailey does love her chips. She is like a little chipmunk when she eats chips. Very amusing to Claude and me.

The afternoon project was to make pocket planters to start seeds. Andie found these in a magazine and determined the kids would do that to create the starts for their garden this year. All you do is take baseball card holder sheets. Fill each pocket with potting soil. Plant a seed in each pocket and put a label on the pocket so you know what seed you planted there. Then you hang the pocket planters on the glass door or window. Water them with an eye dropper or syringe. Hayden and Bailey had lots of fun filling the pockets, picking what seeds they wanted to plant, writing the labels and watering their plants. They are hanging on the door for them to watch grow. I thought this was one of the coolest ideas I've seen in a long time.

Michael had soccer games to referee during the day. When he returned home we celebrated Andie's birthday again. Her family had a birthday celebration for her on her birthday. Claude and I brought our gift on this trip and I made Andie a special cake.

Andie has my father's genes coursing through her veins. She likes to have double-stuff Oreo's and milk in the evening. My father loves cookies and milk. When I was a kid, my mother would keep cellophane bags of vanilla wafers on hand. There were no microwaves to reheat dinner. If my father was late getting home, his favorite meal was to take a bag of vanilla wafers and a jug of milk and a bowl. He would try to even out the vanilla wafers and milk in that bowl as he ate. To this day, if I go to his apartment when he is eating his main meal of the day, he will have a bowl of milk with cookies in it soaking up the milk for his dessert. When Andie comes to visit, we always try to have double-stuff Oreo's for her.

I found cake pans in a catalog that were in the shape of a cookie. It just had to be done. Andie is always making cakes and/or cupcakes that are extraordinary for our birthdays and special events. It was time to return the favor. I ordered the cookie shaped pans.

I made the cake for her Friday morning, put it in the cake holder and left it in the car until Saturday afternoon.

Saturday afternoon we put candles on the cake, sang "Happy Birthday", opened presents and had a little party.

Quiet time for the Mini's was next.

After quiet time the Marx family prepared and headed to Hayden's elementary school for the school carnival. Claude and I got ready and headed to the Marriott near the Cincinnati Airport for the 4th Congressional District Republican Lincoln Day Dinner. We had enjoyed a fun couple of days together. Hayden told Andie we should do that every week!!