Ingy Bowl

We were only invited to one Super Bowl party...and it was in Houston. (Thanks for the invite, Caroline!) So I wasn't even planning to turn on the game, but I figured Harry needed to see what all the excitement was about. Turned out the littlest two are "ball-ball" fans. Every time a commercial would come on (or I'd sneakily try to change the channel) they'd scream "BALL! BALL!" So here they are enjoying the game.

Scrutinizing a play. They like when the ball flies through the air, somebody catches it, and then that person runs really fast. (I'm guessing that's probably what all boys, big and small, like best.)



Discussing the offense...or maybe it was the defense.


Big smiles from Ingys mean there was either a shot of the cheerleaders or somebody took a big hit.


And then after seeing some inspirational tackles, they tried out a few of their own.

In Honor

Kyle and Reed will do anything to show their adoration of Big Brother. Check out the teeth on their T-shirts!

Inner Space Caverns

Last night became Toothless Thursday when JR's other front tooth literally just fell out of his mouth. Not a drop of blood, no tears, no pulling. Apparently, JR's classmate, Jordan, is quite advanced for a first grader and has already earned his DDS. JR informed us a week or so ago that Jordan said his tooth wasn't ready to come out, but would let him know when it was. And since Jordan had yet to give the tooth pull go-ahead, it droped into JR's hand last night as he was watching TV. The Tooth Fairy was still feeling bad about forgetting to pack a fork in JR's lunch, and had been getting angrier and angrier about Forkgate as the day wore on. Needless to say, JR was pretty excited about his $5 this morning.

I'm Mom of the Year...Again!

I just got a call from JR's teacher (he's being a bit attitudinal today). But she also told me a lunch incident that should have my Mother of The Year trophy arriving any minute. I forgot to put a fork in JR's lunch this morning. Now normally this wouldn't be that big of a deal, but the cafeteria ladies wouldn't let him use one from the cafeteria line. (JR's teacher agreed that was ridiculous.) I think they have aides or volunteers who watch the kids during lunch, so the aide/volunteer that was on duty borrowed a fork from another kid and told JR she would wash it with soap and water and it would be just like a new fork. Well, if you're a regular reader or have met JR for more than 5 minutes then you know how that turned out. I even said to his teacher before she finished, "Oh yeah, there's no way he was going for that." (And right now both of JR's grandmothers are saying "I wouldn't have either!") Poor thing. Since he couldn't eat his pasta because I forgot to pack a fork, (and he wouldn't use a used fork) he couldn't have his cookie, which means the poor child had no lunch today. Thankfully it's Thursday so we'll be making our weekly Sonic happy hour slushy run before gymnastics. This Mom of the Year will be buying that baby anything else he wants too. Of course we'll still be having a little talk about his attitudinal problem, we'll just be having it as he stuffs his face...and I wait for my trophy to arrive.

Traveling Ingys Love NY

It was just a few weeks ago we Traveling Ingys were smelling the roses in California. This week we're on the other side of the country taking a bite out of the Big Apple. (We sure are busy using our senses aren't we?) My sorority sister, Amy, her husband, Eley, and their precious daughter Kendall brought us along to New York City and I couldn't have been happier. The closest I've been to The City is the Newark airport, so it was great to see it up close.

Here we are in Times Square...right in the middle of the action, and you know we always want to be where the action is!


The kids wanted to swing in Central Park. Unfortunately, Suri Cruise and Barron Trump weren't there that day, so I guess we'll have to go back another time.


Whew! After all the swinging we needed to take a break. And what better place than a park bench in Central Park?


Checking out the view of the Brooklyn Bridge in our hotel room.


And our favorite! Playing the Big keyboard in FAO Schwartz. Tom Hanks was way impressed with our musicality!


Thanks Eley, Amy, and Kendall for taking us along. We loved it!

And when you vacay, don't forget us! If you don't have your own Traveling Ingys pick us up here!

A Groundhog Gala

I found these Groundhog Day cookies online, and with my body temporarily taken over by Martha Stewart, figured we could make these pretty easily. Now before we start with the Ingy version of Groundhog Day cookies, let's take a good look at the inspiration cookie. Really cute, obviously a groundhog, and to be honest, they really weren't that hard. But like all things around here, you know there's going to be something that goes awry.
I lined everybody up at the kitchen counter and the babies actually did a great job helping. Helping themselves to Hershey's Kisses. (Which is what that little hill is made of.) Reed was able to hold his kiss and just give it a little lick before putting it inside the dough, but Kyle's was usually eaten before we could get around to his turn again.
And no, Kyle doesn't have a scar to match Reed's. That would be chocolate.

My first batch of cookies didn't come out so well. My body has finally adjusted to this altitude, but my baking has not. I used a lot less dough for the next batches. And I hate to talk about nipplear areas twice in less than a week, but um, yeah, elephant in the room...that's what I'm seeing too.

While the next batch was baking, I put JR to work making the groundhogs. Here's my attempt at the requisite fancy photography shot found in all food blogs.

JR's completed groundhog! Yes, ours turned out looking more like owls, but I think part of the owl look is because I was supposed to "trim" the bottom of the cookie. I tried to "trim", but I broke the cookie. And when it comes to cooking/baking, I follow one simple rule: if it's too much work or seems too hard just skip it. So yeah, we just skipped that step.

Now I know you've been waiting patiently for a good Ingy mishap, and more than just cookies that resemble nipplear areas. My car battery died yesterday (died, as in, wouldn't turn over and had to be towed to the shop). Unfortunately, I had to leave before the last batch of cookies was done to go pick it up. I told Harry he was in charge of taking the cookies out, and set the kitchen timer (instead of the baking timer) for 3:00 minutes. Um, let's just say leaving a 17 year-old-boy that's never even seen an oven until he came to live in my house was the wrong thing to do. He somehow missed the beeping of the oven, and the smell of cookies burning. Here's how the last batch turned out.
My house still stinks!

But here are the Groundhog Day cookies that did survive. Again, I skipped a step that I thought would be too much work, and just let JR make the "grass" out of green sprinkles instead of frosting.

And as we were eating them last night, Harry and JR said they'll take more winter since they want more snow. Jason and I said we wouldn't mind a little spring. And I'm not sure if it was his shadow or El Nino dumping 7ft of snow in my front yard that scared Punxsutawney Phil back in his hole this morning, but either way, pretty sure we've got quite a bit more winter ahead of us.

To Kyle

Dear Kyle,

I know you and Reed are really proud of yourselves that you've learned to take off your shirts (and the rest of your clothes.) And yes, you look much more manly when you leave your pants on. The baby-in -just- a -diaper-look just doesn't really convey the McConaugheyness you're going for. But just between us, if you're really trying to impress The Shirtless Wonder, Big Brother, and make him think you're as tough as he is, you might want to consider leaving your babies and pacifier in your bed. Yes, I know you love to pack your babies around the house. But maybe Blue, Bear, Duck, and Handy Manny can hang out in the living room when you're practicing your tough-guy look.

Love, Mommy