Though really, her tween years counted double since she had three teen siblings for those years.

The tween and teen years really put the toddler years to shame. Oh how I yearn for those cute, funny days.

Alas, we can’t turn back time and here we are with a teenager once again.

We continue to keep birthdays pretty low key around here at the Humpfreeze house and have never caved to the peer pressure of extravagant, expensive parties and typically opt for family celebrations.

After her birthday weekend was spent with the grandmothers, she patiently waited two weeks to have a few friends over for dinner and a movie at home.

She picked the menu.

Fruit kabob appetizers. She was inspired to make kabobs when she found the funky skewers at a garage sale the weekend before for the bargain price of 50¢.

Chinese carryout – sesame chicken and fried rice.

And a birthday cake.

Selected by her via the Publix website.

Ebony & Ivory cake.

The chocolate pudding was suspiciously missing between the layers as described on their website but the cake was otherwise good.

Side note: I’d personally recommend the Chocolate Ganache Supreme instead. I also have a few customer service tips for Publix about the bakery clerk taking the cake order over the phone. Very surprised to get anything less than stellar customer service from Publix. (Especially since my 3 darling Twenties were forced to work there by their mean parents so they could learn the art of stellar customer service.)

Now we look forward to the next five years with our new teenager. She has so much potential and we can only hope her elderly senior citizen parents can live through it.

This leads to some gift procrastination because I’m sometimes a little slow coming up with an idea.

Way back in May, I was stuck on giving several high school graduation gifts that would be personal even though I know that most graduates love good old-fashioned cash or the more hip and cool gift cards.

Easy gifts that are very appreciated from my own experience of having 3 high school graduates who were very grateful!

Finally, I came up with what I thought was a great idea for gifts.

In August.

Not very timely for the May and June graduates.

Until I realized that the gift recipients were going to college and it would be way more fun to mail their graduation gifts as care packages.

So in September I ordered 3 copies of this favorite book.

And then I got busy and started baking. I made 3 different kinds of quick bread (no yeast).

I might have made more than 3 loaves. Good time to freeze bread. You know, I like to bake in batches. Great little gifts any time!

I did this baking over two weekends not all at once.

I made 3 different kinds of cookies. Chocolate Chip were the obvious first choice.

Next I wanted to try these Triple Threat Chocolate Fudge Peanut Butter Cookies and they did not disappoint.

Who wouldn’t love a box filled with 3 dozen cookies?

The chocolate chip cookies were made the weekend before so they were frozen in little dollar store foil containers. I decided the 3rd kind should be chocolate-free so I made Lemon Drops

And 3 adorable mini loaves of bread?

Pumpkin Bread, Banana Bread & Poppy Seed Bread

To share or hoard as I told the new college freshmen in the note I sent in each box.

I’ve heard via texting, phone and a lovely handwritten note that they enjoyed all the goodies.

Send a college kid a care package if you can. Any time of year, for no special occasion, just because you’re thinking of them. In fact, I think you can send anybody a care package and they’ll love it!

Next week I’ll share our new favorite cookies that are the best I’ve made in YEARS!

Happy 20th Birthday to the darling twins!

Holy cow! This means I do not have teenagers living in my house for the first time in 8 years. Until next April when Scary Baby turns 13 and the cycle begins again. Yikes.

I will not lie and say I will miss the teen years. I will tell the truth and confess that I absolutely miss this stage…

Zero to two is my favorite time. They were such adorable tiny twins.

Then they get big and talk back and think we’re stupid.

Side note: Twenty feels like the new twelve this summer as we go ’round and ’round about all our ridiculous rules. But that’s a post for another day.

Roger Leroy requested a chocolate chip fruit pizza for her birthday “cake.”

Wizzy requested a chocolate cake.

“Hot” tip regarding frosting = it melts if cake is still warm.

They’ve had to share one cake for so many years that I decided I could accommodate both requests. The bonus was that we had dessert three nights in a row.

They are such opposites in so many ways. Dinner requests were Mexican and Italian. We took them for Mexican on Friday night and Wizzy had an Italian dinner with her dad the next night.

Neither requested the singing, the sopapillas or the…

…sombreros.

Forced cell phone picture. Can you tell?

We thought Wizzy’s hat made her look like a Canadian Mountie. We blamed her big head. She insisted it was because of her bun.

Wizzy also tried to escape from our booth when she realized PhilBillPaul had discreetly arranged for the wait staff to come out and sing for the darling twins. We pinned her in and about seven staff members delivered a rousing performance.

They really didn’t seem to appreciate when their dad and I came out of the restaurant wearing the bonus sombreros they got to keep.

And PhilBillPaul wore one all the way home.

This was all in May.

We’ve seen them a couple of times.

There was even one Friday night which happened to be somewhat significant in our lives where we all went out to a Mexican restaurant together for dinner.

ALL. SIX. OF. US.

Crazy, I know.

Remember how I told you last week what Stress #1 was?

The darling twins being home (sort of) is…

Stress #2

That may not sound very loving. Please allow me to explain.

The week of exams Roger Leroy drove home with most of their belongings and dropped them off in the garage and foyer. She also arrived with a little surprise.

Make that two little surprises.

Meet Clarence and Francis

We were not amused.

Scary Baby fell in love with them.

She has taken them on walks. Ridden them around in a basket on her bicycle. Let them wade in the creek. Introduced them to neighbors.

We are still not amused.

Roger Leroy promptly headed back to campus to go load her car with friends and go camping. You know, the end of the semester before summer starts we’ve been with our friends for nine months we don’t want it to end dreading the days of living with our parents who will ask us annoying questions like where are you going and expect us to be home by their stupid curfew even though we get to live for free in their home because we don’t have enough money to live anywhere else please don’t make us have a summer job annual camping trip.

After the camping trip, Wizzy chose to stay with a friend for two weeks deciding if she wanted to come home and live by our rules.

Then she came home on a Friday night and promptly went to a Braves game, took Scary Baby fishing, met a friend for lunch and ended her first 48 hours at home by joining friends for a movie and quickly preparing for her next spontaneous trip.

During all this running around, Scary Baby has been appointed chief duck caretaker. This is not an honor.

Scary Baby has had to administer first aid to one of the duck’s feet. She used all of the hydrogen peroxide and antibiotic ointment. You can thank me now for no pictures of that.

Roger Leroy was home long enough to build an absurd duck pen in the backyard since they had outgrown their cat carrier in about 2 weeks flat. Then she headed out for a 5 night spontaneous trip to the beach with her darling twin and 4 other girls.

Really, the ducks were taken from their mother and then abandoned in our backyard by their new owners. I’ve yet to see Wizzy do anything with the ducks.

Imagine how much the wiener dogs love the ducks.

“Tasty treats” is what I think they are saying in their heads.

Lots of barking and quacking in our backyard.

Roger Leroy also spent a few hours building a fire pit and then took Scary Baby to WalMart to buy a hammock, a chair and a couple of tiki torches so they can chill out while she strums her guitar and Wizzy…reads?!

Photo taken in planning stages before firepit and hammock purchase.

She’s also run an extension cord so she can get back to nature with her electronic devices. We find her out there in her hammock with her iPad and cell phone.

Ahh…those good ole’ days of summer.

The ducks are being relocated to a friend’s pond THIS WEEK.

They are now threatening to buy peacock eggs on eBay.

Save me.

My favorite kind.

One darling daughter came home for one night.

We watched The Final Four basketball games together.

She took her baby sister to a movie.

And bought her new glasses. Her second pair of these fashion accessory only glasses.

She requested her favorite home cooked meal.

Pot roast, Granny’s noodles, mashed potatoes, corn and rolls.

Gosh, could I cram one more starch in to that meal?

We sent her home with the leftovers so her darling twin sister and friends could indulge in a homecooked meal this week.

Minus the pleasure of our company means it won’t be as good but I hope they’ll enjoy it.

I even included a dozen chocolate chip caramel cookies I baked on Saturday.

After dinner, we played a quick round of Bananagrams.

Have you played this fun game yet?

Back in February when Scary Baby and I played eleven rounds of Boggle and she said we were going to continue to play until she beat me, I had to tell her that was impossible.

When I shared Scary Baby’s relentless quest for a Boggle victory, my friend Ann said she had a great word game she would send us promising as much fun or more for the whole family.

We love it!

Not bragging, but no one has beat me at this one either.

Then we watched a little of the Country Music Awards while the boys headed to a movie together.

So nice to have you all to ourselves Wizzy!

We missed you Roger Leroy.

How was your weekend?

Because we hadn’t seen them in at least seven days.

We said we would take them to dinner.

So Elizabeth Rachel both of them invited most of the team to join us.

I lovingly announced we were not buying dinner for the whole team.

After a 45 minute wait for burgers and sandwiches, we all headed over to the gym.

We really came to watch intramural basketball and this was the Fighting Red Hens second game.

We specifically asked if they would be embarrassed to have their parents in attendance knowing full well that this was a collegiate activity that parents don’t typically attend.

They assured us that they would love for us to come as would their friends.

As we got settled in the bleachers, Rachel quickly pointed out there were other old people there. Yes, that’s right two other sets of parents came to embarrass their children.

The Red Hens won! The opposing team, The Tribe, displayed some pretty poor sportsmanship. Geez, who knew intramurals was so competitive these days?

Elizabeth is coaching instead of playing…much to her dismay. She still has a back injury and has not been able to do any physical activity for almost a month.

We had so much fun I think we’re going back this week.

Early Valentine’s Day Gifts

At the last minute before we left home, I realized we wouldn’t see them for Valentine’s Day and I had a couple of little things to give them.

I dug around for some little clearance boxes I knew I had put somewhere. I grabbed two pieces of tissue paper in a drawer I hide things from Scary Baby. There were two pink gift bags folded neatly there. I threw them in a bag too so I could put my thoughtful gifts together in the car on the way.

Yes, I’m a planner.

As PhilBillPaul was driving, I discovered the cute little boxes were not going to hold my gifts. I had to re-use the gift bags that I obviously saved to re-use. How perfect that they were pink.

I wish I had video of the priceless moment when I presented Rachel with her pink striped gift bag. Elizabeth had opened hers earlier so she just posed for the picture.

Rachel looked less than thrilled when she saw Victoria’s Secret on the bag.

I said:

“You can open it now.”

“It’s a thong.”

She said:

“No”

“No thanks.”

Elizabeth and I laughed pretty hard.

I said:

“It’s not a thong.”

“Like I’d really buy you a thong for Valentine’s Day or any day?”

It was a t-shirt and candy.

Give me a little credit.

On Friday, I sent Rachel a text:

“R u wearing ur new thong today?”

Her reply:

“I am wearing it now it’s nice and snug.”

Me:

“Glad it fit!”

The Grunter and Scary Baby did not get thongs.

Just a cute box filled with Hershey’s kisses that fit nicely in the little boxes.

And a free doughnut.

We’re all about chocolate and sugar.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Happy Birthday Martha!

What are you giving or getting for Valentine’s Day?

…to show us their new team logo.

Roger Leroy found the great picture of the hen and replaced a loaf of bread with a basketball.

Such creativity and not even an art major.

The girls are playing a little intramural basketball up at school.

Side note: Jenna wants you to know she won’t be wearing a collared shirt when she plays – she happened to be in uniform.

Scary Baby is following in their footsteps.

She’s playing basketball at church.

Wizzy is coaching her team and we had to squeeze in our first 6th grade orchestra concert before the game.

What a sweet sister to come back and forth from school to coach her little sister and attend her orchestra concert.

Fun times at the Humpfreeze continue.

While we’re still sick…

The ice and snow fun is almost all gone.

We ventured out of the house on Friday after FIVE school snow days in a row. For those who are math-challenged like me, that was the whole week.

Scary Baby loved it!

PhilBillPaul got really sick in the middle of the week.

The Grunter lived through one full week with no fast food.

We had to cook dinner every night.

We like our pizza crust really thin so the crust from a can might look odd.

I took this opportunity to teach The Grunter how to assemble his own pizza. Big step for him.

Look at that enthusiasm. Yes, we live with that every day.

Who cares what it’s shaped like? (His looked like a turtle.) Add my homemade sauce, sausage, and lots of cheese and we don’t care what shape it is.

Scary Baby and Cloret liked theirs just fine.

Look Who Came Home

On Friday evening the college kids traveled down the mountain and came home. After they went bowling (note: activity #1).

To visit their dogs.

Thank you RL for permission to post this pretty picture.

They only brought five extra people with them for their first night home.

I was too late for photos in The Lounge that night as the guests had put on their pajamas.

I went downstairs and assembled a breakfast casserole, cheesy potatoes and double chocolate muffins for the crowd for the morning.

Saturday Morning

After the smoke cleared in the house, everyone enjoyed a hot breakfast.

I’m not a morning person so PhilBillPaul had so nicely put the casserole and potatoes in the oven. The casserole overflowed in the oven while he slept through the beeping timer and the smell continues to waft through the house as I type this.

Wizzy came home specifically for Scary Baby’s church basketball game.

Before the game we were down to six college girls because one went to work.

Wizzy is the coach of the team and this was their first game.

Sadly, Scary Baby has not experienced as many basketball victories as her darling twin sisters.

Jordan led the team prayer. Ashleigh helped her coach the team. Jenna kept the book. Rachel, Joanna and Jordan provided a very loud cheering section.

15-14 was the final score with a GIANT victory.

She whispered to her former coach of 12 years a.k.a. PhilBillPaul,

“That’s how it’s done.”

While Wizzy went to her doctor’s appointment with Jordan, the remaining four kindly took Scary Baby to lunch. Jenna headed to her own house so then there were five.

After a short nap and a small scene when the six of them walked out to Roger Leroy’s car…the Humpfreeze girls had to come back in and review:

Why we don’t put six people in a five passenger car
(it’s not just my rule – hello – IT’S ILLEGAL)

They were off to the roller rink for a few hours of skating (activity #2).

Wizzy stayed behind and another friend picked her up and she headed back to school with friends – she’d had enough of us.

They spent Saturday night at Jenna’s house (activity #3) while PhilBillPaul sipped on his codeine cough syrup and watched the Falcons get whipped.

We were down to three extras on Sunday and following an afternoon movie (activity #4) they came back to the house for a gourmet meal.

Cheeseburgers and kettle chips. Fan-cee as always!

Gave me the chance to put some patties in the freezer in case we have another blizzard.

I can’t stop the baking.

I mixed up these Caramel Chocolate Chip Cookies while they were at the movie.

I substituted caramel baking bits for the toffee bits I didn’t have. Recipe with toffee bits here.

A collective thumbs up from the group and the fact they are all gone means the recipe is a keeper!

Side note: Leigh Anne–try not to laugh at our first Dollar Store cake plate creation. The plate is a bit warped but that’s part of its charm, right?

Blog Shout Out to the Guests

We had cleaned The Lounge before they all arrived. The darling twins had left it in less than stellar condition at Christmas break. Major bonus points for restoring The Lounge to its original condition. The darling twins are piglets as we have previously revealed here and here so thank you Jordan, Joanna and Ashleigh.

Wizzy and Lisa did the same in the basement guestroom.

Is this a tiny light at the end of the tunnel? Please say it is.

Temperatures in the high 40′s this week so we’re looking forward to a *normal* week!

How was your weekend?

The festivities of Christmas Eve were shortened considerably as some of us were working hard to get the Room Makeover complete.

We did stop long enough to have our annual fondue.

Nothing very fancy. PhilBillPaul and I were preoccupied with our unfinished project upstairs.

I snapped a few pictures. We almost forgot the chocolate fondue.

Thank goodness Roger Leroy dumped a bag of frozen strawberries in a bowl and sliced up a banana. Very sad.

And they all got to open that one traditional gift. I think I’ll make an album of 20 years of them sitting on the couch with one present on Christmas Eve.

Then they kindly modeled their new pajamas. The Grunter made sure they sat in birth order.

Side note: This photo was a reenactment of an actual moment just after they put on their pajamas. Scary Baby’s face is expressing her displeasure at being the only 6th grader on the planet without a cell phone. Next year we are starting a new tradition of a NO cell phone holiday.

Game Time

We all love games and I am proud of passing that tradition with the kids. We’ve had kids over that have never played any board games with their family. The times all six of us are together to play is rare with college and work schedules so I really do treasure the times we can play games together.

We were all too tired on Christmas Day to play anything. Finally we pulled it together to play on the day after Christmas.

The completed chalkboard wall screamed “Family Pictionary” and we promised Scary Baby we would all play together.

We drew numbers for teams and all is well as long as we let PhilBillPaul win.

We ended the evening with Apples to Apples.

The Grunter’s partner did not help him win.

Not all fun and games

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Wizzy’s most vivid memory of Christmas 2010. Everything at our house is rarely sunshine and roses. The blog highlights…the highlights.

I asked for a little help from the big kids cleaning up the downstairs after some relaxing, lazy days. After a bunch of back talk and complaining and moaning, I took matters into my hands and started to unwind the vacuum cord.

Wizzy, ever the peacemaker, tried to get me to stop and we started a “friendly” tug-o-war with the vacuum cord. (See we like games even when we are fighting.)

After a minute or so, I might have said something like this,

“If you don’t let go of this cord right now, I’m going to whip you with it…”

Her most vivid part of that memory was the last part of my sentence.

“…until you bleed.”

She has repeatedly imitated me saying this in yet another shining moment of motherhood.

I think I’ve told you before I’m not qualified to be a mother. Especially not to sassy mouthed 19 year-olds.

Back to the games

The night before the darling twins went back to college PhilBillPaul played Monopoly with them and apparently he took no prisoners and whipped them both.

But not until they bled.

Do you still play board games at your house?

PhilBillPaul wanted you all to have accurate photos of the total accumulation.

There are some great perks of having an impromptu snow vacation.

I’d like to clarify that some of these activities you see on the news are not fully reported when they put up sound bites and funny pictures.

People tend to laugh at Southerners more than in other parts of the U.S.

I’m not denying that I’m right there with them sometimes.

On Monday the local channels pre-empted all regular programming for the entire day. How many ways can you talk about and show snow and ice?

Reporter #1:
“I’m here at this shopping plaza in Lawrenceville where you can see that all the shops are closed except the grocery store. But there are only two cars in the parking lot because you can’t drive on ice.”

Reporter #2:
“Marietta is experiencing freezing sleet. [reporter bends down to poke snow] See that? There is a layer of ice on top of the snow. This is not good.”

Reporter #3:
“There is another car that couldn’t judge the center median. Their car is stuck on top of the cement they couldn’t see and that’s why their wheels are spinning.”

ALL. DAY. LONG.

Even so, I feel like I need to defend some of the snow activities during this Blizzard 2011.

First, not only do we not have many winter clothes, we definitely do not have winter toys.

We must improvise.

If you don’t have a sled…

Have your dad blow up your inflatable beach whale.

Pictures are blurry since PhilBillPaul was using the zoom from the porch. It’s really, really cold here – some of us are watching all the fun from the windows.

Second, can you even imagine being a wiener dog born in the South and stepping out in to this stuff?

Hello, they have short legs. How are they supposed to go to the bathroom when the snow makes their legs disappear?

Poor Dudley.

Major News Update

The Grunter even went outside.

He and a friend had a snowball fight. Outside. Shut up.

The only thing better would have been if the darling twins had been home trapped with us. I know that’s what they are thinking too.

But they were already back up at college.

At least they sent pictures to show us how yay-hoo soldiers improvise up in the North Georgia mountains.

If you don’t have a toboggan…

Just blow up your raft.

Make the kids sledding on pieces of cardboard jealous.

I love their creative thinking.

The raft doubles as an excellent snow-hauling vessel.

Such talented snow-sculpting soldiers they are.

Side note: Roger Leroy why are you not wearing your gloves?

We’re embracing our third snow/ice day but The Grunter is getting nervous about our food supply.

In fact, I think he’s getting the shakes because this is the longest he has gone without some type of fast food since he started driving.

Stay tuned.