Groundhog cupcakes

Friends, it's been a rough week. And it's only Wednesday afternoon.

On Monday morning, Maren had two cavities filled. She was a brave girl--didn't cry one tear and never even needed the nitrous oxide! That afternoon at school she fell during indoor recess (cold kept the kids inside) and hit her head on the wall and landed hard on her wrist, resulting in the dreaded call from the school nurse.

The doc decided it warranted an x-ray, and it turns out she has a buckle fracture in one of her bones. We head to the pediatric orthopedist this afternoon to find out if it needs a cast or can stay in the splint. (sidenote: Maren keeps calling her splint her "sliver." I think she's getting the whole splinter/sliver thing mixed up but it makes me giggle every time.)

Yesterday school was canceled due to ridiculously cold weather. The high temp yesterday was several degrees below zero, and we spent the whole day listening to the heater cycle on and off nearly continuously as it tried to keep up with the cold outside! I went into the basement yesterday morning to put in a load of wash and found that the water in the washer won't come on. We're not sure if it's due to a frozen pipe or just that the washer coincidentally went kaput on the coldest day of the year, but either way we have about two more days of clean undies until I'll be knocking on my neighbor's door with a basket of dirty laundry in hand.

Last night, Porter finally figured out how to climb out of his crib. I know that he's known how to do it since before Christmas, but last night was the first time he actually tried it. Moving him to a toddler bed is not an option for numerous reasons, so we're going to try the crib tent thing for a while.

To get Porter to stay in bed last night we rigged up a 'lid' for his crib out of packing boxes and duct tape. It did the trick and kept him in safely, but then I woke up around 4:30 am this morning, worried that he'd manage to get his head stuck somehow and asphyxiate so I crept downstairs and got scissors and cut all of the tape just in case.

Today school is closed again because of the extreme cold, but I decided we'd go out to the chiropractor (my back/neck are killing me) and to buy a crib tent. I got us all dressed to fend off the -20 degree windchill, strapped everyone in their car seats, and only then found that the car battery is dead. {bangs head against wall}

The bad news is, I fear we haven't faced the worst of it yet. My dear grandmother is fading rather quickly, and I'm afraid that she may not last through the week. Every time the phone rings I'm afraid to look at the caller ID.

Highlight of the past few days has been the Groundhog cupcakes that Maren and I made yesterday.

They're not perfect, but they're still cute! This photo was taken after Porter perpetrated a small Groundhog Massacre so a few of them have wonky faces. I sent them to work with The Mister--I don't care for Almond Joys, so this may be the first time I've ever made cupcakes that I didn't want to go in there and eat them all by myself.