Happy Birthday, Caleb!

Five years ago today I was a little more uncomfortable than I am now. :) We had just checked into our room at Fairfax Hospital and were awaiting Caleb's birth. He was born at 9:15 that night. It's so hard to believe he's already 5! Time has gone by so quickly! He is turning into such a young man. Even in the last few weeks we have noticed maturing in his face and mannerisms. Wow. Here he is just a few minutes old.

And here we are at about 3 days old. Don't we all look so young?!

Here he is at a few weeks old...kind looks like someone else occupying our house, doesn't he?!
This year, we decided to have a joint birthday party for Philip and Caleb since their birthdays are 10 days apart. This past Sunday, 55 of us celebrated together with dinner and cake! Yes I am apparently crazy! It was loads of fun though...at least the 10 minutes I actually remember from the party. Haha. Everyone seemed to have a great time, so I would deem it a success. I managed to cook over a few days and Philip did most of the cleaning, so it really wasn't too bad and I am so glad we did it! Here are a few pictures from that evening.

SOME of the shoe pile by the front door

Guests enjoying dinner

Yes, there were lots of kids...about 26, including a few babies!

The cakes, critically important to any Hines party. :)

The Birthday Boys

The best smile Caleb would give us. Don't you love his name tag? He was adamant on wearing one. Joshua also insisted on being tagged...and made sure Philip included his middle name.

This is the year of the never-ending party for Caleb though because on Tuesday, Philip's parents came down to celebrate with both boys. We had a fun lunch at Chick-fil-a and, of course, some gifts!
And today being the REAL big day, Caleb got to choose what we're having for dinner...tacos. :) And then we'll finish off the day with leftover cupcakes from Sunday and the remaining gifts that still haven't been opened.

Happy Birthday Caleb! We love you!

Eating Out: The Way We Pay Our Taxes

This is a little more "intellectual" than usual, but I found this post on another blog and thought it was an interesting read.

Eating Out Economics

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for dinner and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:

The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men ate at the restaurant every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers, he said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your meals by $20. Dinner for the ten now cost just $80.

The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes, so the first four men were unaffected. They would still eat for free. But what about the other six men - the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his 'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody's share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to eat their meals. So, the restaurant owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so: The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings)
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to eat for free. But once outside the restaurant the men began to compare their savings.

'I only got a dollar out of the $20,'declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,' but he got $10!'

'Yeah, that's right,' exclaimed the fifth man. 'I only saved a dollar, too. It's unfair that he got ten times more than I!'

'That's true!!' shouted the seventh man. 'Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!'

'Wait a minute,' yelled the first four men in unison. 'We didn't get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!'

The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.

The next night the tenth man didn't show up for dinner, so the nine sat down and had their meal without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they might start eating their dinners overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics, University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

My Backwards Boy

Oh Joshua. What else is there to say? He did this on purpose, deciding he wanted to be "backwards" for the day. We went out to Safeway and I forgot to have "turn around" before we left, so yes, he went through the grocery store for an hour like this. Oh well. :)

Andrew's First Solids

It was such an exciting event, I can't believe you all missed it. Ok, not really. Andrew's first venture into the world of liquefied cardboard...I mean rice cereal...was pretty uneventful. And even though he's now tried pumpkin (from our ginormous home cooked one, of course) and peaches too...he just isn't too excited about the whole idea. No, that's not true. He's very excited about the idea, evidenced by the fact that he squirms and shrieks whenever he sees food in a bowl, anyone's food in a bowl. But when eating time come...lackluster response. Maybe I am just trying to feed him at the wrong times. Anyway, eventually he'll be all over solids...or they'll be all over him. LOL. But, to prove to posterity the moment occurred, here's some pics. :)

Notice the enthusiasm beforehand

Here we go...

Well, he's cute anyway. :)

Pumpkins and Cat Cookies

So, last week I decided to give cooking a pumpkin a try. We got two little ones (pumpkins, not children) for free at the festival a few weeks ago, so why not. Other than burning 2000 calories trying to cut the thing, it was fairly painless. I steamed it and scooped out the puree. It made about 2 cups, with which I made pumpkin muffins, pumpkin pie and these delightful little treats: Gingersnap Pumpkin Cream Tarts. Yes, they were as tasty as they look. :)

We decided to buy a pumpkin yesterday since we had good results cooking the first one....yeah...we got the biggest one we could find. Can you tell? Since Philip was home (amazing..considering he actually had to work almost 20 hours over the weekend!), he got to do the cutting. :) We baked it for 2.5 hours at 350 and then peeled and pureed. It made about 18 cups of pumpkin puree!! That would make a lot of pies, people!! I am probably going to feed some of it to Andrew...I think I am finally going to start him on solids this week. or soon anyway. It's time. He has two teeth and gets excited when he sees me putting food in the microwave...he thinks it's his. Philip set up the highchair last night. Soon there will be no going back. I am so not excited about the upcoming stinky diapers, but my little baby is growing up, I guess!

Today, the boys and I made Black Cat Cookies. I was not impressed with the cookies themselves (YES, I know I am a cookie snob and I am ok with it. :)), but they are super cute! We had a fun time making them. Caleb did a lot of the whiskers and noses. Joshua wanted to help with the eyes, but since they are put in half way through the baking time, the pan is really hot and I was so nervous he would get burned! Caleb got a little burn even though he was being careful.

Ok, what's funny about this picture is that the boys, instead of saying cheese, said "This was so fun!". The reason Caleb has Joshua by the neck? Being the big brother that he is, he was trying to make sure Joshua didn't look away from the camera! Caleb was "tired" of taking pictures because this was like the 7th. I told him all I really needed was ONE where they were both smiling and looking at the camera. Hence the necklock...LOL.

And since I know you're all dying to know if Andrew looks the same this week as he did last week, here is a picture of him from yesterday to satisfy your curiousity. :)

I Wish I'd Had the Camera Handy...

I would have titled this post "Oh Boy", but seeing as that was the title of the last post, I had to go foroption B. This morning I sent the boys to get dressed. Caleb came down right away with the appropriate seasonal clothes on. Joshua showed up in his underwear...as usual. He's decided to regress recently to requiring "help" to get dressed. Even Caleb said last night "Didn't he used to put his clothes on by himself? So, he can do it now. Joshua (tapping him on the shoulder), you DO know how to get dressed by yourself!" Anyway, I digress. The point is, Joshua came down with his clothes in his hands. I told him to put his pants on and then looked over. His pants looked like capris... I asked him where he got them and he said they were in his drawer. I wonder how they got there because they were 12 month pants! I about died laughing. This was actually not the first time this has happened, but this was by far the greatest size differential. Joshua didn't seem to think it was a real big deal and seemed to be prepared to wear them for the day, but I insisted he change. So, now he's wearing 3T like he should be. :) Wish I'd had the camera to show you how funny he looked!

Oh Boy...

So, Philip has a reputation around our house of almost always buying the wrong thing or paying the wrong price for it when he goes to the grocery store. For this reason, he doesn't go very often. :) Well, last night he stopped by to get a few things for me and decided to buy me some flowers "for no reason". (I maintain that any flowers received +/- 1 week from an event such a Valentines Day, Anniversary or Birthday when no other flowers are received for the actual event cannot be "for no reason" and really default to the reason of the event...but that's another story!) So, anyway, we now have some pretty flowers on the kitchen table. This morning I had a conversation with Caleb that went like this:

C: "Where are the flowers from?"
A: "They are from Daddy, for our anniversary"
C: "But where are they FROM?"
A: "They are from the grocery store"
C: "Which one?"
A: "From Giant"
C: "Did Daddy buy them?"
A: "Yes"
C: "Did he buy the wrong thing?"
A: "Well, not in this case"
C: "Were they too expensive?"
A: "No, I don't think so"
C: "Are you sure? Because Daddy always pays too much or buys the wrong things when he goes to the grocery store!"
A: "Ahh...welll...that may be true, but not in this particular case"

Oh boy....

We still laugh at a conversation that Philip had with Caleb at Home Depot about 2 years ago. When I am shopping with the boys we always talk about the price of things and how we don't buy things if they are too expensive. So, Caleb and Philip were at HD looking for a box of roofing nails we he needed to repair the roof (which costs about $2). Caleb says to Philip, "we have to check the price because if they are too expensive, we can't buy them!" LOL Philip assured that Caleb that we could afford the $2 for the box! Hey, never too early to teach them to be thrifty, right?!