Domestic divas, and other scenes from the week

In a fun coincidence, Isabel and I both happened to receive fabulous aprons from friends for our birthdays last month (thanks Jen, and Leah's mom Kristie!). Isabel loves to help me in the kitchen, primarily with baking, as that produces sugar-laden results; she is truly the sugar fairy in our house. I really loved baking when I was younger too (she totally gets her sweet tooth from me). So we are loving our new aprons!

On two related notes...
1. The other day, Isabel sneaked into the canister that houses my sugar; this was evidenced by the rim of sugar granules that surrounded her mouth. At first she vehemently denied the accusation, but when Brian pointed out the evidence, she confessed. We asked her how much sugar she ate, and she said, "just one." A likely story. But what can I really say? When I was young, I used to sneak into the real estate office in the Thunderbird Mall in my hometown and steal sugar cubes off the coffee tray that sat out for customers. I guess that makes us two peas in a pod.

2. Isabel has been rather pre-occupied with the toy catalog from Target. The other evening, she was reading it to herself and LOUDLY naming all the items she wants. At first I didn't think much of it, until I heard her say - in an even louder voide - "Do you hear that???" I asked what in the world she was doing, and she sheepishly replied, "talking to Santa." One of the two items she is very clear in wanting is an Easy Bake Oven (surprise, surprise), but it is labeled for ages 8 and up (she just turned 4). Anyone have any experience with this? Would it be OK for her?

In other happenings, Brian has been on vacation for most of this week, which has been heavenly. We have done a whole lot of nothing exciting, just hanging out and spending lots of time together. It has been fantastic. One evening we had a roarin' family game of Yahtzee; Connor got really into it!

We also spent an evening sitting in the dark telling ghost stories; the children have been REALLY into telling ghost stories lately. Connor instructs us all to sit in a circle in the dark, and we take turns passing around a flashlight; whoever has the flashlight gets to be the ghost-storyteller. Lucas took his first turn last night, and his story went like this: "Once upon a time there was a scary ghost. Once upon a time there was a scary black cat. Once upon a time there was a scary mummy. Once upon a time there was a scary bat. The end." I also love how Connor has taught them to each pause in the middle of their stories, and flash the light into each person's face while eerily counting, "one... two... three... four!" I don't know why they do this, but it amuses me.
Connor then entertained us with a flashlight light show, which Brian actually got some super cool photos of (these were all simply him waving a flashlight around at super fast speed):