Pics of Our Stay at the Caboose Motel

Here are some pictures from our stay at the Caboose Motel in Avoca, NY.  

It was fun to stay in such a unique place and the manager was very friendly and helpful.  The caboose wasn't luxurious but it was clean and an adventure to stay in.

Disclosure: No compensation or consideration was received for this post.

2012 New York State Festival of Balloons NYSFOB

This past Summer we went to a hot air balloon festival for the first time.  The New York State Festival of Balloons was held in Dansville, NY.  We all had a great time, even my 10 year old son who was sure it was going to be boring!

There were a lot of booths and vendors and we had a fun time exploring while we waited for the balloon launch.  One cool spot was the Pan for Gold booth.  The kids were given a bucket of sand with little treasures in it, which they then wash out in a sieve.  The shark's tooth necklace they each found was a hit with both of them!

Another unique spot was the Game trailer.  They had TV screens and game consoles set up and you could rent screen time for different lengths of time.  For a boy with Asperger's on a very hot, sunny, dusty day... it was an awesome break to help him get through the day.  I was thrilled (as was he)!

When the time came, we set up our lawn chairs to watch the balloons launch. It was an awe inspiring sight!

Rainbow Cupcakes and Cutie Marks

We were inspired to make My Little Pony rainbow cupcakes by Ro at Nerdy Nummies.  See her video here.

We used the Pillsbury Moist Supreme cake mix following the directions for the egg white only recipe.  Leaving out the yolks allowed the colors of the batter to be more vibrant.  Especially since our "home grown" eggs have such bright yellow yolks.

Then we split the batter into six bowls and colored each one with food coloring.  About one half spoonful of each color went into each cupcake wrapper.  

After baking and cooling it was time to decorate.  See below for the results as well as the MLP cutie marks created by my 10 year old son.

My oldest (19) colored and decorated these.

Here come the MLP cutie marks!  I was impressed my son decorated these completely on his own, frosting, cutting out the shapes and all.

Rainbow Dash's cutie marks

The 3 diamonds is for Rarity; the blue star is Twilight Sparkle; and the three orange "apples" in the upper right is for  Apple Jack.

Apple Jack

Pinkie Pie on the lower left

Fluttershy 

One of the proud bakers

My 12 year old colored her own icing to make these lovely pastel creations

The one in the lower left is SO HAPPY to see you!  

Wordless Wednesday

My kids at VA Beach, Busch Gardens, and Gettysburg

Parenthood and Aspergers

Sometimes the television show Parenthood really knocks me out. Part of it is that they cover Asperger's Syndrome in such a real way. So many times when I'm watching it feels like the show is about my family's and my feelings. I really like the characters.

I just watched the most recent episode called Missing. The son with Aspergers left his home to go to the museum by himself because his family couldn't take him. One reason this really hit home is that one time my son left home because he was tired of waiting for his father to come home and do something with him.  My husband was dropping off our daughter about 2 miles down the road and my son decided to walk there because he knew where it was and he felt that my husband had taken too long.  A couple stopped and tried to help him but he would not say a word to them.  Fortunately my husband saw him as he drove home. Not good!

Another reason that the episode really touched me is that it showed how hard it can be on older siblings.  I have a teenager that struggles with this as well.  A child with Aspergers can cause huge disruptions in the family and we as parents don't react in the same way we would if he was neuro-typical.  It feels unfair.

Have you seen the show?  Have you ever seen a reflection of your life?

I thought Aspies were supposed to be good at math

Well, my dreams of the boy's future career as an engineer are drying up.  His second grade teacher sent home a math paper that needed to be redone.  Out of 20 questions only 3 were correct.  Admittedly, it's subtraction with regrouping but it wasn't the regrouping he had the issue with.  It was the subtraction.

Here's an example problem and our conversation about it.

20-16= 16.

Me:  What's 10 minus 6?
Boy:  Can't you just tell me the answer?
Me:  Of course not, you won't learn anything that way.
Boy:  Dad tells me the answers.

Me:  Hmmph, what's 10 minus 6?

Boy:  *Thinks for a bit* Isn't it something like 8 or 9?

Me:  No, it's nothing like 8 or 9.  You do realize that there's only one correct answer to a math problem, right?  It's not a matter of opinion.

Boy:  Mooooooooooom.

The conversation continued in this vein until I finally dragged the correct answer out of him.  I will admit to telling him the answer to the last two.

So now that we've ruled out careers that involve people skills and math, I'm keeping my eyes open for ads like this.

Help Wanted

Gamers needed.  Excellent pay and benefits.

Ability to play video games for hours without 

moving or blinking is a must.  Enjoyment of 

watching hours of youtube videos of people

playing the same game you just played is a 

plus.  If you can then spend the remaining hours

of the day talking about said games... you're our man!

Wordless Wednesday

Our school district has the second graders do a Flat Stanley project.  This year I was heading to NYC for a short business trip so I took Flat Son along with me.  Real Son was a bit jealous.

Train Station

On the train

Times Square

Good News and Bad News

My son, who is 8 and in 2nd grade, has a bedtime of 9:30.  About 10:30 pm he walks down the stairs and in his best announcer voice says...
I have good new and bad news!
The good news is that I only have a LITTLE homework!  The bad news is that I LOST it!

He apparently needs to work on learning the definition of "good news." Fortunately, we were able to find the HW and get it done in just a couple of minutes.  A meltdown was averted.