Hi everyone, Happy Belated Birthday Mary Ellen. Hope it was a good one. I received a wonderful box from Treasa. Thank you so much!!!! I love everything in the box. Here is what I received. Gardening gloves, three different garden figures, a really nice garden book, several different dahlia tubers, tuberose and a flower shaped floating candle. I love all of it and can't wait to plant those tubers. I have always admired dahlia's but have never actually had any. Can't wait to read my new garden book as well. What a great box! It has been raining like crazy here today in Texas but we can sure use the rain. I bought a weed popper gardening tool that is supposed to get the weeds out down to the root so I think I will try it out this weekend while the ground is still wet and see how it works. Have a good weekend everyone. Dianne

Got it - very funny - I forgot what year I was in - in the excitement of the planning. :) My husband and I are leaning towards the Wolf. I am planning on taking him to the showroom where they have a live unit to demo. He may not like the steam that could possibly condense on the island when you remove the lid. I know I won't mind it - but he is actually the clean freak. I am planning on a 48" range and I typically do a number of dishes that require different temps, so I was planning on doing a wall oven as well. I like the wall oven idea for convenience and comfort and to bake while preparing two dishes in the range ovens. I was worried about oven overkill and thought about replacing the wolf wall oven with a steam oven - although my husband really liked the idea of making pasta in the countertop and large amounts of crab legs which would also free up another burner - as I am tormented over the decision on the french top or griddle. I think I would like the griddle - but it lookes sooo messy at the live cooking demo. I think I would love the french top and had my heart set on it, but there is so much negative feedback here on this item. Back to steaming - I know you can do pasta in the Gagg wall steamer - although I am not sure about large quantities of lasagna, etc. We will most likely go with the Wolf - but the last minute decisions are a bit scary. I am excited for your kitchen. We will be about a year behind.

I'm not sure what the game is- sounds like make little dresses & 1 has a "bun in the oven" Kind of like diapers you make & I is "dirty" Tiny dab of mustard. If it's on that order than I would think felt 2 1/2 in to 3 inch little dresses would be fine could sew or glue the 2 identical pieces of dress together. For bun I guess you could write on back inside of 1 dress "Baby" Last yr I was at shower & each person was given large safety pin when you arrived. If you said word baby anyone that heard you could take your pin away. 1 with most pins got gift. Another game was identifying words, they were scrambled & you had to unscramble. words like diaper, bonnet, stroller, carseat, Dreft, powder,bottle, just pick words you want & then scramble & put those 20 on paper & make up as many copies as guests. Another 1 is Ads from magazines for baby things- had to identify the slogan. So hope this helps. Jan

Thank you for the responses. I feel I do need to clarify that DS's "Bullying" is not much more than sitting too close, following SD around the house all the time, and a little of rough housing that goes a little too far for SD - like being traped in a corner. I don't over look it and I do stand up for SD when I feel she needs the support. But I also feel she needs to stand up for her self and tell anyone who is annoying her to stop, instead of just standing there waiting for an adult to come to her rescue - there will not always be an adult around. SO and I discussed this and he agrees that it would be best to encourage her to be more firm. Her temperment is very sweet and we can't expect her to always be firm but providing her with the tools to be firm in a time of need could help her in the future. When I hear her quiet sweet voice telling DS to stop, I always peak to make sure he does and if he doesn't I demand it myself. In the future we decided that we would encourage SD to speak loader and more firm to get it across - having her try herself at that time as well. We also agreed that DS temperment is stubborn, and we need to be firm with him to play nicely - intervien when we feel things are starting to get out of hand. But we also need to remember to be compassionate and instead of yelling at him to leave be, we need to use it as a teaching experience to show him how he SHOULD play with others. As for the meals.... DS does not know how to eat so he is not a problem when it comes time to cook, but we did compromise on if SD asks for a snack an hour after meals she can have fruits or veggies, if it is two hours or more, then she can have junk food. sylviatexas... I do feel she instigates and I have seen it first hand, but that is a whole new post. When I bring it up to SO he get upset like I am making it up or something. I feel in his eyes SD is an Angel and DS is the Devil - she never does anything wrong and he is always in the wrong. He difinately has his blinders on. It is something that we talked about last night and needs to be worked on to provide a fair enviroment for all the children. I am not too sure that he actually heard me though.... What I did get out of the discussion was that he feels DS thinks SD is there for him and he has a bit of resentment that he doesn't get to spend time with her. He himself offered that maybe he needs to get down on the floor with her and play more. I agreed and told him I could do something DS to keep him busy - and that maybe once in a while we could switch it up - SD with me, DS with him. There is a sense of urgentcy here and the issue needs to be addressed immediately. Every third weekend we have the children, DS will go to my mom's which will provide me with a bit of a break and give SO one on one time with SD -not to mention how much DS would love to see his Papa for the weekend. It's a compromise that we both are happy with. Once things have improved we can then reassess and decide if it is something we want to continue with.