First Signs of Spring

Spring is really late this year, but I spotted the first sign out on my new hill today. When mom my was here in the Fall we planted lots of bulbs on the hill, and now we are seeing the "fruits of our labors."

I saw this post today that one of my friends wrote, and I liked it so much that I am borrowing it.

"Daffodils and crocuses and hyacinths and tulips...Kind of makes me wonder what I'm doing now that I won't see the proof of until the time is right. I guess I had better keep plugging away."

So This Is What All the Fuss Is About

Symptoms:

Runny Nose
Diarehea
Crankiness
Waking often at night

Can you guess? Yep, Danielle is getting two new molars on the top. She still only has her two teeth on the bottom, and now this will make six on top. Weird!

What's This

Daddy...what is this?

Eddie's mom brought him over one of his old records and when Brian saw it this was what he asked. We also have some old records and a broken record player in the garage. It is funny how in only one generation technology has moved so quickly that our children don't even know a record when they see one. Someday we may fix the record player, and show the kids how they work.

Busy Saturday

As usual we are on the go go go today. First thing in the morning Emily and I went to her gymnastics for a makeup day since classes were cancelled this week because of the snow. When we arrived home everyone was starving and we decided to have lunch at Cheeseburger, Cheeseburger. They have great hamburgers, and the kids like the meals that are served in a classic car box. It was busy, so there was a little bit of a wait, but we all survived and had a nice meal.

Then I had a couple of errands I wanted to get accomplished before the evening events. We went to the Target in Bryant to see if I could find some of the additional pieces for my new play room organization. I got a few more things I needed, but I am still missing some fabric baskets, so I will have to keep checking. Then a quick run to the Zoo for a Cupid surprise.

I really like how the playroom is coming together, these cubes are great.

Emily had a birthday party at Millennium Bowl, for Lily, one of her friends that she used to go to Gymboree with. This party had also been rescheduled because of the snow. The whole family went, and Brian and Eddie got their own lane and bowled a few games while Emily and the birthday party friends played a few lanes away. I even bowled a game on the adult lane. It was fun, although I am not sure that 4 year olds can really appreciate bowling? I took no pictures of this, I think I must be in a camera funk, but you can check out the link above, although there is no proof that Emily was there from the posted pictures.

Later that night, Jenna brought the kids over for us to watch. Her and James wanted to go out and see Avatar, and so the kids watched their own movie, ate popcorn and fell asleep on the floor.

My Little Valentine's

My littlest valentine turned 17 months old today. She is growing up too fast. I know I keep saying that, but it is so sad. She is very good, and super cute, but also a full on drama queen. She gets upset over little things, puts her hand over her face, drops to the floor and starts crying. You have to try really hard not to crack up laughing. She is so sensitive that if you started laughing she would get even more upset.






My middle valentine, is so sweet and thoughtful. She had her valentine party at Gymboree yesterday. We made cute valentines for all the girls in her class. They had cookies and even danced with the boys. Emily told me she danced with Ashton, and that none of the boys wanted to participate. Emily also had another opportunity to wear her heart shirt that she made.



My oldest valentine, is very caring and sensitive. His school valentine party is on Friday. We are bringing the sprinkles for the cupcakes, and they are making a cute craft. We have been busy addressing airplane cards for his class. It was a homework assignment this year for the kids to write the names on their valentines. What a great idea to help the kids practice their handwriting.


These are the baby animals that the kids got for Christmas, Brian's cub "Roary" is his baby. He feeds him sleeps with him, and I think he even dresses him in clothes sometimes.


Here's the little One-Eyed Valentine Monster they made in class. Well he actually lost an eye, and a ear, but I found a replacement for that.

Sopapillas and Sharing

Growing up in Denver, I had on occasion the opportunity to go to the legendary Casa Bonita. It is not legendary for the food, with one exception the sopapillas. Each table comes with a little red flag, raise the flag and they bring you more sopapillas. They are so yummy! They also had cliff divers and other entertainment which is fun for kids, but now that I am older and wiser, the sopapillas are really the only thing worth remembering. But like other things in life that I love and now because of my “remote” living conditions I am unable to procure, (read Chipotle) sopapillas are one of those things.

I couple of years ago, I found this recipe and tried it. They turned out pretty well. Now whenever I get that craving, I make them at home. Today was one of those days. With nothing else to do, sopapillas were on the list. I made heart shaped ones, in honor of Valentines Day week.
It makes a huge batch and they don’t keep very well. So I ran a plate over to our neighbors. They have lived next door to us since we moved in eight years ago. They have three boys ages 9, 7 and 4. Our kids get along really well and they are great neighbors. They put their house for sale about 6 months ago, and today they got an offer that they are planning to accept. I have known that they would probably end up moving sooner or later and now it looks like sooner. I am sad to see them move. I enjoy talking to Katie and knowing that my kids are safe and having fun playing with their boys. We will miss their family being our neighbors.

Snow SNOW Day

When Eddie woke up about 1:00am to check on a crying kid, he noticed it was snowing big flakes outside. I thought for a moment that we might have a snow day, there had been no predictions about snow in the forecast so this would come as a big surprise. My hopes were momentarily dashed when I woke up and looked at the clock, 6:15am. No automated call from the LRSD letting us know that school had been cancelled. I logged onto the website from my iphone next to my bed. Yippee, schools were closed! The phone rang a couple of minutes later informing us of the closure.

I got up, and sure enough the ground was white. It had stopped snowing, so Eddie got ready to head to work. I caught up on dishes and laundry while the kids slept in. Brian and Emily didn’t wake up until 9:00am, a new record. I think everyone was tired from the birthday party yesterday. Eddie called just before 10:00am, he wanted to make sure that we looked out the window to see the big beautiful snowflakes falling. I immediately got everyone dressed, bundled up and outside to play.

We took pictures, played in the snow, and built a snowman. It was so pretty to watch the snow falling. I love snow!! After about an hour, Emily was ready to come inside, and Danielle was cold. So we headed inside, to warm up. Brian stayed outside to play with the neighbors.

After it had been snowing hard for about an hour and a half, I called Eddie to have him head home. I didn’t want him to get stuck at the office. He arrived just as we were getting ready for lunch. It snowed hard until about 2:00pm, when it had warmed up enough that the snow changed to rain. Eddie was planning to go outside and build more snowpeople with the kids but now it was too wet to play. We scooped up some fresh snow to make snow ice cream before it got too wet,we needed ice cream to go with our brownies. I grew up in Colorado where there is lots of snow each year and I have never heard of snow ice cream??



Update...Tuesday and Wednesday were also snow days. The LRSD made the decision to keep the schools closed because of icy conditions especially in the neighborhoods. It was a nice break from the daily routine.

Super Sunday

Today was "Super Bowl Sunday" but we are not too interested in the game, we did have some super snacks after church, and then we headed over to River City Gymnastics to a birthday party for Lexi and Ashton. Normally we would not attend friends Sunday parties, but the party was originally scheduled for last Saturday but got postponed because of the snow.

All the kids had a great time running, jumping, sliding and climbing. Even Danielle got into the action. We will definitely put this on the list of places to consider for birthday parties this year.

A Valuable Lesson

Eddie learned this from our 4 year old daughter. She is always pretty happy, very optmistic, and fun to be around. Over the long weekend while Brian was working on is 100th day of school dots shirt, Emily made a shirt too. Hers had hearts all over it. She loves Valentines Day. She was having trouble picking out something to wear to school today, so I suggested her heart shirt that she had made. She also picked out pink pants and her other long sleeve heart shirt to wear underneath, since it was cold outside. Then she insisted on little piggy tails, and picked out red bows. She told Eddie and I before she left that everyone was going to love her new shirt and think her bows were very cute. On the way in to school, she again told Eddie that everyone was going to think she was so cute they would chase her around.

When she went in she took her lunch back to the refridgerator, and then started running around giggling. And guess what? Everyone started running after her. She is a born leader, but more importantly, she made things happen today! She didn't wait around for someone to tell her that her shirt was cute, or they loved her hair bows, she attracted the attention, she fullfilled her own destiny.

I hope each day that she continues to make things happen in her life. What a great example and inspiration for the rest of us to follow.

How Do I Love Thee...Let Me Count The Ways

In honor of Valentines, I thought I would have each member of the family share their love for one another.

Here's what Brian said--

• I love Danielle because she gives me hugs every day after school.


• I love Emily becase she lets me sleep in her bed. (He peed in it too)


• I love mommy because sometimes she helps me clean my room.


• I love daddy becuase he helped me build my pinewood derby car.

XOXOXOXOXO

Danielle you make us smile everyday. You give the most wonderful squishy hugs to everyone in the family. You also give great kisses whenever we ask. We had to show you how to give kisses, because yours were starting to get very sloppy and you were sticking out your tongue. You get jealous if daddy hugs or kisses mommy and you want yours too.

You know how to blow your nose, and have an obsession with taking kleenex out of the box, you will throw away your dirty tissue though.

You are learning how to dance, but make sure you don't take any lessons from mommy, because she doesn't have any rhythm.

You love being silly, here is a picture with your sunglasses and your cell phone. You also love to carry around your sippy cup, and purses. You have a great time playing with your siblings. You mess up Emily's people in her dollhouse that she has just organized, get in the middle of Brian's train track, or climb up the ladder to the top bunk bed.

I love this picture of you and Brian, you two have a very special bond.

You are learning to play with friends. One week at Emily's new gymnastics class, you and another little boy just could not get along, and you kept having meltdowns if he looked at you wrong. Then the next week, he shared his goldfish with you and now you are friends for life. You started playing a game with him. You would stand up and then he would follow you, then you would sit down, and he would too. It was very cute.

Sometimes after dinner is over, you decide you need seconds, and we find you doing this.

On Patient Appreciation Day, you feel alseep on a mat that had an old ink spot, you must have drooled, because when you woke up...you were blue.

This is the 200th post. Tomorrow is the 100th day of school. It was supposed to be today, but the snow day on Friday delayed it. Brian counted 100 gems to bring to school and we made a shirt with 100 dots. We also took goldfish to share with his class when they make their own snack mix, counting 10 of each item. It should be a fun day.