Friday Fun, Sun and Seedlings!

After what seems like forever of days that have been gray and rainy and dreary, we finally have a gorgeous sunny day. The kids woke up happy and we weren't rushed going to the bus stop. Yay.

I was finally able to get outside to transplant our seedlings. I have no desire to garden, but thought it would be fun for the kids to try and grow our own flowers. Morning glories for Cassie, Convulvus for Maggie, Cynoglossum for Nate and Junior Sunflowers for me. I have been saving empty Playdoh cans, thinking that they would be useful for something, and we started our seeds in them (I drilled the drainage holes myself!)

Last week we got 12 bigger pots to put them in. We will need to get some more though, we had a lot of seeds sprout! We also bought a bigger bag of smelly dirt (I mentioned I don't like to garden? lol) And this is what the girls and I did today.

One of the first scoops of dirt that I took, this is what I found:

Now, I don't know a whole lot about growing plants, but I am pretty sure that old nails don't provide any nutritional benefit to plants!

The girls brought home some adorable mothers day things, a poem with their handprint (I need to try and scan that) and a flower in a tiny pot:

Nate went with Lino to get some tires put on Lino's car. They have been gone almost 2 hours. I hope they get back soon.

I had a great workout today. I never thought I would say that about exercising. I still don't love exercise in general, but todays was awesome. I am able to more of the advanced versions of the exercises, and when I was done today I was drenched. I weighed and measured before hand, I am down to only 7 lbs away from my goal, and lost some more inches from my waist/belly area, arms and chest. Lino thinks I am becoming a smidge obsessed about tracking my food (with a downloaded program), but I told him I am not. I am just trying to get a feel for what smaller calorie intake is supposed to be, I am still eating, so it isn't like when I was in high school and would go days without eating. (My mom had thought that I was anorexic in high school. I don't think so, but I was probably borderline)

Anyhow. Time to get off the computer and go back out to enjoy more of this sunshine!

Easter pictures.

From Easter. I made the girls dresses. Unfortunately, it was freezing that day. They wouldn't hear of wearing something else, so we used the sweaters from their Father-Daughter dance dresses. Nate had his sleeves rolled up, just like Papa did.

Party Pictures

We always have cupcakes on the kids' actual birthday, and I do a bigger cake for their party. I finally got to try out my giant cupcake pan. It is so fun!

I just love how excited the girls get when we sing Happy Birthday. Their eyes just sparkle.

We got Maggie and Cassie scooters. They were very excited! They have had fun practicing zooming up and down the hallway. Maggie only slowed down for one picture.

Cassie happily posed for pictures.

I don't know where this pose came from, but I think we are in for it when the girls are teenagers...

Nate also had fun chasing the girls with his truck.

Cassie wanted a pink princess cake again, and Maggie wanted a dinosaur.

And the aftermath. We decided to color the cake mix this year, green for Maggie and pink for Cassie.

They had fun, which is good. Now we just need the weather to get a bit warmer so we can scooter outside.

Dance Fever

Maggie, Cassie and Lino had a super time at the Father-Daughter Dance. (Nate was excited for the girls, but also didn't want them to go) Lino said the food was good and the girls actually ate. I had called the caterer to check if it would be safe for Cassie, and it was, except for the desserts. Additionally, one of the PTO board members gave Lino the labels that the caterer brought with him. It is so nice to know that other people get it, and help to look out for Cassie's safety.

Lino said that the dance floor was just filled with screaming girls. He said it was funny, how loud and rambunctious they all were. At one point the DJ told the girls to go get their dads for a dance and Lino said that all the girls went running for their dads. How sweet. Maggie and Cassie were extremely excited by the souvenier they received, a crystal rose. They are already talking about next years' dance.

They came home about a half hour early, Cassie wasn't feeling well and Maggie was getting tired. Maggie came down with a double ear infection last Sunday and is on the mend. We had been nearly 6 years without any ear infections, I think that is pretty good. I just feel bad for her, she doesn't like the ear drops, and the drops are making it hard for her to hear us.

Cassie was running a very high fever Friday night into Saturday, and woke up with a sore throat. I took her to the pediatrician and he said it wasn't strep throat. (phew) She spent the weekend just resting. I asked if there were special rates for being in the office 3 times in a week (Maggie on Monday, Nate on Thursday and then Cass on Saturday....). There aren't. The doctor thinks that they will build up a germ immunity by 2nd grade. Fabulous.

Party pictures!

After telling us for weeks that he wanted a Thomas the Train cake, Nate changed his mind when he saw the Stickers pan at the frosting store. I was fine with that, it was actually easier to do! The sheet cake is vanilla, the Stickers is chocolate. Buttercream frosting. I can make frosting, but with his party and the girls' party coming up, I bought it. In a 5 gallon bucket. Seriously, 28 pounds of yummy goodness....it tastes good and is so much less work.

Everyone was excited for cake and ice cream....

My dad. We couldn't find any party hats with Stickers. Nate was happy with the Ernie and Elmo ones.

I am pretty sure he is saying "Yes, way" in this picture. I don't know where he picked it up from, but it was pretty cute and he kept saying it all day.

My mother in law knit him a sweater and matching hat. I thought she used her knitting machine for it, but Lino said that he hasn't set that up yet, she did it by hand. I was amazed, the rows are all so neat and uniform. I would love to learn how to knit someday...

So, that is it. The kids had fun. Nate got some of the noisiest toys I have ever heard, which my dad thinks is funny.

Finally starting to feel better....there is hope!

So after a month of being sick and in extreme pain and not being able to do anything, I am finally starting to feel better. After my trip to urgent care, it seemed as though the antibiotics worked for a few days, but halfway through didn't seem to be effective. Blah. I was able to find a regular doctor, and she seemed to think that I had a few different things happen at the same time: sinus infection, migraine and stiff neck (she had never heard of stiff neck being a symptom of sinus infection)

She gave me some anti-inflammatory meds, and after I asked, some medicine for the pain. I have a pretty high pain tolerance, but the neck/head pain made it nearly impossible to sleep and was really affecting how I managed to get through the day....which was barely. I spent the better part of the past month just existing on the couch, not able to play with the kids or do much of anything. So, I needed something.

Luckily, Lino had 3 days off in a row, which allowed me to take pain meds and sleep to try and shake this. Finally this past Saturday, I woke up with my head seeming a lot better (the headache is still there, but mild in comparison) and the neck pain nearly gone. Finally. It feels as though I lost a whole month, there is so much I didn't get done! Did I mention that while all this was going on, the kids and Lino have each been sick with some fever/stomach thing? Yeah, it has been fantastic.

Nate's birthday was Sunday. Lino went shopping after work on Saturday since we hadn't had a chance to go together. We always spend the kids' birthday days as a family, no parties, and I like it that way. The party with my dad, sister and Lino's parents will be next week (that gives me a chance to get the house back in order!

Nate liked his presents. As he opened the cards and presents, he would get all excited, "Look, it's this!" He got a Mater Shake and Go car, a fire station to go with the train Santa brought, a Transformer Bumblebee and Wii Mario Kart. (we totally scored on the Mario Kart....) We will need to exchange Bumblebee, since he wasn't made nicely, but in all, Nate was excited. This year, Nate was very excited about blowing out the candles, and he actually let us sing Happy Birthday at cupcake time! (I will do a big cake for his party, he wants a Thomas cake)

In between opening presents and making cupcakes, they wanted party hats. So, we made hats.

At bedtime, Nate was convinced that when he woke up today he would be 4. Not quite, buddy. Slow down with the getting bigger....it goes too fast for Mama.

PS- Did you notice his hair? He had 'bedhead' for these pictures, but you get the idea. We were forced to go short when we tried to trim his bangs. We cut too short. But, he was pleased, now he has short hair like cousin Leo, which he has been asking for since we saw them at Thanksgiving! I do miss his wild curly hair, but, I think the short is cute too.

School Pictures!

Maggie and Cassie came home with school pictures today. I was super excited! The class picture wasn't included, I guess that will come after Retake day, so all the kids can be in it. I thought that was nice.

I am very pleased with how they came out. The pictures scanned a bit darker, you can see all the pigtails in the actual pictures.

PTO and a Brave Moment

I attended my very first PTO meeting last night. Lino stayed home with the kids, I wasn't sure how long the meeting would be and I didn't want the girls up too late on a school night. (I got home 1 1/2 hours after their bedtime!) He wants to be involved too, which is great. Next month we will all go (they have highschool kids earning service hours by watching the little kids) and if it runs late, one of us will leave early. The school is within walking distance from the house, so no problems.

I really enjoyed the meeting. The women that are on the board are very nice, very funny, and all about improving the school for the kids. There is a book fair coming up that I will help out with. (I can't wait....I love book fairs!) They are also looking for ways to raise money to get new books for the school library....apparently some of the books have pages that fall right out! I have such a passion for children's books. My mom was a book person....we were raised with books and a love of reading. I plan to be very involved with all things library/book related!


Lino had some great ideas that expanded on what one of the women thought of, so she is excited for his help too. He is such a great salesperson, and is able to see things from a business' perspective, so I think if they listen to his ideas (let him/us help organize it) I think we will be able to accomplish a lot!

One of the things that the PTO is doing at the school is family movie night. Through the boxtops program, they raised enough money to buy movie equipment and a license to show a movie once a month for the families at the school. Popcorn is included, bring our own beverages. When I asked about the oil that the popcorn will be made with, they had no issue at all with checking (they emailed me last night) and will even put a note on the flyer about food allergies for those who bring their own snacks. It is nice to not have to battle to have people understand.....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On a different note: isn't it amazing how being a parent makes you brave? Before I had children, I would call Lino at work if I discovered a spider or a bug bigger than an ant. Seriously, they freak me out and I cannot stand bugs. At all.

However, not wanting to pass along my fear to the kids, if they are around when I find one, I only freak out on the inside. Last summer, I got a jar for Lino to put the cricket in (ick ick ick...it was in my house!) and we had a lesson about it. We learned from wikipedia that it was a girl, and depending on what culture it was either good luck or bad luck. (That day it was good luck!)

Today, Nate and I discovered a pretty big spider in a bucket in our breezeway. (EWWWW!) However, rather than have a freakout, I showed Nate and took pictures instead. Then quickly released it into the bushes in our front yard. (Near the street, not the house) Before kids I would have drowned the spider in whatever cleaning product I could reach and then put the whole bucket in the trash!

Long weekend over, back to school

Maggie and Cassie had a 3 day weekend. Back to school today. Cassie got upset that she couldn't bring her stuffed kitty with her. It was quite a process, actually trying to get her to stop crying. I hope that she is okay in class.

Lino went back to work today, so it was just me getting us all ready to go. We did fine. Made it to the bus stop early, but not too early. Maggie and Cassie were the only kids there today. We have seen some other kids, another set of twins (first grade) and an older girl (4th or 5th grade), but they haven't been there everyday, and when they do take the bus, they appear just as the bus is arriving.

Playing catch up

Wow, it is almost halfway through August. Where does the time go?


Lino was on vacation for the first week. We had plans to finish scraping/painting the house. It rained pretty much the whole week.

We did a bunch of errands, put up Nate's bedroom furniture, converted Maggie and Cassie's beds into bunk beds. I still have to get pictures of their rooms. Maybe later today.


We took the kids bowling. Very fun. Although, we did have to remind them that real bowling is different than Wii bowling. They did really well, though. It was cute. There were only a couple of balls that went the wrong direction. Maggie and Cassie tried really hard to roll the balls the right way. Nate would kind of drop/push his and then turn right around and run back to the seats to watch.


Unlike when we went mini-golfing, I brought the camera. I was playing with settings, though, so not all of the shots were fabulous.




Finding balls that they could pick up (6 lbs)




Maggie:

Cassie:



Nate:

Watching.