Zoe

Meet Zoe.  She is my cousin's cute 2-year-old.  (We were pregnant at the same time both times.)  Zoe was diagnosed with leukemia last week.  She has the most treatable form of childhood leukemia, but the next couple of years are going to be rough.  Please pray for Zoe and her family.  She (they) have been troopers during this first week, which is a good sign for the future, I hope! 

Gabs with Grands

Wow, we actually got a full week of school in this week, although we did have a two-hour delay on Thursday.  The PTA sponsored Gabs with Grands on Friday, and my parents came over Thursday night so they could get up early and eat breakfast at school with Seth.  Here are the boys, enjoying breakfast:

And Seth and Gram, outside Seth's classroom:

Amelia had Gram and Pops to herself throughout the school day, and had fun shopping with the girls and watching videos with Pops.  Seth was diagnosed with his fourth left ear infection in ten weeks last Saturday (1/22), so we've taken a more aggressive treatment route and had a quiet first part of the week.  Thankfully, he feels well enough now to enjoy the beautiful weather we've been blessed with this weekend!

new favorite shirt

Now that Amelia is dressing herself, I'm starting to figure out what her favorite clothes are.  She actually stayed in the same outfit all day Friday, although she did add the tutu after her nap. 

She has started laying out an outfit on her floor the night before.  This is the outfit she has ready for today (Monday):

She must like this shirt.  (Yes, I've been doing a lot of laundry.)  I have no problem with her picking out Christmas socks to go with it.  I'm just tickled that the rest of her will look decent today!  (And the original reason for this post...please note how the underwear is jammed between the legs of the outfit...cracks me up every time I see it!)

play "date"

Seth and Ella Brooke have remained best buds, even though they no longer sit next to each other at school and they have made new friends this year.  They play together during centers, and EVERY DAY they are standing talking to each other in the car rider line.  Young love.  Ella Brooke's birthday was during that yucky weather, so Seth wanted to have her over for a playdate to celebrate.  (We got munchkins from Dunkin Donuts in lieu of a cake.)  The kids had a great time, even if Amelia tried to do everything with them.  They tested out most of our board games...this was Ella Brooke's first time playing Guess Who?:

Ella Brooke may love arts and crafts even more than my kids do.  I rolled out a long piece of paper and let them go with it.  Amelia went down for a nap, which was good, because the "first graders in training" didn't want any scribble-scrabble on their hard work. 

Ella Brooke started drawing hearts, and next thing you know it was, "Seth, let's make this a marriage banner so we can hang it up at our wedding so everyone can see we were best friends when we were kids."  Ah.  She is so sweet, and the house didn't even look like someone had been over, which you know is not always true after a playdate.  And the true test?  Colette did not bark at her the whole time she was there.  Even when she first came in.  She's welcome to come back and play any day! 

snow day sleepover

Last Thursday, the kids decided they wanted to have a sleepover on Seth's bunk beds.  The kids have slept together in hotels and on vacation, but it is not a routine thing.  Of course they decided to do it on a school night, but Seth had a two-hour delay, and let's face it, my kids don't need a lot of sleep.  When I called at 8:15, Nathan told me that he'd put them to bed around 8 and hadn't heard a peep.  It was so stinkin' cute when I got home, but I was afraid I'd wake up Nathan getting the real camera, so I used my phone to take pictures. 

They even wore their matching pajamas!  See?  Cute!  Amelia woke up at 5:15 not wanting to sleep in Seth's room anymore, so it was a short night for me, but they had fun!

Ryan is 6!

Ryan turned six on Wednesday.  He's probably one of the only kids who lucked out in getting a snow day on his birthday, only to have a make-up day the day of his party!  It was an evening party, so it didn't foul up his plans.  Ryan wanted a Wii pajama party (it was not a sleepover, everyone was picked up at 8).  The kids had a great time!  They did surprisingly well taking turns playing Wii, and when it wasn't their turn, they had fun playing in the playroom and in the boys' rooms.  It was a wild rumpus, but a ton of fun! 

Amelia was the only girl invited to the party, and she held her own with all those boys!

fashion forward

Amelia is stubborn, and comes by it naturally (I'm going to say it "skips a generation" the way my parents used to).  But a little over a week ago, a new and improved Amelia entered our room one morning....fully dressed.  Once she realized she could dress herself from head to toe, she's been much sweeter.  This means one outfit in the morning, another outfit mid-day (including new socks and underwear), and pajamas at night, as well as not being able to see the carpet in her room for all the clothes on the floor, but I'm choosing my battles.  At first I wanted to take her dresser out of her room, but Nathan made me realize it's not a big deal.  It's a phase.  This too shall pass.  In the meantime, it's entertaining seeing what she comes up with!  Here are a couple of gems:

1) pink shirt with drum set on it, yellow based flower leggings, mismatched socks, shoes 1.5 sizes too big:

2) leotard (with underwear underneath), brown courdoroys, matching pink socks...hunting for shoes to wear (she ended up picking hte white sneakers)

Today she was wearing a fuschia shirt with a zebra-print heart in the middle, brown leggings with pink and purple butterflies on them, white socks with multi-color stripes, and the pink glittery shoes in the box in the picture above.  Before her nap, she laid out which pajamas she wants to wear to her cousin's themed birthday party tonight. 

tasty turtle

By snow day #3, I was pretty bored.  Elise had emailed me a recipe for turtle bread.  I cheated and thawed out some Rhodes dough and shaped it following the directions.  But it was fun to try something new and the kitchen smelled heavenly.  And if you know me well, you will not be surprised that this turtle was missing an arm about 3.2 seconds after I took this picture.  The rest of him was enjoyed the next two nights at dinner.

Ice is NOT nice

It's been awhile, but we finally got one of those nasty winter storms that shuts everything down for a few days.  The last few years we've been lucky enough to mostly get snow.  And  I definitely haven't had to venture out in it since pre-Amelia.  Sunday night they cancelled school.  Why?  So we can make up a second day that we didn't need to.  The weather wasn't supposed to come to our area until at least lunchtime.  They could have at least had an early release day.  So we sat at home all day on Monday, and the snow finally started after 2pm.  Sheesh.  By the time I went to work at 6, the grass was barely covered with snow, but there was slush on the roads (I drove the Xterra).  At 11 when I was driving home, it was quite slick.  Someone did a 180 in front of me leaving work, but it was so graceful, it almost looked intentional.  I drove slow home (max speed=32 mph, and that was on the interestate), and I had the roads to myself, and I made it home safe and sound.  The next morning, Nathan had a 3-hr delay, and he said the roads were still pretty bad.  It never did warm up too much, but mid-afternoon I took the kids outside.  Here is our driveway (see why I didn't go anywhere?):

And here is our street.  Nice black ice.  The only good thing about it is that I was able to pull the kids along in a sled so we could go for a little walk.

It made for some fast, slick, sledding.  This was Seth's first run down the driveway...

 ....where he somehow maneuvered himself through the gate...

 ...and down the backyard.  Luckily he listened to me yelling behind him to stop at the swingset, so he didn't fall in the creek!

But man, he had fun!

He would have stayed out all afternoon, but his sister was upset that we couldn't make a snowman, and it really ruined our fun.  Which is weird, because usually he wants to go in before she does.  I did make them go on the aforementioned walk before we went in, though.  Yesterday Nathan had a two-hour delay, and he said the roads were much better, so the kids and I ran a couple errands in the afternoon, just to get out of the house.  And the YMCA did have BodyStep, so I felt like a million bucks last night.  School was cancelled AGAIN for today (which I think could have been a 2-hr delay), so my poor children were forced to run a dozen errands with me, and then we met friends at Funigans to burn off some steam.  I am seriously hoping Seth has school tomorrow...they have not made Monday a make-up day, so as it is, we're already looking at another 3-day weekend.  His teacher does a much better job at entertaining his brain than I do!

Tall Mom Club

Last week I heard through another running blog that Tall Mom was going to offer a way to track miles this coming year.   Curious, I checked it out.  I am not what you'd call a tall mom.  And I am not a hard-core runner.  And I'm sure as heck not going to run 1,000 miles this year.  But I joined this community, which has a nice google spreadsheet where I plot in my miles.  My goal is to do 600 miles this year (cross-training counts).  We'll see where I end up come December. 

ps-I love a button she has on her blog:  "You can inspire more than you ever imagined."  (And now that childcare is FINALLY back open at the Y, hopefully I am inspired to go to BodyStep tonight...)

a funny from Seth

One of Seth's buddies brought a magic 8-ball for show and tell yesterday.  When it was Seth's turn to ask it  a question, he asked, "Can I get a hot tub?"  I hope his teachers have seen this commercial, so they thought it was as funny as Nathan and I did when Seth told us about it last night!  (By the way, the magic 8-ball said yes.)

self-portrait, Jan 2011

Seth has art on Mondays, and he was very excited at the thought of starting a new project this week.  He made a very good self-portrait.  In case you can't tell, he is on the scooter he got from Santa Claus. 

ringing in the new year

We have not had New Year's Eve plans in years.  One of our friends suggested meeting at 6 at Time to Eat.  I thought it would just be a couple families.  Our group took up this entire picture and four booths.  We only stayed until about 7:30, of course, but some of the kids did "ring-around-the-rosey"...that counts as ringing in the new year when you're in preschool and kindergarten, right?

mommy's new year's resolutions

I am very lucky to be home as much as I am with the kids.  But I am a much better nurse than I am a housewife.  I spent the last couple years trying to find the perfect balance, and I think kindergarten has really helped.  There truly is such as a thing as too much free time.  I am not over-involved in the PTA, but I do choose to help with projects that interest me.  I love Seth's teacher, and I try to help her as much as I can, sometimes in the classroom, but usually with things I can do at home.  The repetition of doing things 21 times is easy work, but it is a constructive way for me to use some of my free time.  So for the new year, I resolve to do a better job around here, even if it means someone is going to spill/smudge/undo it five minutes after I finish.  I will try new recipes, give us a little more variety at dinner.  I will be more organized, starting with closets and hopefully not stopping.  I will try to remember to turn off the printer each time I use it (that one is for Nathan...it drives him crazy).

The kids' resolutions:
---Seth will not leave shoes/socks/mittens/hats/jackets in the back seat of my car, but will put them away in the appropriate location.  Nor will he ask me for a drink before he has ascertained whether or not he has a cup in the fridge left over from earlier.
---Amelia will leave lovey in her room, so we do not have to go for a hunt every time it is quiet time or bedtime.  She will try her best to tame her stubborn streak in the new year.

A girl can dream, right?

There are some things I did in 2010 that I plan to continue, and I encourage you to do the same.  Find something active that you like to do, and do it for yourself.  I have found that I like to run, though I will never be fast.  Recently, the Y has started a BodyStep class.  I have gone the past two weeks, and realized how much I have missed it.  I am going to try to go once a week in addition to running.

Make the most of your money.  In 2010, I started to seriously follow Southern Savers.  The website goes through the weekly grocery and drugstore circulars and tells you how to optimize your savings by stacking coupons on sales.  She also tells you about good deals at other retailers, rebates, and freebies.  I only kept track of my grocery savings, but I went from saving 28% this time last year, to an average savings of 46% each week at the grocery store this year.  I no longer make twice a month trips to Target or Walmart to buy toiletries.  I just stock up when I find a good sale.  I mentioned our awesome consignment shop in my last post.  Although some of my earnings at the consignment shop end up going towards books or clothes for the kids, last year I made $225 there.  $225 to not have stuff sitting in my attic that I'm never use again.   I also discovered Groupon and Living Social, websites that send you deep discount deals each day.  For me, it's worth two extra emails each day to find a deal every week or two that saves us 50%! 

Hope 2011 is a great year for everyone!