Sunday, March 22, 2015

Spr-inter

Part spring, part winter.  That's what we've got for the next few months.  A couple of weeks ago it was so warm it rained all night.  As we walked from the truck into the school in the morning Callie said, "it smells like camping, mom."  It was so fresh and spring-like, of course that was just until it froze again. 






The days have been rolling by lately. Each day being marked with regular life things... the girls activities, school work, playdates, movie nights and such. We've just been kinda waiting for the big exclamation mark at the end of the month.  Spring Break!





We've played in a few puddles, thrown a few snowballs,  emptied another can of whipping cream on top of gourmet hot chocolates, we've wrapped up another session of swimming lessons, we've signed up for the soccer season and tomorrow marks the end of the second term of school learning. 



Slowly but surely the season will shift right before our eyes.  And with a little fire pit glowing in the back yard, it really does smell like camping.

Monday, March 16, 2015

Old News

These pictures have been sitting here on a blank blog page for two weeks.  Patiently waiting for some words to accompany them.  But blog writing kept losing out to other things like cleaning up and grocery shopping and exercise class. But honestly blog writing most often loses out to sleep.  Some nights I lay down to tuck in the girls, read stories and snuggle, and my body begs my mind to ignore the to-do list that its reciting and give in to the comforts of dreamland.  And often the mind gives in to the body's pleas.
 
So some of this is old news, but old news is better than no news at all.
 
 
Big sister has a gap in her smile these days.  Weeks of flipping the tooth back and forth with her tongue and it finally fell out at school.  The tooth made it all the way home only to be lost somewhere in our immaculate, spic and span house before bedtime.  She was questioning the Toothfairy's existence, trying to figure out how it's possible for a fairy to have money and where did she get if from.  She decided to write a note to the Toothfairy, just in case, explaining that she couldn't find her tooth to put in a cup of water but could she still bring her some money anyway. 
 
Well the Toothfairy must have been very busy (or sleepy) because there was some fancy trickery going on in the morning to explain why there was no money under big sister's pillow and how she better go look again because it must have *cough *cough slipped behind the bed.  Some nights, the mom's mind should put up a bigger fight against the body begging it to go to sleep! Especially when a child's belief in the Toothfairy is depending on it!
 





Hopefully it won't be much longer and we'll see these scooters ripping around outside.  Mother Nature teased us with a couple of warm, spring-like days and now we've gone and got our hopes up. We just can't help ourselves.  Every year we wish spring would come just a little bit early.  And every year we just get what we get.  High hopes and more winter.  Oh well, scootering around the shop is still pretty fun!





Yep.  That is what you think it is.  We attempted some paper mâché.  Was it messy?  Yep! Will we do it again?  Hmm...let me get back to you on that one. 



We managed to finish the project we needed for school and the girls had lots of goopy fun creating a little something of their own.  Of course it was all fun and games until it was time to clean up and then somehow I was on my own.  Oh well, that was two weeks ago.  Its all cleaned up now!

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Pulling the Plug


It was minus 23 with the wind chill today.  I don't know if that constitutes March coming in like a lion or not.  But I do know that it will definitely be going out like a hot, sweaty, sunshiny lamb!

Pancakes anyone?

 
I went a little berserk last week after the umpteenth lecture on attitude adjusting, getting jobs done, etc. etc.   and it ended with a TV, computer, and iPad ban for the children of the house.  With so much winter to endure, these time wasters were starting to take on a life of their own.  I originally said absolutely nothing for one week, and now that the week is up I'm considering extending it to two weeks.  Not because of questionable behavior but because the house has been so peaceful without it, things are getting done, and there has been a lot more good old fashioned play time.  Technology isn't the problem per se but the problem lies in what's not happening when everyone is plugged in. 
 
It was time to pull the plug for a while.




The sign clearly stated, "Don't even ask", but that didn't stop them from asking. every. day.  I think they were just checking to see if the answer was still no, not that they actually wanted to watch anything.  I said no technology only for the children of the house so the the grown-ups still had full access but I can honestly tell you that hardly a laptop was flipped open or television show was watched by us either. 



 

But the phones were fair game.  Because they are a necessity.  Ha. Ha.  We could live without them but we don't want to!  Besides, we had to Face time Nana and Papa!
Now I gotta go. I've used up my quota of technology time for the day;)