Summer in March

This past week plus, the weather has been insanely warm and wonderful!  We're talking sunny and 80 every day!  Are you surprised that we have visited every park and/or playground within 3 miles of us?  Or that we've visited DQ and 7-11 already?  I didn't think so!  :)

Girls enjoying freezy pops before our walk to Bloomer last Saturday

Girls constructing a home/fort in a white pine stand in Bloomer Park.  They visited three play areas before settling down in the woods for an hour to play with sticks and pine needles!

Megan and Jessica sang in the children's choir at church last Saturday.  They did a beautiful job, as always.

Our daffodils are all open!!  We kept an eye on this one all day Saturday, til it was finally fully open.  It was so cool to watch!

We went to Carrie's shower on Sunday, and had a very nice time.  The girls helped her with wrapping paper/ribbon cleanup.

Jessica with "Sally the snake" at preschool on Monday.

It was special guest night at preschool on Monday, and since Chris was out of town, I got to be the special guest!  I felt so lucky!  (do you like my farmer's tan??  I swear I use sunscreen!!)

Today was the BEST. DAY. EVER. for me, because I got to walk all morning (alone), AND I got to garden all afternoon!  This morning, after dropping off Jessi at preschool, I decided to go on lonnnng walk, and wound up wandering up and down the streets of downtown Rochester for two hours!  It was so much fun to admire all of the houses and landscaping.  This afternoon, Jessi and I cleaned out the garage, the van, and the front porch.  Then we tackled the veggie garden, and planted lettuce, spinach, peas, and radicchio.  Then we weeded some of the other flower beds, since the weeds are already going crazy!  It was sunny and 84, so I got nice and sweaty and dirty.  My shower tonight felt sooooo good!

It has been so fun to enjoy this weather.  Every day, Jessi and I have been having picnic lunches at various parks.  Every afternoon after school, we visit a different park with the girls.  We are used to wearing shorts and flip-flops every day, and not bringing a jacket with us.  I could totally get used to this!  Too bad it's only March!

Chris comes home on Fri afternoon, just as some cooler weather comes into town.  We can't wait to see him!  He won't believe our yard...the grass growing, the daffodils and hyacinths in full bloom, the magnolia's big flowerbuds, the crabapple leafing out, etc.  Spring is definitely here!

Frogging

We are in the midst of a heat wave - temps in the 70's for days on end - and enjoying every minute of it!!  We have visited all of our favorite parks already, and have gone on tons of nature walks.  Just yesterday, when we were walking around a pond, the girls wanted to look for frogs, but I told them it was too cold for frogs yet.  What do you think they found today at our house???  Frogs!!  Lots of them!!  I can't believe it - it's only mid-March!

Champion frogger

Katie was the first one to catch one this year.

Jessica tried to hold one, but was a little timid, so we settled for a "petting a frog" picture.

How fun is this??!!  Spring must be here!!  My spring bulbs are just about to bloom, the grass is trying to grow, and we have lots of frogs in our back yard!!

Another tooth gone...

Megan lost another tooth today!!  This makes four gone.

A picture from a few days ago, when it was just dangling by a thread. I can't believe it lasted a week longer like this!

 Here's the story: this morning, while eating her egg sandwich, she yelled out, "GROSS!" and spit out her food.  She thought I put something hard in her sandwich (a raw bean, she thought).  But it was her tooth she had chomped on!

She can't believe it was her tooth in her sandwich!!

Nice bloody hole in your mouth, Megan

New toothless grin!

Today was a non-uniform day, and the kids were encouraged to wear green for St. Patty's Day.  Megan had fun getting in the spirit with the headband, t-shirt, and tiny leprechaun pin.

She put her tooth under her pillow tonight. Let's hope the tooth fairy makes a visit to our house!

Katie's 10th Birthday

Last Friday was Katie's actual birthday.  She had to go to school all day (boo!), but after school we had a night of fun with her!

Getting her ears pierced at Claire's!!!

Hesitant smile when it was over

Closeup of the earring - her birthstone - aquamarine.

 Katie did great for the piercing.  She was nervous, and cried for a minute when it was done, but then realized it wasn't that bad.  She has been doing a great job of cleaning and rotating her earrings three times a day, and they haven't hurt a bit since the night she got them.  We're so proud of our big girl!

After the piercing, we took Katie out to Chili's for dinner (shrimp fajitas) and dessert (above).

Then home to open presents!  There were LOTS!  Thank you!

Happy 10th birthday to our baby girl...who is turning into a young lady right before our eyes!

Sarah's 8th Angelversary

This past Monday, Sarah would have celebrated her eighth birthday.  Chris was out of town, so we celebrated a few days early.

Winter wreath right before we took it down...I never got a good picture of it early in the year b/c we never got any snow!  But it was beautiful with a light dusting of snow.

Balloon release - eight pink and purple ballons sent with love to heaven, after we sang her Happy Birthday.

Sisterly love.  They each brought Sarah some spring flowers and a color-coordinated pinwheel.

Thank you to everyone who had a kind thought or word for us this past weekend.  We think of Sarah every single day, and we talk about her just about as much, so please don't ever hesitate to bring up her name or memory.  She's always in our minds and in our hearts!

Katie's B-day Party

I'm sorry I'm behind in blogging all the excitement of last week.  Last week was crazy busy with events, including the all-day scrapbooking fundraiser on Saturday.  Chris also left for a 2-week trip to Italy on Saturday.  And I got hit with a really bad cold a few days ago.  (not sure if it's the old cold resurfacing, or a new one)  So I'm not functioning on all cylinders...but here goes a quick recap of Katie's 10th Birthday Party!!

Katie wanted her party at the local ice skating rink again, same as last year, so she could invite all the girls from her class.  Twelve were able to come, plus our three girls, so we had a great time!  We held the party on a Tuesday, since school was closed for a professional development day.  It was a fun way to spend a random day off school.

Birthday girl with cupcakes.  We tried the new "Fun-da-middles" cupcakes and they were delish!  I piped the frosting on in squiggly circles and they looked almost professional.  Almost.

Skating beauties.  The girls all skated for the first hour before breaking for pizza.

Pizza time!  The empty chairs are for siblings, who joined us later.  The girls sang Happy Birthday to Chris at the beginning of the party - so cute!  He said thanks for all the gifts.

After pizza, the girls went back on the ice for the second hour of open skate.  I was impressed at how long they stayed on the ice.

Then it was time for cupcakes!  It took Katie a few tries to blow out all ten candles, but she did it.

She got LOTS of great presents, especially clothes and doodads from Justice.

This was the "goody bag" given to each girl at the party: an Irish coffee mug filled with gloves, kleenex, lip gloss, and a hot cocoa packet.  It was a big hit.

Chris' birthday

Chris celebrated his 39th birthday this week, and we made sure he celebrated in style!

On Tuesday, his actual birthday, I made him a yummy chicken cordon bleu dinner.  He loved it, and so did the girls!

In wrong order...but on Sunday we took him out to dinner at a new restaurant in downtown Rochester: Hibachi House.  Yummy Japanese food!  And he got a lobster roll as a special b-day treat.

We made him a triple-chocolate cake...delicious!

He appreciated all the cards, emails, calls, etc.  Thanks for helping him celebrate!



Lately

We've been busy bees lately, no surprise.  Here's what we've been up to!

The girls had mid-winter break Feb. 20-21.  On the 20th we went to the Henry Ford Museum (see previous post).  On the 21st we went ice skating and swimming.  I like to wear out the girls, can you tell??  Then we had a snow day on the Friday of that week!!  There wasn't much snow at all, the storm totally missed us and we only got about 2" of slushy snow instead of 6-8".  But we enjoyed our day off school and had fun in the snow.  Short weeks are the best!

Girls working on their fort in the front yard.  Really, we got a snow day for THIS??

The girls have started gymnastics on Saturday mornings, and they all really love it.  Jessi is fearless, and K&M are chickens.  Katie & Megan are together in a small group (their choice), and they have a hilarious instructor.  They smile and laugh through the entire 90-minute gymnastics class!  So while they are being wimpy IMO, I don't mind one bit b/c they are having such a great time.

We have been battling colds these past few weeks.  Chris has had it the worst, he has had very bad bronchitis for about two weeks now.  I sent him to the doctor ten days ago, and he went through one round of antibiotics, steroids, and albuterol inhaler with no improvement at all.  So I sent him back on Thursday, and the doctor sent him to a specialist who put him on another round of antibiotics and steroids, plus a heavy-duty asthma inhaler and a nasal inhaler.  Let's hope he can kick this!  I got the cold starting last Sunday, and was out of commission Mon and some of Tues.  I was not nearly as sick as he was, but I was sooooo tired I could barely do anything.  Megan and Jess got my version of the cold, so I kept them home from school on Wed so they could have a day to catch up on sleep.  They were not that "sick", but were exhausted.  They didn't fight their naps at all!

The girls are all doing fabulous in school.  Katie has been getting a string of A+s on her spelling tests and social studies tests of states and capitals.  She declares fractions (+ - so far) to be easy.  She loves to read and likes to go to bed a little early so she can squeeze in an extra 15 min of reading time before lights out.  Megan is also rocking math and reading.  She finishes a Magic Tree House book every three days or so!  Jessica is doing great in preschool.  Yesterday we went on a preschool field trip to Meijers to learn about nutrition.  We got a nice tour of the store, and a review of the food groups.

They are also enjoying ballet.  They got their recital costumes this week, and we parents were invited into the classroom to see how their routine is coming along.  All three girls will be in the Rapunzel recital, and are each dancing in a scene from the musical.  If you want to see them on stage on June 3rd, let us know so I can get you tickets!

At home, the girls' imaginations and creativity run wild.  Last week they created a hair salon in the front room.  It had a name sign, a slogan, a menu of hairstyle choices, two Barbie heads with examples, and a tip jar.  I visited the salon several times that day!  Katie also holds "Katie school" for the girls nearly every day.  She has been teaching them their multiplication facts (0s, 1s, 2s, 10s, and 11s) and skip counting (2s, 5s, 10s).  She lovvves to boss them around, and for some reason they love it, too!  I love that they are all getting along and are learning so much!

Chris is doing fine, other than battling this neverending bronchitis.  He was supposed to be in the UP or Italy this past week for work, but wound up staying here, thank goodness.  He next goes to Italy for the middle two weeks of March.

I'm doing well, too.  Our big school fundraiser, the all-day crop, is coming up in one week.  I've been to lots of meetings lately, and have been doing tons of prep for it.  Hopefully it runs smoothly!  I had to skip the gym this past week due to our colds, but I look forward to getting back to walking, biking, and yoga next week.  I finished the Steve Jobs biography this week; what a book!  I loved it, it was crammed full of tech history and pop culture.  I highly recommend it for any Mac fan!

Tonight I took the girls to the school Mother-daughter event, which was a fitness night this year.  It was held at our gym, and we played: walleyball, basketball, zumba, tae kwon do, soccer, rock climbing, and a bouncy house.  So much fun!  We also enjoyed unlimited smoothies and fresh fruit...yum.  I was brave and tried rock climbing for the first time EVER...and I made it to the very top!!  It was not as hard as I thought it would be, but it was a lot more scary than I thought it would be!  Not sure if I'll try that again anytime soon...

  

Next week is a big one, with Chris' birthday on Tuesday, and Katie's birthday on Friday.  I can't believe our baby is almost ten!!  She is having her party on Tues (no school, PD day for teachers) at the ice skating rink.  She picked out cute party favors for her classmates: a mug with a hot cocoa packet, a mini-Kleenex pack, a pair of stretchy gloves, and a lip gloss tin.  Perfect for ice skating!  On Friday we'd like to take her out to dinner and to get her ears pierced, but it might have to be delayed a few days due to ballet and crop obligations that night.  We'll keep you posted!!

My Birthday!

A few weeks ago I turned thirty-something, and had a great birthday celebration over several days.  First, on the day before my birthday, I made it into the church good news announcements after mass, thanks to the girls.  Then, Mom & Dad C. came up to visit, and we watched MSU b-ball, went bargain shopping at Staples (yay for free things!), and went seed shopping at Bordines.  It was quite the fun afternoon!  We went out to dinner for sushi, and the girls devoured roll after roll after roll.  We made a note to ourselves that when we go back, we better give the girls a snack beforehand so we don't have to order more and more for them!  It was Mom C's first time trying sushi, and she really liked it, of course.

Chris made me this cake, chocolatey and gooey in the middle!  He put the candles far apart so it would be harder to blow out, but I managed just fine, despite my advanced years.

On my actual birthday, the girls were off school, and Chris took the day off work.  Plus it was Family Free Day at the Henry Ford Museum, so that's where I wanted to go for my birthday.  (I heart museums, esp free ones!)

Girls by the wiener mobile

 A real highlight was getting to see and sit on Rosa Parks' bus.  Katie & Megan have learned about her in school, and they were in awe that they got to sit in the exact seat on the exact bus that she was on!  There was a neat audio tape of her telling her story, in her own words.  Amazing.

We also spent a lot of time in the planes section of the museum.  There were sooo many cool ones to admire!  And we each made our own paper airplane and tested it out:

The paper airplanes made their way home and have spawned dozens of replicas.  The girls have spent several afternoons perfecting their paper airplane techniques since then.  Each plane gets a name and a design, then is logged into their records, and undergoes many test flights.  Then it gets a rating of how well it flew.  I'm so proud of my little scientists!  :)

We wandered all through the car section of the museum, admiring the cool cars.  But we were on a mission to find a Mustang for Grandpa!  Can you believe this was the only Mustang in the whole stinking museum?  He was so disappointed!  Have you written Bill Ford yet, Dad??

I wanted to see the trains, and we got to go into the engine room of an enormous steam engine.  It was insanely huge!  The girls got a turn at the controls:

Us in front of the train

We were getting tired, so we sat for a while to watch a kid's production about American Tall Tales after the trains.  The rest was much needed after a long day of walking.  It was a really fun way to spend the day!  My dream birthday...my family and a museum!  :)

After the museum, we had a few hours to rest before we picked up a friend's daughter to babysit the girls so we could go out for the night.  Chris took me to see Van Halen at the Palace!!  He bought the tix very last minute, but somehow got fantastic seats.  And he met up with a co-worker who had connections to a suite, so we mingled with the elite crowd in the suite before and after the concert.  Yay for free food and drinks!  The concert was great, they sounded really good.  What a fun birthday this year!