Dear Santa

Two Christmas' down, one to go.

We've had a very exciting week at the Big Blue House. We had to rapidly change plans at the last minute last week because of an expected blizzard. Although Duluth got the large amounts of snow, we got the sleet and slush. Still, it would have been hazardous travelling weather, so I'm glad we postponed Christmas with my family until Sunday. We had a quiet Christmas Eve at home, broken only by the constant, "Can we open presents now?"

On Christmas morning we were having breakfast when there was a knock at the front door. Adam asked Addie to go answer the door. I heard a, "It's Grandpa!" "NO, it's SANTA!!!!" Yes, Santa came to our front door (we don't have a chimney anymore). Santa gave the girls some toothbrushes, a hair brush and some "lipstick." He also told the girls a sweet story about how there are bells at the North Pole that ring all year long to let the elves know if the girls are naughty or nice. If they are nice, the bells ring "ting-a-ling," but if they're naughty then the bell will ring "ding dong."

The girls were thrilled that Santa actually came to our house while we were awake. Between that and discovering that Addie has a loose front tooth, it was pretty exciting at our house.

Lily with Great Grandpa Wally

On Sunday (after a late start due to some moron lighting their car on fire and Adam being paged out to investigate it) we headed down to my parents for an action packed gift opening. We missed eating with the family, but we had an excellent meal nonetheless. The girls had a blast seeing all the family and playing with their cousins. Now, I'm ready for a long winter's nap.

16 Days Off

I never though I would say it, but I will be very happy when Addie's school vacation starts. She has 2 weeks off of school, which equates to 16 consecutive days. As much as Addie loves school, it is a long day for her and by most Fridays she is completely worn out. She really needs a few days to sleep in and recover. This week the wall came on Tuesday night.

She had a rough day at school, starting with me not believing that yesterday was a no uniform day. Then she got in trouble for "accidently" drawing on someone else's paper. At Oma's she got in trouble because while wrestling with Eric, he came out of the battle with teeth marks on his arm.

Obviously it was a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

1st Christmas Concert

I had great intentions of uploading a video of Addie's 1st Christmas Concert. However, after waiting all day for the video to upload to Blogger, I decided that it is just too long. Instead, you'll have to enjoy a picture that didn't make it to our Christmas card this year.

Don't worry if you haven't gotten a card from us yet, they haven't been sent. I have wonderful intentions.... maybe we'll get them out before New Year's.

Being in Kindergarten is hard work!

After weeks of swine flu-like symptoms at my house (everyone but me was affected), Adam was down sick for a week with pneumonia and now he's off hunting. This morning I was feeling like I had everything all together for once. The kids and I are packed and ready to go to my parents for the weekend. I got Lily off to daycare at a reasonable time. Addie was dropped off at school on time. I was feeling pretty good.

Then it hit me as I was driving away from the school. I don't know if Addie's had a snack in her backpack all week. We're supposed to pack a midmorning snack for the kids every day. I completely forgot about it. I know they have extras at school so she doesn't really mind if I forget, but I feel like a bad parent. I guess those teachers will be getting an extra special present for Christmas from us!

Lily has been having unusually red and irritated eyes lately. She rubs them so much that they get red and puffy and occasionally bleed at the corners. I've been completely baffled and didn't know what to do about this. I've been thinking maybe it's a nervous habit or something she does to keep herself awake at night. I've been putting my eye cream on her as a last ditch resort. Last night I mentioned it to Oma to see what she thought. One of the other parents just looked at me like it was the most obvious thing in the world and said, "it's seasonal allergies." Of course it is. I gave her some Claritin last night and she slept hard through the night. It didn't make it any easier for her to fall asleep, but at least she slept well.

Does that make me 0 for 2 in the parenting department?

Gypsy Princess

Lily loves playing dress up; as if you couldn't guess that from her refusal to change out of her "Michael jammies" most days.

It's not uncommon on the weekends for her to go from jammies to dress up clothes and then down for a nap. She'll get dressed sometime after nap!


Combining outfits into the frilliest of combinations is really her forte. After all, a girl can never wear too much tulle.

- Posted from my iPhone

The Donation

There is a dinner auction for Addie's school tonight. I had a babysitter lined up. I had a date. Now its falling apart on me.

It is $40 a ticket and I bought 2, thinking my mother in law would be able to come with. Now that the girls have been sick this week, she isn't comfortable coming to our house.

I couldn't find a friend who was free for the evening. I convinced Adam to come home early from setting up deer stands so he could go with me. We were going to meet up with friends later for drinks at the Black Water.

Now our babysitter is down with the flu.
Ever feel like the world is conspiring against you?





-- Posted from my iPhone

The Evil Stepmother

Adam had to be to work early today, so it was my job to get the girls up and running. I woke up Addie and snuggled with her for a bit. She kept saying "buenas noches Mommy" and burying her head under the blankets. I got her into the bathroom and her teeth brushed and got her brushing her own hair.

I started helping her brush her hair; she turned around to look at me and said, "You know Momma, sometimes you're more like an Evil Stepmother."

I had to tell her that an Evil Stepmother wouldn't care if her hair was brushed or that she was dressed in clean clothes for school.

Halloween Roundup

Bambi and Flower with Their Haul

Because of the gunk going through our house, Halloween was pretty understated this year. Bambi (Lily) went out Trick or Treating with Daddy while Flower (Addie) stayed home with me to give out candy. Addie wasn't quite as upset as I thought she would be, which tells you how miserable she was feeling. Poor kid was running a temp for 2.5 days.

Tail View

Lily waited until Sunday to come down with what we assume is H1N1. At least she got to enjoy Halloween now that she's big enough to really Trick or Treat.

Ugh, I sure hope we're over this crud now.

A Letter to Our Friends

Dear AJ,

I love, love the playdate we set up. Thank you for being nice to me. I hope we meet again.

Love,
Addie

Dear AJ & Sydney,

Thanks for the playdate. I loved playing princess.

Love,
Lily

This is a version of the letter we sent to AJ this morning. Addie insisted upon putting a picture inside an envelope and writing our letter on the outside. She was insistent that the "mail girl" (we have a male mail carrier) pick up the letter and bring it to AJ's house.

I kept Addie home sick today. We're just taking it easy - or at least she and Lily are. There's been coloring, painting, letter writing, and reading. On my part, I've been trying to use up the bountiful tomato harvest we've had. I made some salsa this morning and am working on spaghetti sauce with roasted zucchini and eggplant. Now, if I could just get motivated to do more than sweep the floors, we'd be in business!

A Pretty Good Artist

Addie was coloring these giant size coloring pages this afternoon when out of the blue she said, "whoever made these was a pretty good draw-er. I can't choose just one, I want to color all of them."


-- Posted from my iPhone

Catching Up

I realized that I hadn't downloaded photos from my camera in quite some time. Since I've been taking pictures with my iphone and posting infrequently to the blog from my iphone, I really didn't pay much attention to the camera. So... I give you photos from our trip to the St Paul Children's Museum in August.

The Peanuts characters are right outside a candy shop next door to the museum. While I ran into a restaurant and ordered sandwiches to go, Adam got this picture of the girls.

Clifford the Big Red Dog came out into the atrium and danced with all the kids. The kids taught him the Hokey Pokey and the Chicken Dance. The room with Clifford's town was a big hit with the girls. In fact, you can just barely see Lily sliding down Clifford's tail.

Wagging their little beaver tails! The Children's Museum does a great job of having fun animal exhibits. The girls really liked this beaver dam. The other highlight was the ant hill, where you dress up as an ant and crawl through tunnels. It was really an amazing exhibit! What a way to spark children's curiosity about the world.

She Comes By It Honestly

This kid loves chocolate like, well, like I like chocolate. She comes by it honestly. And really, can you blame her? The kicker is that because she's dairy free, she has excellent taste in chocolate. She can't eat any milk chocolate, only the very dark, very high quality chocolate. There's no messing around with this kid, give her the good stuff!

I did a little dairy test this last weekend. I tried making pancakes with real milk (one of my accounts gave me a gallon of milk). I miss pancakes made with milk. Lily got a stomach ache and diarrhea from it. She also seemed to get a minor rash "down there." Now that she's out of diapers we don't have the same obvious signals we had before. My question is, how do we know if it's still an allergy or if it's an intolerance? Maybe it doesn't matter. I'm not sure that it would change the way we live right now. If it hurts the kid to eat dairy, then I'm not going to serve it. If I get her tested again for the allergy, am I doing it just for myself?

Just Beachy

It's hard to believe that winter is just around the corner. We had a great picnic on Lake Superior last week. Lily enjoyed being buried in the sand by "Jack-o-lantern's" daddy.




-- Post From My iPhone

First Day of School

Addie is very excited to tell everyone that she is a Kindergartner! We got her on the bus this morning; all four of us walked down together and met the little boy who will ride the bus with her.

Then, I raced to school to meet her bus. The look on her face when she got off the bus was priceless! Pure joy!

I can't wait to hear about her first day.





-- Post From My iPhone

About Face - The Long Explanation

I tried to give you the down and dirty on Addie's school situation Friday, but it didn't seem to save. Here's the longer version.

Last week we called the Transportation director (TD for short) and asked about busing since we hadn't heard anything yet. TD said that because we lived less than 2 miles from the school that we were ineligible for busing. I asked about the safety of a five year old crossing a busy street that commuters use. Apparently that is not their concern. Never mind the sex offender that lives between us and the school. I then asked about busing Addie to daycare in the afternoon. TD said we are ineligible because we live too close to the school and they do not have a bus that goes past that daycare.

What about paying for transportation? Nope. What's the closest a bus could come to a drop off point for daycare? In between our house and the school - again, too far for Addie to walk alone, not to mention that this makes absolutely no sense what so ever. I did look into carpooling, but we don't know many people whose kids go to that school. There is a latchkey program, but I'm not thrilled about that.

Then I asked TD the big question. What if my child went to the Catholic school? "Oh, then we could bus you."

Since this private school had been on our radar before, we decided to take the leap. Today we met the teacher, toured the school and are all set to go.

Stay tuned for photos in her uniform!



-- Post From My iPhone

A Snugg - a- licious Day!

This morning as everyone was waking up and getting ready, Addie asked if she could have a Snuggle-a-Bration. I asked her if she had heard the word before or if it was one she made up. "No Momma, I heard it in my head."

I loved the word and I'm doing my utmost to get it out into the world.

So go, curl up with your loved ones and have your own Snuggle-a-bration. And eat this while you're at it! I'll have to figure out how to make it dairy-free. Give me a day or so and I'll get back to you on it.

Things to Do

Addie's Birthday Party is on Saturday and all I can do is think of all the things I have left to do. Maybe I'm avoiding thinking about the fact that my baby is FIVE. I keep saying I'm not old enough to have a five year old; I can't imagine what I'll say when she is 18.

My List:
Weed flower gardens
Mow yard (neighbor kid was supposed to do this earlier in the week)
Weed Whack (see above)
Compost bags of leaves that have been sitting in corner of yard since last fall
Plant shrubs (3)
Move pool and other non-essential yard junk into the garage
Clean up little slide so big sister can take it home
Defrost Meat
Make side dish (don't know what we're doing yet)
Cut up veggies
Make dip - non-dairy sour cream, a handful of walnuts and 1 cup olives makes an amazing dip
Sweep
Mop
Vacuum
Dust
Clean Bathroom
Clear kitchen counters
Clean out fridge (reason meat is not already defrosting)
Buy buns
Buy coffee
Buy little bags to put goodies in
Clean Lily's room
Clean sheets on Lily's bed (Mom and Dad are staying overnight)
Buy ice
Figure out drink situation - beer? Lemonade? Pop? Definitely juice boxes
Buy Juice Boxes

Sa-Weeet!

Cross Posted to Knit One Blog Too because I am too silly to figure out my iPhone app!

Last night was Wednesday Night at the Races in Superior. The people who organize Grandmas Marathon put on little races for kids each week at a different park. Addie and Lily (and I) ran in the 4 and under category. Before we started I told Addie to run as fast as she could but if we got separated to just follow the other kids to the finish line. I should have told her to run like the wind, because she came in 3rd!

Afterwards we went to Culvers for dinner.


Addie wasn't too impressed with the dairy-free lemon ice I got for Lily ( be sure they use a clean scoop!) but when her friend AJ came to the table with an M&M sundae, she was lovin' it. What a great way to cap off one of our warmest nights this suet.

-- Post From My iPhone

The View From Here

The summer seems to be rocketing by. We've spent time at the cabin (very little), time with my grandparents (again, very little) and time just running around. Adam and I realized this week that our summer is almost over. It doesn't help that it's been a cooler than normal summer.

As of right now, I am in Portland, Adam is at home and the girls are with my parents. I love you girls! Momma misses you!


-- Post From My iPhone

Parenting is One Big Experiment

I was going through some pictures on the computer today and found this one of Addie as a newborn. I love this picture. It always makes me want to coo and revert to babytalk. I think this was taken in the first week when she was very jaundiced. I was still stunned that a 9 lb 6 oz baby could have come out of my body, and that said baby could hurt me so badly (nursing, incision, lack of sleep, etc.) My most burning question then was, "is she getting enough to eat?"

Now that same baby is going to be turning 5 in a few weeks. She's going off to Kindergarten this fall and is going to be a big kid. Now my most burning question is, "should I wean her off naps now so that not napping in Kindergarten will be easier?" They have a short "rest time" in Kindergarten, but my sister the teacher says that kids start to tease the kids who fall asleep during that time. I've got to think that tends to happen later in the year, but I don't know. This kid really needs her naps (unlike Lily who can pretty much take it or leave it).

I'm planning on adjusting her bedtime closer to the time school starts so that she's going to bed earlier at night. I know that the first couple of weeks will be tough anyway. Like so many parenting decisions, there is no right answer and we'll just have to feel our way through. Hopefully we'll make the right decisions on the big questions and use the wrong ones as teachable moments for next time.

Flower Girl Training

Who knew being a flower girl would take such training?

First, we had to clean off the hands and faces of these little princesses. They were filthy from a picnic right before our shopping trip.

Then we had to try on the dresses at David's Bridal so they could get ordered in time. (Don't get me started about the craziness of ordering dresses for children 3 1/2 months ahead of time).

Then, there's the requisite twirling in the dress to see if it looks like a real princess dress. (They do twirl well).

The girls were absolutely crushed that they couldn't take these dresses home. The real dresses with be a lilac color with a deep purple sash. I'm going to make them little bolero sweaters to wear over the top of the dresses in case it is cold.

The final and most difficult part of the Flower Girl Training is the flowers themselves. Addie has put herself on a rigorous training schedule that involves picking flowers wherever she sees them. The petals get scattered willy-nilly all over the yard, house and cars. I'm pretty sure she'll be a pro by the time October rolls around.

UP, Up and Away

While Adam was at the cabin last Sunday, I took the girls to see the 3D version of Up. First of all, I was completely shocked at how much it cost us. Apparently you get charged for an adult price ($9) for each person regardless of age! Add to that the price of popcorn and a pop for the 3 of us to share and I was feeling pretty broke by the end of the night.

Addie was completely fascinated with the movie. She jumped when things popped out of the screen and ohhhed and ahhed at the heights that the house floated to. Lily was a little less impressed. She almost immediately got her 3D glasses all smudged and yucky. She ended up taking them off and watching the movie without them until the end when I swapped glasses with her. In her defense, One Size Fits All glasses do not fit Lily. I'm not entirely sure that she could see out both lenses.

The movie was good though. I was a little worried that Addie would be scared by the dogs at one part (Lily really wasn't into the movie enough to get scared) but it really didn't faze her much. I would be cautious if you have a child who is easily scared. Like most Disney movies these days, there are enough jokes that just the adults will get to keep parents entertained. Over all, it's a sweet funny movie about a man trying to fulfill a dream that his wife had always cherished.

Things We've Learned in 4 Year Old Kindergarten

1. Raise Your Hand Quietly
2. Be Quiet on the Railroad Tracks
3. No Running in the Halls
4. There Can Only Be One Princess Leia
5. There is No Kissing in 4 Year Old Kindergarten (ask us how we know)
6. No Toys on the School Bus (ask us how we know)
7. No Biting
8. No Taking Toys
9. No Picking Fragile Flowers (again, ask us how we know)
10. Clean Up Before You Read a Book

You Know It's a Rough Night When...

... at 4:30 in the morning you are laying in bed composing your blog post for the next day.

I was woken out of a dead sleep by little Lily at the side of my bed asking for her animal pillow. I reached down to pull her into bed with us when I noticed that she was completely soaked and cold. Apparently the half a glass of pop she had shared with me at McDonalds that night had gone right through her.

I got her changed into dry footie jammies (because nothing else will do these days) and put her into bed with Adam. I then began the hunt for clean sheets. Everyone knows my saga with laundry and the never ending battle that we fight to get the laundry done and put away. Well, I've failed. I cannot find a clean crib sheet. OK, I'll put sheets on the queen size bed in her room. But wait, there are no clean blankets for she's peed on all of them in the last week. Into the deep upstairs closet I go, looking for a blanket that hasn't seen the light of day in at least a year. I finally found some that might be acceptable to our picky kid.

I take the sleeping Lily out of our bed (because I really don't want her to pee in that bed too!) and bring her into her room. She was very upset to be taken out of Momma's bed. I finally got her settled down and sleeping and went back into my bed at 5am. I'm not sure it was worth going back to sleep.

It Only Looks Bright and Sunny

Lots of Random Bits and Pieces

1. We went from bright and sunny shorts weather yesterday to cold and sunny today. Yech. That's just the way it's been lately.

2. Over Mother's Day weekend my sister and I took the girls to the Shepard's Harvest Festival. My sister snapped a bunch of cute photos including this one.

3. We finally have Lily Pull Up free at night. She's been potty trained for a long time now, but we continued putting the Pull Ups on at night. I finally realized that she was staying dry at night but didn't want to get up in the morning and go into the bathroom so was using the Pull Up out of shear laziness (or crankiness if you want to get right down to it).

4. Addie's last week of 4K is next week. She's got a month of Kindergarten Camp this summer to look forward to, then it's real Kindergarten in a new school.

5. Addie finally passed into the next swim class level. She'll be a Starfish. It's nice because that forces the girls to be in separate classes which I think will be good for them.

Sugar High! Flourless Chocolate Cake

My old college roommate is hosting a bake along on her site. The rules are that you can bake anything you want, it just has to be gluten free. Post a photo, a recipe and let her know what you've done. It all has to be done by May 25.

Since shortly more than 2 years ago I attempted to go gluten free & dairy free, I happened to have a favorite recipe in my stash. I can't tell you how happy I was to learn that Lily was only allergic to dairy - the wheat was a real killer for me. One of the things that I absolutely craved was baked goods. Bread, yes. Cookies, definitely. Brownies, oh man I wanted them. Cake, the absolute most. It was a blessing when I found this recipe. Plus, it has all my favorite things: chocolate, butter, coffee, and eggs!



Flourless Chocolate Cake
From America's Test Kitchen
1 lb semi sweet chocolate, chopped (obviously the better the chocolate, the better the cake will be)
16 Tbs butter
1/4 Cup strong coffee
8 eggs

Set up: Preheat oven to 325. Spray a springform pan with Pam, line the bottom with parchment paper. Wrap the outside of the pan with 2 sheets of aluminum foil. set inside a large roasting pan. Bring 2 pots of water to boil on the stove.

Mix:
Mix chocolate, coffee and butter in glass bowl. Microwave until chocolate is melted and smooth. Set aside.
Beat eggs for 5-10 minutes. (the recipe says until doubled in size, but I think 5 minutes is a better measure since my eggs rapidly doubled but were not beaten enough).
Fold in 1/3 of the egg mixture into the chocolate until just a few streaks of egg remain. Continue adding egg mixture and folding until it is completely incorporated.

Pour into prepared pan. Pour boiling water into roasting pan and place in oven. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until internal temperature is 140. Cool at room temperature for 3 hours, then place in refrigerator overnight.

Enjoy!

Tips:
The water bath is key, it allows the cake to cook slowly and evenly and helps maintain the smooth texture.
The other must is beating the eggs long enough. I actually set a timer for 5-7 minutes, otherwise I get too impatient. This ensures that the eggs are frothy enough and helps with the smooth texture. If you don't beat the egg long enough, the cake will taste a little custardy in spots.
Use good chocolate!! I use the best tasting dairy free chocolate that I can find, which is difficult as they all seem to taste a little off.

When Daddy Makes Breakfast...

When Daddy makes breakfast, it's always an adventure. Today we helped Daddy make green and orange eggs. They tasted great! We had a little picnic on the floor of the living room with our eggs while we watched cartoons. Lazy Saturday mornings are the best.*

*The best part for Momma was being able to sleep in!

Park Cleanup

I took the girls to the park yesterday to help clean up the beach and park areas. The girls did very well to start with, but the wind off the lake was very cold so I ended up carrying Lily for a good part of the garbage pickup part. We walked along the beach and I picked up garbage while Addie collected feathers and pinecones. She ended up making a pinecone indian - a pinecone with feathers sticking out of the top as a head dress.
Later, the girls played on the playground equipment while I patrolled the area for litter.

The highlight for the girls was after most of the people had gone home. We paused for a snack with Bill. Bill shoveled sand off the sidewalks while I swept. Pretty soon I heard, "We need more sand!" Bill was shoveling sand over to the girls so they could "plant" their stick.

That's not a sand castle, it's a plant.

Swimming

Adam and Addie went to Menards today to pick up some supplies for our new front steps (Adam fell through ours yesterday). While they were there, Adam found a underwater flashlight. Adam tried to broker a deal with Addie...

If Addie will stick her head underwater (the one step that's holding her back from graduating to the next swim class level) then she can have the flashlight.

"Maybe I don't need the flashlight."

Adam tried convincing her that she was able to put her head under water. When that didn't go so well, he told her that Lily will put her head under water and Lily will move ahead of her in the class.

"Maybe I will buy the flashlight for Lily."

Somehow I don't think this bribe had enough bite to it. We'll see how they do when Lily starts swim lessons next week.

Hoppy Easter Every Bunny!

It was an Eastery Egg-stravaganza this weekend. On Thursday at Oma's the girls made little chicks out of eggs. Addie insists upon carrying them around the house and playing with them, even though they have not been refridgerated. We keep asking her not to play with them. I think they may have to find their way to the garbage can.

Saturday night we dyed eggs with Grandma and Grandma's neighbors. Lily loved drawing on the eggs with Crayon. The girls made a huge mess dropping eggs into the dye, but they had a great time. Good thing Grandma put down a tablecloth first!!

The dyed eggs. Addie announced to everyone on Sunday morning that they absolutely could not eat any eggs with a "face" on them. I have no idea what we're going to do with the "Face Eggs," but I guess they're being saved for a reason.

The Gang's All Here

The girls had a great time this weekend hanging out with their cousins, aunties and Grandma Dude. We spent Friday night at Grandma and Grandpa's with Auntie Rene. The girls got to stay up very late and eat Asian food. Sleeping in Grandma's big bed with Mommy was a huge treat for Lily. Addie stayed in Auntie's old room and was the first one up in the morning.

Naps were at a bit of a premium all weekend, but the girls had a blast. We stayed up late Saturday night in the hotel room and ate pizza. On Sunday the cousins came to the hotel and played in the pool. Both girls crashed in the car on the way home. I think they would have slept the entire 5 hour drive if I hadn't wanted to stop to eat.

Hopefully more photos will be coming - I took some great photos of the girls with other people's cameras.

"Hot Dog, Hot Dog, Hot Diggity-Dog"

You know it's been a long weekend when you have kid show theme songs running through your head non-stop. We took the girls to have their photos taken at a local photography place today. They have bunnies every spring that they bring in for photo shoots. We got some sweet pictures of the girls together in their Easter dresses and some of Lily alone. I'm hoping that by getting her 3 year old pictures taken close to her actual birthday, I can at least stay in the running for Mother of the Year. I'm suffering from Mommy guilt that Lily's party was cancelled last week and I have little to no desire to reschedule. The cake is in the freezer, the goodie bags are all ready... I just need to suck up and schedule a date. It's just so darn hard to coordinate a date with all the different people involved. That's why I scheduled it 1 1/2 months out the first time around.

So, when are *you* available for Lily's party?

Food Allergy Article

I want to show everyone what I found in one of the local papers this week. It's from the Cloquet Pine Journal in Cloquet, MN. They have an allergy response team in the elementary schools that practice drills on a regular basis. This is the first time I've heard of an allergy response team in the schools - I think it's fantastic. The more awareness we can bring to the issue of food allergies, the better.

*The link will only remain active for about a week. After that, articles are archived and they want you to pay for them.

Weird Science

We took the girls to the Science Museum of Minnesota last weekend. One of the perks of being members of our Children's Museum is that we get free entry into science museums and children's museums all over the country. The dinosaur area was a huge hit with Addie. She loved seeing all the dinosaurs that Daddy has told her about.

The "waterfall" entry into the water exhibit. We had to go through this entry several times.

The lights exhibit. Adam tried explaining to Addie how you could block out one light and have just a single color shadow, or combine colors to make new colored shadows. However, she really was more interested in just seeing what her shadow looked like when she moved.

Overall, the Science Museum was a lot of fun. It is definitely geared for older kids, but we were able to find enough things that the girls could do to keep their interest.

Goodnight Moon

Last night was the first night in over a week that we didn't have a little person coming into our room in the wee hours. We woke up to the alarm at 6am. With only two of us in our bed. In our own bed. I can't tell you what a treat that was. In fact, I woke up to the alarm thinking something was not right. It took me a second to realize that it was my alarm that was going off and that there wasn't a child standing in front of me. Then, I started worrying that something was wrong. Why didn't Lily wake up? Was she ok?

She was fine of course, just tired. The kicker is that I am completely wiped out today. Why is it that I got a full night's sleep and yet I'm so tired today?

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday dear Daddy, Happy Birthday to You.

A Life Lesson via SpongeBob

We were watching SpongeBob SquarePants tonight as the girls were eating their before bed snack. I hold firm to my belief that SpongeBob is not really a show for kids. In this episode, SpongeBob and Patrick got Squidworth kicked out of his club so they tried to make their own exclusive club. When Squidworth yelled at SpongeBob and Patrick, I told the girls that Squidworth was not a very nice friend. I got no response from the under 5 crowd.

As part of the initiation into the exclusive "Feathered Friends" club, SpongeBob and Patrick held a stinging jellyfish to their tongue. They then held Squidworth's tongue out and stung him with the jellyfish. Addie and Lily thought this was very funny. I told the girls that SpongeBob and Patrick weren't being very good friends to Squidworth. Addie (never taking her eyes from the TV screen) said, "But they did it to themselves first."

"Addie, if your friends sting themselves with jellyfish, are you going to sting your tongue with a jellyfish?" It may not give me the Mommy of the Year award, but I feel like I've hit a Parental Milestone by uttering that phrase.

Have I told you today....

We have a new saying in our house. It is, "Have I told you today that I love you?"

Apparently Adam says this to Lily every morning as he's taking her to Oma's. Depending upon Lily's mood, this can either solicit an "I love you too." or a surly grunt.

I've picked up on saying it to both of the girls and now they're saying it back. It's a nice little change from the pouting that so often goes on around here.

Northland Moms Get Creative

When it looks like this outside, Northland moms get creative on how to get their children to burn off some energy. We were having a lazy morning at home when Dana called and asked if we wanted to go to the aquarium. Our aquarium has some issues so I haven't been there in about a year, but it sounded like a good thing to do.

Addie and Lily were very excited to see their friends, AJ and Sydney. They ran all over the upper floor of the aquarium, barely pausing to look at the fish. Lily was very impressed with the moving stairs (she's a small town girl, what can I say?). In fact, she was very upset that you didn't take the moving stairs to get down to the first floor. The elevator wasn't good enough for her.

One of Addie's favorite spots was a little bear den. It's a little "cave" that has a fuzzy stuffed animal that's supposed to be the momma bear inside. Addie thought it was a great hiding spot and wanted everyone to go inside with her. Unfortunately, AJ and Lily were not convinced it was safe. Lily went in, but wanted to go feet first (just in case). AJ checked it out and that was as far as he would go.

As always, the otter slide was a big hit with Lily. I'm not so sure they were excited about the actual otters, but the slide is neat.

We finished up with lunch at McDonalds and more playing there.

Valentine's Day Walk

This is cross posted on Knit One Blog Too because I am an idiot and wasn't paying close attention to what blog I posted on. :)


Adam and I took the girls for a walk on Saturday. Our plan was to walk down to the grocery store to pick up a loaf of crusty bread for fondue that night. It's 8 blocks to the grocery store.

We had no sooner gotten bundled up and out to the alley when Lily decided that she needed to be carried. There was no way I was carrying her the entire way (I've done it before and needed to seek chiropractic help afterward) so we got the wagon and some blankets out of the garage. Lily was very happy to be a rider, she kepting saying "Wheee! I'm on a roller coaster!"

Addie on the other hand, was quite the mountaineer. She went snowbank climbing and had to stop frequently for energy breaks (i.e. chocolate).

We got all of 4 blocks when we decided that everyone was too cold to keep going. We walked back home, got in the car and drove to the grocery store.

What a Way to Wake Up

Adam and I woke up this morning to the pitter patter of little feet running down our hallway. The sound was quickly followed by, "Momma, I'm hungry. I want hot dogs." What really brought me awake was Lily handing me a frozen package of hot dogs. She had woken up (God only knows how long she was wondering the house) and gone downstairs, opened up the freezer and perused the contents.

Otherwise, it's a lazy Sunday morning for us. Adam is fixing a broken water pipe (he's shut off water to the house, so I can't wash dishes or clothes). I'm playing on the computer, and the kids are playing upstairs. I think we might go to the Y this afternoon to swim. The kids are really looking forward to it - our freezing cold walk yesterday didn't quite bring the same degree of excitement.

Stay Right There

"Stay right there. Don't move. Where's the button I push? Did it work? Why isn't this working?"

"Addie, just hold down the button. No, look at us in the picture and hold down the button."

"Addie, bring up the camera so you can see Mommy and Daddy in the picture."

"Yes, that button right there. Hold it, hold it."

"Here we'll move down so you can see us in the picture."

"Momma, I see you! I did it!"

Miles of Smiles

This picture just makes me smile.