Mom's Day

So I'm a little behind. Almost a month. Geesh! But wanted to share a few Mother's Day pictures.

I woke up to find that the kids had gifted me some items in their Easter baskets.

(I know....Easter was two weeks before Mother's Day, the baskets should be back in the crawl space. Sue me.)

Anyway, Xander had made me a lovely book at school where he filled out on the pages all the reasons that he liked me. It was very clear by the end that he likes me because I feed him, as most of the pages said he like me because I make him XYZ to eat.

He also went and found everything he could in his room that's yellow and gave it to me since yellow is my favorite color. Then he chastised Jordis because her gifts were NOT yellow.

She had the last laugh though when she held up a family picture she drew......of Jason, Me and herself.

Those two crack me up.

Recently

I went WAY overboard on the food coloring for the kids' annual St. Patrick's Day eggs. I was going to tone it down with some yellow but figured I'd just be adding more food coloring, so I left it. Xander went to chess club at the library. He won his first match and the second was a draw. My "new" car hit 100,000 miles. It's had it's share of problems, but I've absolutely LOVED driving my Grand AM the past ten years. The only thing better would be if it had been available in a 5-speed. We've been going a little stir crazy waiting on spring to stick around. I became that mother I swore I'd never be, and I let Jordis go to the store in her pajamas. We needed something in particular like milk, it was the only day I had available to go, and I wasn't in the mood to fight with her about getting dressed for the day. So I just put her in the car the way she was. The world didn't even come to an end. Imagine that. Spring pictures were last week and we convinced Xander to get rid of the "mohawk" he's been sporting for awhile. And now it's April already.

Daddy-Daughter Dance

Last month, Jason and Jordis went to the annual Daddy-Daughter Dance sponsored by our city. You have to be four to attend, so she just missed going last year by about two months. I had fun getting her ready, but I'd make a horrible pageant mom. Jordis is a typical girl.....she wants to look pretty, but she doesn't want it to take too long. This is the look she kept giving me when I told her for the eighty-millionth time, "No, I'm not finished with your hair yet."

All ready to go

Upon arrival, all of the little girls received a red carnation corsage.

Jordis wore hers all of five minutes before demanding that it be removed.

There was an ice cream buffet that looked really yummy. Jordis apparently had two bowls. She's never really adventurous, just chocolate and sprinkles.


Jordis' neighbor friend, Megan, and Xander's neighbor friend, Lauren, were also there with their dads, and they all sat at the same table together. Besides the dancing there were also some other activities, as well as a professional photographer on hand to take pictures.


Xander and I couldn't let Jason and Jordis have all the fun, so we went on a little date or our own. I took him to Donato's for subs and pizza because he really loves meatball subs and I really love Donato's pizza. It was win-win!

By far, this picture of Jordis was one of the highlights of my evening. She has never been one to enjoy posing for portraits. So much so that, after taking her for unsuccessful photos at 9 months, 12 months and 18 months, I finally quit taking her altogether. I was getting upset with her because she wouldn't stand still and smile for a picture before we left the house, and she rolled her eyes at me. Sometimes I tend to forget that some of the best pictures are the candid ones. I think this one needs blown up and hung on the wall.

Latiolais Christmas

We had some work conflicts with multiple family members, so our holiday celebrating with Jason's family was the Sunday before Christmas. It worked out nicely because it spaced out the festivities and the kids had some new things to play with the first week of winter vacation. Xander helped me prepare by making some reindeer snacks for everyone.

After dinner it was a free-for-all with the gifts.

We all chipped in and got Jason's parents this blanket. It turned out to be even nicer than we'd excpected.

Then the obligatory family pictures. Jordis loves this dress my aunt made her and refused to put on any attire related to Christmas or winter.

Happy Earth Day!

Xander has really been into Earth Day since he learned about it last year in preschool. He was distraught last year on vacation when we were eating breakfast at our hotel one day. He noticed the cups had triangles on them and everyone was throwing them in the trash instead of recycling them. How excited we were when we just stayed at the Hampton a few weeks back and found that this particular location was using all biodegradable products in the breakfast room.

I was a little busy with the birthday parties this year to work on any fabulous Earth Day projects, but we did do a few things over the past week in recognition of the occasion. The first thing we did was take a walk and collect trash from the common areas. It was actually my attempt at getting Xander to take a walk. Who knew that offering up the opportunity to pick up other people's crap was more enticing than just walking for fun?

Not only did they fight about who got to each piece of trash first, but they keep asking when we can go find more trash. Huh?

We also ate sandwiches in the shape of flowers. This was Jordis' idea after seeing it in the Princess and the Frog cookbook my dad and step-mom got her for her birthday.

Last night Jason had to work second shift so I took the kids to Inniswood. This is a park where Jason and I had our engagement pictures taken and it's much closer to our old house, which is why we don't visit more often. But we should because it's absolutely gorgeous there. The kids both got digital cameras for their birthdays so I thought they'd enjoy using them to photograph the flowers. In the meantime I was able to take some pictures of my own.

Almost April?

I can't believe March is almost gone! I'm pretty sure it was just Christmas. Trader Joe's is out of my favorite hot chocolate so I guess it's as good a time as any to welcome spring. Hopefully. We had four inches of snow last week so even though it's *technically* spring you can't really hold your breath around here.

Here's a run down:

The kids requested green scrambled eggs for St. Patrick's Day since they liked when I made them last year. I was multi-tasking this day though, so they were a little burnt which made for an interesting shade of......putrid.

Jordis was excited to wear her new St. Patrick's Day hair band.

She also got to hold an instrument during story time at the nursing home.

I snuck up on her the next day. She hates having her picture taken so it's the only way to do it most of the time without it ending up blurry.

Then I got Lasik! It's incredible! I'm so grateful to Arena Eye Surgeons for giving me a 50% discount since my mom is an employee. I highly recommend the procedure even though my surgeon did his fellowship at LSU.

Xander had spring pictures and decided he wanted spiky hair. He also decided to wear a size 4 shirt and sweater vest that still fit him last summer but now barely comes to his waist band. I haven't made them try on spring/summer clothes yet to weed out the smaller items, so it was still hanging up. I was not a fan of the ensemble, but Jason reminded me that on fall picture day he wouldn't cooperate because he didn't like his outfit, so I let it go. Then he came home and told me he got to stand in the front row for the class photo. Great. I can't wait to see how they turn out.

We had a few warm days and the kids got to skate for the first time this year. Xander outgrew the skates he bought last year at my friend's garage sale, so he let Jordis have them. They are the kind you wear over your shoes. She was so excited and did a really awesome job of scooting down the sidewalk. Xander still has trouble with his rollerblades but I'm sure it takes time. He hasn't worn them but a few times and he's upset because he can't skate down the driveway yet. They both kind of walk with the skates on and call it skating. It's really cute.

March was pretty low key compared to what April will be. We're spending Easter at Jason's brother's, making a few fun stops on the way home, then both the kids and my mom have birthdays coming up.

Stay tuned......