Seriously?

So today is the second time in two weeks that we're supposed to have highs in the 70's with severe storms and then wake up to this by the next morning, if not before. At least my hyacinths are sprouting though. I'm SO excited about that. I bought them last year on clearance at the end of the season, planted them, and crossed my fingers. They're one of my favorite flowers. Welcome to Spring in Ohio!

March?!

Wow, February sure went by quickly. We've been so busy the past week or so. Xander spent more time out of school due to weather, I think one whole day and maybe two 2-hour delays. My bible study has also been cancelled the past two weeks ~ last week for snow and then this week because the power went out during a thunderstorm and the sump pump broke, so the restrooms were out of order.

Jason's parents came to visit on Sunday afternoon and the kids were able to con them out of some money. They were both pretty excited to get a five dollar bill, they're used to only having singles. That money, on top of allowance and three visits from the tooth fairy made Xander a very rich little boy. Yes, I said THREE visits from the tooth fairy. He's had this one tooth on the top that has been loose for almost six months now, and he wouldn't let anyone pull it. It's made for some serious battles where tooth-brushing is concerned. Two other teeth ended up coming out first, and the other one had been hanging on so long that the adult tooth is already sticking out. He currently has an adorable lisp.

One of Xander's teeth fell out on Saturday while we were at an old friend's for dinner. I used to always look at my mom's wedding album and ask why I didn't know anyone who was in her wedding. I thought, if these people were that close to you that you would have them in your wedding, why don't you still talk to them any more? And now I understand, as our dinner host was one of those friends for me. I've known her since first grade, we were in each other's weddings, and then life plus a few miscommunications on both sides occurred, and here we are. Currently we live less than 10 minutes from each other and we had a nice time reconnecting, so I'm hopeful we will do a better job at keeping in touch.

On Tuesday the kids and I went to Red Lobster for dinner with my mom and step-dad. We needed to get together on that specific day and, unfortunately, Jason had to work so he wasn't able to join us. My dinner came with dessert though, so I gave him half. The kids were crazy-hyper after we ate and my attempt at taking them to Whole Foods with me was futile. They were running laps around some cases of wine in the meat department and then when I was looking at some chicken I heard Xander shout

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"Everybody dance now!" and he had a whole chicken standing up on its legs and was dancing it around the meat case. The song he was singing was what we used one year in high school for drill team tryouts, but he heard it from Shrek the Halls and now I will just never think of it the same way again.

At bed time I asked Jordis why she was acting up throughout the course of the evening and she said, "I was mad at Xander because he woke me up today when I was trying to get my booty sleep." On Wednesday she had her first gymnastics and hip hop class. She was easily the smallest one there by about 6 inches, but she jumped right in and had a smile on her face the whole time. She's been practicing her stand-ups (hand stands) ever since.

I now have a cold and am glad that this week is coming to a close soon. Hoping to rest up over the weekend and prepare a little Mardi Gras shindig for us since Fat Tuesday is right around the corner. Have a great weekend!

Winter Blahs

Winter seems like it has been so long already, and Groundhog Day was only the halfway point. It's this time of year when I really wished we lived in the south, so the kids could go outside more often. They *seriously* need to get outside, because their running around inside the house is driving us nuts. Jordis made it outside one day to play in the snow. This girl LOVES winter.

We've been playing lots of games.

We've even had successful trips to the library. I quit taking both kids at the same time after an incident where I had to carry one of them sideways, kicking and screaming, from the back of the library to the car while said child was pulling my dress off. It was quite a show for this little town. But a few weeks ago I let them each get their own library card.

Now we're having successful trips where we cooperate, learn how to look for books on the shelves and *gasp* have calm bodies with indoor voices.

The kids have done some chillin' by the fireplace, which we also use to dry coats, hats and gloves.

This week Xander was out of school for three days due to ice and we spent 12 hours without power. You know it's bad when your kids get half naked and start trading fishing baits in your family room.

Mayday, mayday!

Happy Mardi Gras!

Wow, Valentine's Day and Mardi Gras two days apart. It's like April when Easter and the kids' bithdays tend to be at the same time. In fact, this year all three fall within a nine-day period. But back to Mardi Gras.....

The house was sufficiently decorated (for a Yankee girl, anyway).

I cooked Cajun food for dinner Monday and Tuesday.

Let's throw in an obligatory snow day photo. Becoming commonplace anymore. This was day four in a row of both kids home together ALL.DAY.LONG.

On said snow day the kids made the filling for our King Cakes.

Time now to rest.

S-N-O-W

Okay, really? More snow?

Back on February 5th I was excited about our first big snow of the year. I was outside taking videos to send to our family and friends in Louisiana. That was the last time I've seen any grass.

But we had fun. We had movies and books and snacks. We made hot chocolate and chocolate chip snow cream.

Jordis loves the snow. She's helped me shovel and would play out there all day if you let her.

It was the weekend and the kids were due to be home and it was nice to stay in and do nothing.

Then a few days later......it snowed some more. There was already 14 inches on the ground and it was piled so high that we were running out of places to put it when we shoveled.

On the second day in a row of no school my friend down the street invited my kids down to play with her kids. It took me an hour to get them ready and down there. I think they played outside for 30 minutes. They were getting creative, too, using sleds to go down the slide on the swing set.

The other day, Jason called me from work to tell me about a refurbished snow blower he saw at the mechanic's where they have their cruisers serviced. He told me how much it costs new versus what this man wanted for his. I said, "Watch, we'll spend the money for it and it won't snow the rest of the year" and he said "Great!" So much for irony, as we got another 7-9 inches of snow today. You'll notice there's no picture. It's because I'm over it. Tired of snow suits, gloves and boots in front of my fire place. Tired of the dog shaking wet snow all over my carpet, tired of snow days and missing bible study two weeks in a row.

The snowblower works great though.

Winter Wonderland

Okay, I'm joking about the wonderland part. The snow was cool the whole week before Christmas, but I'm just about over it now because I don't know the last time I saw the grass. Or the sun for that matter. Jordis loves it though. You will notice no pictures of Xander in this post because he is not a fan of snow. He pretends to be, but after a few minutes he's pretty much f-i-n-i-s-h-e-d. He's like his mommy, doesn't like to be wet or cold. After our 5 or so inches of snow last week Jason took the kids out to build a snowman. It was dry snow and not good for packing, so it didn't roll very well. Xander helped briefly, but not before I was able to get outside and take pictures.

The kids had spent all morning fighting over what the snowman was going to wear. My mom had given them a snowman kit a few years ago so we had a perfect carrot nose. The snowman turned out really cute except that they wanted him to wear a hat. But apparently it just wasn't staying on.

After the snowman Jordis decided to try a snow angel.

The next morning we got up and the snowman looked a little different.

Jason had found some sticks at work and gave him some arms when he got home.

And since this post is featuring Jordis, didn't she look cute on bowl day? Unfortunately Ohio State and LSU both played on the same day so we had to get creative with her clothing. She chose LSU dress with OSU socks and hair accessories. I'm thinking she would make a good Dorothy for Halloween.

Sadly, this is not the picture I intended to use. In the one I took Jordis had thrown up her hands in a big "block O" and was shouting "Go Bucks!" However, I traded in my cell phone and the picture didn't transfer during the download, so I don't have it anymore. That's okay though, Ohio State won and LSU, I think, got beat by a Big Ten team, which I've been told will never happen. Hmmmmm.....

Snow ice cream

Our snow ice cream was a success! Though I discovered that saving extra snow for another try in a few days doesn't work so well. I had a second container of snow (with the lid on, of course) sitting outside in a snowpile, to use when we ate the first batch of ice cream. I tried to use it today and it just wouldn't come together, so it must have to be fluffy, un-compacted snow.

First you mix vanilla and sugar.

Next you dump in the snow...

...then mix it together really well. I used a wooden spoon, not sure if you can use an mixer or not. Add some milk to get it to stick together, then chocolate chips for some fun.

Yum!

Snowy week!

We've had so much snow this week. This is a tree that I love, and every week when I pass it on my way to church I tell myself I need to pull over and take a picture of it. I planned on doing it Sunday and then it snowed during church so I had to stop for sure. The kids had no interest or understanding of why anyone would stop in the middle of the road and get out of the car to photograph a tree, but trees speak to me for some reason. If you've been to my house in the past year think about what's above my mantel.

We had planned on grilling steak that night and by golly Jason was going to be sure we did, even though it was only about 16 degrees. We let the kids play in the snow during the grilling. I promised to get their sled out of the crawl space if they would stand together and take a few pictures.


Then they gave each other rides.
On Tuesday we got a little more snow, but I didn't really feel that the 2-hour school delay was necessary for what looked like less than 2 inches of snow. When I was a kid we never closed school for that measley amount of snow. There was no such thing as a delay. You either had so much snow that there was no school, or you went on time.

Today school was closed. It started snowing last night, then we got ice, then it snowed on top of that all morning. The news says we only got about 6 inches here, but I think it looks like more. Maybe we just got 6 inches today and it's resting on the snow from yesterday and Sunday. Not sure. But today I took the kids out to play for awhile. Jordis was apprehensive at first but she wasn't heavy enough to really sink through all the snow and ice, so she had a blast once I got her into the yard. She had snot running down her face and everything and didn't care. Xander made a snow angel and I brought them out some little bottles of colored water to color the snow. A squirt bottle would have worked better but I didn't have one, so I need to remember to pick up a few because they really liked the colored snow.




I scooped up some fresh, clean snow when we first went out and I'm hoping to make snow ice cream after dinner. I've never tried it so hopefully it turns out okay.

Our Charlie Brown Snowman

So we're all familiar with Charlie Brown and his tiny Christmas tree, right? Well, today we created a Charlie Brown Snowman.

When I was out this morning with Xander as he went to school, I was trying to teach him how to make snowballs. I "thought" that the snow seemed like good packing snow, so I told him that after school we could make a snowman.

It didn't go so well.

The snow was kind of icy, so it definitely wouldn't roll. Not that we had much more than an inch to work with anyway. We kind of had to stack it.

After about 5 minutes Xander quit helping and went to make his own snowman and then claiming boredom went in and sat and watched us work from behind the storm door.

Jordis was a little trooper, but her poor little cheeks were so red I knew we couldn't stay out long enough to make a full-fledged snowman. His body was turning into a cone instead of a ball because it kept falling down the sides, and it was taking forever to try and do something about it.

So our snowman just has a head....

as well as a scarf, plastic carrot nose, plastic hat, and eyes made out of rocks. He had a sea grass mouth but it's gone, and Jason found our plastic snowman pipe after the fact in the toy room.

Oh well. It was fun and the kids were happy with it, which is all that matters.