My dad rocks

As I was getting lunch ready, I heard the door bell. Justin answered the door and brought these in...

I asked who they were for and they were for my mom, who arrives here today from CA in about 4 hours. Here's what makes this awesome. My dad has been giving my mom flowers every Wednesday for the past I don't know how many years because it's been really long time. He never fails. If he is out of the country he will send my mom and e-mail with flowers if he needs to. She will always get flowers on Wednesdays.

Today is no different. It's Wednesday and the flowers are here before she is. I am not sure why it surprised me so much this time but it really did. My dad is awesome. REALLY awesome.

What up?

Brie just wanted to say hi.

Learning to Cook

Ava asked me if she could help cook dinner tonight. Normally I am cranky and say no, but today I decided to be a reformed mother and let her experience life the way it should be. Oh and I have a control problem and relinquishing control to a five year old is rather tough for me. So first I let her put in a mix all the ingredients for the meatloaf. I didn't get any pictures of that, regretfully. Then I let her peel a potato. I only let her do one because it was her first time and if I left the peeling up to her, she would probably still be peeling potatoes right now. She really did a good job. I then thought she might like to cut the potato. But as soon as she got her hands on the knife I got scared. I was helping her the whole time but it was making me way too nervous so I took over.

With potatoes were boiling on the stove, it was time to move on to the green beans. She helped me breaking them in half.
And wash them.
She had such a good time helping me. I actually had fun teaching her to do some stuff. Usually I get really annoyed that she can't do it fast enough or the way I do it. But that is just something I need to get over because I will miss out on times like this that are so awesome.

She even did some dishes too and liked doing that. I think I am going to do this more often. It's really cool to watch her grow and mature like this.

Happy Valentines day!!!

We had a GREAT day and I hope you did too! Ava had her Valentines Day show at preschool and as usual she was a star. If the others stared singing loud she sang louder. I think it's a competition...either way she's adorable!

Enjoy!!

Kindergarten

I signed Ava up for Kindergarten this morning. I was happy but sad at the same time. My baby is no longer a baby. MY baby. M.Y. Baby!

Anyway, after filling out a bunch of papers I left the school and called my mom. I got a little misty when I was talking about it. All I did was fill out papers for goodness sake. It's not as if she actually boarded the bus. My mom just laughed (so did my friend Milan for that matter).

It is going to be trouble on that first day...

A snow day without snow.

We had a snow day, one day last week and there was no snow on the ground so we decided to go to the kids museum. I had Hayden with me this time too. Four kids are a lot to watch at a place like this!!

Hayden was doing his best Godzilla impersonation at the train tables. I think he pulled it off!

While Hayden was wreaking havoc on the poor townspeople in Trainville, my girls were cooking in the kitchen (wow talk about gender roles, sheesh).
I was excited to go to the museum this time because the just unveiled a new exhibit. It was all about money. This suspended pig filled with the ball pit balls then drops the balls on the children waiting below. It's quite funny to watch, especially when your unsuspecting kid, Brie, was standing right under the drop zone. It scared the crap out of her. I knew it was coming and I just stood there and watched. Does that make me a bad mother? Notice Hayden on the left looking up at the pig waiting for the balls to fall out.
Brie liked dancing on the coins. You bounce on these and they light up.
Amanda was working for her money. She was working very diligently to bake a perfect pizza.
Looks like she did a good job because she got paid! Way to go Amanda!
Since she was so successful at making pizza's, Amanda moved on to the lemonade stand. Lemonade anyone?
To help you along you walk with money you have Banker Betty,
and Freddie Frugal. Pretty nice people. I spoke with them, wanted to find out their thoughts on debt. They said they weren't a huge fan and that you need a budget. Who knew a children's museum would actually teach the kids something real world useful?!?
Uh oh, maybe I spoke too soon. Here's the loan department run by, non other than, my daughter. Shhh...don't tell Justin.
I am pretty sure Hayden's favorite part of the museum was the fish. He kept running back to the tank so excited. I wonder if it's because his dad used to work for an aquarium?

What do you do when you're "snowed in"?

We have fun, or at least try to have fun...

The girls really wanted to have a picnic on the floor, so we did that. Notice the delicious nachos on the middle plate there. I ate most of them.

Then we move on to a puppet show. Amanda is doing her show. The dialogue goes something like this: "Hello, my name is ." Then repeat 500 times.
Ava gets in on the action and the dialogue goes like this : "Hello, my name is . How are you?" "Ok we're going on a walk now."
"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
Ava doing her show solo with this dialogue: "Hello, my name is ."

Applause!! And the crowd went wild, all three of us.

North Carolina Drivers

Pretty much anyone in the south can't drive in the snow, unless they grew up where it snowed. So in light of this I let the girls take the power wheels out. I figured if I give them a shot to start to drive in the snow early, maybe they will be able to drive if there is an inch of snow on the ground.

This may sound crazy but last week there was only a few inches of snow on the ground and the city literally shut down for 4 days! My kids won't let a little snow slow them down!
No one got stuck or spun out! They are on their way to greatness I tell you.

Time off

I haven't blogged in a while because frankly I have been a little stressed out. I was pretty sure you all wouldn't want to read a nightly rant from me. The snow days is what put me over the top. It was nice to have them home for the first day but by the end of the second day the roads were basically dry. And then in the third day there was a delay! A delay! There was literally nothing on the roads!! Thats is when I lost it.

That is also when I decided to go ice skate for a little while. I blew off a lot of steam and man, did it feel GOOD! I can't even begin to tell you how much I LOVE the ice. I am definitely rusty but I still got it! I was jumping and spinning (and falling). It was SO great! I can't wait to go and do it again. I wasn't even all that sore the next day. I did get blisters on my ankles though. Ouch.

Then I had a ladies night on Friday which was freaking hilarious, followed by date night this evening. It really made up for the snow days.

So that is where I have been. I have been sparing you my whiny-ness and cranky-ness.

You're welcome.

Ring Around the Rosy and then some

We'll get to ring around the rosy in just a minute. But first here are few pictures I ran across that you all have not seen yet. First is Brie and the sit-n-spin with sunglasses. Need I say more?

Amanda fell asleep one night with a pirate hat on. I guess it made her feel tough?
Ava and Amanda's (and my) newest obsession, the ipod touch. They ask to play it constantly!
And finally ring around the rosy. Brie has just learned how to play and it is super cute! Enjoy!