Easter 2009

Easter was nice this year and celebrated at Mana and Papa's house. No snow! Not quite as warm as 60 but close. Since Scott and Annabelle along with their younger cousin Grace are the only "kids" (the rest are adults!) among neices and nephews in the family, Aunt Karen and Aunt Dana organized an egg hunt for them. There were a lot of eggs to be found and Grace had fun finding as many as she could. Thanks Scott and Annabelle for understanding that egg hunting is really for the younger ones! Although Scott and Annabelle seemed to really enjoy the discovery of the gold dollars and candy in the eggs! Thank you!

April?

Somehow, this is what April looks like to me. Oh, yeah I live in the Midwest! We have snow on and off until May!!! UGH!!!!

This is what I woke up to today. This somehow does not look like an Easter Tree to me. Not sure why we have this crazy weather. 70's in February and 30's in April - Can we say GLOBAL WARMING??? but if it is Global Warming then why do we have so many cold days???? Shouldn't they be warm?

Remodeling project no. 158 +/-

Isn't it beautiful? This is our main bath in the house. Even the ceiling has been removed. It's amazing how long you can hold your bladder at night if it involves not having to go down two flights of stairs to go to the bathroom. Seriously though, we are so spoiled having three bathrooms in our house and then we have the nerve to complain when one is out of commission.

Mark has been working on the demo of this bathroom and I have been working on the buying and designing of it. All the supplies are ready to be installed, just as soon as Mark gives our nephew, the plumber the okay to come by to help with a few plumbing issues and the placement of the new tub. Oh, and the walls are reinstalled, plastered, sanded, painted, then tile put in and grouted on the tub wall and the floor, then the install of the toilet, vanity, new light fixtures, mirror, ceiling vent fan, towel bars, shower curtains and last but not least change out the light switch plate covers! Looks like it'll be awhile. Wonder why Mark hates when I start these things? LOL!!!

I'll show you the finished product when it's completed!

Cookies!!!

We make cookies probably more than we should in our house. So much so, that Annabelle is becoming a master at making them. And Scott, a master at tasting them! Many of our family and friends ask me often, what's the secret to your cookies? I reply Toll-House and they never believe me. Annabelle now knows the secret to making great chocolate chip cookies.

Sorry, if you thought these cookies were for you! This batch was made for my cousin Theresa and Bill for the birth of their newest addition, Mya and for the tech guy at work who cleaned up all the clitches on my computer for me! Maybe the next batch will be for you!!!

MATH?

Math these days is a little different from when I was in school. Scott drew this Fred Flinstone in Math class! Yep, MATH not Art ? It was a graph assignment (?). Whatever, it is still a cool piece of art.

Annabelle and Mojo are best buds these days. They are usually together all the time!

Sheltered

My kids are very bright, but at times I realize that I've sheltered them too much. Take today for instance. My kids were taking the ISAT's at school and the school waived the "No gum" policy for these tests. The theory is, that kids concentrate better when taking a test if they are chewing gum. Why they don't let them chew gum for all their learning then is beyond me. Anyway, my kids asked me to buy them some gum before going to school. I decided I would allow it, even though I'm against gum chewing after seeing my sister suffer with TMJ and the surgeries that went along with it. So I picked up a pack of Extra gum for each of them. Mind you, each pack has 15 pieces in it.

Later in the day, I went and picked the kids up from school and guess what I heard on the way home? "Mom, we need some more gum for tomorrow's testing". I was not really surprised, since I assumed they gave some to friends. Well, the some was three pieces and the rest.... well chewed by them. Since my kids have only chewed gum one other time. Yes, I said one other time. They didn't understand the concept of chewing a piece of gum for a fair amount of time before disgarding it. Thankfully they remembered the disgarding part!!!

I guess they really have been sheltered!

weekend

This weekend included a trip to the Bass Pro Shop. Why the children and I went along with Mark is beyond me but it ended up being entertaining. Of course, life with my children always seems to be entertaining these days.

OH NO- A bear!!! Run!! No just stand there and pose for Mom.

Scott was feeling a little love from the boat seats. You know having a camera on your phone is very fun!