Chalkboard

For my birthday, I was given a gift card for Hobby Lobby from my in-laws.  Kim had discovered Hobby Lobby this year, and is excited as the rest of us about the place.  I am more than happy to go spend money there.  So I got supplies to make myself a chalkboard- a frame, chalkboard vinyl, and chalk.

While my artistic abilities and handwriting will never be amazing, I am having fun with my chalkboard.

Another Mom Moment

Ring.

I was sitting in my bathroom with the heater on, playing a game on my cell phone while my hair deep conditioned.  It was after lunch, but I really didn't have anything pressing to do today, and I still had a couple of hours before Emma was due home.  That's when my phone rang.

"Hi, this is the school nurse..."  Oh, dreaded words.

Maddie needed to be picked up.  The nurse feared the beginnings of pink eye.  (We'll see about that....)  I peaked in the mirror.  I looked like a grease monkey, and there was no way I was going to put a hat on that.

"Ok, Maddie.  Mom is going to take a shower, and then I can come pick you up, ok?"

15 minutes after the phone call, I had showered, dressed, scrunched my hair, put on enough make up to ward off the "Are you feeling ok?" questions, and was running downstairs for my shoes, coat, and purse.

I've still got it.

I haven't really polished my fast shower skills in a long time.  When the kids were a lot smaller, I could be in and out of the bathroom in about 8 minutes.  When the twins were babies and Elizabeth wanted to love on her sisters in her rough 3 year old manner, I needed to be fast.  Or when Elizabeth would wake and let the tornado toddler twins out of their room.

Maddie is home now.  We are sitting on the couch, watching My Little Pony.  I really doubt she has the beginnings of pink eye, but she obviously wanted to come home.  Oh well.

A Night Of Makeovers

I have nothing to say in our defense.  We are odd.  And this phone app makes us laugh.

Developing Writing Skills

So, should I more excited that Maddie can express herself so well without any help, or more disappointed that I can't get the kids to stop fighting?

Really, Maddie hit most of the sounds in that sentence.  She did a great job.

New Year's Eve

We left at about 7:15 this morning to go visit my grandma.  We had nice visit with her, and left again about 3 pm.  This time we drove to Ryan's parent's place because they wanted their granddaughters for a New Year's Eve party.  We arrived around 6 pm, unloaded the kids' overnight gear, and had dinner with Rick, Kim, Megan, and Amy.  Then Ryan and I left our kids for the night and drove home.

This is my one picture from the day.  I must have left my phone unattended.  Or one of my daughters is a pick pocket.

Ryan and I went to bed at the usual time, feeling like unexciting old people.  We felt like we "enjoyed" the celebrations at midnight though.  We had neighbors shooting guns, and there were fireworks exploding somewhere locally.

Ryan is off picking up the girls, and was kind enough to let me have some quiet time at home.  I imagine I will have some tired, tired girls when they get back around 1 pm.  There were pictures of them posted on Facebook at 11 pm last night.

Happy New Year!

Snow Day

For his birthday, Ryan wanted to go sledding, so we drove up to White Pass so we could find snow.

 We found an obliging hill.

 Ryan was trying to protect Annie's face from the blowing snow, not smother her.  I promise.

 This first hill was pretty steep and the snow was slippery for walking.  The kids had a hard time with it, so we found a different hill.  This one was attached to an RV parking lot, so there wasn't any moving traffic.

 I don't know if Annie is trying to catch snow as much as stick her tongue out at me.

 Me and the birthday boy.

Time to go home again.

Early Birthday Cake

We picked up one of those great, big, chocolately cakes from Costco today for Ryan's birthday.  We decided we could just as easily enjoy the cake tonight, as wait for his actual birthday.  

We didn't put all the candles on his cake.  Just three on one side, and seven on the other.  I let the kids put the candles in, and I did the lighting.  I guess the kids got excited about "helping" so they tried to help Ryan blow out his candles.  You can see what he thought about that.

Merry Christmas

The kids were nice to their parents, and didn't get up until after 7 am this morning.  Ryan and I heard the excited feet and voices downstairs, followed by the footsteps coming up to our room.  "It's CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!!"

 Maddie got right to work putting on her new chapstick.

I love Annie's face here.  She was unbelievably excited about her basketball from Santa.

Once we were done opening presents, we cleaned up and got ready for our neighbor, Dan, to come for a waffle breakfast.  With our new waffle iron.  :)

Then we just hung out, and played with the new stuff.  Elizabeth made some bracelets on the wonder loom.

 We cannot have too many craft supplies in this house.  Seriously.

The arrow is pointing to the Alien Sphere Ryan received.  This thing is an upgrade from the usual RC helicopter because the whole thing is protected by a wire sphere.  The blades have yet to look beat up.

Ryan also got this in his stocking:

Santa had a sense of humor this year.

It was kind of a let down at first.  Ryan didn't take a good look at it, thinking it was lotion, so there was no real reaction.  But later, when I asked him about it and he figured out what it was, we had a good laugh.  And then a test drive.  The stuff works.

After lunch, we headed back to Ryan's folks for Christmas presents, part deux and Christmas dinner.

The Night Before Christmas