"A Horse Sandwich"

Do you cut your kids sandwiches into shapes?

I do.

My mom always did when I was a kid, and since Hayden was little they pick from a 'House' sandwich, 

or a 'Heart' sandwich...

Well, today Madelyn cried for a 'Horse' sandwich.

I laughed.

"A HORSE? Mommy can't make a horse sandwich!"

"Yes you can! I need a horse sandwich!"

Glad she has so much confidence in me, but I think she's taking it too far.

Planning Ahead

My silly girl really planned ahead this past Sunday.

We were sitting on the bench, and her dress came up a bit...

 I had to snap a photo of it quickly.

She had dressed herself that morning.

The first one ready, really.

And so proud.

Apparently in an effort to be more efficient, she put her play clothes on underneath her church clothes.

She had her pants hiked up above her knees ("so they won't show under my dress"), and put tights on over them. She also had a t-shirt under her dress.

"So I can play quicker when we get home!" she said.

Her Primary teacher told me that she lifted up her dress during class to show everyone how smart she was! 

When we got home, her dress & tights came off in the middle of the kitchen, and she was off to play!

Silly girl!

Mix-Match Day!

Friday was Mix-Match day at school.

The kids were excited about what they were going to do for it.

Wear 2 different shoes.

Morgan had one side of her hair braided, the other not.

Wear 2 different earrings.

Well, Ronan was having a difficult time coming up with something.

"It was easier for girls to do" he said.

So, I had an idea.

Buzz half his head!

 "No one in your class will be more dramatically mix-matched",  I said ( and we know how Ronan LOVES drama!).  

****Secretly this was all part of my master plan to get him to let me cut his hair! He said he wanted to grow it out like Hayden's, but I love him in a #3 buzz! When I came up with this plan, he was all for it. I mean, it was a GREAT mix-match day idea! He wanted me to shave it bald though! I told him not in January, he needed some hair to keep warm! So, we did a #1.******

Well, as soon as Duncan saw just how COOL this plan was, he wanted in!

His hair is much thinner, and we did a #4 on.

But I messed it up when I went to even it out after school was over with a #2!

So, now he has a #2 all over!

They report that their mix-match self's were a hit at school!

Duncan's teacher was shocked that it was his mom's idea.

Hay, it's hair....it will grow!

And they're boys!

It snowed!

It snowed late Friday night.

And the kids were SO excited to wake up and see this....

 It wasn't a ton of snow, but it was just enough to play in! 

They were SO excited, and out in it as fast as they could!

 Poor Madelyn's snow play was delayed. I couldn't find her snow boots anywhere!

Which was most frustrating because I got everything out in the fall and had the kids try it all on to see who needed what for the winter.

And, HELLO.....she's not the first 2 year old in this house! I surely have a pair SOMEWHERE that would fit her, right? Wrong.

I think I accidentally put them in the donation bag with the pair that WAS too small for her.

Oops! So I ran to 2nd Avenue (LOVE that place) and picked her up a pair of boots for $4!

Yay! So she was finally in business!

I went out for a bit, but them came in and baked.

We had a new family move in 3 doors down, and I brought them some home made bread and introduced myself.

Baking on a snowy day is just fun!

On Sunday evening the kids had begged us enough to go check if the lake near our house was frozen, that we agreed. I gave strict instructions that since it WAS Sunday, we would not be sledding, but would go on a family walk to the lake, check it out, and come back.

Who was I kidding.

Even without sleds, they found a way!

Duncan and Ashlyn would run and slid on the ice that had formed on top of the snow.

Or, just rolled down the hill, who needs a sled anyway?

We found the lake to have a thin layer of ice on it.

Not nearly enough to walk on (which is what Ronan was hoping for).

We poked at it.

And skidded chunks of ice across.

It made a cool sound as it skimmed across the ice.

Then we walked home in the almost dark.

And made a fire.

Perfect evening.

Thank you snow! We enjoyed your stay!

SNOW

We haven't had much of it around here.

Honestly, I'm not too broken hearted, but I know the kids are really wanting to see some of the white stuff. Last week the girls and I made some snowman pictures. They had lots of fun finding sticks outside that would be small enough for the arms, baby carrots for the nose, and seeds for his buttons.  When we were done, I asked if they wanted to bake some bread with me. 

"No! CAKE! We want to bake cake! We like cake!"

There was no real 'occasion' for baking a cake, so we decided to make a Snowman cake, and wish upon him for some snow!

5 days later....

 Can you see it?

It wasn't much, but by golly it counted as snow!

We actually ended up with a small dusting, and Ronan somehow found enough snow to make a small snowball, which is now living in my freezer at the moment!

For now that will just have to do.

Christmas Break-Part 4

TENT BUILDING was the order of the day!

I love it when the kids get creative on their own.

 This was Duncan's tent.

And the girls....

 They went a little further into the trees for theirs.

An afternoon of fun for all!

Christmas break-Part 3

GINGERBREAD HOUSES!

This was something that we'd planned to do before Christmas, but something came up that night (I think Brian and I went on a date!). 

This year I bought a boxed Gingerbread house kit.

NEVER AGAIN!

It all tasted nasty! Yuck!

But, they did have fun building them.

 Hayden and Ronan opted out of this activity.

So it was just Duncan, Ashlyn, Morgan, Madelyn & I.

 (This is right before she tasted that candy, and yelled out "Nasty!")

 Morgan's house

 Madelyn's collapsed with the weight of the roof!

Christmas break-Part 2

SWIMMING!

We decided swimming would be a great way to burn some energy.

We thought to try the pool at the gym.

Only problem was the it was COLD.

Ronan, Morgan and Duncan spent some time in it swimming laps. Ashlyn jumped in and out! She thought they were crazy for staying in! So, most of our time ended up being spent in the baby pool!

Which worked out just as well.

 

The see-saw proved to be full of entertainment!

And one more crazy thing from Duncan:

Christmas break-Part 1

I'm so behind in blogging, but onward I will press!

We tried to keep ourselves busy during the Christmas break. Here's a bit of what we did.

First off- The SMITHSONIAN MUSEAM OF NATURAL HISTORY in DC

 This trip proved to be a bit tricky.

Brian never made it into the museum with us.

Why,  you may ask?

Parking in DC with a 12 passenger van! We've only driven into the district with the big van one other time that I can remember, and I think we were extremely lucky that day! There was NO street side parking to be found this time! And normal that's not a problem, we just park in a garage, and walk a block or two. BUT, ALL the parking garages had a height limit of 6'8 or smaller, and we need 7'1 to get our van in! SO, after driving around to garage after garage with no luck, Brian decided to drop us off at the museum, drive out the the 'outskirts' where there would be more street side parking, then run in to meet us.

We said we'd wait to do the butterfly pavilion with him.

In the meantime, we walked around and Ronan took photos....

Of EVERY creepy, crawly thing there!

Here's a few...

 Well, we'd been in the museum at least an hour by now, and still no Brian. He texted and said to go to the butterflies without him.

So in we went.

 It was magical and fun!

 (Do you see the butterfly about to land on Ronan? I love his face!)

 The kids enjoyed spotting the different kinds, and hanging out in there!

 Morgan was graced with a butterfly friend as well.

Once we were out, we saw some more exhibits, walked around, and finally the girls were going to pieces! I called Brian, and he had found a spot, an was just starting to walk to us, but now we were DONE! So, he went back and got the van, and picked us up out front!

I felt bad that he didn't get to enjoy any of it with us.

Next trip to DC will be done in 2 cars that can fit in a garage!