Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Oh Anna


The other day Anna yelled down the hall to me and said this... 
"Amelia did something bad to me but I forgot what she did".

What do I say to this one? 
Nothing... I pretended I didn't hear her, there isn't anything to say.


Monday, March 26, 2012

The big day... ear pierced

The before photo.

Ally went first and barely flinched.

Amelia being a bit silly, making funny faces...

but she really was a bit nervous and teared up a bit after it was done.

Yeah... we did it... they said they feel so grown up now.

Cindy and I were a bit sad, our babies are growing up so fast.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Spring Break Day 1

 The girls have had the same room decor since they were born except for a bed updates. They have been asking for purple walls so we compromised and agreed to paint one of the walls purple. Which actually works well since the other walls are green and their bedding is purple and green. Plus there is a mural of the claddagh symbol that we painted on the wall for the nursery and Brian and I are not really to paint over it just yet.

Today I put the girls to work... they were so excited to help paint. They loved it! I on the other hand I was a bit stressed and had to hold myself back from jumping in and taking over. They actually did do a pretty good job, I did not have to do too much touch up.


Later I pulled almost everything out of their room, wow... were was all this junk hiding! We will need to go through all this junk before any of it goes back into their room. 

Photos of the finished room coming later this week.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Top Secret Mission

 I meant to post this right after Christmas, but of course it's now 3 months later... life can just be so busy sometimes which is why this idea is so great. I think it is a fun idea for those hard to buy for husbands.


Our big gift this Christmas was a gas log set for the fireplace, so we said only small gifts to each other. The past year had been so busy we often forgot to take time for each other, we had not gone on many date nights last year. I had seen this date night idea on pinterest and made up my own version, CIA style. 


I planned a top secret mission for Brian. I had 12 dates planned out, one for each month. I also included gift cards for restaurants, etc. This way it's so easy, all planned out, no question of what should we do. Plus, I tried to plan fun things other than the movies, which is a usually date night for us.


So here is what we will be doing each month:


Jan: Dinner & Movie
Feb: Our Anniversary was this month, so Brian had to plan this one.
March: Show at the small local theater & dinner
April: Cooking class
May: Dinner & Bowling
June: Hike, geo caching & picnic
July: Lunch & antique shopping
August: Donate our time at a local food bank or shelter
Sept.: Bike ride & picnic
Oct.: Dinner & dancing
Nov.: Evening gallery talk and music at the art museum and dinner
Dec.: Romantic date night at home


Lucky for me he accepted this special mission and so far we have had two date nights and I think we are both enjoying this gift of time together.

Here is an image of one of the pages in the mission, I had an envelope attached to each page with the gift cards etc. (click to enlarge)

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Girl Scouts turned 100!

click photos to see larger
Our school celebrated the GS 100th year with an all troop GS party at the school last Friday. 

Each grade level planned a station: SWAPS, tattoos, cupcakes, crafts and a group dance party (the 5th grade troop taught us all a dance). 

We had three high school GS girls come speak to us and had group photos with a 100 year sign. It was a great party, the girls seemed to have a lot of fun!

Since this was a birthday bash we asked all the girls to bring coloring books and crayons as a "gift" that we will donate to the STL Children's hospital. Having fun and giving to our community... it's all good!

What a great memory I got to share with my girls and all our scouts!

click photos to see larger

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Ant Farm


The girls got this ant farm for Christmas. We ordered the ants and they arrived in the mail about 2 weeks later. 20 ants came in a tiny plastic test tube. We filled the farm with the sand it came with and placed/dumped the ants into their new world.

By the next day they had already started digging two tunnels and I was hooked on watching them. We keep them in my office, first so I can keep an eye on them so we don't forget to feed and water them, second so I can stop and watch these amazing little guys. They are all guys, the male ants are the worker ants in this kind of ant.

I watch them make tunnels then fill in the tunnel, then make a new tunnel, then make a hill in a few hours, then take down the hill, then rebuild the hill, then make another tunnel. It never stops they just keep moving the sand around. I wonder who is in charge and is there any plan? I'm not sure but boy can these little guys move some earth/sand fast.

These ants live for about a month or so and it's been about 3 weeks and I think we are down to 11 ants, which is a little sad. After watching them I'll never look at ants the same, they are amazing, tiny creatures.

Thursday, March 1, 2012

We are GEEKS!


SCENE: Anna and Tracy, in the bathroom, I was helping Anna with the toothpaste. Amelia appears in the doorway.


AMELIA: Mama do you know what a geek is?


TRACY: No. (I sometimes say no because I want to hear what they think words or things are, plus they get excited to tell me new things.)


AMELIA: A geek is someone who is very smart... I am a geek and you are a geek too. (She said to Anna.)


ANNA: Oh yeah, I'm a geek. (nodding an agreeing look with Amelia)


TRACY: Yes, you both are my little geeks. (This makes me so happy, I want them to know they are smart kids and that they can do anything if they just try.)


PHOTO ABOVE: My little geeks with their first place ribbons for the school science fair. Their project was called "The hot dog that was mummified". What mummifies a hot dog better Epsom salt or baking soda? If you are going to do any mummifying we recommend Epsom salt. Next they go on to the district science fair.  I love my geeks!