Catching Up

Whoops....did I forget the month of February? I didn't realize how long it has been since my last post. We have been busy-but we haven't done much photo worthy. This is what you've missed.

Snow and more snow-unprecedented amounts of snow.






Notice that children in the south wear rain boots in the snow





Other than the snow...we have pets.

Seriously this life is way too luxurious for any dog-let alone a couple of "mutts".




"I guess he’s our now". This stray, abandoned by some renters in our neighborhood when they moved, adopted and moved to a new home along with a second set of neighbors, came back this winter, preferring a permanent home in our garage (with a ratty old blanket) to whatever place our old neighbors took him. We call him Orange Kitty and I guess the next step is a rabies shot and a collar.


This brings our grand total to 2 dogs, 3 cats and a frog.....I am lobbying (without much luck) for chickens.

Who Knew

I never knew it but apparently we have a world class museum right up the road from us. Today “T” and I visited it for the first time. Wow! It was awesome. We stayed 4 hours and I think “T” could have stayed longer. Not me, I was tired. I am not sure what we enjoyed more…being the only ones in the planetarium and getting a personalized show, digging for and keeping real fossils, panning for an keeping real semi-precious gems or standing right next to giant pre-historic fossils. I think it’s a tie-it was all great.

One small step for man....


Chomp


Electricity is FUN!


.....and that is his lower incisor


Digging for fossils


Greatbigturtleosaurus


Panning for gold

Sculpt de Play Doh

"J" loves to create-here are a few of her latest works.

Before and After

I am learning that children, as they get older, develop something called an "opinion." Often these "opinions" may differ greatly from your own. There are opinions like "chocolate would be a good diner" that you overrule. And others like wearing head to toe pink one day and black the next that you go along with. I believe in letting children make choices-but it is certainly getting harder. For instance my son wanted his hair to be long and gelled back like this:


But it usually just looked like this:


I really hated this style-but knowing that a little self expression goes a long way-I endured it. It’s not like he wanted a tattoo of Sponge Bob on his derrière. But still I wanted to cut his hair. I offered bribes for him to have it cut…20 dollars, a pet…..yes I was desperate. Until I had the brilliant idea to show him hairstyles on the internet. Voila! He picked a new style. It is a little avant garde -but I prefer it over slicked back any day

Spiky-requires lots of hair "product" but worth it.

Happy New Year

We let the kids stay up late on New Years Eve. I told them that if they were still awake at Midnight they could throw confetti. I never thought they would make it past 10:00. Boy was I wrong.....

Christmas

Christmas Morning

All Smiles


Does this look like a ridiculously huge pile of presents-don't worry it's an optical illusion.



Mr. Cool with his new guitar (wearing a Snuggie)

Catching Up

First let me tell you-we are creatures of habit. We do the same things over and over and over. Zoo, Beach, Gingerbread houses, you get the drift. This blog is over a year old and I am starting to post the same activities over and over. Just giving you a heads up so you will be prepared.

So in December we did the following:

Ceramics painting




Visited a News Studio




A chilly Visit to the Zoo



Volunteered at "J's" school


A second visit with "Santa"


Made (and ate) Gingerbread Houses


Dressed up the dog in our PJs-whoops