weekend fun

I must say, this weekend was a good. We didn't do much it seemed like, but we did do quite a bit of fun little things, enjoying the peeks of spring we were given. Our fun started Thursday with a trip to our favorite frozen yogurt place- Skinny Dip. It had been a few months, so we were long over due for a visit. This sweater just game in the mail, my grandmother made it for me me... circa early 80's. Gabby thought it was the PERFECT addition to her already "designed outfit" as she has been calling it (meaning she designed it herself, picked everything out with no help!) The leggings, a skirt (with short attached), red shoes, and a lovely sweater.
Elliot experienced his first (surely not his last) ice cream headache. He stole most of Clay's sour patch kids right out of the bowl, all I put on his sugar free yogurt was a shake of sprinkles!
We got Gabby a new BIG bike, hers was too little and we needed to get her started riding! She did AWESOME! fast as lightening that I could barely keep up with her, although I was carrying E's bike and trying to keep him from chasing the ducks and falling into the water. She had one tumble off the bike, but after a short walk got right back on!
There were many ducks out for Elliot to chase, and even a few other things too.
This THING was around, I am pretty sure it is a muskrat. Usually they dart out of sight before you can be sure you saw them. This one was not too shy. Elliot saw it and said "MOUSE"

Sunday we went to see if any of the charter fishing boats had come in with anything (obsessed much Clayton? He really wants to go out again, but goodness it is expensive for a trip) We saw one striper, it weighed more than either kid... 42 lbs. We took our picture in the shark, Elliot was scared. Gabby and my dad did this when he came to help us when Elliot was born.
it was a gorgeous day, warm early and then cooled off.
Gabby planned a dance party, we are talking all day planning and discussing it. She picked out everyones attire. She wore her fancy purple dress, I was supposed to wear a blue nightgown. I got upgraded to my yellow dress. Elliot just grabbed what he wanted to wear, and danced away!
Sophia the newest "little sister" to Gabby joined the party. She is a Baby Alive, which Gabby picked out when we went shopping with her birthday money. After only a few hours I heard this "Daddy, you don't understand. A baby is such hard work. Is there an off button, I want to make sure she lets me sleep at night!"
Gabby got upset because Elliot didn't want to dance with her right away, so her and her daddy danced. Then she stared at him while he belted out a Journey song.
I won't tell you how long it took us to tie a tie, including watching more than one youtube video. I know how, but it wasn't the half windsor knot Clay was after. Elliot is rocking a spaghetti face to go with the tie.

After a great weekend, we had a bit of a rough Monday. G's 4 year check up was a disaster! We waited for an hour and a half!!!!! why is only 1 doctor working on a Monday when everyone who was sick on the weekend comes in, and why do they stick you back in an exam room to wait with nothing to do when the waiting room has a Disney movie playing? And why does the Dr mention SHOTS??? and then tell your 4 year old that he was talking about a "shot of Jack, do you know what that is? It's a drink." Did I mention that Elliot kept escaping the exam room, and trying to run down the hall. Clay had a big test scheduled so he couldn't meet us- which they then proceeded to cancel after he went into work at 4:30am to study for it. Oh and all of this was right around lunch time. Glad I packed an apple, cucumber and goldfish crackers. 3 shots, a finger prick, a whole lot of crying and 2 hours later and we got home. Finished the day off with a trip to the park to enjoy 76* wearing shorts and short sleeved shirts before the massive rain came!

fashion and news

This is the new dress up area: a new tension rod placed low in G's closet. I got the $2 tension rod on my shopping trip this weekend, after the one I had got squashed by destructo-boy before I got anything hung on it.
G helped hang all her dresses up, and is very excited to have them all easy to see and use.
Here is what the pile of dress up clothes normally looked like, everything all tangled and a mess. Accessories are in her "pink tackle box" and hats and tails are in a basket.
The Mr. went to an 80's party with his co-workers. Magnum PI made an appearance. He didn't like my felt mustache, it wouldn't stay on so he got a different one on the way there.The Mr and his boy went to rent a movie, came home home after purchasing 3 movies, 2 kid size baseball gloves and a bit of candy. The gloves are a hit, even if they are still working on how to use them... hats, for throwing the ball those are some of their current uses.
Playdough. We got a fun Cookie Monster set, you make letters, lots of vegetables, noodles and feed it to Cookie. What a hit. G got some playdough accessories that she uses to make little critters like antennae on her ladybug.
G is quite the fashion guru. Always having a say on what she will wear. Notice the red headband, red belt and the red on her princess socks.
She changes it up, and poses, even does a runway sashay.
E's fish beanbag pillow was in need of cleaning. I had nothing to do with this. The bean were put into a bag so the cover could be washed. Upon trying to put the beans back in the cover after it was clean there was a bit of a disaster! It was right about the time E was going to bed, so he insisted on helping. Static. beans. lets just say after 2 weeks and a million vacuums I still am finding them!
* E has a new wake up of 6am. I am not a fan, especially when I stay up till at least 11pm.

*hard boiled eggs are the new it food around here. The kids ate 3 together today, except for the yolk.

*it was 71 yesterday, today it has yet to reach 40.

* I made a meal plan

tuesday: asian lettuce wraps (this was the original recipe I used, now I just wing it and substitute shredded carrot for mushrooms, leave out the salt and don't measure anything! and I only use ground turkey.) with quinoa

wed: homemade bbq chicken pizza and crudite (carrots, celery, broccoli, tomatoes, ranch dip).

thurs:chuck wagons (like a french dip except instead of roast beef on a bun we will have turkey burgers) and mixed veggies

fri: crockpot chicken adobo- out of my new Real Simple magazine, with brown rice and broccoli

Sat: spaghetti with green beans.

Sun: salmon, baked potato, spinach salad

Mon: meatballs and....?

*I only use ground turkey, never beef. Your options for dinner are pretty much made with ground turkey or skinless boneless chicken breasts. I do buy pork sausage brats for spaghetti tho.

Off to get ready for a playdate, hoping E wakes up HAPPY from his much needed nap.

happy hearts

these are some of the headbands I made the other night. Gabby "needed" a purple one to go with her purple heart sweater, and because she is more than slightly obsessed with purple.Yesterday we celebrated Valentines Day with beautiful sunshine and 68* weather. It melted the very last of the snow in our yard... what a difference a few days make. The kids got a special lunch of nutella sandwiches that I cut into heart shapes. We met our good friends at Mt Trashmore, which has a new playground (we went opening day, the day before we flew out for Christmas) that was packed full of kids and parents. There were so many people out it was almost difficult to keep track of both kids, running in opposite directions. When Elliot and I went UP, Gabby went DOWN. It was a fun afternoon, that made us all more than anxious for Spring.... although I know once spring comes we will start to have those 90* days that are just too hot.

She has this new 4 year old vibe going, and is all about being a princess.

then there is this one, who looked like a grown up kid to me... he has this really silly spunk in him lately, and is all about silly faces.

Best Buddies

i love the bright colors

No fear! I have to constantly remind him to hold on when he uses the big kid swings, which is all the time!

32

My Love had a birthday this weekend. We had a nice weekend celebrating it. This happened to be his once every month duty weekend, so Saturday and Sunday he had to go to work for a few hours. Sunday morning when I got home from taking friends to the airport we had a big breakfast- pancakes and sausage. Clay took off work and the kids and I went to work on the masterpiece of the week- a homemade ice cream cake! It is not the most beautiful cake, but if you know Clay and his love for chocolate chip mint ice cream it was the perfect cake. I usually give him a hard time when he requests banana cream pie for his birthday (it's just pudding!). I didn't follow any recipe just made it up.... layers of chocolate cake, hot fudge syrup and chocolate chip mint ice cream. I layered it all in a bread loaf pan lined with plastic wrap and it worked great! I see many more birthdays in our future with ice cream cakes! I am already thinking of a coffee ice cream combination- anyone have a party or birthday coming up???
Oh and the day was wonderful besides the cake, the entire family had a nap. We played basketball outside in the sun and climbed at the park, and ate a spaghetti dinner! Love and kisses to my Mr.

Snow day

Last night there was a "winter storm warning." It usually turns out to be nothing, but Clayton had come home from work yesterday, with instructions to report on a 2 hour delay today- due to the possibility of snow. I laugh when that happens. It started snowing about 9pm, just after I made a quick trip to the store to get milk since we were out. The kids wore snowman pajamas in hopes it would help bring the snow. I know many Virginians are probably sick of snow since they had the blizzard December 26, that lasted weeks. We were gone and missed it all, and missed it while we were in Washington too so we were excited. When Gabby woke up to go potty at 1am, I showed her out her window the white on the grass. Elliot and I were up at 7am and he said "OUT!" after we opened the curtains. A quick breakfast and a change into snow gear (yes we all have snow pants and the kids have snow boots.) and out we went. Clay got ready to leave for work, with plenty of time for the drive.

Clay in uniform, leaving for work. Snow fun for us!

Snow angels, with purple gloves.

Hiking in the yard, a little deep on such short legs.

The snowball princess, her favorite thing to do- throw snow at me!

We only lasted 25 minutes, then it was inside to warm up and have coco. Elliot colored and Gabby played littlest pet shop in her room. What a nice quiet morning.

11am The sun broke thru the clouds, and it was beautiful. Warmed up to 35 and the snow was starting to drip, and fall off the trees.

Gabby insisted on another dash out into the snow before it all melted. Our "sleddo" (thanks Krista for the ghetto sled idea).

belly snow angels.

snowball flight/fight!

icicle

tree berries in the backyard.

all these kids did was eat snow

good clean snow off the roof, to eat!

Good news is, the snow is all melting and the roads are clear. Just what we needed, a few hours of snow and fun and then have it gone shortly after!

Brrr!

This past weekend Clay participated in the Polar Plunge, raising money to benefit Special Olympics. He and 3 co-workers all did it together, well I think there were a few more from work but they didn't join us for lunch at Watermans and waiting around. It was a very gray and rainy day. The air temperature reached 51* but the water was only 38*. BRRRR. The kids and I supported Clay from the boardwalk, with an umbrella, a dry towel and a thermos full of HOT apple cider. In total I read that 3,800 people did the plunge, and they raised a good deal of money. Sand art. I couldn't get the whole thing in a picture because too many people were in front of it.
Right before the plunge, rescue swimmers in gear wading out in the water.
Can you spot Clay? no costumes for his work group. after lunch and waiting around for 2+ hours they lost one another for the actual plunge. Leave it to my Eskimo to be the only one to go far enough out to dunk his whole head under! We are very proud of Clayton and all that he is involved in. Have you heard about his work basketball team, in the over 30 league? They won their first 5 games, and have lost the past 2 in double overtime.

Out

After too many days sick in the house, and more days of yucky cold weather we finally were able to make it OUTSIDE with the kids feeling good and the sunshine out! Last week "they" tore up the old park across the street from us, now that there is an awesome, cool, new big park next to it. We brought out our new t-ball set and some cardboard airplanes. What a good time we had getting fresh air and wishing that Spring would come early.



and then we were back to this: E with an evening fever, needing a popsicle and coolish bath, and up again in the middle of the night. Once the medicine started working at 1am he felt much better and insisted on eating a bowl of cereal.

Yesterday was a heat wave with temperatures getting up to 53, plus blue sky and sunshine. We went to the zoo and had a great time with Seth and Gina. Both kids napped on the way home, and we had a real dinner (which seems to be missing lately for some reason) followed by a dress up party, which the Princess of Purple has been talking about for days!