The 24 hour playdate!

M. got invited to spend the might with one of her bestest friends on Sunday. They do not go to school together so it is a treat when they get together! They picked her up at 5pm, ate their Christmas dinner (long story) and had a ball. On Monday, the mom calls to say they are headed to the Lazy 5 Ranch for the afternoon and could M. come? Of course I said!! I was in the middle of cleaning M's room- really cleaning, where you throw away all junk that has accumulated, all "junk" that is certainly a treasure to your child. Well as you can see the girls had a great time!!! She was returned home about 6pm on Monday! Great day for us both!

PS. We had that same bestest friend over on Wednesday for a 20 hour playdate that include the Chipmunk Squeakquel and a sleepover too.

It was LOVE at first taste!

Had coffee the day after Christmas at my sister-in-law's and I could never go back! It was so yummy and so fun to make! We bought our own on December 27 and have made MANY cups since! It came with 72 k-cups and I went online and bought 100 more last night (I wasn't wired from the caffeine or anything). Even the girls are making coffee all day and night! Crazy good!

Holiday Bliss

Sleeping late, extra time with family, less (sort of) to do on a schedule, holiday music, leisurely walks with the dogs and much more! I have really enjoyed this holiday break from school and other activities. I have seen more of my girls and they have had more time with their sisters. We got karaoke for Wi and that has been a blast! We stayed up until 11 on Christmas Eve singing our hearts out with our neighbors!! Had our traditional "Indian" feast on Christmas Eve and drove around to see the holiday lights. Santa came and left lots of loot-all well received by my three!! We have read lots and seen several movies in the theaters (yipee!) and I have cooked almost none (double yipee!!) so life is good! Looking forward to 6 more days of family time!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it SNOW!

Highly unusual for our city but snow was predicted yesterday AND it actually came! Got the wake up call from the schools at 5:30 am to tell me all schools would dismiss 3 hours early that day. (could have waited to tell me that, don't you think?) So 2 out of 3 went to school, and came home 3 hours early. The snow started at 12:47 pm according to M., who was home with a cold. It kept on snowing for about 12 hours! We got about 4 inches with the hopes of more today. Fun times playing in the snow last night and sledding today! I love the snow!

Melt, Spread, Crack

What do you do with a sick child at home the last week of school before Christmas break? Do all your holiday baking for neighbors and friends! Okay, it wasn't exactly baking but you get the idea! I had 12 pounds of white chocolate, 6 pounds of crushed peppermint, 48 little bags and tags and plenty of time. So. . . we melted the chocolate, stirred in the peppermint, spread the mixture on cookie pans, refrigerate, crack it into pieces, bag it and voila. . . PEPPERMINT BARK! It took hours yesterday but my youngest and I made 48 gift bags of peppermint bark to share with our neighbors and friends! And today, since she is STILL home, we will deliver it all! Yipee! Check that one off!

Holiday Happenings

Big day yesterday-filled with the sounds of the season! My Daisy Girl Scout Troop went to a retirement home aka "where old people, older than you mom, live". We had 11 first graders in their blue girl scout vests carrying giant Amaryllis plants we started from bulbs about 1 month ago. The girls gave the residents the flowers then sang to them for about 30 minutes! The school first grade holiday program was that night so they had a list of 7-8 songs ready along with dance moves and hand motions. The residents LOVED it and so did the girls. M said it was the best day ever!

Later that night we headed back up to school for the holiday program. The kids looked so cute in their reindeer shirts made from their foot and hand prints! They sang their little hearts out! It was a wonderful performance and really made me feel the holiday spirit!

The balls are UP!

My sweet husband has hung my colored, mini lighted, Christmas balls! I made these probably 4 years ago and they have not been hung since. Why? Because he does not like them and feels I do not have enough. Well I have 5! They are the size of a basketball and take a while to make. I only have 2 big trees out front and feel 5 is a perfect number, but to keep the peace and show him how thankful I am to have them hung, I am making at least 4 more balls today!! I am so happy! They completely make the holiday season for me and I LOVE seeing them in my front yard! Thanks so much H!

A birthday to remember

We celebrate my husband's 44th birthday last weekend by going downtown for holiday festivities and dinner then getting a tree. It was so cold and the wait for a table at The Mellow Mushroom was l o n g! Since it took us a half hour to find a parking place and the wait was one hour we decided to hop back in the warm car and head to our favorite tree lot. We arrived and my husband quickly commented that he hoped they had cute Aussies to help us this year too- which I completely was hoping for too!!! But no, not this year, instead it was high school hotties from K's school! Oh well, guess I am out of luck this year! After some pictures in the giant plastic sleigh, we found the perfect tree, 2 actually, but had to pick because we really only needed ONE. Tree loaded, we head back downtown. Our table was ready at the MM and we had a great dinner. H opened his presents and all was well. We went home, had a homemade Jimmy cake,put up the tree and decorated it all! Fun birthday for an old man!

So cute I could eat her up!

My little one has been home all week sick with a cold- a bad cold! But not strep, H1N1, or the flu so we are thankful for that! We have had such a good week snuggling together and reading and catching up on some girl time together. Yesterday her teacher called just to check up on her. My little M sneaked into the den to pickup the extension. She said she just needed to hear her teacher's voice because she missed her so much! How cute is that? Okay, she has only missed 3 days of school, but we did have Thanksgiving break last week so she has not "heard" her voice for 8 full days! Oh to be worshipped like that! My feelings were not too shattered as she has told me no less than 1 million times a day how much she loves ME! I am thankful for a wonderful first grade teacher who makes my girl love her so much too!

Kids Chillin' Out on Vacation

It was cards, cards and more cards in between the pool, hot tub and game room at the resort!

Thanksgiving 2009

We celebrated Thanksgiving with friends this year in Wintergreen, Virginia. These are friends who live many hours away and we don't see that often. Both extended families were kind enough to understand and let us go away with friends. We had a ball! It was a blending of Thanksgiving traditions. Our family experienced our first fried turkey! Delicious!! We cooked all the sides on Thursday between the Macy's Day Parade and knitting. And we had our feast around 4. It included the turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes, sweet potatoes, green beans, onion dip, corn pudding, gravy, cranberry sauce, and dinner rolls. Desserts were pumpkin cheesecake, pumpkin pie and pecan pie. It was a wonderful Thanksgiving celebration with friends!

Knit one, Purl too!

On our mini vacation to Virginia with one of my best friends, I taught her to knit! While we were in Charlottesville we found a cute yarn store on the mall. I was looking for a project and she just jumped in with both feet. We both got a great yarn called fandango. We bought 2 skeins each and size 10.5 needles. The directions for the scarf were CO 18 and knit every row with both skeins. We started on Wednesday night and finished on Friday. Our friendship scarves is what we are now calling them. I had a great time teaching my friend and knitting in every spare moment! The best part was watching a great movie on Friday afternoon and knitting for 2 hours straight!

Tarheels visit UVA

Our family went to Virginia for Thanksgiving with some close friends. While we were there, we road tripped to Charlottesville, Va. for the day. It was a beautiful fall day! The kids had a ball at the outdoor " mall", at the giant chalkboard, at the bar for lunch and all around campus. We took lots of photos and had many more laughs. My girls are field hockey players and wanted to get a t-shirt from the student store to remember the trip by. I thought "great, no problem, cute shirts" but my husband just about lost it! It was as though the girls asked to get UVA tatooed on their foreheads. We are huge UNC fans and the idea of wearing another school, in our conference no less, was betrayal of the highest order! He even had my oldest convinced that it would jinx her chances of getting in Carolina (and in tears I might add). I ended up buying the girls' tees and he just tried to grasp the idea of them actually wearing them, which they did immediately!

We are almost back. . .

Haven't posted because I have been bogged down with a sick HUSBAND! He has had the dreaded H1N1 (or so he says!). I have called it the "whine flu", much to his chagrin. He has been home for 8 FULL DAYS. Which means i have added to my children! I have done a million loads of laundry because of the night sweats and frequently showers. I did not sleeping in the same room to avoid contamination which also increased the linens. Oh well, he seems to be better and I can honestly say " I am VERY thankful for his health!" It is too hard to have a husband home all day. It disrupts the flow of my day. Keeping my finger crossed no one else gets sick!

smile

I was having the girls' pictures taken from a professional today. It had been postponed 2 times earlier because of rain. We had to sandwich the photo shoot between events for a friends' Bat Mitzvah. I was begging my girls to cooperate, to make it as painless as possible, to smile, etc... Well here are the girls in all their beauty! Photos by the girls–not even the professional! Wow! thanks so much K, L, and M!

It's been raining for days. . .

It has been raining all week! The kids were out of school yesterday and it was a miserably cold, windy and rainy day! Yuck! Enough already. Last night the creek in my neighborhood flooded. This morning when I walked the dogs (don't ask) the entire park was under water, streets closed, traffic redirected. I hurried home with a million things to do to get ready for a book club, dinner for a friend, and busy weekend with guests, parties, pictures, church and more. About 4 hours later the rain had subsided and been absorbed into the ground. So I am pausing to absorb the silence in my hectic life (for only 5 minutes, but hey its a start). I do love those fall colors and all the leaves. Pictures by L.

Dogs gone wild?

Okay my sweet boys have gone nuts! Since Halloween, at least one of them has eaten all L's candy and started chewing off all our bike pedals. Weird! It is plastic pedals on a pogo stick, the bike pump and a variety of other plastic items outside. They are getting walked usually 2 times a day and played with and LOVED so what is going on? Yesterday was all about dog vomit (no pictures). So they are high maintenance right now. . . . but still lovable!

Field Hockey season comes to a close.

This has been the this first year for field hockey at my daughter's high school. K came home from our August beach trip early, to try out for the varsity team for a sport she had never even played. She worked hard and made the team! We were so proud of her!! We went to as many games as possible, most of them not in our town. She played lots and the team worked hard. Unfortunately they never scored a single goal. You would think that would crush their spirit but it didn't. In fact they worked even harder!! Go Pirates! Great first year and you will come back stronger next year!