Child Labor

I've got to give her credit for trying. Notice what is the most expensive thing on the list. You'd think I was making her pick it up with her bare hands or something.

Week Wrap Up

Here is the finale of the week of crafts. We took painters canvas and wrapped it with cute fabric and then stapled it to the back. Super easy, super cheap. The kids love them. These are for my room/bathroom.



This is Emma's. It matches her room colors almost perfectly.



And then Maggie's. Butterflies of course.


So that's it for this week. Next week we're back in school, and hopefully back to "normal". In the meantime, I'll be vacuuming, dusting, and just generally trying to clean up after myself.

Curious

Poor, poor Maggie.

She and Emma were playing, ie, screwing around, with the seat belt on Wednesday night. Emma threw the seatbelt in the air, and it "inexplicably" hit Maggie in the forehead. You can imagine the blood. It was running into her eyes, and it was all over her hands. Thankfully we were near our destination, Wal-Mart, where else. I rushed a bloodied Maggie inside to swarms of onlookers, and started cleaning her up. In the meantime, Sugar Daddy was on the phone trying to figure out what ER we should take her to for stitches. New insurance, new town, you get it.

Turns out, we don't need no stinkin' stitches. All we needed was this. A waterproof bandage, covered by a Curious George Band-Aid. Because all we needed to cover up was this:



The crying is because some of the patients hair was pulled out during bandage removal. Sorry 'bout that. The said "injury" was only a tiny little spot on her forehead. But I'm tellin' ya, that sucker bled like crazy. I was certain under all that blood was going to be some serious damage.



And whilst all this doctoring was going on this morning, what with the bandage removal and crying and such, Emma slumbered peacefully until 9:50 AM. She is not a sleeper-inner. She's up with the sun. So I guess our crafting this week, and perhaps her penchant for Top Chef and Ultimate Recipe Showdown at 10:00 PM have put her over the edge. Good thing Spring Break is almost over so she can relax.

I'll post pics of our latest craft adventure tomorrow.

Happy Mail

I love getting mail. At least the kind that isn't weighted down with a "please return you check so we can take all your money" envelope inside. This kind of mail is the very best of the best. It comes in a box with a big "Q" on the side. We all know what that means. And it's delivered by a nice man in a brown uniform, that says things like "Ma'am" and "Y'all". I mean really, that is what mail should be all about. It makes me feel like a real grown up, which we all know is a warped sense of self, because I'm certainly not grown up at all. But on to the contents!

Here is the "Q" box, in all its glory. Inside were foam peanuts, which I'm sure I'll be finding for days to come, as they seem to have permanently attached themselves to various parts of my house, and also another box taped to high heaven on all sides. It was like the Fort Knox of mail. Now my interest we really piqued. Is that the correct usage of that word? I think so, but if not, let me know and I'll promptly change it.


And here is the beauty that lay sleeping inside. A cool stained glass bouncing dragonfly. Oh my! I'm pretty sure the kids were entertained by this for a good 5 or 10 minutes, which is some kind of record for something not animated or containing a princess of some sort. It really is cool to pull the little hanging string and then watch it bounce and flap its wings. I think when it warms up enough, I'll hang it outside over the patio. For now it has found a home hanging from the formal dining room chandelier.


And I like this picture, because it shows how intent Gretta is on grabbing that string. I also like that it shows off her newest obsession, Backpack from Dora. All 3 girls have used this backpack, but Gretta is by far the most territorial over it. She wore it all day yesterday.

So, thanks, Momma. You're the best. The kids also enjoyed their color-on T's and Sugar Daddy has gobbled up at least 5 suckers. But honestly, we don't need you to send us gifts for letting you stay here. You can stay for free, anytime. We don't usually expect house guests to leave us treats. We do, however, expect quarters on the counters for bathroom usage. I'm just putting that out there for future reference.

Thanks again. I love you!

Spring Break Crafts

Since we're off school This.Whole.Week, I've decided to be a good little mom and make sure my kids have something to do each day. Yesterday we started off with a bang by making foam board doll houses. They turned out pretty cute, but were way more work than I had anticipated. Cutting the foam board dulled my craft knife in 2 seconds flat, so I was left using my fabric cutter and mostly just sort of bending and ripping it. No biggie, they're just kids. But since we had plenty of cute paper to cover the board, and plenty of cute magazine cut outs for furniture and accessories, it all came out fine.


Here's Emma and her friends Shivvani and Mary Kate. Partners in crime.


And here's the finished product. It was funny to see how the girls reacted to not having any "rules" for what they could put in their houses. They kept asking if they could use this or that, and I just kept reiterating the fact that when it comes to crafts, you just do what you like. No rules. Towards the end of the project, they really got the gist of this, and just started cutting and pasting whatever they wanted. It was fun to see what they picked out.

Thanks to NieNie and Cookie Magazine for the inspiration.

Easter Day Recap

We were successfully visited by the Bunny. He delivered many a sweet treat for the children.

Mom may have snuck some, too. He also delivered cute matchy matchy dresses for the girls.


Here are the girls opening their baskets. Do you love Gretta's 'do?


And here's Miss Gigi showing me an extreme close up of her new bunny. She says "Ooh ooh, Aah aah", like it's a monkey. Whatever. It's soft and fluffy, what does she care that it's not her toy monkey?

We were treated to a special choir program at church, for which we were 20 minutes late due to dad ironing his new shirt and pants. After church we had linner (lunch/dinner, get it?) at our friends house. Ribs with Au Gratin potatoes and rolls. Very Eastery. I made a yummy cool whip and pineapple angel food cake recipe that was featured in this months Kraft Foods magazine/mailer. Very delish.

Pretty much a regular Easter Sunday, except this was the first "real" Holiday spent away from our families. It's definitely a strange feeling being away from "home". It's not like homesickness like in college or girls' camp, it's more than that and less than that all at the same time. I enjoy having my little family traditions started, but I miss the chaos that is "Grandma's house". I guess it just makes the memories that much sweeter. Sniff sniff.

*I seem to have used an exceptional amount of "" , (), and / in this post. Feel free to report punctuation overuse to the appropriate authorities.

First day of Spring

Yesterday was the first day of Spring. To celebrate, we headed to the newly thawed neighborhood park. We loaded up the trusty red wagon, and headed on over. It was a perfect park day. Sunny, breezy, and cool. The kids played and played and played. Maggie even got brave enough to go down the biggest slide! I was very proud. Gretta enjoyed the slides, too.

But she especially loved the swing. She kept putting her arms out the leg holes and laughing her butt off. She's such a silly kid.

Maggie getting her slide on.

Emma showing how "brave" she is. Such a dork.

Afterwards, we headed to Buffalo Wild Wings for the District 41 fund raiser night. It was packed, and the food was eh. We then celebrated this first day of Spring further by sending the kids to bed early, and retiring early ourselves. Ah, sleep.

Gretta obviously didn't get the whole sleep memo thing, because for some reason she was awake from 12:45 until 4:00, when Sean finally put her in the Pack N' Play that still resides in my closet. She slept for a couple of hours, but then woke back up at 6:30. WHY!!!

Honestly, I think she's getting the two top teeth, and I'm pretty sure she's miserable. But Sean's home from work today due to Good Friday, so we thought we'd head to the City for some Planetarium action. But apparently Mother Nature didn't get the first day of Spring memo either, since it snowed 6" last night. Hopefully we can salvage some of our Holiday.

Happy Easter!