be my valentine

Rachel's never had to decorate a Valentine's box before.  They've always decorated them at school, so I've never had to worry about helping her make one.  I've seen other people's creations on Facebook and Pinterest, but we've never done one.  

On Monday we got a note from the teacher telling us that because of all of the snow days the kids have had, she didn't have time to have them decorate them at school, as usual, so we needed to have them decorate one at home.  I got on Pinterest to see what ideas I could show Rachel, but some of them were so elaborate that I knew it would end up that she'd want ME to do it to make it look "right." I decided I didn't want to be the one doing it, I wanted it to be her creation.  So I didn't show her any ideas.  I didn't give her any direction, really. I just wrapped a box with the only non-birthday/non-Christmas wrapping paper we had, and turned her loose with my scrapbooking supplies.  

She had a blast!  

Afterward she wanted pictures of ALL of the sides....

She's so proud of it, and I'm happy that it's all her work, not a mom-made box.

little engineer

Rebecca LOVES Legos.  She spends much of the day some days making and tearing apart different creations.  We don't let her play with regular Legos yet.  They're just too tiny and she'd make a huge mess with them, but these duplo blocks are perfect.

She makes "Zoomers" and planes and cars of all sorts.  (She calls them Zoomers.)

Love my little future engineer!

round two

Yesterday we came home from the library to find a SNOW PLOW on our street!!  I can count on one hand the number of times a snow plow has come through our neighborhood, but on our little street, a cul de sac, not a through street?  NEVER!  We were so excited (and almost took a picture.....but resisted the urge, because who  takes a picture of a snow plow on their street??)

It plowed the street, which threw more snow into the end of our driveway, but once my husband shoveled that out, it was lots better.  

But then.....it snowed again this morning.  We have probably three or four more inches of snow in the street.  We got stuck again trying to get out this evening.  Ugh.

So now I get to look forward to the stress every morning again of whether or not I'll get stuck on the way out.  So much for our snow plowed street.  Thankfully it's supposed to be cold again tomorrow morning, so it should harden again like it did last time, so hopefully it will be okay.

In other news, the Olympics are on, of course.  I wrote two years ago about how every two years the closet sports fan in me comes out and I'm glued to the TV for two weeks.  Rachel seems to have inherited this gene.  She loves the Olympics.  We watched the opening ceremonies from start to finish yesterday morning (recorded from the night before) and it was so fun to watch it with her, listening to all of her questions and comments about the countries, their flags, their outfits, their athletes....  Yesterday and today she watched bits and pieces with me of ice skating, ski jumping, luge, snow boarding, and even hockey!  Then she'd go to the other room and have her own version of the Olympics.  She and Rebecca put on leotards and tap shoes and pretended to ice skate through the kitchen.  Today they went outside with the sled and pretended it was their snow board on the very tiny hill in our yard.  Hilarious.  

In other Rachel news, she wrote her first fan letter today.  To Ron Roy, author of her current favorite chapter book series, A to Z mysteries.  She became obsessed with these books a couple of weeks ago (which led to giving up on her 41 book run of reading through all of the Magic Treehouse books, which she's been working on since last summer), and she's plowing through these new books.  They're too easy for her, which I don't like, but since she's sitting down and reading on her own without being told, I don't say much about it, because I'm just happy to see her reading for pleasure.  Anyway, she told me yesterday that she wanted to write a letter to the author.  So this morning she got up and stayed in her room for close to an hour, working on a letter, all on her own.  Then during rest time she re-wrote her letter as neatly as she could, made an envelope, and a stamp.  She only asked me how to spell the word partner, and there isn't a single spelling mistake in the letter, which is a huge surprise, because she's not the greatest speller.  She's been asking me all afternoon when she can mail it and whether he'll write back to her. The whole letter made me smile.  She told him what book she was on, asked him how many books he's written, and whether he would come visit our town.  She said she meant to ask if he would come visit the library here, but she forgot.  It's so cute.

snowplow?

Three days after the storm, and we still haven't seen a plow in our neighborhood.  There's almost 10 inches of snow, full of ruts, up and down the roads.  Yesterday I got stuck in the middle of our road trying to get Rachel to the bus stop.  She had had a two hour delay, so it was the middle of the morning and everyone was at work by then.  The neighborhood was empty, and there I was, stuck in the middle of the road with two little girls in the car.  I didn't know what I was going to do. I kept going forward and backward, tires spinning, but finally I somehow got out and got to the bus stop.  

At the end of the day I didn't want to chance getting stuck again so Rebecca and I walked.  But the guy that lives in the house behind us doesn't shovel his sidewalk, and it's a corner lot, so that's a whole lotta sidewalk, unshoveled.  Rebecca's little legs had a lot of trouble in all of that snow, and she was crying, not even halfway to the bus stop.  I finally go us out into the street, which was a little better than the sidewalk, but then we had to keep stopping to wait for cars to go by.  It took a long time, but we got there, and then got back, with Rachel in tow.  

Last night I asked my husband to try and do something it in the street to make it easier for me to get out.  He tried using the snow blower, but it had no traction, since there's solid ice under the snow, and couldn't get through the packed down snow.  So he shoveled some of it out.  Then he got in my car and tried to get out.  And got stuck.  The neighbor was out and he helped push him out.  He shoveled some more.  

And this morning we hoped for the best.

Thankfully it's lots colder today.  While I knew that meant we couldn't really walk to the bus stop, I thought it might make the soft, slushy snow harder, and maybe it would be harder to get stuck. Well, it worked!  I got out without any problems.  Now I have to hope for more of the same this afternoon.

But what I REALLY want is a snow plow!!!  

Groundhog Day

You know the movie, Groundhog Day, where the same day keeps repeating over and over and over?  Well, that's what it feels like here right now (how ironic that tomorrow IS Groundhog Day!).

First Rachel was sick.  That was a week ago.  Then Rebecca got sick a few days later.  Then my husband.  Now it's my turn.  Meanwhile, Rachel and Rebecca are still coughing up a storm, and my husband still isn't completely well, either.  None of us is sleeping well.  So for a week straight, we've been replaying the same cycle.  Fever, chills, lots of blankets, ibuprofen, fever going down, sweating, naps, rinse and repeat a few hours later.  It seems to go in five hour cycles.  But we have to wait six hours to take ibuprofen, so the last hour is hard to endure, and then it takes about a half hour to feel better.  

I'm REALLY TIRED and this can be over anytime now.  I've basically been stuck in the house for an entire week, first for snow, then for cold, then for sickness.  

I feel horrible.  I haven't been this sick in a long time.  And I thought my month long sinus/ear infection in the fall was bad.  At least I could function most of the time during that.  I've been in bed/on the couch for pretty much all of yesterday and today.

Thankfully my husband was able to take a half day off work yesterday to help me, and it's the weekend so he's been here all day today doing everything....cooking, cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping, you name it.  And he's not even all well yet.  What a guy!  I don't know what I would've done without him today.

cabin fever

Today was day 1,000,000 of being in the house all day with two sick kids.  Well, I guess I'm exaggerating a little, but wow, am I tired of this!

Yesterday Rebecca came down with what Rachel's been battling. I took them both to the doctor.   She didn't think it was the flu, and it wasn't an ear infection or strep, so that was good.  Just your run of the mill winter virus.

Rachel was pretty miserable yesterday.  A little better today.  Rebecca's a day behind Rachel, so she was pretty miserable this afternoon/evening, and hopefully tomorrow will be better.

Rebecca got to choose the movie today.  One guess.  Yes, The Incredibles.  Ugh.  Hopefully Rachel will choose something better tomorrow (I actually like The Incredibles....I'm just tired of it!)

This morning was play doh (yuck, I really don't like play doh!  What a mess!).  But they had fun and forgot about being sick for awhile.

The silver lining is that Monday there was a two hour delay, so Rachel only missed a shortened day of school, and today and tomorrow school closed for cold, so she's not missing anything.  I think she'll be good to go back on Thursday, because her temp was normal tonight before she went to bed....the first time it's been in the 90s since 4:00 AM on Sunday morning!  Yay!

a snowy sick day

This winter has been something else!  Sub zero temps, snow and more snow....when is spring going to be here?

Yesterday we stayed in all day because we got about six inches of snow and the roads weren't great.  We watched movies and ate popcorn and played board games.   

Last night Rachel was up at 4:00 AM not feeling good.  Fever, cough, chills, headache....  So she and I stayed home from church while Rebecca and Daddy braved the roads (it was snowing again and the roads were not that great again) and went.  Rachel and I watched the movie, "Akeelah and the Bee," about the National Spelling Bee.  Rachel decided she wants a dictionary so she can spell that well.

She felt better for awhile, but then the medicine wore off and she was down again.  Next we watched "Pollyanna."  Now she's feeling better again and the TV is off until the medicine wears off again.  I'm completely movied out!   

We had talked about taking the kids sledding today....the last day before the bottom falls out of the temperatures, but obviously that couldn't happen, since she's sick.  

Everyone's expecting there to be no school for at least the next two days because of the temperatures, and this time I hope that's the case, because then Rachel wouldn't miss any school because of sickness.  

I'm ready for spring!!

Speaking of spring, this greeted me when I came downstairs yesterday morning, while the snow fell hard outside.

One of my students gave me this for Christmas.  It was just a bulb in the glass container.  We've watched it grow and grow for the last month, and could  tell it was ready to bloom soon.  The girls were thrilled to see it had opened up yesterday.  So we have a tiny piece of spring on our kitchen table.

incredible

Rachel once went through a phase where she was obsessed with the movie, The Incredibles.  During that time, my mom happened upon a Mr. Incredible costume at a consignment sale and bought it for Rachel, who loved it.  (For some reason, though, I can't seem to find a picture of her in it).

After she outgrew The Incredibles phase, the costume hung in the closet, and somehow ended up in Rebecca's closet. 

About a year ago Rebecca noticed the costume and started asking questions about it.   I kept telling her it was too big for her, but she finally found out it was from the movie, The Incredibles, which we own, but she'd never seen (she hasn't been interested in any movies at all until the last couple of months).   Every once in awhile she'd ask about it.

So finally, a couple of weeks ago, we went through all of our movies and made a pile of movies Rebecca hadn't seen and was old enough to watch, since she's now showing interest and will finally sit through an entire movie.  The Incredibles was one of them.  We had a family movie night, and she chose that one.  And fell in LOVE.

The next day she begged for the costume to come out of the closet.  She's had it on pretty much every day since at some point.  She even snuck out of bed one night, put it on over her PJs without our knowing, and in the morning came down with it on.  (She got in trouble for that one....and the costume got put away for a day as punishment.)  She'd watch the movie every day if I'd let her.

So here she is....this picture cracks me up. 

I tried finding the picture she was trying to recreate, which is a picture of Mr. Incredible from the menu screen on the movie, but I can't find it online.  He has his hands behind his back like she does.

Oh, this crazy girl.  (And thank goodness she's had her hair cut since I took this picture.  Man, those are some LONG bangs!)

(Now she's asking for Mr. Incredible boots, gloves, and mask for her birthday.  She doesn't understand that they don't make Mr. Incredible toys anymore. )

what's old is new again

Most of these toys have been in the toy box for years.  Occasionally they get taken out and played with, but mostly they stay hidden away in the toy box and rarely see the light of day.

Yesterday my parents brought me the bookshelf for the play room.  I just emptied the toy box and put the toys on the shelf, and suddenly, these old toys have new life!  Rebecca's playing with one after the other, because she can actually SEE them.  Of course, the shelf looks rather cluttered, and maybe someday I'll get cute baskets to make it look better, but for now, it's all about function. 

The toy box is now the dress up clothes box.  The dress up clothes get the most mileage around here, play-wise, so I'm not worried about them being forgotten in the toy box.  

The dress up box is now the musical instrument box (we have SO many guitars....Rebecca is a little less guitar obsessed than she used to be, but she still loves them!)

The train table has become the play table, since no one is into trains at the moment (my husband wants to sell the table and the train set, but Rebecca plays at this table ALL the time, so I don't want to).

We'll see how this arrangement works.  And I still need to figure out what to put on the top two shelves that the girls can't reach.  I'm thinking paint, play doh, etc, but we'll see.  For now I'm just happy that things are getting played with and there is less sitting on the floor.

cookies, anyone?

Rachel and her troop are selling Girl Scout cookies.  If anyone is interested in buying any, please let me know.  Even if you aren't local or don't want to eat the cookies yourself, you can order some to be donated to a local food bank.  They are $4 per box this year, but our troop gets a bigger percentage of the cost of each box than we've gotten in the past.

Thank you for supporting her and our Brownie troop!

a little stir crazy

I heard on the news today that the first Monday in January is considered the most depressing day of the year.  But in my world, today should've been a GREAT day. The day when half of my children go back to school after 2+ weeks at home and life starts to get normal again. I've been looking forward to today since about Dec 28th (when the post Christmas depression set in.....I get a little depressed every year after Christmas and it usually lasts until school starts and life gets back to normal).  

But things didn't get back to normal today.  Like much of the country, we are experiencing the "polar vortex" they're going on and on (and on and on) about, and the cold temperatures cancelled school.  I actually was glad I didn't have to get us all out the door to the bus stop first thing in the morning into the brutally cold air, but......I'm going a little stir crazy, and so are my girls.  

They're still playing with Christmas presents, but they've lost a little of their luster. They've played dress up ad nauseam.  They have watched more TV than I'd normally allow.  They've played school, house, American Girl, doggies, princess, and every other imaginary make believe concoction you can think of, and probably many you would NEVER think of.  They've colored, made books, done crafts, played  games, read books.....you name it, they've probably done it over the last two weeks.   They've played outside pretty much every day except today, when I couldn't, with a clear conscience, let them go out.  So today it was playing inside ALLLLLLLLL day.  

Ordinarily, I'd love a "snow day" off of school.  But I'm just ready for real life to start again.  I know I'm not the only mom feeling this way....

But guess what?  School is already called off for tomorrow.  For me, too (I was supposed to start teaching again tomorrow).  And Friday is an already scheduled day off of school.  So IF Rachel goes back to school on Wednesday, it will only be for two days, and then she's back home.

I love my girl, and love having her home (Rebecca's not going to know what to do with herself once Rachel is in school again), but I'm just ready for some normalcy.  Guess I need to wait awhile longer for that.

I shouldn't be complaining.  I'm happy to be home with my girls.  Happy we are in a warm house with food.  Happy they get along (MOST of the time) and have fun together.  Happy.  Really.  Just VERY stir crazy.

mother daughter bonding

Rachel and I did a little bonding today while Rebecca took her nap....

Lego Friends assembly and Saige Paints the Sky

a very merry Christmas

Here are the promised pictures from Christmas....

 

 

Christmas Eve--new matching PJs.  I got them nightgowns this year because they both LOVE nightgowns and don't have very many.

 

 

Christmas morning--probably her favorite gift--an Elsa dress from the movie, Frozen.  Both girls have fallen in love with this movie.  They have the soundtrack and reinact it almost daily.  Rachel's jealous of this dress, but the only one they make in her size is from The Disney Store, and it's pricey.  This is an inexpensive version that only really fits Rebecca.

 

Matching shirts

 

Rachel and Saige!



For months before Christmas, if you asked Rebecca what she wanted for Christmas, she said "A Hello Kitty Car!  So she got it....and was excited about it....but since Christmas day I think she's played with it twice.  But if you ask her what her favorite present is, she'll say her Hello Kitty car!

Saige and her horse

Wearing her Elsa dress.  She's had this on more than anything else in the last five days.

At Grandma's house....opening stockings

Grandma and Grandpa put these glasses in each kid's stocking.  You wear them and look at the Christmas tree and shapes appear on the lights.  They were all different (reindeer, Santa, snowflakes, etc--they were really cool!)

A better picture of Rachel in her matching Saige dress from Grandma and Grandpa

They both love the show, Sofia the First, and got matching dress up dresses.

In their matching shirts.  I love this picture.

Merry Christmas!

one more post

I meant to post these this morning when I posted about Rachel and Saige....

One of the things Rachel also wanted was Saige's art kit.  

For $50+ you got a bunch of doll sized fake art supplies.  Well, for $6 and some time and effort, my husband and I made her her own REAL art kit. He used scrap wood and his woodworking skills and made the doll sized easel.  I made doll sized sketch books out of real drawing paper.

Rachel can paint the picture and blank canvas herself.  She can draw in the sketch books.  Not only did we save a ton of money, but it's something she can actually use, not just sit and look at.  I was thrilled with it.

And this is what the girls gave to Daddy.  

I made them myself, inspired by the silhouettes my dad made for my mom one year of my brothers and me when we were kids.  I'm pretty happy with Rachel's, not quite as thrilled with Rebecca's, since her mouth doesn't look quite right.  But I still really like them.

my little American Girl

Last summer an American Girl store opened at the mall just down the road from us.  There are only a few of these stores in the country, so it was a huge deal.  Until then, though, Rachel had no idea what American Girl was, and I was just fine with that, since they are SO expensive.

But then it opened, and Rachel fell in love.  As more and more of her friends got dolls, her desire for one grew and grew.  She especially loved Saige, the girl of the year for 2013, which means she came out in January and would only be here until December 31st of this year.  She loves art, which is why Rachel liked her.

It was pretty much the only thing she wanted for Christmas.  

How could we deprive her of the one thing she really wanted???

Sometime I'll try to upload a video of when she opened it.....one of the classic squealing and glee openings that you'd expect.  It was great!  But for now I can only put this picture because I'm not at home.  Grandma and Grandpa gave her Saige's matching dress, which she also really wanted, and some similar boots.  So here's my little Saige look alike with her beloved doll.

I'll post more pictures of both girls when I get home in a few days.  It was a wonderful day full of lots of sweet, fun moments.

Merry Christmas!

seeing Santa

I didn't think we would go see Santa this year because of this:

Santa came to Rebecca's preschool last week and she was scared of him and wouldn't sit on his lap. Her teacher sat on his lap and pulled her up on her lap in order to snap this classic pose.

So I didn't think she'd have any interest in seeing the mall Santa.  But Rachel really wanted to go, and I did want to try and get a better picture.  This morning I asked Rebecca if she wanted to go sit on his lap and she said yes, and that she wouldn't be scared, and she'd talk to him.  So I decided to brave the two days before Christmas crowd and try it.  We got there a half hour before Santa was to come out and there was already a line of probably 15-20 families ahead of us in line!  We ended up waiting a total of about 80 minutes (I had warned them ahead of time that we'd have to wait and I was prepared with snacks, so it didn't go too terribly.....)  

I was surprised, but Rebecca wasn't scared at all.  She went right to him, smiled, and talked.  Of course, she forgot to  tell him the number one thing on her Christmas list, but the things she did tell him have been covered, too.  Whew!  

Afterwards we went out to see the big Christmas tree, nativity, and trains that we always go see, and I treated them to hot chocolate while we listened to a brass quartet play Christmas carols.  "I like today," Rachel told me.  Happy to make my girl happy.  It was a good morning, despite the crowds.

more holiday happenings

December is just full of activity here....

Last week we went to the lights at the zoo.  We went two years ago with the girls and Rachel,  especially, loved it.  We weren't able to go last year....I think the weather didn't cooperate with days we were able to go.  This year I had free tickets that I wanted to make sure we used.  Last week was our last chance, so we picked the warmest day without forecasted rain.  Unfortunately, so did the rest of the city, because it was packed, but the girls had a great time.

Also, Rachel's been asking to make a gingerbread house out of graham crackers, something we've done every year since she was two or three, so we did that this weekend, too.

She did hers all by herself, while Rebecca had help.  Rachel's roof kept falling and she was forced to give it a flat roof instead.  She was upset about that, but proud of herself that she made the whole thing by herself.

run, run, as fast as you can

Grandma came down this weekend to make gingerbread cookies, which has become a tradition since Rachel was two.

Rachel did a good job of decorating all on her own this year.

Rebecca tried a few by herself, too.  Here's the result.....

busy, busy

It's been busy around here.  December always is, I guess.

Yesterday we went to see The Nutcracker with our Girl Scout troop.

Before the show

At the theater (I purposely chose to show this dark one because you can't see their faces, and I'm not sure all the parents would want their daughter's picture on my blog....that's the State House in the background.)

This weekend Rachel also sang in the kids choir at church for three services, so it's been a busy weekend.

Here she is....I cropped out as much as I can. 

And here are my kiddos this morning, pretending like they weren't arguing right before I took this picture....

like mother, like daughters

I found this picture the other day.  I remember when Rachel was three, I thought she looked so much like this three year old Weed.  But now that Rebecca is three, I see a resemblance in her even more.  She's definitely mine!