Busy Busy

We've been so busy this week that I just haven't gotten around to the blog. I'm still trying to catch up after being gone last week. All the boring stuff like laundry and cleaning has caught up with me. I tend to get focused on one thing and forget about everything else, so I have a mountain of laundry to do and some serious dust build-up to take care of. This week I have been consumed with getting ready for Alice's birthday party which is tomorrow. More to come on that later.

Alice and I made brownie snowmen earlier this week. My little chocoholic had the time of her life. I think she had more batter than brownies when it was all said and done. Will was a fan of the brownies too. He just sat under the pan and made lots of noise until someone gave him another brownie. He has become very vocal and verbal this week. His favorite word is cracker (usually said "crack") which is very funny because crackers are like crack to him. He sits by the pantry and says cracker very emphatically until he gets what he wants. Are you seeing a pattern here?





Alice was very excited to have her best buddy Ellie over for lunch on Wednesday. They made snowman bagels using raisins, carrots, and sunflower seeds. They decided to add their strawberry applesauce to make cheeks and grapes for eyes. I can't imagine that it tasted very good, but they ate it. For "dessert" they made banana snowmen on skewers.





In honor of the Chinese New Year, we ordered chinese food. Will loved it. It took us forever to clean up all the rice he got everywhere. Alice on the other hand was not a fan Chinese food. She did take several tiny bites hoping that it would be enough to get her fortune cookie, but we decided to hold off on that until another day. I bought chopsticks earlier in the week but could not find them at dinner time. I am so mad at my self. I have to work on my organizational skills. Alice has learned a little something about China this week. We have been looking at the map and talking about how China is far away and that you would have to take a long airplane ride to get there. When the delivery man left she said, "he is a man from China living in Iowa." I guess she understands!



I'm off to put the finishing touches on Alice's birthday party.

What's New

I decided that since Alice is almost 4, it is time for her to start doing a chore. My friend Jeanie suggested putting away silverware, so we gave it try yesterday. She was really in to it for the first few minutes, but after a while she said, "this is not really that much fun." I tried not to laugh, but it was so funny. She got it done with minimal help. I think it's the perfect job for her.


Recently Alice has been very interested in what's next. She often asks me to go over the schedule for the next few days. I decided it was time for her to have a calendar. I made strips with each day of the week and pictures of the activities we do every week (e.g. school, art class, church, Sunday night dinner). I made an arrow with sticky tack on the back that she can move to the appropriate day. I also made pictures of special activities (e.g. party, playdate, movie) that can be added and removed.

I also made a countdown to her birthday. Each day she moves the sticker to the next number.


Yesterday was the start of the Chinese New Year Celebration so we made a flag collage. I cut up little pieces of red paper and Alice glued them on a piece of paper to make a flag. After the flag was complete, she added little stars that I cut out.



Will did a little crafting too. He was in to coloring for about 2 minutes. Of course that is his attention span for just about everything, so I consider the activity a success.

Muffin Tin Monday

It's Monday again so that means it's Muffin Tin Monday! There was no theme today so I went with winter. I found these cute snowman picks(really for cupcakes) on sale after Christmas. They were a hit with both kids. I shouldn't be surprised that Will liked them because he loves forks so much! Head over to Her Cup Overfloweth and check out what's for lunch today.

The Inauguration

I haven't posted in over a week because we have been in Washington! Last Friday we flew to NC and dropped off the kids with mom and dad. It was our first time leaving them, and although they were in more than capable hands, I was a little nervous. Mom has a broken foot with a boot up to her knee, so I felt terrible leaving her with 2 busy kids, but she is a pro. She had to deal with both kids getting sick. Alice apparently had a few episodes of projectile vomitting. She even had an early birthday party for Alice with so many special details. She had Fancy Nancy plates and cups, and pink princess balloons and lots of presents. Thanks Mom, you're the best!

And as always, the kids had a great time with their cousins.

After a visit with all of our relatives, we borrowed their car and drove up to DC for the Inauguration. We were very lucky to get tickets to the ceremony and the parade. We knew that there were going to be lots of people, but we had no idea what we were getting in to! This is a picture of Brad holding our tickets as we were walking down to the capitol. We had no idea at the time how funny this picture would be later.

We left our friend Anne's apartment around 7:00 and walked down. It took us about 45minutes to an hour to get the line. When we got there we saw a line that stretched about a block. When we asked if it was the purple ticket line, everyone around said yes and told us that the line went into the 3rd Street Tunnel. I thought ok, we'll just be right inside the tunnel a little ways. Wrong. We walked for at least a mile or more. Probably more like 2 or 3. There were so many people, but they were all cordial and waited patiently. During our 2 1/2 hours in the tunnel, I never saw anyone official telling people where to go. When we finally got out of the tunnel, the line disappeared. Everyone was confused and then we saw people heading towards us. They told us that the purple gate was closed and that they weren't letting people in, even those with tickets. I was not about to turn around after coming all this way. We kept making our way through the crowds and found another open gate. They were not letting anyone in, but we waited. Finally the slowly (50-60 people at a time), started letting people in. The gate was only about 100 feet wide, so as we got closer we were nearly squeezed to death. All I could think about was the man who was trampled at Walmart over Christmas. We did make it in as Obama was finishing the oath. We could barely hear but were able to see Obama on a TV screen. There we so many other who came so far, but did not get in. I was sick for them. We were too worn out and too worried that we would not be able to get into the parade, so we watched it at a bar on TV while eating lunch and drinking a glass of wine. I've never been so happy to sit!




For me, the two best parts of the whole thing were seeing my dear friend Anne and her adorable baby and the Staff Ball. The Staff Ball was held on Wednesday night and was the final official event. I'm so glad it wasn't Tuesday night because I was so tired and surely would not have enjoyed it nearly as much as I did after a good rest.

I had my hair done by a total stranger which is always risky. She promised me it would fall, but it stayed pretty curly. I think I looked a little like Shirley Temple, but a change is always good.



We did not get many details about the ball prior to being there, so I was a little skeptical about the whole thing. So when it turned out to be awesome, I was pleasantly surprised. When we got there, there was an open bar and a buffet with yummy food and one of Brad's favorite bands, Arcade Fire was playing. Biden and Obama both spoke. Obama gave the most eloquent speech that was obviously not prepared. He is so amazing and motivating to me. And to top it all off, Jay-Z played. What a fun concert.


And last be not least, Anne and her cutie, Jacob...

Out of Sorts...

I am writing this with 2 packs of frozen peas in my bra and a bottle of Cloraseptic spray by the keyboard. It's been one of those days. Will has had a fever since Saturday morning. I feel so bad for the little guy. He finally ate dinner tonight which I think was a good sign. Why the peas? I stopped nursing him 2 days ago. He was down to just the morning feeding, but turns out he eats a lot in the morning. I'm a little uncomfortable. Anyway, moving on... Alice has been sick as well and we have kept activities down to a minimum. This weekend I froze water in different containers and added some glitter. I saw this on My Mont. Journey. Alice enjoyed playing with her penguins and the "ice shelves".



This is the snowman that Alice made this afternoon.




She was in an exceptionally good mood today. She spent most of the afternoon in her own little world making up stories. She can keep herself entertained for hours if she really gets into a scenario. Today she was on a hunt involving a flashlight with several imaginary friends. I really have to get her on video, so cute! That's all I have in me for today!

We're Still Here!

I realize its been several days since I last posted anything. I am trying to post daily, but this week has been adjustment. Alice went back to preschool and I started a workout schedule at the gym. I did YPUMP on MON, WED, and FRI and each day either rode a bike or ran . I am pretty sore today, so much so that I had a difficult time bending down to take Alice's snow boots off this morning. I started back to work on Wed. and Thurs. and didn't get anything else done on those two days.

We also started William's music class this week. I love Music Together. Alice took it for 2 1/2 years and enjoyed it very much. Luckily the section we are taking is the one that Alice missed so at least there is new music. She did not want to go to school when I told her that we were going to music while she was at school. I convinced her that it is for babies and that school is for grown up girls. It seemed to do the trick. William also loved the class. He was right at home. He crawled over to the teacher and started dancing in front of her and crawled over to other kids and tried to take their instruments.

I ordered my dress for the inaugural on Thursday. Ok, I guess I did get a few things done, just not blogging! I love it! The best part about it is that it was on major sale! Here it is...

I pray that it fits. I don't really have time to send it back and or for alterations. I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

Both kids have colds and I'm getting one too. I couldn't sleep last night because I had a tickle in my throat that was not helped by a cough drop. William coughing also did not help my sleep.

Last night Alice and I made pretzel snowmen. It was messy, but fun.
We used pretzel rods, mini chocolate chips, mini m&ms, white chocolate, and red string licorice.

First we melted the chocolate in our handy dandy chocolate pot and then dipped the pretzels in. Alice used the m&m's, chocolate chips, and licorice to decorate.



As always, the best part...

Here is Alice's breakfast this morning. Ah, a breakfast of champions. Not quite, but she enjoyed it.

This morning we made a snowman craft. I cut circles in a variety of sizes from kitchen sponges which Alice dipped into paint to make the body of her snowman. We only made one today, but with all of the different circle sizes, we could make a whole snowman family.


She then dipped her fingers in white paint to make snow around the snowman.

After the paint dried, she glued the eyes, mouth (pipe cleaner), nose (also a pipe cleaner), and buttons (mini pom poms). And here is the finished product. If you look closely you can see the snow outside. Yep, we got somewhere between 6 and 8 inches last night!

This is the snoman game I made for work. Alice also loves to play it and we have played it quite a few times today. I got the idea on My Montessori Journey. Each person gets a snowman. You take turns rolling the picture cube and add the accessory that roll. The first one to complete their snowman wins!

Well, that's all for now. I'm off to take William's temperature and hope that it has gone down!