Old School

Do you remember doing this when you were a kid? Not sure what made me think of it, but I decided to teach the kids how to climb up a doorway today. Tate is a little too small to make it work, but Rowan can make it up and thinks she's pretty amazing.

Nap Time Serenade

Tate is finally starting to give up his nap. So, instead of sleeping during rest time, he often plays with blocks or Legos, looks at books or sings songs--quite loudly. This is what I'm listening to right now:

"Jingle Bells, rottenest elfs, Robin laid and egg

Batmobile lost its wheel and Joker goed to ballet"

Occasionally he'll say "Joker got away. Oh, no. That's not what I want it to say. Joker goed to ballet."

This has been going on for a good 20 minutes. Love how this kid can entertain himself!

Yee Haw!

The one committee I'm on at church is organizing the Daddy-daughter dinner. In years past, it's been a formal affair--girls dress in their finest, eat a nice meal, do some dancing. It's a bit prim and proper and, while fun, we decided to switch it up a bit this year and do a hoe down. The girls (and dads) dressed in western apparel. We had a miniature horse come for pictures. We hired a square dance caller (who was great with our group of lots of little ones). We had silly stick-on mustaches and cowboy hats lying around for everyone to wear. It was high energy and lots of fun. As you can see, Rowan and Lance had a great time together!

Groundhog Day!

We're finally out of recovery mode from a stomach bug this week and seem to have some sort of respiratory/cold issues now, but that didn't stop us from having a little Groundhog Day fun!

I made the kids an indulgent (but still kind of healthy) snack of cookie dough dip (made from garbanzo beans) topped with chia seed "dirt" and groundhog graham crackers. Then we made groundhog sock puppets. Tate named his Sweet Pie and Rowan named hers Sydney Pinkie Pie Pellow. And Lance did not disappoint by bringing home fun orange tulips to brighten up the house! This morning, the groundhog didn't see a shadow (spring is right around the corner) and this afternoon, it did. Which meant it was sunny out and we played outside with neighbors on this rather beautiful February day. If winter stays like this, I guess I'll take 6 more weeks.

What a Morning

This morning I woke up to a sweet little boy crawling into my bed to cuddle, showering me with kisses and saying "Mommy. I'm never going to marry anyone because I want to be with you forever." This was followed by a sleepy little girl crawling into bed to cuddle as well. And it was just after 8am. It can't get much better than that.

Later in the morning, Rowan got out her brand new Twinkle Toes light-up shoes and tied them herself! She was so proud of herself, she said "Don't you think we should call Grandma?"

Then we did some playing outside at the Winter Carnival at church--a treasure hunt on the trail complete with finding a real fox den and wagon rides behind a 4-wheeler because there isn't enough snow for snowmobiling (Did I mention we rode bikes yesterday? It's JANUARY, people!)

Lance is, of course, working, but will be home soon and I'm guessing we'll have an evening of going out to eat and playing games and reading in front of the fire.

That plus a great adult dinner with friends last night makes me a happy girl!

Maybe It's Cold Outside

Tate has taken to singing "Maybe It's Cold Outside" (to the tune, of course, to "Baby It's Cold Outside") and it seemed like a fitting title to this blog. Maybe it is cold outside. Maybe not. Today, yes, it's cold. Really cold. Last week? A random 50-degree day. NO snow on the ground. SUN SHINING!!! While I'll always take warm over cold, sunny over cloudy, the pool over the sledding hill, I have to say I'm not feeling entirely defeated by winter yet. I'm sure it will come. But it's late January and I'm still feeling sane. That's saying something.

And when it does get too cold for me and the kids still want to play in the snow, we do a little something like this:

Deserting Desserts

Since our family ate enough dessert in December to last at least two months, we've decided to skip the sugar this month. I've always had a sweet tooth, but I don't know if I realized just how often I reach for sweets during the day. As soon as Tate is down for "rest time", before anything is crossed off the to-do list, I have dessert. At least a cookie or two, some ice cream or some sort of chocolate-y goodness. After dinner, more of the same. Once the kids are in bed, same story.

Lance and the kids are joining me in this (thankfully, because watching Lance eat cookies would make it much harder). The kids can have a few cheats. If it's someone's birthday at school, they can still eat the treat. If they are at an activity and the snack served is something I'd consider a treat (fruit snacks, etc), they can still have it. But they've been pretty good about it, too.

I find myself reaching for fruit or yogurt when I want something sweet. I feel like I have a touch more patience and energy (though I feel that's possibly due to the fact that we've been defying winter here for quite a while now) and I'm pretty sure I can get through the month without cheating.