Lucky Number 7

Happy 7th birthday Cooper!!

Fat Wednesday

OK, I know that once again I am a day behind. I fully expected to take the kids to school on Tuesday in their masks to hand out their much anticipated beads to their friends and teachers at school but Mother Nature had other plans. Yet another snow day caused sobs of disappointment around here when I told them we weren't going to school and we wouldn't be able to hand out necklaces. So we just moved the party to Wednesday and no one seemed to mind.

As you can see the kids had great fun handing out necklaces to everyone they met.


And as I sat there watching them I realized that before I know it this picture...

will soon turn into this picture.....

(yes that is my husband all the way on the right....)

Sick and Tired

I am officially over winter. This winter has been the rainiest, snowiest, dreariest one I can remember. Today we awoke to yet another snow storm and yet another snow day. Tired of it, I tell you. (It also doesn't help that my friend Cindy has spent the last month adventuring in Hawaii and every couple of days I get to see glimpses of warm, sunny paradise on her blog.)

So we decided to take matters into our own hands this morning, literally. Greyson, Quinn and I spent the morning mixing, stirring and kneading and voila Sun Bread....

Here's hoping our little bit of sunshine can bring that other big bright ball of gas out of hibernation.

Welcome Year of the Tiger

OK, OK I know that technically Chinese New Year was yesterday but that coincided with Valentines Day and I can't do two holidays at the same time. And admittedly perhaps we should have celebrated Presidents day today but frankly it was more fun to spend the morning coloring these happy tigers

and spending the afternoon making these Chinese lanterns


then to learn about the Presidents past. Perhaps I will save the history lessons for next year.

Happy Valentine's Day

A Star is Born

Last week Greyson's preschool class put on the dramatic performance Tacky The Penguin starring one Greyson Erim as Tacky. To be fair, he did land the role through the general Hollywood standard of drawing straws, however his teacher pulled me aside and told me she was so thankful that Greyson got the role because he was the one kid she knew would do justice to the part.

I didn't actually get to see the performance because unfortunately when either Raif or I are around Greyson turns into a shy little boy so Ms. Ashley thought it best I not be there. We were suppose to get a video of it but one of the teachers was stuck in Philly during the blizzard and thus they were short handed and there was no one to video. Thankfully, Mr. BiShaune (his teacher from last year) was kind enough to take some pictures for me.

So without seeing the performance, either live or on video, how do I know what an amazing job he did? Because EVERYONE I ran into when I went to pick Greyson up that day told me. Teachers, administrators, therapists - everyone I saw in the hall stopped me to tell me how funny he was and how he knew all his lines and what an amazing job he did. I also got several comments on how loud he was - for those who know him this shouldn't come as a surprise. I now know what it feels like to be famous and get stopped every second walking down the street.

In fact, the kids did such a good job that some people at school are requesting an encore performance. Hollywood here we come.

Tea Anyone?

Every year around Valentine's Day, the kid's preschool does a week long lesson in love, friendship, kindness (you get the idea) - the week then culminates in Grandparent's Tea. Each child invites their grandparents or special friends and has a party. Everyone gets all dressed up because, as you know, you always have to dress up for tea. My parents made the trek this year from Kansas for the event which was this morning. I really did try to get some nice pictures of my kids in their Sunday best but I have come to the conclusion that trying to get both of my kids to look nicely at the camera at the same time (not to mention trying to get my parents to actually smile) is about as easy turning lead into gold....Maybe next year....