Crafts, Pajamas and McDonald's

This is going to be quick because it is late and I am tired.  However, I wanted to make sure I go this recorded.  Brian has been away for the last week and the kids have been reacting to it this weekend.  I have learned to be extra patient with them, when possible.  So I decided that they were going to get to choose what we did today.  This morning after breakfast I asked them what they wanted to do today.  They both thought that having a craft day would be fun, Mackenzie asked if we could stay in our pajamas all day and Isaac wanted McDonald's.  So I got out a couple of things I had hidden away (a paint with water book and a foam train kit) and I got started on a project for Isaac's birthday party.  We all stayed in our pajamas all day, even in the car on the way to McDonald's to get lunch (from the drive-thru).  We had a good day and the kids went to bed very nicely tonight, still in the same room.

ONU Weekend

Brian and I spent most of this weekend at ONU.  The chair of Brian's department, Nils Riess, is retiring.  He was one of Brian's professors when Brian studied at ONU and Brian holds Nils in the highest regard.  It turns out that most everyone does.  On Friday there was a reception/open house in the early afternoon at the theatre and then that evening the formal event occurred. I got to meet a lot of Brian's friends from undergrad including a few that I had met before.  There was a reception following the event at the Inn on campus, where we were staying, and then we decided to go to the bar just off campus, which is called the Regal Beagle (my sister loved Three's Company when we were kids, and I assume that is where the name came from, but who knows). I can't remember when the last time was that I closed down a bar, but we did last night.

The kids had a funweekend with Grandpa Butch.  After we got home we did some chores at home and got the house cleaned up.  Mackenzie got a new quilt from Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Mike for Christmas and we decided that despite it still be ing a little chilly, it was time to put her spring quilt on her bed.  She took this picture to say thanks to Grandma and Grandpa:

Then we went to 577 for a quick outing.  We had a nice corned beef dinner to celebrate St. Patrick's Day.  The kids love corned beef.  It is a favorite in our house.  I don't know why, I don't even remember when we first had corned beef and the kids decided they liked it so much.

The kids are still sleeping in the same room and it is really very cute.  They are getting much closer as well.  They are playing together nicely, helping each other, and even saying "I love you." to each other.  It is super cute.

Brian is headed to USITT on Tuesday and will be gone for a week, so we will see if the good behavior sticks around : )

In like a lion . . .

It has been a long time.  We haven't been doing a whole lot with the unpleasant weather we have been having, but hopefully this weekend is the turn around and March will be a lamb soon.  I keep thinking that I should put up a new post, but then forget or am too tired at the end of the day.  We finally had a full day home today so I promised myself that I would find time to put up a post.  While the roomba is running in my cleaned up kitchen and dining room (I love the roomba) and Mackenzie is playing Play Doh and Isaac is playing with his Trios, I decided it was my chance to sneak to the computer.

 

One evening this week the kids and I played with the marble run. The kids (and myself) are finally getting adventurous and making our own runs rather than using the guide that came with them to make the runs.  I believe that Mackenzie and I did a marvelous job on our run:

 Isaac also did a great job creating his ramp:

 

This weekend Mackenzie went to a birthday party at the Toledo Zoo.  It seemed to have been a great venue for a party.  They spent the whole party in a secret room attached to the African carousel.  We have a membership to the zoo, so while she was at the party we took Isaac around to the animalsy he wanted to see (elephants, tigers, lions, polar bears and penguins).  The weather seemed to be perfect for most of the animals.  We got to see this elephant playing with a giant tire, which was very entertaining for the crowd:

Once we actually got to the live lions, Isaac barely stopped to look, but he was earlier extremely interested in the statues of the family of lions.  After we picked up Mackenzie she was also very interested in these statues: 

 The polar bears were also very lively.  They were splashing into the water just before this picture was taken and then they were walking around together:

I wasn't able to take a very good picture on the carousel since I was moving, but the kids rode the African carousel, Mackenzie and I rode on cheetahs (I believe that one was a jaguar, but Mackenzie thought that they were both cheetahs) and Isaac rode on a gorilla with Brian standing next to him.

After the carousel ride we had to stop and check out all of the statues on our way out.  The wolves were one animal that was not very active when we were walking around, the two wolves were sleeping the whole time, but when we went back with both kids they at least both picked their heads up and looked at us. 

Last night I went to a reception for All ND Women Connect, celebrating 40 years of women at Notre Dame.  When I RSVPed, I thought it was going to be about an hour from me, since it was hosted by the Detroit chapter of ND Women Connect, but it was actually an hour and a half away.  It was a lovely reception and I got to hear Haley Scott DeMaria talk about her experience in the fatal women's swim team bus accident in 1992.  I began my education at Notre Dame in 1994, when Haley had made her miraculous recovery from a spinal cord injury that left her paralyzed for a week and she swam her first race after the accident that October.  So I knew the story, but not well.  It was pretty great to hear her tell the story.  Although I must say after seeing pictures of the bus accident and her in the hospital, it made me a little nervous during my drive back home in the rain.  It was also pretty great getting a chance to meet and talk to other ND women in the area, especially those that were among the first classes of women at Notre Dame.  Although I know that Theresa's mom was there the first year, I never really talked to her about what it was like.

So today we are hanging out, Brian is finishing up Isaac's room, which he painted this past week, the kids are playing, and I am cleaning (although I hope to finish up soon and get to work on my quilt).  A pretty good day.

Not Ready for Boyfriends

Discussion at bed time tonight:

Mackenzie: I am going to ask Andrew to be my boyfriend tomorrow.

Mom: Does that mean he is your friend and he is a boy?

Mackenzie: No, it means he is my boyfriend.

Mom: If he wants to be your boyfriend, does that mean you two do anything differently?

Mackenzie: We already do things differently.  He sits at a different table than me, he colors differently than me . . .

Mom:  I mean if he wants to be your boyfriend do you to act differently together or do different things together?

Mackenzie:  I don't know.  No.

Mom: How do you know about boyfriends?

Mackenzie:  Karly in Miss Tammy's class used to always talk about her boyfriend Justin Beiber.

Mom:  I see.  You know that Karly never really met Justing Beiber, right?

Mackenzie:  He was her boyfriend.

Mom:  He doesn't come see people in Toledo.  I think she meant that she wanted him to be her boyfriend.  He is on TV.  He sings songs on the radio.

Mom:  What does it mean to be someone's boyfriend?

Mackenzie:  I don't know.

More Winter Fun

I love winter.  By the end of the season I am ready to see it go, but I really love winter while it is here.  I am so happy that we got to have some real winter weather this year, even if we had to drive to Midland for a lot of it.  We went to Midland last weekend to see Grandma Kathy, Grandpa Mike, Uncle Mike, Aunt Misty and Lexie.  Michael suggested that we go to Snow Snake and go snow tubing.  So we all drove up to Clare to play in the snow.

 

Here is a shot of Isaac waiting in our "peanut" to get connected to the tow rope:

 

Here is a shot of Lexie and Mackenzie in their "peanut" getting towed:

 

Here is a shot of Isaac and me getting towed:

And here is a shot of Isaac and me after we went down the trail:

 

 

Here is a shot of the kids (Mackenzie, Lexie and Isaac) at Grandma's house:

 

On Sunday we went to City Forest in Midland and the kids got to use their skates.  They spent a lot of time climbing on the snow mounds rather than skating, but they both did well on their double-bladed skates when they were on the ice.  Once our toes were close to frozen we headed over to Michael's house to give Copper his Valentine's Day present (a big raw hide). 

 

Mackenzie and Isaac really like Copper, but unfortunately Brian and I are allergic.  In the summer Michael and Misty often bring him up to the lake and the kids can see him and Brian and I can stay away from Copper well enough to not have terrible allergic reactions.  Unfortunately in the winter when we are all inside it isn't as easy.  When we go to the grocery store we often walk past the pet aisle and Mackenzie asks to get something for Copper, so we got him a raw hide for Valentine's Day.  The kids loved hanging out at Unlce Mike and Aunt Misty's, playing with Lexie and seeing Copper.  Copper got Isaac pretty good with the licks right before we left.  It is probably mean of me to say this, but it was pretty funny seeing Isaac curl up in a ball on the floor while Copper licked him.  So you don't think I let him be tortured too long, I did go push Copper off and pick Isaac up, but I was giggling while I did it. 

 

We headed home Sunday afternoon and when we got home the kids worked on their Valentine cards.  I have never been a big fan of Valentine's Day, but it is really cute to see the kids so excited about a holiday that is all about love.

Winter is Here

Brian started his first tech of 2013 this weekend, so it is just me and the kids.  We were supposed to drive up to Grandma Kathy's and Grandpa Mike's, but we woke up to this:

 

 

That is the neighbors house across the way and you can't tell, but it is snowing pretty hard.  We tried to head out, because I was thinking that the main roads and expressways would be cleared, but when trying to get to the gas station and going much slower than that 55 mile an hour speed limit, I really could not see, so after I slid around a corner or two we turned around and came home.  The kids lamented that I broke my promise to them, but all in all they did okay.  I told them we would try again soon.

 

After quiet time we headed to the sled hill (it was still snowing at 4 pm):

Mackenzie was kind enough to drag Isaac's sled for him.

Sunil brought Manasvi over to go sledding with us.

Mom even got in on the fun.

 

 

We got Happy Meals after sledding and the kids watched the movie Mackenzie had picked out for the car ride.  So they still had a couple hours of TV watching, but rounded it out with plenty of hill climbing.

 



The last time I looked out the window there was still some snow coming down, but very lightly.  I think winter is finally here.

January Starts with a Splash

We have had a great January so far.  We got some lovely hats from Aunt Bonnie and had fun posing with them.

We went to Castaway Bay water park in Sandusky for Grandpa Butch's birthday.  We weren't able to get a picture with Snoopy with Grandpa, but we did get one with the kids.  They were not too sure about getting close to Snoopy, but they warmed up to him pretty quickly.  This picture is from the second time we saw him and they were much less apprehensive.  

The kids had a great time at the water park.  Mackenzie said it is her favorite hotel that we have ever stayed at.  She was just barely tall enough to go down all the slides including 3 tube slides (one of which was quite fast in Mom's opinion) and a really fun raft ride that proved that the park is owned by Cedar Point.  As Mackenzie said, "It made my tummy go flip-flop."

We left the water park and went directly to Imagination Station for a birthday party for one of Mackenzie's classmates.  Since we are members, Brian, Isaac and I stayed and played and Isaac had fun getting to choose where we went and what we did the whole time.  Right now there is a Sesame Street exhibition at Imagination Station, including Elmo's house:

After the party was over the kids enjoyed some of their favorite parts of Imagination Station before we came home for a well-needed quiet time.

Brian went back to work yesterday and we are getting back into our normal schedule.  So far things are going well, other than the Check Engine light coming on in Brian's car.  It is at the shop now, hopefully it won't be anything too serious.