A Long Wait

I can't believe I haven't posted since the end of February!

Needless to say, my life went into overly crazy mode for a couple of months. But, now that things are returning to just the normal crazy I want to catch up. Well, my computer, now going on 6 years, has decided it doesn't like to download my pictures. I've figured out how, but it is more time consuming. Also, because of it's age - it doesn't like the newly updated Blogger and uploading pictures take SO LONG!! 

We are looking into getting a new computer . . . . SOON! and will then catch up and blog with ease (or so I'm hoping). Keep us on the sidebar of your blog and see when I pop back up to the top with a new post. 

If I find a bit more time I might try making another post and even put up some pictures. A lot happens in two months you know.

Girls Weekend!

With Alyssa making GA All-State Chorus this year, we got to have a girls weekend in Savannah! This year we brought my friend Sara along as well - so much fun!

It was cloudy, but mild for the most part (back home it was raining and cold).

It's a fun and exhausting weekend for Alyssa with rehearsals from 9am to 9 pm, with breaks for lunch and dinner. While she rehearsed, the rest of us walked around town and up and down River Street.

We love the architecture of the area - 

all the old buildings.

And Natalie now knows what she wants on her balcony someday.

The streets are full of shops - candy shops, 

 that have samples ready to pass out.

Something is always cooking and the smell wafting out the doors draws you in.

We love the honey store.

And there are always way too many trinkets to choose from.

Even with the gloomy weather, we rushed down (during Alyssa's longer dinner break on Friday) to the beach.

No matter what, Natalie was planning on getting in the water. . . .

and she did. And had a blast!

It was a little to gray and cold for the rest of us.

It made me wonder if ships can always see the lighthouse.

Our hotel was in a perfect location - one block from the top of River St. one way and from Market Square the other way.

The weekend was of course for Alyssa and ended with going to watch her performance.

 They professionally recorded and taped it this year, so there was no recordings of any kind for the rest of us. (Sorry, no snippets of songs on here.)

We did order the DVD and it will be fun to show the boys when it gets here.

Here they are getting ready.

They were wonderful!

With all the great eateries around the area, we celebrated at Tubby's Tank House. It was so fun and everything was delicious!

We picked up dessert at Lulu's Chocolate Bar and enjoyed them at our hotel.

The perfect ending to our weekend.

 

The boys had a great time at home without us, with a couple of parties and a Star Wars movie marathon - all 6! (Logan kept falling asleep.)

I love spending time with my girls! And I was excited that I look taller than both of them in most of the pictures!

I LOVE BOOKS!

Anyone who knows me at all knows I love books! And I'm passionate about children's books - especially the ones I grew up with, ones you often can't find anymore.

As I was driving home, I caught the end of an interview with an author. He was asked what books he loved when he was little, to which he responded that when he was in elementary school they were leveled, 1, 2, or 3. He was in level 3 - the stupid ones, the ones that would be flipping burgers. They didn't have many book and weren't really taught to read. One day a teacher came into the room, took him by the hand and brought him to her level 1 classroom. She sat him by her desk which was stacked with books - all below the grade level, but he still couldn't read them. She taught him how to read. One of the first books he loved was "The Big Jump."

 I was so excited I let out a little cheer! I have that book and I LOVE that book. It is well worn with love and use.

I was so excited to hear a story about a great teacher who took a boy who would have been continually looked over and allowed him to succeed!

Valentine's Day

We started a tradition, sometime, to have pink pancakes for Valentine's Day breakfast. The children also get a little something at their plates.

 This year, the girls each got a rose and everyone split some chocolate covered strawberries. 

They were mostly for Jacob. Whenever the commercial would come on he would come into the room and say, "those look so good. Don't they look really good?" So, I thought it would be fun to order some as a surprise for him.

He loved them and said it was the best Valentine's Day gift - even as great as the year they got Lego spinners for their Valentine's gift. . . . Now that's pretty good! :)

Logan loved the pink heart shaped pancakes and pink syrup and asked for them for dinner that night and breakfast the next day!
Breakfast was a hit!

Robert and I went out to dinner with some friends that night and had a really nice time.

That Saturday we went to a Valentine's Day Sweethearts party at a friend's and were asked to bring a dessert. I made a raspberry-lemon icebox cake. It was very fresh and light. Robert thought I should have gone with the Belgian chocolate cream pie, but I thought there might be a lot of chocolate desserts there and decided to bring this one.

I'll just have to make the chocolate pie another night!

Cub Scout Blue&Gold

February is the month of the Cub Scout Blue & Gold banquet. I found way too many cool ideas on-line and started feeling a bit overwhelmed.

It's nice to have a bunch of leaders to divide up assignments. I took care of the cake and table decorations. I found a great cake and adapted it to my abilities.

For den meeting, the week before the Blue&Gold, the boys helped put together some of the table decorations. They were very helpful and it was fun to see what they did on the tables.

I saw an idea for blue chocolate dipped marshmallows with gold sprinkle. I found some light blue melting chocolate and tried a few out to see how they would turn out. 

They turned out great and weren't very hard to make. Alyssa and Logan did most of them for me on a Sunday afternoon.

We had a great turn out and everyone had a great time.

The boys helped in an activity that talked about the three important parts of Cub Scouts - the boys, the leaders, and the parents -

and how we all support each other.

It was a wonderful night and celebration.

Waiting Rooms

 When waiting in a waiting room, it's hard not to glance at some of the magazines they have laying on all the tables. The ones with food on the cover caught Alyssa's eye and we started flipping through the February Family Fun magazine.

They had some great ideas for dinners made in muffin tins. I had to get the issue.

We tried out the sweet potato shepard's pie (pictured below) - a great blend of flavors. Jake and Alyssa loved it (Alyssa said eating it made her smile), Natalie and Logan - liked just the bottom meat part, sort of.

 I also tried the homemade mac&cheese recipe for the muffin tins - the kids weren't too keen on the breadcrumb topping (just cheese next time) - but they all loved it, even Natalie! and she hasn't liked any mac&cheese she's tried until this one.

They also had a great idea for a Groundhog's Day dessert! So we celebrated last Saturday with a bit of sweetness.

I forgot to get the chocolate wafers to crumble on the top, so the groundhogs had to come out of mud instead of dirt, but it was still yummy!

If you have to sit and wait for appointments, I'm sure glad they provide great reading/idea material!

Catapulting for Science

 It's that time of year again when the science fair rubric comes home - this time for Jake.

He had it in his mind to do something with a catapult and over coming gravity. He decided on determining potential energy of a spring - measured by how far the projectile is launched using a spring catapult.

He and Robert build a simple catapult to measure distances using different lengths of spring at different angles.

 The projectile - an Angry Bird!

There were many launches,

 lots of landings, 

 and lots of measuring.

One of the springs got really stretched out and the bar stopping the arm at the given angle got a bit bent out of shape from all the force.

 Data, graphs, pictures and coming up with analysis and conclusions and the project and tri-board is complete! We hung one of the springs on the board as well, since he couldn't take his catapult to display with his project (it's a weapon).

 I like when they are done and turned in - early!

Christmas in Connecticut

 We headed out for the long drive to Connecticut - playing the alphabet game, reading, watching movies, and checking out the others on the road.

Biker Dog was our favorite.

 We went into NYC the day after we got there, showing the kids 5th Avenue - lights, window displays, decorations,

Rockefeller Plaza,

FAO Schwartz, and the Lego store. The important things for kids right before Christmas.

 When the sun started going down, the wind picked up and the temperature dropped.

A NYC pretzel hit the spot . . .  if you can say that about a NYC pretzel.

 We went from Robert's sister's place to his brother's house, a little farther into Connecticut, for a couple of days before and after Christmas.

 We had fun being all together.

My camera broke completely the day we went into NYC - it was on the verge - and I was so excited to go with Robert and buy a new one the day before Christmas!

 With no snow, we spent some time at a great school playground. 

I had a hard time keeping Jake in a jacket and shoes.

 On Christmas Eve, after telling the story of Christ's birth (with everyone involved with some part), we made a cousins pyramid before sending them off to bed.

 Christmas morning brought a dusting of snow, the kids were so excited. It made Christmas perfect.

There wasn't enough snow to go out right away, but by the time breakfast was eaten and presents were open, the Georgia cousins were dressed and out in the cold stuff!

 

 The kids got to open stockings before breakfast,

 and gifts after. 

We did go one at a time for the everyone's first gift, but the excitement got the best of everyone and each opened their gifts 

excitedly showing them to others and excited to see what someone else got as well.

 With snow in CT most likely our only chance to play in snow, Natalie, Jake, and Logan went out to play in the little bit that had fallen for Christmas.

 The trampoline is always fun with snow!

 Then they came in to warm up, build with Legos,

 and just be together with cousins.

My sister-in-laws know me well and both had puzzles waiting to be done. The snowman one we finished at Robert's brother's house - it was a large 2000 piece one with odd shapes. Let's just say it got finished very late the night before we were going to be heading back to Robert's sister's house.

 We went ice skating (minus Logan and I) with the cousins, my niece is very good and it was fun to watch her to twirls and jumps 

while the rest of just tried staying up as they went around the rink.

There was a snow storm moving in that evening, so we stayed one more night. 

We let the kids go sledding, that night, when there was enough snow. 

 

They had a blast night sledding and we had to drag them in when we realized it was almost 10pm!

 

 The snowplows worked through the night and, in clearing the driveway, left a perfect mound of snow to sled off of!

 

 I love the picture below - a great shot of Jake's jump start, what you miss is the second later when he landed and biffed it! It was so funny - we were all laughing.

 Although I wasn't too thrilled about packing wet snow clothes in the car to go back to Heather's, I'm glad the kids got to have some more fun together in the snow.

 A couple of snowmen even came to life.

 

 It was a good thing they got some more time in the snow because Heather's had melted by the time we got there.

We stayed busy having fun inside. 

Puzzles, Legos, and JustDance on the Xbox.

Natalie tested out her cake pop maker, her gift from Santa. Parker could hardly wait and got as many samples as he wanted.

 We took one more trip into the city, to the Museum of Natural History. 

You can spend days there, we only had a few hours - but the kids loved everything they saw.

 Alyssa started to not feel well, so she and I headed back out to the car to wait for the others.

(I'll have to put in a picture Robert took of the cousins when I get it from his camera.)

 A vacation wish for me came true when Troy went down to Scarsdale to bring back bagels for breakfast - the ones I grew up on. They are a must when we go to visit and are so close to great bagels!

The kids had one last vacation wish come true when it started snowing again.

 By late afternoon there was enough snow for one more trip to some hills.

There were some fun runs down the hill, testing each sled and the snowboard, racing each other, and seeing who could go the farthest.

Parker enjoyed the playground and swings while the others went up and down the hill.

 A perfect way to end a wonderful Christmas trip to Connecticut!