Precious Moment

It is so, so cold out right now.  When I woke up this morning the temperature read -3 degrees*.  Tonight it had "warmed" up to 18 degrees.  As I was tucking Silas in bed tonight, I layered about 4 blankets on him, getting him all snuggled in.
I kissed him good-night and said, "You are all snuggled in, nice and cozy.  You are a very lucky boy."
In his close-to-sleep, still baby voice he whispered, "I know mama, I am a lucky boy."

Lordy, how I love these kids!!

*I feel a bit like a sissy complaining about -3 degree temps when it was -47 in North Dakota and -27 in Minnesota today!

My Case for Being a Hoarder

Ella had a 3rd party to go to this weekend, requiring a costume again. She had been a Mummy twice already and we were both tired of getting her in and out of that costume! She had gotten her face painted the day before and wanted to keep that on so we thought she could go as a cat/kitten. I vaguely remembered having a costume with cat ears and a tail in the basement...from when she was a toddler.

I dug through the Halloween costume tote and sure enough, there it was! I pulled the tail off of the costume that would barely fit a 2 year old, pinned it onto her leggings and then put the ears on. She was happy and it was easy (making me happy!).

We also dug the Bat Mobile out of the basement this past weekend. Of course, after 12 years of storage, the battery was dead - so Justin and Si went to Batteries Plus, grabbed a new one and off Si went.

Now I just have to find the mask for Silas to wear!

Mason - 1998

Random update #129

So, it's finally been nice enough weather to get out and do some gardening, planting, hang out outside...it's a super busy time of year with the spring sports for the kids, finishing up school / end of year activities, outside yard work, busy times at work for both of us and sick kids...Si and Ella have both recently had a pookie bug.

Last weekend was my lovely book group and it was our first gathering of the season in the gardens at Susan's.  I could go over there weekly and never tire of taking pictures of her wonderful garden.

I'm finding that May is routinely becoming a very busy month.  This year I did the Race for the Cure again and it was an incredibly beautiful morning.  We had SO much fun. And we stopped afterward and had a yummy breakfast at great little cafe in the Arena district.

(Sarah's - I would never eat such an atrocity of calories! ;)

Emma Lou (Beth's mom) and Margie at the walk

Cool video clip of the race here

This week started some of the final count down stuff at schools.  Ella had crazy hat day on Monday.  She pulled out the perfect hat.  Tuesday was mismatch/backwards day and she wore striped pants and flowered shirt - both backwards. But i forgot to take a picture of that.

This week has also been "first corn on the cob eating" week.  Yay for Florida corn!  It was yummy and made Silas very happy (something that has been very hard to do these days...)!

And speaking of corn, we also planted our own this year.  When we first plant the garden it's so disappointing - how barren it looks. But I know within a month it will be absolutely bursting.  We planted some corn, 3 kinds of tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, carrots, beets, snap peas, lettuce, some herbs...and we have a rhubarb plant the size of Texas. Looks like a big weed!

I was able to sneak out last week and take a few pictures - lilies, a bull frog hiding in the grass at Tara's, 

we have a nest and eggs in our shrub, some gorgeous roses have been blooming and I finally planted some pots and hanging baskets.

I'm ready for summer - bring it on!!

School Pictures

2009 school pictures are in...

Miss Ella - 1st grade

Silas James - preschool

I'm happy with the pictures, though Ella forgot to take her jacket off and Silas appears to have some chocolate or something on his lower lip...and he looks a bit like it's painful to smile.
No picture of Mason yet. They had them taken before school started (at Freshman orientation) and I didn't know and didn't send money so we have to do a reorder...

He looks like this 99% of the time...always wearing the striped jacket and hat on his head.

Mason - 9th grade