Mother's Day 2012

My 16th Mother's Day was nice and quiet and relaxing. I went to Indian Lake with the girls and enjoyed some time relaxing and gabbing. 

I spent a little time lounging in the hammock, looking out at the lake and up at the trees.  We had an evening of drinks and chitchatting by the fire and it was wonderful.

 On Sunday, I was welcomed home with a Welcome Home/Happy Mother's Day sign, with balloons even!

 

Ella gave Silas some rollerblading lessons. Only minor wipe-outs...

 Justin created a frame and mixed concrete so that all 5 of us could
make our handprints and then decorate it. 

Silas hand painted me a wonderful tile with flowers.

 
And made me a book about "My Mom"

 Which he put in this big envelope with his paper flowers and flower pot.

 Ella had this card for me...
So much better than the "mean mom" note that I usually get!

 Ella also created a really wonderful book of poems for me too.
She made "me" on the front - I love that she gave me a Life is Good t-shirt,
which I wear as often as possible.

 This was her opening note:

 Dear Mom,
I'm writing you this letter to tell you how much I love you. I appreciate how
you cheer me and my soccer team on and buy us what we need, I appreciate
that you cook for us and take care of me.
I hope you like my poetry book!
You are the best!
Love, Ella

Mother:
Mother
awesome, loving
cooking
running, very amuesing
excited, funny, happy, joyful
Mommyo

There were a few more wonderful poems that I'll have to post too.  I like flowers, I like some pampering...

but this to me is what makes Mother's Day. Though I did NOT get any cute pictures or art from Mason!  I guess that ship has sailed :(

I feel very blessed to have a wonderful mother, wonderful mom friends and family, and pretty darn good kids that call me mom and seem to appreciate me more than just on Mother's Day...life is good :)

Last Couple Weeks

The last few weeks have been extremely busy and I've had no time or energy to blog.  Just a couple highlights.

Ella and her class put on a great play at school.  It was 3 skits with parodies of Fairy Tales.  The kids also all wrote their own fairy tales as well and made them into books. Ella's was called The Princess and the Spaghetti. They really did a fantastic job!!



While we were at the school for Ella's play, we saw some of Si's artwork on the wall in the hallway.
This was a person he created on the computer.


And this was a snowman that he made. I love kid art!!




Last weekend, Justin and I went on a little road trip to Cleveland to go to a surprise party for Justin's longtime friend, Johnny C.  We had a fantastic time and it was great to see him and his wife (Reggie) and catch up. 

Reggie went all out and the party theme was Vegas style, with games and dealers!!

Justin and Johnny stayed up until 6:30am gabbing away.  I luckily, found a nice comfy couch to lay on for a few hours.  It's great to be able to celebrate special occasions with friends that we don't see often enough.


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Snow Dog, BEPs, Fat Cat and Glam Girls Pictures

This winter is the kind of winter I remember having as a kid - LOTS of snow! Zoe hasn't really wanted to spend too much time outside playing in it. She goes out, does her business and hightails her behind right back inside.

I can't say that I blame her with snow like this. 

 The day after the latest of the big snows, I had tickets to see the 

Black Eyed Peas - they were awesome!

 Miss Cleo has been renamed "FAT CAT" 

And no wonder since this is what we find

around the house...

  

We're learning to never leave any food out on the table, counters, anyplace that Fat Cat is..

The minute that we leave the room, she gets it!

On Friday I was lucky enough to have a case of wine delivered to my doorstep, thanks to Grandpa J.  It couldn't have arrived at a better time - after spending so much time with the kids out of school the past several weeks!
 

Ella soon asked me to empty the box out so that she could 
"make an airplane".

She cut wings out of paper and then taped them up, 
took a piece of tinfoil and cut out a microphone to talk to her passengers. 

  

She made tickets to "the Sun Spa", made a ticket holder to put them in

and also drew a TV inside the box for her 2 passengers, AND 

she served them spaghetti and meatballs at NO extra charge! 

  

She spent a good 2 hours piloting her plane to and from the Sun Spa.

Today she decided that her Barbie needed a bouquet of flowers.

She spent an hour coloring, cutting out and making these flowers.

They are less than an inch long. She took a tissue, twisted it up and put the 

flowers down in it so that Barbie could carry the flowers. 

Not having much patience or artistic talent myself, it amazes me when she does stuff like this!

On Saturday night, Ella went to a Red Carpet gala at Abbi and Alli's.

She got all gussied up in her dress and tiara, spending the evening with the big girls.

  

It was quite chilly but the girls had a great time strutting on the Red Carpet!

Speaking of Odd...and dumb....

I know that I've mentioned a time or two that my children are odd, but they always seem to be proving the point.
The last 2 days Ella has been reading to me the step-by-step instructions (from a book that she got at the school library) on how to "wrap a mummy" - did you know it takes 2+ weeks to wrap a mummy? and that they remove the brains first?


Silas has taken to singing "Oh Cannon Bomb" at the top of his lungs while doing his business.  Not sure of the connection there.  Maybe it's all the snow because Jingles Bells has been a favorite this week too.

Ella is still working on her art work.  She drew a picture for her cousin recently.

 

For some reason this reminds me of Dolly Parton...

Maybe the apples don't fall far from the tree around here. 

I've also been educated by my eldest child that "crack is no worse for you than alcohol". HUH?  What ARE they teaching the kids these days in DARE??  

Come to find out he meant marijuana and NOT crack - "I always get those 2 confused!" he says. Yep, grounded for life...

I mentioned a couple weeks ago that I was having some bouts of stupidity and so it continues.  I ran a load of laundry today and it got most of the way through the cycle before I realized I forgot to put the clothes in the washer...

#2 today was not only stupid but dangerous.  After making the kids scrambled eggs this morning, I left the stove burner on (low) from 10am - 5pm and I was home pretty much that entire time but didn't realize it until I came home from getting the kids... 

Not only would I like to know Who Moved My Cheese, but Who the Hell Stole My Brain??

Ella Art

We're going to have to make room for Ella to have her own studio soon - she's taking over the house with her art work.  A couple holiday favorites...

Ella's week

This week was Ella's special week at school. Her teacher "features" a different student each week and they get to bring in photos, tell about themselves, bring a favorite book (she took The 26 Princesses), bring her favorite snack (rice crispy treats) and best of all was that she got to bring Darby (the stuffed) Duck home for the weekend. She cried and cried when she had to take him back on Monday.
Here is the picture that she drew in Darby's journal along with a description of what she did with him all weekend (not her handwriting :)

Notice anything ODD about this duck?

Notice the forehead?

Here are two pictures of Si that our sitter (Kelly) took. Notice the bruise on his forehead? For awhile, when he didn't want to go to bed, he'd bang his head on the side of his crib - or if he'd get mad, he'd bang in on a door, or the floor or anything he could. Luckily, he realized how much that usually hurts and doesn't do it very often now and if he does, he picks the carpet or something soft.
He's got some anger management issues but apparently a bit of common sense...

At Christmas time we got a calendar that Ella made at school. Each month has an art project that the kids made with either their handprints or footprints. This is the January art: