It's too short to do any one thing...

with Emily's hair. So, I did lot of "things".

First Field Trip

Emily and I accompanied Ava's class to their first field trip at the fire station. It was pretty cool to go behind the scenes. I was impressed by how nice and clean they keep the station, especially the living quarters and the garage. I wish my house were that clean! I think that Emily had more fun than any of the pre-schoolers. She loved it! I wish I had more pics. They didn't let the kids get in the trucks or put on the fire fighting gear...those would have been some fun pics. I was grateful that the fireman giving the tour kept pointing out how important it is to help their mommies and put away their toys. It seems to have made an impression.

Snow Day

Great. So now the snow is taller than our children. Heaven forbid they wander out into the cold (which would imply that I am not watching them...I promise that I am Mom...and Mike) then I might not find them until Spring thaw. It did make for some fun times digging into the drifts. And the upside is that Emily is getting some practice moving around in her hated snowsuit. She's improving beautifully. Loves the new found freedom, even if she does face-plant into the snow every few minutes. It's a little deep and fluffy for sledding, but we had a few runs down the hill before Ava got snow in her glove and launched into the most dramatic tantrum I've seen in quite some time. That was fun. Carrying both children back to the front door while trudging through the knee (sometimes waist) deep snow. Man, if the winter keeps going this way, our mailbox will be buried next storm. That's the mailbox behind Emily in the picture below.

My Nerd Herd

 

My very first pair of glasses from way back in my sophomore year of high school somehow made their way into the tub of dress up clothes in our play room. Both girls had fun mugging in my old specs. These are possibly the only pictures in existence of the glasses. There are certainly no pictures of my 16 year-old self modelling these shiny, round frames. I only wore them when absolutely necessary...when driving at night. Actually, less than that. I only wore them when driving at night through the country. If I were "in town" where someone might see me, I always took them off. We used to go cruisin' back then. I had an image. Ha ha. Ah, the hobbies of a small town high schooler. Heaven forbid that I should look "uncool" at the price of my safety.

Well, I'm glad that the glasses are bringing someone a little joy.

Daily Dose of Wisdom from Ava

 

Have I ever mentioned that disorder makes me a little grouchy? Well, yesterday we were having a clean up session in the family room. Pieces of Ava's fishing game (in addition to lots of other toys)were strewn all over the floor. "Avy!" I said, more sharply than I'd like to admit. "Where is the box to this? We NEED the box!" She just sat there, staring at me. "Why?" She wondered. "Because if we don't have the box we won't know how to play. Without the box, there's no object. Without the box it's just a bunch of cardboard fish and a plastic pole!"

She looked right into my eyes and in a calm, quiet voice said, "Mommy, it's not about winning. It's about what's in your heart."

Well that just took the wind right out of my sails. "You're right," I acknowledged. "Where'd you hear that?"

And then she said...."Mommy, I learned it from you."

I win.

Watermelon!

Just because there are 21 inches of snow on the ground and it's the end of January doesn't mean we can't eat like it's the 4th of July. Last night I sliced up a watermelon for dessert. Both girls loved it. This was Emily's first taste of watermelon. It's fair to say that she loved it! Really. She made crazy, giggling, happy noises the whole time she was eating.

Barbie House Party

Ava got a Barbie house for Christmas. It's more like a set of Barbie rooms that you set up all together. My rule for the Grandmas: it has to be able to fit into her closet. Emily gets hungry for small pieces of plastic and I need to be able to put it away. I know it's bad that I just finally got around to setting up Barbie's house last Monday. Ava had a friend over and I promised them that I'd set up the house so they could "play Barbies" with it. I had no idea what an enormous task this would be. There are a million tiny pieces bound to cardboard with twisty wires and clear rubber bands. Some of the furniture required assembly. To Mattel's credit, every little piece is very life-like and most of them work...even the tiny up and down toilet seat. An hour later I was still wrestling Barbie's coat rack out of the packaging. An hour and a half later, I called it "good enough". I still need to put stickers on parts of the house and there are no less than 150 tiny pieces (silverware, cell phone, remote control, picture frames, etc.) still in a baggie that can be added later. Still, it was done. And I was was happy for the girls. They were beside themselves with excitement. "Wow! Look at that!" "Let's make our Barbies have breakfast!" "Yeah! That's awesome." Ava's little friend even told me that she loved me and thanked me for setting up the house. I took a couple of pictures of the house all set up. It felt like a big accomplishment.





I smiled with satisfaction and went downstairs to fold laundry. Another half an hour went by. The girls came down and I gave them a snack and carried the laundry up. This is what I found in Ava's room:


It must've been some party. The house was trashed and both Barbies were passed out. I'll have to look in that little baggie and see if they have tiny Barbie aspirin. These girls look like they could use a few.