Happy Food-on-a-Stick Day!

Sometimes it is just fun to celebrate the goofy things in life, so when I read that today is Food on a Stick Day, we decided it was a time for celebrating the fine culinary treats that come on a stick. Emily and Megan suggested corn dogs. (As you can see from the photo, Megan has a strange way of eating corn dogs.) I thought fruit-kabobs would add a little nutrition to the meal, and Emily finished it all off with a popsicle. You have to have fun and celebrate each day, right? 

Overnight in the Basement Tent

I don't understand the fascinating with sleeping on the floor under a tent which is constructed by blankets, pillows, chairs and couch cushions. But, tonight out living room has been transformed into a hideout for Emily and Megan. So, here they are hanging out this afternoon, planning which stuffed animals will be along for the nocturnal adventure and mapping out the sleeping arrangements. Let the fun begin!

Sewing Project

Emily and Megan wanted to learn to sew so we came up with a simple sewing project for their stuffed animals. They decided their stuffed animals needed sleeping bags! So we raided my stack of fabric stacks and each girl picked out fabric with a satin lining. Emily and Megan both worked so hard to handstitch (I did all the machine stitching) the lining to the outside fabric. Amazingly, I was the only one to incur a needle-stick injury. What sewing project should we tackle next???

Happy Birthday Matthew!

We had a birthday in our house on Thursday!! Matthew is inching closer and closer to "40!" We had some visitors from far away join us for his birthday lunch! My Aunt Janice was home from Alaska, so she and my grandma drove up and we had a nice visit. On the menu for his birthday lunch was chicken and noodles, baked mashed potatoes, corn, biscuits, fruit salad and snickers ice cream cake.

Our birthday tradition at our house is to go out for pizza, but Emily and Megan had a Girl Scout meeting that night, so we went out Friday night to one of our favorite pizza restaurants in Macomb -- Larry A's. What a treat to run into Matthew's Aunt Dolores and cousin Amy and her children! 


Happy birthday to the best husband and dad! We love you lots!

Spring Is Here!!!

Yesterday marked the first day of spring, and the temperatures were finally spring-like. Actually, our outdoor thermometer registered 79 degrees! It was so nice to get the windows open and enjoy the fresh air. It is fun to see all the green plants emerging from the ground and the grass getting more and more green each day. And today, we took a walk and played on the swingset and in the sandbox. 

Another sure sign of spring are the new calves. We are anxious for the cows to start calving, any day now. It is such fun to see the calves playing together in the pasture, or watching a calf stand for the first time. 

Happy St. Patrick's Day

We had fun learning the history of Saint Patrick last week, and reading books about the legends of leprechauns. Emily and Megan made their own leprechauns to play with.

Shrinky Dinks

I remember creating Shrinky Dink creations when I was a little girl. For some reason, it is great fun to color on a thin piece of plastic, and then melt it in the oven. Most of the fun is watching the plastic transform in the heat! This past weekend I shared that memory with our girls and they made Tinkerbell Shrinky Dinks. They carefully colored each thin sheet of "magic" plastic and watched with amazement as we baked them and they curled up and shrank into smaller and more sturdy pieces of colored plastic. At one point I thought the little fairies were ruined because they curled up so much! But soon, they flattened out and the design was visible again. What a fun blast from the past!

Funny Quote

Yesterday we were driving through Good Hope and Emily said, "What's that sound? Oh, it's a lawn mower. I forgot what a mower sounds like." It wasn't a lawn mower, but another motor that sounded like a lawn mower. Silly Emily!


On Tuesday we decided that we were working on putting other people's needs first. At one point in the day she and Megan were disagreeing about who would "go first" and I asked Emily if she was putting Megan's needs first. Her reply: "Well, I have already done that THREE times today!" I wasn't aware that there is a limit to selflessness!

A Lesson in Real Estate from a Seven-Year-Old

Well, when Emily asked me and Matthew to play a game of Monopoly with her, I had no idea how it would end. And, when she got excited about purchasing Baltic Avenue and Mediterranean Avenue I thought it was a premature celebration, knowing that they are the "cheapest" properties on the board. I will NEVER underestimate the value of those properties again. It was an embarrassing loss! She popped up houses on those properties faster than ever, and soon had hotels. It also helped that she owned all the railroads and utilities. Emily had started building on Boardwalk and Park Place, but it didn't generate any revenue for her because we didn't land on them. I had nearly all my properties mortgaged at this point, so I never even got a foundation poured for my first house. And Matthew had begun to build houses and I thought he might hang in there, but we both found ourselves bankrupt. Way to go, Emily! Every day you teach us something new! 


One cute moment in our game happened when Matthew landed on one of my properties that was mortgaged. We explained that Matthew didn't have to pay because my deed was upside down. Emily, in her sweetness, ran over and said, "It's ok, Mommy. I'll turn it back over for you!"


Here is a photo of Emily enjoying her victory. Notice all of my properties mortgaged, and all of Matthew's properties mortgaged.

Think Spring!

Even though the weather tells us it is still winter, we are trying to "think" spring here. We have a wall where we display artwork that the girls have made, and today we replaced the winter snowflakes that Emily had made with a caterpillar and butterflies that the girls made with their Aunt Melissa. What a fun and colorful wall it is. Now, maybe it will warm up outside and we can start riding our bikes again!!!

 

Captured Moment

And Where Did February Go???

I cannot believe we have entered a new month already. January and February flew by! For some reason, this year, February was our busiest month so far, with something scribbled on nearly every day of the calendar. Although most everything we did was fun, we enjoy our free time at home together. 

Megan has started taking piano lessons, and I don't have to beg her to practice! She loves practicing her songs. This new interest in the piano has encouraged Emily to practice more, and most every day they compete for time at the keyboard. Now, if only I could get them interested in the laundry room!

Last Saturday the girls attended a fun Daisy Girl Scout event at the high school in Rushville. It was called Daisy Day at the Farm, and the FFA did a great job creating fun farm activities for the girls. Some of their favorite things to do were digging for potatoes and milking a "cow." 

They also loved the petting zoo where they learned more about horses, calves, pigs, chickens, lambs and goats. Did you know that the average chicken lays 300 eggs a year? 

Before leaving the school, the girls had chores to do. They had to ride their tractors down a long hall, carry a feed bucket, climb over a fence, roll a tire, stack "haybales," roll the tire back to the fence, climb back over the fence, carry the feed bucket back to the tractor and ride the tractor back. Their "pay" was a  bag of candy corn!