Confusing Morning - Winter or Spring?

Well, this morning Wayne told me that I would have to clean off my vehicle because it snowed last night.

I went out to clean off the vehicle and start it. While doing so, I heard spring birds singing. It felt discordant to be cleaning the snow off the van and listening to birds singing.

If I had a choice, I would pick Spring.

Dining at Chuck-E-Cheese

During winter break, we had a small get together at Chuck-E-Cheese. We had lots of fun. We set up a buddy system. K. and Jocelyn hung out together (and they had others along too sometimes).

S. was fantastic and was J.'s buddy. They stayed together and had a great time. I am so glad that my kids get a long!


Here J. is in the tube that you have to climb up to get into.

Snowman/Snowwoman?

On the 19th, S. and J. went outside to make a snowman. They did a great job.



Later when discussing the snowperson, they had a conversation that went something like this:

S. - Mom, do you know what the snowman's name is?

Mom - No. What did you name it?

S. - Susan. It's a girl.

J. No, it's not. It's a boy.

So...whether it's a boy or a girl, I'm just happy that they had fun (and didn't make it obvious which gender they wanted it!).

Snow is Still Here

About a week or so ago, I was talking with my Mom, who lives on the other side of the state. I asked if it snowed there. She said that it had, but that the grass was peeking through the snow. I was astounded as we still have A TON of snow here. I took pictures and had to put them up, lest anyone think that we are snow-free.

The first picture is standing on the other side of the road so that you can see the huge mound of snow at the edge of the driveway.

When it melts, it has nowhere to go and so it looks like this:

This was taken 2 weeks ago looking out from our driveway. Currently it is frozen with a layer of snow on top.

Last month I went on a field trip with J. to a science/technology museum. Here J. is striking the bell.

J. in a canoe.



After the kids got to see lots of fun things, they did a demonstration that included animals. Here J. is touching a turtle.



J. touching a gecko.


His favorite was the snake. Unfortunately, you would never get that from looking at the pic., so I didn't include it.


This is an animal that was seen in a habitat, not during the presentation.

We had lots of fun and I absolutely LOVE going on field trips with my kids.

Outside Fun

In January, (and yes, I know that it is late February!) Jocelyn and Megan came up to play with my kids [and of course Wendy and I got to spend time together too :) ].

Here are the kids before they went out to play (Megan didn't go out - hee-hee!)

Here the 4 kids are making snow angels!

Wendy, Megan and I stayed inside (well, technically I went outside, but only to help and to take pictures!). We had fun too - where it was nice and warm!

Homemade French Fries

When I was a kid, occasionally we would have homemade french fries on a Sunday after church. A few weeks ago we did the same thing. They were a huge hit. I did explain that they aren't healthy and we wouldn't do this very often, but they were sure yummy!

J.'s Sweetness

The other day J. came up to me and gave me a great big hug and said, "Mom, I love you as much as the birds love the sky."

I asked him where he got that and he said, "I thought it up in my head."

Awwww...... so sweet.

J.'s Room

So here is a picture of J.'s room (minus the wall clings which we haven't purchased yet.) I don't know how well the color on the wall shows, but it is really a nice shade of blue. I really like it.

Here is a different view of his room.


Here is the trim around the closet. The guy who did it had never done trim on walls before (only trim next to the floors). I think he did a fantastic job!

This is the piece between the hall and the bathroom, and yes, I know that the bathroom floor is outdated and totally u-g-l-y! (It's not changing for a while....other home improvement projects come first.)

J.'s Room and Hallway

J. and S. have allergies. Before we figured this out he was diagnosed with bronchitis, asthma from the bronchitis, had an inhaler to use when necessary, and had a nebulizer. He also had other health issues. S. also had her slew of health issues. Their allergist recommend several environmental remedies. She did recommend that, if possible, we change the flooring in the bedroom to hardwood (or a wipeable surface).

J.'s room had carpet that was original to the house and was very gross.

We decided that if we were changing the flooring, we would paint the room. He is having an ocean room - blue walls (water) wood floors (sand) and we are going to get (we hope) clings of dolphins, sharks and other fishy ocean stuff.

Here is the room and hall transformation process.

This was the border that was in his room, poor boy! When we pulled it down I asked J. if he was happy that it was gone. J. then said, "I'm glad that girlie paper is gone!"

We prepped the walls and filled in all of the holes. The kids helped.

After we filled in the holes, smoothed things out, pulled off the trim around the floor and doorways, and primed the walls, it was time to paint. Here is J. painting.

Here is the hallway upstairs before.

Here is J.'s room after painting and after the carpet and pad are gone.

The hallway into J.'s room.


Here is the hallway mostly after....(we didn't paint the hall and the trim isn't all up.)

J.'s room isn't finished yet. Pics will come soon!

After this will come my room. It will be difficult as I have tons of wallpaper that is totally stuck on and a room filled with furniture.