Signs of Spring

Spring is slowly coming to the frozen north. This time of year is actually frightfully ugly as the dingy grey snow melts uncovering all of the garbage collected there during the winter and showcasing the brown grass of all of our yards.

I took the camera out to the front lawn to search for signs of spring and look what I found.

Life!
So, I have a confession to make. I love my flower beds, but by the end of last summer I had much bigger worries in my life than whether or not my garden beds were ever weeded. So, I never actually got the beds ready for winter. Instead of mulching them, I decided the sheer volume of weeds would provide a natural cover for the flowers over winter. It's almost bad enough for me to wish for another blizzard to cover them all up so I do not have to contemplate how many hours of weeding I have ahead of me!

The rabbits are out in force. Notice in the photo how they did not nibble on the surrounding weeds and grass, but instead chewed on only the new flower shoots. Anyone have a good rabbit replant that's not a firearm?


And these would be the tracks left by very destructive little voles. Last spring when the snow melted our neighbors lawn was covered in these trails. They must have put something on their lawn because clearly the voles have moved to ours.


Ah, spring.

Hooked on Harry

Guess who decided she needed to jump on the Harry Potter bandwagon? Sophie just finished the first book.

Max is on book #6. He told me he has decided to read the series the same number of times as there are books (that would be seven). Evidently, he is almost done reading the series for the fifth time. I don't think I was hooked on a series in third grade, but I remember reading the Anne of Green Gables series (all 8 of them, and I always cried reading #8) at least that many times when I was a bit older.

Go Green!

I don't usually do a lot to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. We have a bit of Irish in us somewhere, but I did not grow up celebrating the holiday other than a traditional corned beef and cabbage dinner. I skipped the corned beef this year and instead went for a green breakfast.

The menu: green apples, green grapes, green eggs, green pears, donuts with green sprinkles and green juice (I had a half a bottle of Fresca left over from some event so I added a drop of green food coloring and shook it up).


All of the kids wore green shirts except for Calvin. He had on green pants and green socks. I had to talk to Max about not pinching kids at school - especially girls. You can't be too careful these days!


Calvin's face after I told him he could not have a donut until he ate his eggs.


Tristan seriously does not like dirty fingers! The breakfast was a big hit though Max was disappointed not to have ham with his green eggs.

Holy Guacamole!

I was asked to bring some guacamole to the primary board meeting on Friday night. Guacamole may be my all-time favorite food (gasp! even more than chocolate!). I love guacamole in and on pretty much everything from tortilla chips to chicken, to vegi sticks, to burritos to salads. It's an all-purpose delicious food and very simple to make.

There are only 5 ingredients in the perfect guacamole. Ripe avocados, red onion, limes, kosher salt and cilantro. The photo show the amounts I used - 3 avocados, 1 small red onion, juice of 2 limes, salt to taste (about 1 teaspoon) and a big bunch of cilantro.


Chop it all up and dump it into a bowl and them start cutting and mixing it with a big spoon.


That's it. Simple and so yummy!

A week ago

Just a note. A week has past with no posts - sorry about that. I try and keep my blog updated with positive, fun things and limit the amount of whining and complaining about my life. I do not know a single person who is not going through difficult things right now. It is a humbling time.

We spent the weekend in the emergency room with Bryan who was experiencing severe chest pain. You can read his thoughts on his running blog. But, for all of those sweet members of our church who have been emailing, calling and facebooking ever since Sophie stood up in sharing time and announced that her mommy and daddy were in the hospital because her daddy had a heart attack, let me assure you that Bryan's heart is healthy and strong.

It has been a week. Here's to happier, sunnier, less stressful times ahead!

Upcoming Events

Sophie-loo-who is about to lose a front tooth. There is much speculation as to when and where this event may occur and much advice being given for extraction methods (thanks Dad for the pliers vote - Sophie seriously considered it) . She slept with a paper towel under her chin last night just in case her tooth fell out while she was sleeping. We'll keep you updated on all of the breaking news.

A Snowman Story by Max

click on each page to enlarge

Views from my window - Wacky Weather

It's been raining, it's been snowing, there was a brief moment of hail and a whole lot of fog. There is no sign of spring judging by the -1 temperature when I left the house this morning. Brrrr!

Friday Fieldtrip - Model Train Museum

On Friday, the kids had no school - I'm not sure why. Needing to get out of the house, we loaded up the car and took off for the library where we met up with Susan and her kids to see the Twin City Model Railroad Museum in St. Paul. Our libraries have this wonderful program where we can check out free museum passes. We were able to get enough to cover all of our admission tickets which is my kind of field trip!

The museum is located in the old Northern Pacific Railway building which was used to repair passenger cars. The outside of the building has these gorgeous doors all around the building!


Inside, the building has been converted into office space with big sweeping arches and lots of original brick. It would make a beautiful reception site!


I love this bench made out of an old railroad car.


Calvin freaked out about having so many people in the elevator. He took the stairs when we left. Once inside the museum though, Calvin was in heaven! The museum is small but with tons to see. The big kids loved the scavenger hunt and the little kids were content to watch the trains go by and play with the Thomas tables set up near the entrance. There are buttons to push that make the lights turn on or the trains to go and a big train bell to ring. Definitely a great place to see for all ages.

Views from my window - warm weather

Every day this week, the kids have come home from school, thrown their backpacks in the front door and headed out to play. The weather has been really warm and I fear the snow mountain's days are numbered.

Mommy question: what do you do about bullies in your neighborhood? We have a couple of boys around here that are just mean. Though younger than Max, they gang up on him 3 vs 1 for snowball fights that usually result with Max getting hit in the face and crying, they push the younger kids (yesterday one of them shoved one of the little kids off the snow mountain and made his chin bleed), say mean things and make threats and are just generally kids I would rather my own children could avoid. I watch the kids from the window when they are in the cul-de-sac and if I see the bullies acting like well, bullies, I go to the door and threaten to call their moms. I've talked to Max about just saying "I don't wish to play with you" and not to be a tattle-tale, but in truth, yesterday I wanted to go out there and give the bullies a sound spanking and send them to bed. Do any of you have any experience with this - should I just call the moms or go out and talk to the kids with my best "don't-mess-with-me mommy voice?"

Slow Week

Not much going on around here this week. Sophie celebrated Dr. Seuss's birthday at school:


Calvin has been feeling a bit under the weather and has spent most of the week needing snuggles with his mommy. No problem there.

Purple Pansy

Sophie has taken to dressing in various tones of one color. This was a purple day. I think it's rather efficient of her. She is also fond of wearing skirts or dresses pretty much every day. This skirt is a Baby Gap 4T which I have stubbornly had in her closet since she was about 3 years old. She is finally fat enough to wear it. I'm not quite sure where her genes came from.

Views from my window - Winter Storm

This is what it looked like on Thursday morning - bright and clear.


By that afternoon, we had lots of new snow and relatively nice weather which lured the kids outside after school.


Several of our neighbors have these handy contraptions - I have a shovel.


After a an hour or two of hard play, the kids were ready for hot cocoa and popcorn and my whole house smelled like wet, sweaty kid. Repeat this same post for Friday!