A Day of Shopping

Every year the men in my family take a day trip to Dundee, MI to visit the outdoor store Cabela's. My mom and I take advantage of this day without the men by meeting in Birch Run to do a little retail therapy of our own at the outlet mall. Last year was Russell and Sloane's first time joining in on the fun. Russell hangs with the men looking at hunting and fishing gear while Sloane learns the ropes of finding the best deals in town! Sloane proved to be a born shopper. At noon I asked her if she wanted to keep shopping or eat lunch. She quickly and loudly announced, "SHOP!" She picked out water bottles for her and Russell and especially enjoyed finding new shoes. At almost two-years-old, this little girl already has an obsession with shoes! When I pick her up from daycare, she often has another child's shoes on. When shopping, she squeals with delight, "shoes, shoes" as soon as she sees a pair. Grammy spoiled her a bit this weekend by letting her choose two new pairs: white sandals with colorful flowers and sparkly pink tennis shoes. What can I say...girls will be girls!!!

Shop Til You Drop!

Enjoying a lunch break at Culver's....mmm...frozen custard!
The men (plus cousin Katie) enjoying lunch after their Cabela's outing.

Fun Friends + Cute Kids = Wonderful Weekend!

Fun Friends!
We had such a fabulous weekend! Saturday night we met up with 4 other families for a delicious Italian meal at Buca Di Beppo. Aron and I were a little worried considering our reservation was at 7:00 p.m. (this being Russell and Sloane's usual bath time followed by bedtime story and tucking in by 8:00 p.m.) but our children proved us wrong. They not only sat nice, ate quietly, and entertained themselves, but they did this for 3 hours! Yes, we had them out until 10:00 p.m.! We had so much fun! Thank you to our wonderful friends for getting us out of our house!

On Our Way to the Restaurant!

Juice, Pizza, Entertainment...Let's do this EVERY weekend!

The Guys... Aron, Russell, Sean, Graham, Declan, Dave, and Steve

The Gals... Jody, Tracy, Heidi, Mary, Kirsten, and Sloane

Cute Kids!

Russell and Sloane were absolutely adorable Sunday night. Russell so badly wanted to put his little sister to bed by himself. He insisted that he could read her a story, rock her, and sing her a song without adult assistance. I had tears in my eyes watching them. If only they could stay this age FOREVER! I pray that the love they show one another now, lasts a lifetime. I know they will disagree, pull hair, and maybe even slam doors in the other's face (sorry Keith) but please God let them love, forgive, and support one another forever.

Cuddles, Hugs, and Night-Night Kisses

St. Patty's Day Parade

Whoo, hoo!!! Spring is almost here!!! We are READY!!!!!!

We enjoyed a fun and festive day in downtown Royal Oak on Saturday. It was the annual St. Patrick's Day parade. The kids had a blast watching all the Irish floats, dancers, and dogs...yes, tons of Irish dogs! Sloane made quite a few furry new friends. She had to pet every one that walked by (and there were a lot)! Russell enjoyed just being outside with his friends. He is always wide-eyed when the fire trucks drive past. Afterward the neighbors came over for hot dogs, chips, and one of Aron's now famous pies :-)

"The parade is coming! The parade is coming!"

Sloane collected candy and beads.

We spent today enjoying the fabulous weather!!! Russell and Sloane were completely thrilled with playing at the park. It was as if they were visiting a long lost friend. Russell can now go down the fire pole all by himself and Sloane (thank heavens) now understands the fear of height and was much more manageable on the play structures compared to last year. Last summer she nearly ran right off the edge of every high platform. I literally would have to walk behind her holding on to the back of her shirt. It was so nice today to simply watch from below as the two kids giggled and ran around.

The sand table is out of hibernation!

This weather rocks!!!

Let's hope for many more days like today!!!

Quiet Weekend

It's been a quiet (and rainy) weekend. All of our planned events were cancelled due to Russell and Sloane not feeling well. Both kids came down with bad colds and I ended up taking Sloane to the after hours clinic today. She has croup. We are all desperate for spring to get here and this cold and flu season to be OVER!

Our little trooper giving herself a saline breathing treatment.

Russell loves the show Word World. Here he is "building words."

I have to take a moment to brag about my husband :-) Many of you know that he loves homemade pies. Well, last week he got it in his head that he wanted to make a pie. He got out all of the ingredients and went to work with the kids busy helping him. The pie did not turn out so well. I think between it being his first pie along with two extra hands over handling the dough it was destined to fail. Aron is very competitive and could not be remembered as a pie failure so after the kids went to bed he began the process again. At midnight the perfect cherry pie was complete! He ate the entire pie in less than 24 hours!!! Last night after I put the kids to bed I came out to the kitchen to find Aron at it again. This time he added details...a woven top, glistening shine, and a beautiful bubbling of cherry filling. Now less than 24 hours later, he has only two pieces left. He tells me that his next pie will be apple. I hope my Dad is around for the taste testing, it's his favorite (we will be sure to have cheese with it, Dad)!

Mmmmmm!

Weekend with Grammy Carlson

Aron's mom came to visit for the weekend. Russell and Sloane were so excited when she walked through the door Friday evening. They both ran to her and began talking a mile a minute telling her about their latest adventures. She was pulled in all directions to see toys, books, and everything else of theirs lying around the house.

On Saturday, we decided to take the kids to the mall. Russell has been asking for a belt. For the last week he has worn one of Aron's belts wrapped two times around his little waist. After making our single purchase, we headed to the children's play area. Sloane was a hoot to watch! Her little feet were in constant motion the entire time! I was delighted with how both children behaved. After our library incident last week, I was a bit nervous to take them out. They were gentle, patient, and cooperative with the gobs of other children playing, and they did not argue with me when it was time to go! Whew, maybe I am doing something right?!?!

I am thrilled that March is here. In like a lion, out like a lamb...right? Let's pray that lamb part will get here soon!!!

Playing baby dolls with Grammy Carlson.

Russell enjoys playing with his geotrack set.
Grammy helped keep the trains from crashing.

I have to brag about my great find! I stopped into a second hand children's store and found this awesome pirate ship for $8.99! Russell has wanted one for a long time. I intended on putting it away for another time, but that little smarty pants found it!!! He LOVES it!!! In this picture, he is "fixing" it :-)

A Week Full of Events

I had the past week off for winter break. I took the opportunity to check a lot of items off of my to do list and to soak in a lot of activities with the kids. Russell has been asking to visit my classroom so I took the kids to play at my school. This was a blast! Russell loved the giant white board while Sloane spent most of the time in the kitchen center. We also went for haircuts and made the trip north for dental check-ups with my brother. I took the kids for pictures which turned out absolutely ADORABLE! I was so impressed with the photographer. She was so charming with the kids. Our weekend was spent bowling with the neighbors and shoveling snow (UGH)! Will spring ever get here?!?!

Although my week was quite refreshing and I would never complain about having time off with my children, there were two unpleasant events of the week:

First

I spent one morning during the week at the library which turned out to be a slight nightmare! I honestly do not know what went wrong! The kids just became extremely giddy and before I could grasp what was happening, I lost complete control of them! Sloane was running between book shelves squealing and once Russell caught onto the excitement, he was off. I had to drop everything and hoist two children under my arms kicking and screaming. I was mortified to say the least and had to make a quick exit without any new books. This turned out to be the BEST punishment for their behavior. Russell was completely distraught over not having new library books. He spent most of the afternoon apologizing for running in the library.

Second
Our furnace conked out on us causing a very cold Friday. Thankfully we have a fireplace so we had more wood delivered and were able to keep the heat above 60 degrees. The furnace is temporarily fixed however it is just a matter of time before it is a goner. Just when you think you are about to have a little cushion to lean on... POP there it goes!!!

Good and bad, I am so thankful for the time off with my family!

We spent extra time on art projects this week.
Sloane is becoming a dress-up queen! She loves her princess dress, Cinderella shoes, movie-star sunglasses, crowns, hats, and jewelry! She always has to check herself out in the mirror.

This was the first time we have gone bowling as a family. Russell was so excited! He raced to roll his ball down the alley and then did not even wait to see what happened. He was more into getting high fives from all of his friends!

What is with this snow?!?! I looked back and the first snowfall was on November 16th. Should I really still be posting snow pics?!?! I can not wait for spring!!!

This is Sloane's latest chain of events...lining up EVERY baby doll, wiping them with baby wipes, giving them each a diaper then a pair of jammies, covering them with a blankie, then giving them all kisses night-night. Repeat, repeat, repeat! It is very cute, but at one time we counted nine pairs of pajamas lined up on our family room floor!

Mother Goose Lives On

Russell loves nursery rhymes. Over the last few days, he has requested for me to read to him from the Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme book. It takes several minutes to get through the shortest rhyme due to Russell's curiosity. He questions EVERYTHING! His questions are adorable, but at times I am not quite sure how to answer them. I thought I would share a few of his thoughts:

There Was An Old Women Who Lived In A Shoe:
You can't live in a shoe. It would hurt. Where is the bread? Why is it all gone?

Humpty Dumpty:
Why did he crack? Why did he sit on a wall? Eggs don't sit on walls. Eggs crack then you have dinosaurs.

Rub-a-Dub-Dub:
Why are the men in a tub? There's no room. You can't have bread and candles in a there.

Rock-a-Bye Baby:
Mary lost her baby? The bad guys put the baby in the tree. The baby will fall. Baby needs to find Mary. Where's Mary?

Hope these thoughts from a 3-year-old make you smile like I did!