Living in the moment....

Sometimes when you can't find your binky the wooden puzzle piece seems to work just fine. 

This weekend I am supposed to run the Hyannis Half marathon.  Ryan is in Thailand until Friday night.  It was my weekend away - after a LONG week.  Thank goodness my mom was here to help.  Plans changed and now I am taking the kids to NH.  We are leaving tomorrow and driving to NH.  Ryan will hopefully be in NH when we wake up Sat am.   

From there we are going to head into Boston for the day with the kids and then go to Hyannis Sat night so that I can run on Sunday.  Hopefully the kids will sleep well on Sat night, so that I can sleep!!!  The weather forcast for Sun on the cape does not look to promising...boo for rain! 

It will be a whirlwind trip as we are headed back to PA Sunday afternoon....off to get packing.

Fashion Forward

On Thursday Aly was getting ready for preschool...it is always such a process.  This needs to match that and so on.  She came downstairs with this dress on and the belt in her hands.  I thought she wanted me to tie the belt on the dress...the way it is supposed to go.  She informs me that she wants it in her hair....and demonstrates the headband look. 

As I was following her instructions, she says...you know mom belts can be used for other things...they are like an accessory...gee who knew.  CERTAINLY not the one who almost NEVER gets dressed before I pick them up at noon.  I asked her where she learned all this fashion advice.  She says - no joke "At school, you know it is not all about learning your ABC's or 123's."

Apparently we are currently enrolled in the fashion preschool of Lansdale. 

How nice it is...

It hit 60 today...the girls thought it was summer.  They wanted to eat lunch on the deck, put on flip flops and parade around in their bathing suits.  Don't worry I only said yes to lunch.

It was nice because everything Jackson threw on the deck...the birds would eat.  All was well with the world until the boys next door came home from school.  At 7,9, and 11 apparently 60 felt like summer to them to.  They started playing basketball in the driveway and soon their shirts were off.

This resulted in an all out battle.....Aly and Bri were watching the game from our deck and they wanted to take off their clothes too.  In fact, they also wanted to play basketball with their shirts off. 

Eventually the prospect of Dora on the big screen took priority over the boys.

He just may be the end

Look at that smile....pure TROUBLE....  I have little experience with boys..I can tell you all about raising little girls.  I can name the princesses, know about matching hair bows to dresses, how they love their stuffed animals and dress up. 

However, this boy is going to be the end of me.  Emptying cabinets, pulling out entire book shelves, climbing stairs, you name it.  He beelines for my bike, outlets, and the dogs water constantly. 

On Friday, I asked Aly to feed the dogs, while I was getting some things put together for dinner.  As I was packing things up and the kids were getting coats on, I noticed that Jackson was gone.  He was sitting in the mudroom with the dogs, right by their side, eating the dog food. 

Moving Forward.....Making Progress

So this morning we were flipping through old pictures of the girls....Brianna loves to look at pictures when she was little...she will often climb into my lap and say...lets look at pictures of me as baby.. like this...

It is hard to believe how fast they grow...onto the real point of this:

I came across our 2009 new years resolutions....one of mine was to "like running more".....I laughed.  I think it will always be on my resolution list.  I like the feeling when I am done.  I certainly like the benefits it provides me, but man the actual task at hand I do not often like. 

 I have worked hard all winter on my running and this morning I had a run on my schedule....all the kids are home, so it meant that we head to the gym so I can use the treadmill.  While the treadmill usually epitomizes boring...it was my only option and I have found myself there more often than not this winter. 

Drumroll...it was actually okay.  Still no comparison to laying by the pool in Aruba, but during the entire run I felt good and I never once thought "ohhh how I hate this"  which did happen hundreds of times during my 1:40 run on the treadmill on Sat.

Progress...little by little...

 

Oh she makes me laugh.

Is it possible to get kicked out of church....we may find out.

This morning I took the girls to Jr. Choir practice for 9 am.  We then stayed for the 10:15 service but in my head I knew that that was a LONG time for Brianna to sit.  I even asked her before we went into the church to sit in the pews if she wanted to play in the nursery, she replied that she is NOT a baby...

Ryan was home with Jackson since it was just going to be too much for him to try to skip his morning nap.

Service started....the girls colored, had a snack, and FINALLY got called for the Childrens message.  All went well, they talked about favorite things.  Someone said they liked dogs...someone else replied they were allergic to dogs.  Aly pipes up and says - well you can never come to our house then we have dogs..all in the spirit of sharing...

Anyways, the minister dismisses them and all of the kids start walking towards to exit...except Brianna.

No Joke - she stands up and starts dancing.  No music - just the minister she is totally busting a move.  He quietly walks over to her and lets her know all of the other kids have gone downstairs for Sunday School.  She lets him know she is not done dancing...

So there she is entertaining the whole congregation with her moves.

Strawberry Pizza

So I have been trying new recipes this week.  Last night I made a whole bunch of kinds of pizza, tomato and veggie, spinach and feta, ham, bbq chicken, and cheese.  Aly was so helpful - she is going to love the kitchen like I do I think.  I had some more dough, so tonight we made a dessert pizza, strawberry. 

The verdict was YUM.  I thought it was too sweet, had it been chocolate I would have eaten a whole lot more.  Everyone else loved it, Ryan thinks I should make it without the whole wheat dough - go figure.

Brianna would have eaten like this if we let her

Chinese New Year, 100 days, and Sumo Wrestling

This week has been BUSY.  We celebrated the chinese new year this morning in school.  The year of the rabbit.

We also celebrated 100 days of preschool.....in true Brianna fashion

Meanwhile Jack was brushing up on his Sumo wrestling technique.  Man he is a bruiser.  My money is on him that ends up in the emergency room first.   No fear, total determination, and big siblings...enough said.

Wordless Wednesday - help at home