Winter break

The first week of March the kids had Winter break. Why would anyone want to have a break to be home in the middle of the cold and dreary winter? Well I forgot that since almost everyone around is is wealthy they use the break to go to the islands for a reprieve from the cold. We on the other hand are not rich so we stay in and go crazy! So for one of the days Rand took the day off so we could do something fun. We drove to Pennsylvania to the Crayola Factory! It had snowed the night before but the roads seemed clear enough so we went ahead with our plans. It was actually a beautiful drive with the freshly fallen snow on all the trees. It only took us about 50 minutes to get there. It's hard to believe all that is so close to us and yet in a different state. I drove since Randall had a client call even though he had the day off :) When we drove into Easton, PA it reminded me of a little German village and was so charming. The kids had a fabulous time and loved everything they did. They had tons to do. There is even a museum above the crayola factory but we didn't even have time to get to that with all the fun project the Crayola factory had. We got to see a live demonstration of how crayons and markers were made. Got to use every crayola product made. The kids made paper dolls, and paper bag puppets, scrolls with sponges and paints, and their very favorite is a new product similar to play-doh that is white and you can use the markers to color it any color you want to create whatever you want. The possibilities were endless. It was really fun to see with the kiss for several hours and actually participate with them in the different activities. At home that is not often the case with other things that always need to be done as they sit and work on a project. They had a side walk chalk area too, and a fun clear tunnel that you could use special markers to draw with. The kids love that one. Who wouldn't want to draw all over the walls? I even participated in that one. It was a really fun place and a great time together as a family.


Some of the buildings in the town


Kate on the chalk walk, I hope she isn't licking her fingers here!



The clear tunnel where you write on the walls

Coloring of course with hundreds of crayons

Ethan and the Talons

Ethan just finished up his first basketball season yesterday.His team name was "The Talons" . I guess that's pretty scary or something ;) He just had games on Saturdays and really no practice so it was the perfect time commitment for all of us. He learned a lot and got better and better each game. I think he enjoyed it and takes after his mother being a rather "scrappy" player. He was not afraid to be a tad aggressive and loved to steal the ball. His coach was nice and low key so it was all just for fun. A few of the coaches acted like this was high school ball and were kind of ridiculous so I was glad that Ethan had a positive coach and experience to begin with.
Ethan practicing his dribbling skills
Intently listening for coaches instruction

The supportive spectators
Our cute little athelete

Poor Baby

Several weeks ago poor Jane got sick for the first time. She got the stomach flu and kept throwing up over and over, poor thing. As a parent you never want to see your kids not feel well and be sick, but when it's your baby it's really heart breaking. In the pictures above Jane was playing and by the end you can see she was getting sick and a second later she threw up again. She got so sick and threw up so many times that she started throwing up blood. The Dr. said that she must have burst a vessel somewhere from straining so hard. It certainly makes you appreciate when you have a happy, healthy baby!

Way to go Ethan!

Each week Ethan's class is given a sheet of "math facts". Some weeks it's addition some subtraction, and last week it was a sheet of 47 facts of addition and subtraction. Each day he has to practice these facts for a timed 2 minute test on Friday. Usually Ethan scores somewhere in the low 30 range which is great, but this Friday after working hard all week he was up to 42 facts. On Friday for his official test he scored 47 out of 47 in 2 minutes! That's lightning fast. I'm not sure even I could do them all in 2 minutes. Ethan loves school here and the challenge it gives him. He takes his homework very seriously. The other night we got side tracked and had forgotten to do his math facts worksheet. He woke Randall and me in the middle of the night in a panic. We told him to not worry about it and to go back to bed. Instead he got his worksheet and his clock and timed him self and and came down at 3:30 am to tell us he had gotten 33 facts. Ethan was also named musician of the week for the 2nd time this year in his music class. Keep up the good work Ethan, you are amazing!

Terrible 3's

Her beautiful, blond locks...
I'm hoping this is her I feel really bad about what I did look.
Like the mullet?


Yesterday I was hoping to have a little "quiet time". Jane was a sleep and Kate was quietly watching a movie while I was upstairs reading. That is until Kate came upstairs with a handful of hair and said "My hair came off". While I know that most kids cut their hair at some point in their young life, none of mine ever have. Surprisingly I didn't really get upset. I think I was shocked that Kate was just calmly standing there with her hair in hand. I couldn't decide if not getting real upset was good or bad. Part of me thought maybe she was looking for a big reaction and didn't get it and that's good. But, part of me thought maybe I should get really mad so she would know how bad this really was. I walked her to her room for time out and she yelled, "I hate you Mom and Dad." I know she's 3 but boy do those words bother me. I don't remember ever saying that to my parents, at least not out loud :) My older kids have NEVER said that either, I'm not sure where Kate has picked that up, but it come up every once in a while. I made her stay in there for awhile and she ended up falling a sleep for a few hours. When she awakened we assessed the damage, and really it could have been a lot worse. While she cut off about 6 inches it wasn't at her scalp or anything like that. I looks kind of like she was cutting herself "bangs" on one side. She didn't cut all the way through so I did cut the little bit of strands under her "whack" and it's long enough to pull up into a rubber and so all in all I'm considering myself pretty lucky. I recently heard that it's the trying 2's and the terrible 3's. I couldn't agree more. Between hair cuts, mouthing off and jumping off the top bunk (twice) This 3 year old is giving us a run for our money.

A day in my life

Today I got up at 6:30 and read until 7. Started a load of laundry and then we had breakfast and I got Ethan out the door. Then I exercised for 35 minutes, then bathed all 3 girls. Then I put Jane down for her nap and I showered and got ready. Then I went to the chiropractor. Then I came home, made lunch and got Anna ready for school. Took Anna to school, then went to Costco to do my two week shop. Came home only to find someone parked in my driveway(we have a shared driveway with not only our attached neighbors but the house next door so there a lot of cars competing to get in and out) carried in the groceries. Put away the groceries and changed the laundry. Spent forever on the phone trying to contact my insurance company. Talked with a friend for awhile (the highlight of the day!) Then fed Jane and went to pick up Anna at school. Then picked up a neighbor boy I pick up on Mondays and took him home. Then I took the 3 girls to the local grocery store to pick up the items I can't get at Costco. Then went and picked up Ethan. Went to the bank to make but my pen wouldn't work to fill out my deposit slip and the line was way long being it was 4:50 pm by then so I just decided to come home and put away my second load of groceries for the day. Now the kids are doing homework and I still need to make dinner and get the kids to bed, oh and finish the laundry I started at 7 this morning! I didn't include in today's list the many times people told me "you look like you have your hands full" or when my grocery bag broke breaking my huge glass bottles of applesauce all over the parking lot right behind the wheel of my car. Not a bad day exactly, but if I had it my way I would be going to bed right now with a good book...oh and some chocolate!

Beautiful Ballerina(s)

Aren't they cute all dressed up with toes pointed?
Kate doesn't have ballet flats so she figured her rain boots would due.



I love this one of them looking at each other.

Funny enough the one above is my most favorite. Too cute.


For about 3 years now Anna has wanted to be a ballerina. She loves to dance and whenever music is on in our house, which is often, she is found twirling and leaping around. Almost everybook she brings home from school or the library has something to do with ballet . We finally signed her up with a little friend from her school class and she started a few weeks ago. She takes this all VERY seriously and even insists that he hair be pulled back into a tight bun before class. In fact this week we were running a little late and didn't get her hair into a bun. When we got to her dance class she burst into tears because her hair wasn't like a ballerina. So I whipped out her pony tail and made a quick bun and then she was happy. Her teacher said she does a great job and pays very close attention and wants to do it exactly right. She is also taking tap which worried me that we would have constant tapping around but so far we haven't. With all the girls in our house you can't just have one ballerina, so Kate has also been very excited about ballet and has joined Anna on numerous occasions in the living room for some tutoring from Anna. The first day of class Kate had to have tight on and a leotard too. Kate also insisted her hair look "just like Annas." Kate was a little mad when we drop Anna off at class and she doesn't get to participate. Especially because at the beginning of class each girl gets two fairy wands to twirl around with and Kate things that is the greatest! We sure are lucky to have two and in the future 3 beautiful ballerinas.