Saturday: ski, temple, Suess, cake

Yesterday while Andrew hit the slopes the girls and went to Lizzie's Primary activity at the temple and then to Lakeshore Learning Center to do crafts (they were celebrating Dr. Suess' birthday). Liz really enjoyed her time at the temple and later on told me that she wants a Jesus-themed birthday party. She explained that the kids could dress up like Wisemen and go on a scavenger hunt by following stars/clues. At Lakeshore the kids enjoyed story-time, face painting, and various crafts. Alaina especially liked dot painting her Horton Hears a Hoo elephant ears. Later that evening Drew took the girls out for a Daddy-Daughter date and returned with a slice of chocolate cake for yours truly. In all it was a nice day.

How I keep Alaina busy during Lizzie's pottery class:

Initially we watched swim meets. Now that those are over I have had to find other diversions. The drinking fountain was the latest. I found that if I pushed a chair up the the fountain I didn't have to bother with either holding Alaina or pushing the button. She loved it, but by the time class ended the floor, the upholstered chair, and my child were all soaked.

Lainey was pretty upset when I cut off her fountain access. This tame shot was taken between screams and sobs.

Other things I wish I had not introduced Alaina to this week: vending machines and ketchup.

More Cuts

The latest baby names Andrew has cut from from my list of possibilities: Adeline, Charlotte, Emeline, Emmalynn, Greta, Madeline, Nadia, Odette,Patrice, Rachael,& Sophia.

Only 14 names remain. I think we are doing much better than last time.

Discover Engineering Family Day at the National Building Museum

Highlights:

Watching some guy from t.v.'s Design Squad shoot up to the ceiling on a rope ascender
Eating free popcorn
Designing a "space ship" with a plastic cup, tape, straws, and mini marshmallows & eating the marshmallow "astronauts"
Playing in the Building Zone
Making a biosphere out of toothpicks and gumdrops (according to Lizzie it was, "Where they used to put dead people in the olden days. You know, a pyramid.")

Valentine Exchange. Finally.

On Friday Lizzie finally had her Valentine exchange at school. As per her request we made mouse cards (the tails are lollipop sticks). Liz was really concerned about getting her Valentine box to school and asked about it for days before the party. Turned out she was only one of three kids who even remembered to bring a box. I let Alaina sample one of the leftover lollipops. Naturally she loved it.

Blast Off For Babies!

I didn't put Liz in a class at such a young age (if I remember correctly), but I figured if everything worked out with the pregnancy and the baby and all, it might be awhile before I have the stamina to take Alaina to another class so I went ahead and signed her up last month. So far she's loved it. And after three weeks of nothing (thanks to travel and snow), I was glad to get back to the soft play room this morning.

Hurray!

Lizzie is back in school today. Hurray! She has only gone four days in the last three weeks thanks to "teacher prep days," snow days, and the two days I took her out of school (pre-snow) to visit Nana.

I'm so glad the endless cancellations seem to finally be over. Just in time too. Yesterday to fill up another day I took Liz to see the latest Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, then I picked up a friend for Lizzie to play with at home. They played well and barely even made a mess--or so it seemed.

When it was time to go I noticed that the girls had opened a bean bag pillow and purposely spread the stuffing all over floor. They said they were sorry, but immediately started giggling (even when I set them both to vacuuming). Lizzie also had a hard time keeping a straight face hours later when she described her crime to Andrew.

She was pretty sorry though when she had to sleep in a bed filled miniature bean bag beads. She actually removed her pillowcase and put her feet in it so she could fall asleep without feeling the sand-like stuffing between her toes. Ahhh, natural consequences.

Now what is the natural consequences of drawing with pen on your winter coat? I thought it would having an ugly coat but Lizzie thinks it looks nice.

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow

Just for kicks, Andrew shaved a bit of a mohawk for his annual ski trip . . . . . . here. Brighton, Utah. He had a fabulous time and his trip was even extended thanks to Snowmageddon 2010. In fact Drew told me that Saturday--a.k.a. the main day of our first major storm/the day he was supposed to be driving his ski buddy to the airport--was actually the best skiing day of his entire trip.I actually liked the new do, but Andrew felt it wasn't appropriate for work and shaved it (and his beard) off last Thursday night (since the gov FINALLY opened on Friday).

We had fun with multiple shaving stages.

First: the lamb chop sideburns.

Next, the handlebar mustache.

Then, the creepy perp-stache. Ewww.

And finally, clean shaven and clean cut.

For anyone who thinks that Andrew's most recent hair escapade was too much . . . . . . let me remind you what he did the first time he tried out a mohawk (that time for a motorcycle trek with our brother-in-law, Nate).

Check out how cute little almost-two-year-old Lizzie was with her chubby cheeks and whacky dad! Ahhh. Reminds of Alaina now, only she has lighter hair.

We're all so glad that Daddy is home . . .

So cliche

I've become a cliche pregnant person. I just ate a whole package of frozen peas. Before that I had a few bread and butter pickles that I picked up earlier in the week because they sounded good (I have hated pickles until then). Oh, and last night I got teary eyed watching the news when a local grocer talked about how he was "there for the neighborhood" and they were "there" for him.

Snow. Again.

Andrew got home by almost midnight Monday, just in time for the next big snowfall on Tuesday night and all day Wednesday. It was also just in time to drive me around Tuesday. It was SO nice to get out after four days at home. We met friends for lunch, had the girls pictures taken, and picked up more grociers. Our fabulous lunch friends, the Pomeroys, also brought us a much-needed shovel. A thousand thank yous to Dan and Sharon. Also, thanks to anyone who graciously offered to bring me milk. Andrew's office is closed all week (because the government is closed all week), but he still has to work from home. When he told me this I thought he would be "working" from home (as in lounging around with us and playing in the snow). Nope, he's actually working. Bum deal.

Drew missed the big dig out from the weekend storm, but he put in his time last night digging out our van and two adjacent cars, and helping a neighbor dig out his empty parking space that other neighbors (and mother nature) had dumped snow in while the poor guy was at work all day.

Andrew did all the heavy lifting, but I scrapped snow off the van windows with a dust pan and pushed snow off the roof with a broom until my sweet husband pushed some on me with his shovel because he noticed I was "going about it inefficiently." Ha. Ha.

While we were outside, Alaina had a (very) late nap and Liz played in the snow (sliding, digging, painting it blue with a spray bottle and food coloring).But mostly she wanted to "help Daddy" so she took turns with the dustpan and broom, until the wind became to much for her. It was VERY windy.

Cleared road and snow flurries.

These pictures don't adequately show how rosie (a.k.a. windburned) Lizzie's cheeks were when we finally went inside.The power went out briefly while we were digging out the van. It went out again shortly after we came inside for good close to 8 p.m. Dominion Power reported that it would probably be back on by 1 a.m. so we gathered all the flash lights in the house, bundled up the girls, and snuggled in our bed with some books. We were pretty surprised when our power resumed shortly before 10 p.m. Go Dominion Power! By then Liz the girls were asleep. Andrew and I were watching movies on the laptop and already eating the box of chocolates we had had bought to exchange on Valentines Day. Not a bad night.

Any minute now . . .

The girls are certainly prepared:

Welcome home cupcakes are necessary right? We had a little taste test.

Snowed in Sunday

I was feeling pretty sorry for myself this morning so when the girls woke up I gave them each a bowl of dry cereal, showed Liz where the rest of the cereal was, turned on cartoons, and went back to bed. Lame, I know, and I totally paid for it later because when I did get up the front room was carpeted with Cinnamon Toast Crunch. When I finally hit my indoor limit (and Alaina pretty much refused to take a nap) we suited up and headed outdoors. To Panera.

Liz was excited to be out in the snow. Alaina pretty much hated it.

I thought she'd walk at least part of the way, but every time I set her down she'd scream and reach for me until I gave in and picked her up. So much for my plan to bring a gallon of milk home from a nearby gas station.

After lunch, a couple of kind souls (a family friend and our home teacher) came over to dig out the van. I'm SO grateful. Liz is sitting on the resulting pile of snow.

The snow mountain (that once covered and surrounded our van) quickly became a magnet for the neighborhood kids. Liz loved it. One minute she was whining about how her feet were cold and she wanted to go in, then other kids arrived, and suddenly she wasn't cold anymore. They climbed the mountain, had snowball fights, and slid on the ice in an adjacent vacated parking spot.

When I finally called Liz in, we did art. Alaina's art started out pretty contained.Then things got progressively messier.

When I stopped doling out paper, Laines finger painted on her tray. Liz helped.

Lovely.

I'm looking forward to a spa day when Drew returns.