Nature Center kind of day

We haven't been to the Hidden Oaks Nature Center in a while so we decided to head on out there today.....


When you first walk into the nature center you walk through a butterfly garden. Lots of swallowtails.


They were really pretty. Lots of milkweed in the garden, too, which I think is supposed to attract Monarchs? So we'll be back to see them, too. The nature center offers a program where you tag the Monarchs (I think) and let them go. We may sign up for it.


New addition since last time... A huge microscope! It was cool.


Oh, no! There's an alligator in here!


Oh, no! It ate Ariel!


Mom, I look dumb. I feel dumb. Do you have to take my picture?


Rachael dressed as a snake and went and hid in a log with a book of riddles about woodland animals.


We discovered that Rachael is as tall as an anklyosaurus.


And that, despite his love for his sisters, Trevor is all boy. He was nice enough to do spider with Rachael, though, because there were only two swings.


After Ariel got off the swing, her troubles began. Her brother and sister took over the swings and she pouted. "There's nothing to do, mommy. It's boring here."


So I offered to play some "soccer" with her in the tennis courts. But "It's not fair mommy, I can never kick the ball!"


"STOP takin' my picture when I'm whinin' mommy!"


Even though we were all good sports and kicked the ball to Ariel lots during our game, she was determined to be unhappy. We finally finished with a tied game. Whiny Dragons-3, Flaming Peppers-3. Can you guess who was on the Whiny Dragon's team?


This was probably why she was so grumpy. She needed a bit of a nappy nap. (With her sis, of course!) We had a great time and, really, poor Ariel, we just laugh at her when she gets all grumpy. Her grumpiness was really solved when Trev and Rach decided to change the name of their team from Flaming Peppers to Flaming Poopy Squirts. Then Ariel smiled through her thumb and Trevor exclaimed "Ariel..... I see you smiling!" and Ariel grumped "No, I'm not! Stop it!" then she started smiling more and her bad mood evaporated.

New baby! (but not me!)

Once upon a time, a long long time ago, Ray met Juan and Maureen through his job. Juan and Maureen lived together with their cats that Juan always seemed to threaten to flush down the toilet. Then Juan and Mo moved to the DC area and Ray and I stayed in Jax and Ray moved onto other things besides AOL. But I guess we were all meant to meet back up at some point. Right after Ray and I got married, Juan gave Ray a call and, lo and behold, Ray was working for AOL and we moved to the DC area. Since then, sometimes our paths have parted ways for a while, sometimes they have merged back together. Once Ray and I left the DC area but we moved back. Throughout it all, we always stayed in touch just enough that we knew what was going on in each other's lives. We knew that Juan and Mo were happy being childfree and they didn't plan on having children. But once, while out at a restaurant, Maureen said she might like to have a child one day. I relayed this information to Ray later and he laughed and said "No way. They're never having children." I said I wasn't so convinced and I was pretty sure they would have a child someday.

So, of course (this is YEARS after she mentioned this to me), when they told us Maureen was pregnant... I wasn't too surprised. But Ray and I were both SO EXCITED! I just feel like I have known Juan and Mo for so long and it's such a thrill to witness them enter the wonderful world of parenting. They will be fabulous parents. So now I'll go ahead and post some teeny tiny baby pictures!

New mommy, Maureen, looking absolutely wonderful!


Oh, Ray... don't you want another baby?


Baby Zen Juaquin


Such a perfect little baby! He was so quiet, too. Living up to his name.


I'm a huge breastfeeding advocate. Maureen was showing off her nursing chart. heehee.


If there was a thought bubble coming out of my head, I would be thinking "OK, as soon as she turns around, I'm running off with Zen!" He is such a gorgeous, perfect baby. Congrats to the proud mommy and daddy!

St Patrick's Day and Ray's birthday

I realize I haven't updated in a month. Oops. It's been busy- between class, volunteering, baseball, work, etc etc, I haven't had much in the way of a spare moment. I don't really have a spare moment now, but here are a few pics. I actually don't have much in the way of really good pictures, either. *sigh*


The girlies were all excited about St Patrick's Day and dressing in green. They went all out. Gotta love the teeny tiny sportin the winter boots and the scarf from India.


Trevor, who is a teenager early, said dressing in green was "super lame and he wasn't doing it". I told him he would get pinched. But he didn't care. He was however, really disappointed that the leprechaun didn't visit his classroom. He knows it's really the teacher, but all the same, he was bummed. So then being in third grade was lame because nothing cool like a desk fairy (for clean desks in Rachael's room) or anything like that came. I told him it was because he didn't wear green.. then we went out and got mint chip ice cream to make up for the leprechaun being lame that day.


Then, to complete the "lame" theme here, I didn't take good pictures for Ray's little family bday party we had! Ray's birthday was Tuesday but Ariel had a doctor's appt, and I worked that afternoon and then had class that evening. So we celebrated Wednesday, even though Trevor had baseball practice until 7pm. phew. Busy. The kids made him this super cool mug that they could write on- they wrote Happy Birthday! and then signed their names with lots of xoxoxoxo and little pictures. Then I bake it and supposedly the ink sets and it's dishwasher safe. It's cool! We also got a Coffeehouse Crunch Ice cream cake from Coldstone Creamery and that was super decadent. Ray is officially 34 years old! Ray and I have the babysitter for Saturday and we're meeting friends in DC so hopefully I will get more pics then.


And I can't finish an entry without posting a pic of house pony Reznor. This is his favorite position when the kids are outside playing. He turned one year old on March 19th. He's huge now- 140 lbs of big ole drooly hairiness. So Happy birthday to Rezzie, too!

Trevor and Rez working, well, kind of together.

Trevor training Rez. This video is so classic. Love the end of it where Rez goes on strike.


This is the other video. I told Trevor Rez was tired but Trevor didn't want to stop training. Before these videos, he worked with Rez for about 20 minutes on "wait" and "leave it".

Arielisms:

Trevor plays with a few kids in the neighborhood ranging in age from 5-11years old. So Trevor spent about 2 hours outside yesterday throwing snowballs and being rowdy and didn't come in until dinner. This was our dinner conversation....

Trevor: "So mommy, lots of the kids were swearing when we were outside. But I wasn't saying any of those words."
Me: "Oh, swearing? Like what kind of words?"
Trevor: "Well, they were saying the S word......"
Rachael: "Stupid? They were saying stupid? oooooooo...."
Trevor: "No! It was that other one."
The whole table is quiet for like a whole minute and you can tell everyone is thinking about this. Then Ariel leans forward, her eyes huge and she whispers...

"Sexy??????"

I about died laughing.

***********************************************************************************

The kids usually help me set the table. This requires them to put napkins, silverware and drinks on the table without whining too much. The other day I asked Trevor to set the table and Ariel to put drinks on the table. She can't reach the cups so I got 5 down for her. Trevor finished setting the table and Ariel, who was filling up one glass of water noticed Trevor walking out of the kitchen.

Ariel: "Trevor, can you help me put drinks on the table?"
Trevor: "Sure, Ariel." He picks up one of the four glasses left and starts to fill it with water.
Ariel: "Thanks!" Then she hurriedly slams her glass down on the table and runs out of the room to go join her sister, leaving Trevor to fill the glasses himself.

(Don't worry, I called Ariel back into the room!). Rotten little girlie. ;)

When it is snowing yet AGAIN

The thing with homeschooling was that snowy days didn't stop us. We went on with school lessons as planned. I had experiments or field trips, etc, lined up. Right now, because our school system goes day by day with the school closings, I just had nothing lined up for "school" or craft projects. We're all getting a little restless. I'm feeling the effects of SAD- I definitely need to start up the CLO again. So today Trevor came downstairs and said "Mommy. I don't know what to do." Normally I give him a billion ideas, to all of which he says "No, I don't feel like doing that." But today, I agreed with him. "Yea, Trev, I'm feeling a little unsure of what to do with myself, as well." Didn't feel like packing up and going grocery shopping, library has been done and done and done, it was steadily snowing a wet snow and we didn't feel like heading outside again. We had already played games, taught Trevor to cross stitch, and done my own crocheting. I was feeling lethargic and uninspired. Im'd Ray and he suggested painting. Didn't feel like dragging out the paints... but... I had this huge sheet of white paper leftover from a snow mural at the preschool. We were going to make a snow scene on it, but then decided to do summer pictures! What better way to beat the winter blahs with thoughts of green and beaches and summer!

Searching out magazine pictures of summery things.



They cut most of the pictures, I did the layout, they glued it down.


Coloring in a sun.


The finished project!


I put it on the wall by the now fixed treadmill. I can pretend I am running in the summer. heh


I love our sun and flowers!

Happy Birthday Ariel!

I can't believe that, 5 years ago today, Ariel was born! She was born 2.5 weeks late at the Maternity Center in MD. My little baby girlie was just in no hurry to come out! I remember sledding and doing many other things, hoping to put myself in labor but it was not to be. Thanks to some Castor Oil, I finally went into labor the night before they wanted to induce me at the hospital and I gave birth to 9 lb, quiet little Ariel Luna. She made barely a cry, and even got a point off her apgar score for her silence. You wouldn't know that now! Ariel talks all the time. heh.

I woke to the kids this morning talking about Ariel's birthday. They were so excited for their sister! They also woke up really early... like 6am.


We surprised Ariel this morning with flowers, a balloon and some new books (a sticker book and Mahalia Mouse Goes to College- John Lithgow).


Trevor reading Ariel her card.


Rachael pouring her some cereal. She was thrilled it was her little sis's bday and insisted on making her some breakfast. I actually made her breakfast casserole and apple cake, too. We had a big breakfast.

Technically, we were going to celebrate Ariel's birthday on Saturday. We had planned to take her to a puppet show at Glen Echo. But the massive snow was putting everything up in the air. Glen Echo said they didn't know if they would be open Saturday. Not wanting to take the risk, we figured, what the heck, we'll celebrate today! The kids and I dropped Ariel off at Ray's work and rushed out to pick up some gifts and a cake. I was so proud of them. They pooled their allowance together and bought Ariel her present with their own money. Ariel REALLY wanted these doll shoes for her bitty Baby. So they bought her the whole set of shoes. They were so thrilled and excited to give her a present. Ariel was thrilled, too.

Then we took Ariel to see a movie- The Princess and the Frog. A really great movie. We all loved it. Then out to eat at Red Robin. We did not tell Ariel we were celebrating her bday today. So it was a surprise for her. She loved her bday!


Skyping with Grandma and Grandpa.


A PILE of presents!


The cake. Ariel wanted Carrot Cake and I was going to make her one but we celebrated her bday ON her bday instead of Saturday like we planned. So I ran out of time. This is a Whole Foods chocolate raspberry buttercream cake. Yum.


Make a wish!


Hi grandmas and grandpas! So glad you could share part of Ariel's bday with us!

Snow pictures.

Here's some snow photos of the snow this weekend. What a lot of snow!


So very beautiful.


Please, won't someone come outside and play?


OK! I will! This snow doesn't look so bad.


Ugh.. ok, maybe it's a little deep. Daddy! Don't shovel me into the drift!


Wait for me guys!


Where'd everybody go?


Ariel, what's the problem? Hurry up! The snow's not THAT deep.


Looking cold, trying to eat snowflakes.


The road. There's a tree down on both ends of our street, preventing the plows from getting through.


Rez as lots of puppy playdates that day. He's playing with the bulldog who lives across the street.


The shed in our backyard. I'm amazed it didn't get crushed.


Our backyard is so deep we had to dig a path for the huge dog to go to the bathroom. He can't walk where the snow is.