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.

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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.

Ice cream for Breakfast day!

As probably only a few of you know, the first Saturday in February is Ice Cream for Breakfast Day. So, as we have for the last three years, we celebrated it this morning with, well, ice cream for breakfast.

mmmMMMM... homemade waffles topped with ice cream (Ben and Jerry's Karamel Sutra or something like that) and whipped cream.


Happy Ice Cream for Breakfast Day 2010!!

Applying knowledge

I never sync my iphone with my computer. I'm really horrible about techie stuff like that. When my facebook for iphone app actually expired and I couldn't load facebook on my phone, I knew it was time to update. When I updated my phone it put a couple new apps on there.. one of them being this Discovery Channel app. Ariel and I loaded it up and discovered it was full of clips from Mythbusters, Dirty Jobs, etc. Cool! So we watched this clip from Mythbusters about grease fires and they made a big fireball by putting water on hot grease. The clip was about 5 minutes long and we watched it in the morning.
Fast forward to 8pm that night. I am reading Redwall to the kids right now. We're at this part where Cluny the Scourge is ramming the Abbey walls with a big battering ram. The mice have discovered this barrel and want to drop something down on the rats to stop their assault. Ariel pipes up "They should put hot grease in it! Then they could dump water on them and there would be a big fireball!" All violence towards these rats aside (they are really terrible in the book), I thought it was pretty cool that she remembered what she had seen on Mythbusters in that- "Oh, what's this app do?" 5 minute clip- and then applied that knowledge to the situation in the book.
My teeny tiny mouse is one smart cookie.

Yet another snow day!

We're having quite a few snow days this school year! We got some snow last night and so the kids were off school today. And what a pleasant day it was. I did NOT get out in the snow like I wanted but oh well. We finished reading our chapter book (I am reading an American Girl book about Nikki and her service dog in training. The girlies listen and Trevor pretends he's not interested but is mysteriously quiet while I read and then pops in the room to ask questions about the book every once in a while. heh). This means I read a lot today since we were only a couple chapters into it. What else? The kids had computer time and we went grocery shopping- which always involves two stores and requires much patience on the kid's part. And what else? Hmmm...


Trevor went outside to play and the girlies and I made chocolate cake!


Ew. Then we turned this unappetizing mass of goo into something


What are we making guys and why does Rachael look so very serious?


Hm. Cooked a bit...


Then they kneaded it.....


And kneaded it....


And kneaded it into playdough! And since I am so very cool, I brought out the glitter from Christmas crafts 2008 that I recently rediscovered hiding in a bag in my closet. And we glitterfied that playdough. Then the kids played with playdough for quite a while.


Then we ended our day with cake. Hey, see the LA boxing hat? It's why we work out (well, I don't do LA Boxing). It's so we can eat cake.


mmMMMM... chocolate cake.