President's Day Cake

Yesterday was President's Day, so the kids were out of school. After a little morning clean-up, we packed up and went to the science museum. It was about a 45 minute drive from our house-not too bad. Max and Sam loved the life-sized models of the Tyrannosaurus Rex and Triceratops, but Ginny held onto my neck like her life depended on it. Poor kid! Our museum pass got us in free to the Discovery room, which had a lot of fun things to play with.
We came home and ate beef stew from the crockpot, which I had actually had presence of mind to start in the morning. Then after dinner Max and Sam helped me to make Nana's recipe for George Washington Cherry cake. The legend about Washington and the cherry tree may or may not be true, but the cake sure is good! Nancy and I remembered last week that she used to make that cake for president's day each year, and we decided to keep up the tradition. The best part is the homemade cherry/almond sauce that goes on top--with whipped cream of course! Yum!
After FHE and the kids were in bed, Trevor and I watched the ice dancing from the Olympics. I love the skating. Can't wait for the women's skating that starts tonight. I've always loved the Olympics.
It's been freezing cold the past few days! What a shock after we had 70 degree temperatures early last week! WE even bought a space heater because our furnace doesn't seem to be keeping up.
Trevor helped me hang up our pictures this weekend, so now I feel more "moved in". It's fun to see our family pictures, etc. again after they had been packed away for so many months.
I guess that's it for now!

remote generation

You can tell that Sam has grown up in a generation of remote controls. He thinks you can just "pause" anything! When we're reading a book, he'll say, "Pause the book mom!" this morning we were walking down the the stairs together and he said, "Pause this, mom, I need to get something." It's funny--I feel like we should all freeze so we can truly be "paused." It would be nice to have a giant remote control that would pause life when we needed a breather, wouldn't it?

Snow!

After a very spring-like January, it is snowing today! It's really beautiful. The kids can hardly wait to go outside and play.
We had so much fun at our preschool on Monday. Br. Daniel taught the kids about trees, and then showed them how to identify the trees in the yard, and then they got to tap the maple trees for sap. It was great! Next week the preschool will be at my house. I think we'll do something for Valentines day.

New calling

Yesterday at church they asked me to be the activity day leader. I"m really excited about it. Emily even thought it would be nice to have me as her leader, which made me feel good, since you never know with kids this age. Should be a lot of fun!
Also, the kids did great at their basketball games on Saturday! Max scored 8 points and it was only his 2nd game! Emily came to life and scored 10 points! She was really working together with her teammates, and having fun. She even stole the ball and scored on a fast break once! Good for her.
Trevor and I finished painting our living room/kitchen at about 1:00 a.m. sunday morning. Thank heavens. OUr bedroom is next, but it might be awhile.
I helped Emily sew a poodle skirt for her class Valentine party next Tuesday. It turned out really cute. She did a lot of the sewing and most of the cutting.
I've been having the kids practice the piano in the morning--their motivation being that if they practice in the morning, they don't have to ride the bus. It's been going better and making our evenings much less stressful. Both kids are now making progress in both piano and flute/trumpet.
Guess that's it for now.
Oh yeah, on Friday night Emily was supposed to sweep the floor after dinner and was not liking the prospect very much. She was whining and complaining, but I knew she was really serious when she said, "Mom, can't you just get it over with and ground me, and then you can sweep the floor?" I laughed, but she still swept the floor.
too funny.

this and that

Sam and Ginny are so funny playing dragon, princess, knight together. They say, "Dragon!" and run brandishing their swords, ready to fight the dragon. It's pretty funny to watch Ginny run in her little dance costume and SAm in his pajams with red cape and plastic knight helmet.
There's a good possibility that I'll be able to teach classes with Eureka Parks and REc. I had a really good meeting with them yesterday.
We've started painting, and I really love how it is coming out. It's so cheerful!
Who would've thought I'd ever paint my kitchen orange! But I love it. (It's really "dusted carrot".)
Our little preschool started this week and Kara Daniel's house. She did a darling lesson on shapes and I taught them some songs. It's going to be a lot of fun to do this each week.
Not too thrilled with Max's school teacher. I'm biting my tongue for the moment, but I did talk to the principal and I'm hoping things will improve.