Friday, April 28, 2006

Dinnertime Prayers

We take turns thanking God each night at dinner. Here are tonight's dinner time prayers:

Me: Thank you God for it being Friday.

T: Thank you for mom being a stay-at-home mom tomorrow and thank you for Mackinaw is so cute.

M: Thank you for letting me be so productive today and thank you for my beautiful wife (ahhh!)

R: Thank you for my brain and imagination so that I can pretend that I have the super powers of strength and speed.



There you are...another little glimpse into my life.

Tuesday, April 25, 2006

A Nice Smile

T was sitting in my lap the other day and we were chatting about all sorts of things. I said something that made him smile and I told him that he had a really nice smile:

Me: T, you have such a nice smile. You have beautiful white teeth that are all lined up in a perfectly straight line. It makes for such a beautiful smile.

T: Ahh, mom. Thanks.

Then T smiled up at me and started studying my teeth. He looked into my eyes, and said

T: Yours are nice too. I like the color green.

Saturday, April 22, 2006

Spring Vacation Journal

When we were on vacation in February, R kept a journal. He asked me to transcribe it on the blog and he hopes to get comments about it. Here it is:

I'm going to Florida. I'm at the airport and waiting for my plane. In this airport it is quiet and my brother is coloring.
They have a lot of Spartans pictures. We waited for two hours.


We got on and took off. The sun is shining.
We are over the clouds. All I can see is clouds. We are in them landing now.


We got off on and ran to our next plane, but
we missed it! But we took another one right when we got to it.


We had lots of fun at the beach. We went to the aquarium and will be leaving for homethe next day.

Monday, April 17, 2006

Easter in Springtime

I know that Easter is always supposed to come in the Spring time, but here in the Midwest you just never know what the weather would be like. I've been told that there as sometimes been snow on Easter! This was not the case yesterday. It was beee-u-ti-ful! Seventy-four degrees and sunny -- a bit windy, but sunny nevertheless. Yahoo. Alleluia!



Our Easter celebration started on Saturday with lots of fun with Mike's folks and Uncle Dave (who came on the train Saturday night. The boys got spoiled with a whole bag each of Easter goodies from Gram and Gramp, including a "craft" of making their own candy necklaces -- which they loved making and eating...and wore every day. We also dyed Easter eggs, which is always a good time.


Setting the table with our china (my Gramma R gave me hers as a wedding present), crystal, and our silver was a lot of fun. We served Easter dinner on Saturday night because we knew we'd be too full the next day from our brunch to also have a big dinner -- spreading out the tasty goodness. We had a leg of lamb that M grilled, mashed potatoes, asparagas, and garlic cheese rolls. Yummers! Top that off with an Easter egg shaped cake and a couple of games of Pegs and Jokers and call it a night!

Easter morning started out with the boys looking for their baskets that the Bunny had hidden -- R found T's first (in the coat closet) and then with a little help from Uncle Dave, R found his own (in the drier). They both thought that the hiding places were hilarious, as in, "can you believe that the Easter Bunny hid my basket in the DRIER???!!!"

Then we got our Easter finest on and headed out to a great place for brunch (T wants to eat there every day!) and had a really nice time. Somehow, while we were gone, the Easter Bunny struck again and hid plastic eggs in the house full of quarters. (T suggested that we leave again to see if the Bunny would come EVERY time we left the house.) Too much fun!


The rest of the day was casual and a lot of fun -- including more Pegs and Jokers, with R playing and holding his own, joking around like he was one of the guys. Of courese, there was a lot of horsing around with Uncle Dave -- especially by R, who thinks that this uncle is is own jungle gym. We also hung out on the deck and ate appetizers at around 4:00 as our dinner. It was a great way to spend the holiday -- with family.
The Easter Bunny also brought a giant faux chocolate bunny, which still has a place of distinction in our dining room. Like the Veggie Tale song goes...The bunny, the bunny, oh I love the bunny...







Saturday, April 08, 2006

A Successful Egg Scramble

M and I volunteered to be in charge of the Easter Egg Scramble this year. Nope, it's not an Easter Egg Hunt, because there is really no hunting involved. It's actually a mad dash (or may I say, Scramble) to grab as many eggs as possible until your basket is full.

To prepare for this big neighborhood event, we have been filling plastic eggs for a week. Every night, we'd stuff candy and little toys into eggs. M marked off the area in the grass across the street -- one area for the big kids (ages six and up) and one area for the little kids (five and under.) He moved two tables out there this morning and we all packed up the eggs and placed them in the grass. We had cookies and punch for refreshments when all the eggs were found. The Easter bunny (AKA, M) showed up and was ready for pictures.

We had a blast. Here are some pictures so you can relive the fun too...

Taking a page from my dad's book, M made sure that the kids had something to do as soon as they arrived to keep them busy until the other kids arrived. They decorated big Easter eggs to make as name tags. It worked like a charm.



Here are the big kids all lined up, waiting for the go-ahead to begin their scramble.

T did a great job keeping the identity of the Easter Bunny a secret. Before we went outside he said to M, "I can call you Dad now, but the minute we step outside you are only the Easter Bunny to me."


R thought that it was cool that his dad was the Bunny.


The whole family posed for a picture. Notice the greenery behind us. What? You don't see it? Well, you'd have to look really close to see the little buds on those bushes. The funny thing is, M placed the wicker bench in front of the greenest bush possible. I can't wait for Spring to get a springin'!

Thursday, April 06, 2006

A Joke From R

Here's a joke that R made up and told to me at dinner time:


Why did the chicken cross the road?
Because he wanted to be hit by a truck and be flat as a pancake.
Get it -- flat as a pancake?

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

It's Not Just For the Birds

A couple of weeks ago, Mackinaw was going crazy in the kitchen sniffing at the door to the garage. She was whining and wagging her tail and sniffing away. M opened the door to the garage and saw a little mouse scurry away. "Honey, we have a mouse problem" he said. He must want to warm up from the cold outside.

Somehow, we forgot about it for a week -- until Mackinaw started the sniffing madness again.

M went out and bought two mouse traps and baited them with peanut butter. Two hours later, he went out to the garage and proudly said, "we've got it."

But, the minute he said that, he saw another one scurry away. Hmmm. It wasn't a mouse problem, it was a mice problem. So, he put on rubber gloves and disposed of the first corpse and re-baited the trap. We knew that if he saw another, there were more hiding somewhere.

The next morning, another mouse trapped.

This has been going on for days now. We've caught seven mice so far. Seven! Now you are asking yourselves -- what do they have in their garage that the mice want?

Birdseed. It's not just for the birds.