A new phase. . .

I tried to be more intentional with taking photos this week.  My poor Canon camera hasn't seen the light of day in quite some time.  But my cell phone camera is getting some exercise.

I remember when Bella was around three-years-old, the amount of photos I took started to slow.  It wasn't something conscious that I was doing, just a natural occurrence.  But then Graydon was born, birthing many new photo opportunities.  And before long, Curtis came along presenting even more.

Now I am at that three year mark with Curtis (have been for a while).  The milestones are spreading out, the growth is slowing, and changes are becoming more gradual.  And with that, my drive for taking photos has slowed down.  I guess it's just not as instinctual as it once was.  A lack of photos, however, makes this blog pretty uninteresting.  So, for the sake of having something to blog about this week, I kept reminding myself to take some pictures.  I'm mainly doing this to keep all of our far away family updated on the kids. . . but I know that, down the road, I'm going to be thankful that I have so many of our family memories documented.

Here's some snapshots from our week:

The weather warmed up and it felt like spring.  We were outside as much as we could be.  The gardener in Graydon greeted us again as he was digged all over the yard.  It's hard to tell, but he planted a stick in this photo.   
Curtis took a ride on the tire swing.


Bella had a book fair at school.  She bought a 'My Little Pony' book for herself and 'Pirates Love Underpants' for the boys.  They are at the stage when 'underpants' is still a really funny word.  They love the book.   


We learned a little about police officers at the boys' playgroup. 


While listening to the radio on the way to the grocery store last Friday (March 14), I learned that it was Pi Day.  You know - the day when the whole world celebrates the mathematical concept, Pi.  I had never heard of this day before, but decided that it was a good excuse to try a new pie recipe.  So I added a few ingredients to my shopping list.  


And we made this!  S'mores pie!


It was soooooo good!


Bella and I had a girls' day on Sunday afternoon.  We walked around Target for an hour.  She picked out a new shirt and some hair accessories.  On Monday morning, she was so excited to wake up and put on her new outfit.  She was ready for school 45 minutes early!  And then I broke the news to her that her school was on a snow delay - which meant that she was ready over two hours early.  She missed out on sleeping in, but she was home to make GAK with us.  And because it was St. Paddy's day, we made it green. 




And we added green to dessert that night - Bella's request after seeing this dessert in pictures from St. Patrick's days past.  






Counting down the days until spring!

Hello March!

Sorry for the blog silence these past couple of weeks.  A little bit of laziness coupled with my lack of picture-taking can be blamed for that.  But here's a little bit of what we've been up to.

One Friday night, Bella and I (along with her Brownie troop) participated in '40 Winks with the Sphinx'.  It's a program held at the Penn Museum in Philadelphia where you camp out in the museum gallery where the sphinx is located.  The evening began around 7pm and included archaeology trivia, hands-on learning, and a guided flashlight tour.  


Thought you all might like this one - it's a real mummy.  Apparently, mummification doesn't always involve wrappings.  It's just a general term for the process of preserving a body.  This one ended up being naturally mummified in the burial process.  This is a 1500-year-old mummy.  She looks to be about 30-40 years old when she died of apparent natural causes.  She was buried in the fetal position and if you look closely, still has some of her hair on her head.  Some of the girls touched the mummy.  Bella opted not to. 


A little sleepover selfie.

 

This was right before lights out - which wasn't until midnight!  Bella got super sleepy halfway through the flashlight tour and fell asleep pretty quickly when it was finally time.  For as tired as I was, sleep did not come easily to me.  I probably tossed around for two hours before I fell asleep.  It didn't help that I was super thirsty throughout the entire evening, which meant that I drank a lot of water and ended up having to get up and use the bathroom - which wouldn't have been a big deal if it didn't mean walking through a maze of sleeping bags to make my way down a long hallway and then another one.  Then there was the issue of other parents snoring.  With 180 people sleeping on the floor of a museum gallery, there's bound to be some snoring.  I knew I should have packed my earplugs!  Sleep aside, it was still overall a pretty neat experience and some fun bonding time with my gal.   

Not sure what Graydon was thinking.  One might assume that he'd never had an orange before. 


Dentist time.  Here's Bella getting her flouride treatment at the end of another successful visit.  Still cavity free! 


No cavities for Graydon either! 


Curtis didn't have a visit.  Mine came the next day and Andy the day after that.  (We just weren't able to squeeze in all of us at the same time.)  Out of everyone, I'm the one that ended up with a cavity.  I was so upset!  I can't exactly remember the last time I got one, but it was either late elementary school or early junior high.  Either way, a long time!  My memories of getting a cavity are not pleasant and so I am filled with dread.  I will be happy on the evening of April 3rd when I can put this all behind me. 

We took the kids to the Ash Wednesday service this year.  I figured they were all old enough to sit through without any major issue - though they did stay up a bit past their bedtimes. 




Pajama day at the boys Thursday morning playgroup. 


I knew that he was being a bit too quiet that afternoon. 


Graydon's preschool had a Father/Child night.  So while Andy and Graydon were out, Bella, Curtis, and I had some ice cream and watched Phineas and Ferb.  And I remember thinking to myself how interesting this evening felt.  Usually, when I'm down to two kids, it's usually Graydon and Curtis.  Having Bella and Curtis alone together is a pretty rare dynamic.  But it was fun to see how they interacted when it was just the two of them. 


While they were out together, Andy and Graydon painted t-shirts.  Good father/son bonding time. 


Bella went to a birthday party and got her hands and toe nails painted.  Then all of the girls made cute flip flops.  Such a cute party idea and Bella had a lot of fun. 


I'll try to do better with taking photos/updating the blog.  Maybe this slightly warmer weather will help with that.

Valentine's Day and other random life stuff

Valentine making - the boys hard at work on a Saturday night.  


My goal with our valentines this year was to use stuff that we had around the house.  I had a TON of crayons, so we melted them down.  And I cut up some of our clothing boxes from Children's Place and Gymboree for the card stock.  The boys will use these for their weekly playgroup (party postponed until tomorrow due to our snowstorm last week).


I already had these stickers, white cardstock, and random ribbons.  The candy was leftover from Graydon's birthday party (the pinata).  And I just used ziploc snack bags from our pantry.  These are the valentines that Graydon brought to preschool.  This was originally the idea that I had for Bella but. . .


. . . she really wanted to do the lollipop in her hand again, so I caved.  Had to buy some extra lollipops for that one; but they did turn out cute. 



The boys and I made some V-day snacks.


So yummy and pretty.


We also made some chocolate covered strawberries.  Here is Curtis enjoying the last bit of melted chocolate. 


I found this simple valentine drink recipe and thought I'd try it.  Unfortunately, it called for raspberry sherbet and our store only had lemon.  Not quite the color I was going for, but still a fun treat.




Beyond Valentine's Day

Curtis normally takes baths with Graydon - but not this night.  He had so much fun having all of the space to himself. 


Curtis's snowman.  I think that the upside down pipe makes it look like a little polar bear.  Very cute. 


Bella and I did this one together. 


I am currently on Day 3 of a three-day cleanse.  It's a Detox Cleanse from Dr. Oz.  This has been my diet for the past three days. 


I began by chopping up and measuring out all of my fruits and veggies on Sunday night.  Each meal had its own bag.  Lunch took up two bags.  Then the bags went into the freezer.   


Here they are in smoothie form.


I really enjoyed breakfast.  Lunch wasn't as bad as I had thought it would be (based on the reviews I'd read of the cleanse).  But it was huge and took up two whole glasses.  I didn't end up needing my snack smoothie on any of the days because I was still working on the lunch one.  Dinner was kind of scary.  It had cayenne pepper in it!  It actually wasn't as bad as I thought it would be either - but I still can't say I'm a fan of spicy smoothies. 

The kids wanted to try my meals.  All three liked breakfast.  Bella and Graydon attempted lunch.  None of them wanted anything to do with my dinner.




Last time I went to the store, Graydon specifically requested oranges so that we could make orange juice.  It took nine oranges to get one glass.




And there's one of me and Curtis playing this morning while Bella and Graydon were at school. 

January Cell Phone Pics

The boys' playgroup took a field trip to the post office.


It's cookie time again!  I'm the cookie mom for Bella's troop.  Our basement is currently filled with cases and cases of cookies. 


While putting the boys to bed one night, Curtis put a sticker on Andy's face.  Andy forgot all about the sticker until AFTER he got back from picking up a few items at the store! 


When it's too cold to play at the park. . . go to Barnes and Noble!  Curtis likes the trains. 


Curtis has been very interested in helping out in the kitchen lately.  I let him butter up his toast.  Notice what has become of the butter in the dish. 


He wanted to help with the soup one night.  But he couldn't chop veggies and I didn't want him splashing them into hot water.  So I told him to transfer the veggies from the board to the lid.  Sometimes I need to make up jobs. 


Curtis's solution to the whipping winds and blowing snow on one of our many snow days. 


Bella built a few different snow forts on this particular day. 


Graydon didn't last all too long.  I think he's more of a warm weather outdoorsman. 




Later in the day, Bella and Curtis went back out for round two.  I wasn't feeling it - so I watched from inside the warm house. 


Well-visits for our older two.  Graydon didn't want a gown - or his photo taken for that matter.  Both kids had hearing and vision tests - this was Graydon's first time.  And he had to get FOUR shots.  He tried so hard to be brave, but the tears came as he cried "that really hurts".  Even Bella got some sympathy tears in her eyes for her little brother. 


I think the theme of January has been SNOW!  The past three winters out here have been super mild with hardly any snow, so we had it coming.  Bella has already had FOUR snow days!  I think it's kind of fun, but most people out here cannot wait for spring!