Spring Break '11

The kids were off for spring break last week.  ((Our schools actually decided to make up two snow days with the first part of spring break, but we just skipped those days.  :-) ))

Randy had a business trip in Dallas, so we all piled in the car and went with him!  While daddy had meetings in the hotel, mommy and the kids shopped and played.   (please forgive me...some pics may be duplicates of pics on my Project 365 blog...a girl can only take so many pics a day you know!)

Our trip included lots of riding in the car...

Eating out at some fun restaurants...

 A little bit of "posing" for mom and her camera...

Feeding the hotel's wildlife...

 A little bit of swimming in the hotel pool...

A little bit of shopping...

And a sucker for the ride home.  :-)



Alice in Wonderland

Claire's school had their annual ballet program last week.  We are fortunate that this ballet "class" is offered free of charge during school hours.  The kids only practice once a week for about 30 minutes, but they put on a really wonderful program.  Any student who wishes to participate is allowed...and many of the staff even get involved.
This year's performance was "Alice in Wonderland".  Claire's part was a "Rose" and she danced with a King of Hearts (so sweet!)  The principal acted as the Mad Hatter, and the librarian was the Queen of Hearts.  It was a wonderful program!  The school's select choir (of only 20 kids) also sang several songs prior to the ballet (our little miss did a great job on her solo!).  This performance was a little bittersweet though as this was Claire's final choir/ballet performance...she's moving up to middle school this fall! (sniff, sniff)  I took photos of each group of dancers (there were over 200!), but am only posting a few pics here.

Claire singing her solo

Claire dancing with her King of Hearts

Shamrocks and Music Notes

I am really enjoying making cookies...I think I have a new hobby! lol  My kids are loving it too.  I think Emily has eaten several dozen all by herself!  Every day after school, she asks if I made any cookies during the day.  I practically have to hide the cookies from her! ;-)

In honor of St. Patrick's day, I made a batch of shamrock cookies and tried a lemon flavoring this time...yum!  (We *had* to do a taste test you know!)

Claire's school choir had a party to celebrate their final performance for the year, so I made some music note/treble clef cookies for them.  The school colors are green/white, thus the color of the notes. ;-) 

Little Cowboy

I realized that I didn't post the best photos from Max's birthday party.  Here's a few of my little cowboy!

Max's 4th Birthday Party

We had Max's 4th birthday party over the weekend.  Just a few family and friends...very low key (just the way I like it!).  The theme Max finally settled on was "cowboys", because he wanted to wear a hat.  :-)  The party was during lunch time, so we served cowboy-type food (BBQ pork sliders & baked beans). 

I bought little adhesive mustaches for the kids to wear, and made cardstock mustaches for the adults.  A little impromptu photo shoot with the mustaches was required.  :-)

The kids played several games of "There's a Snake in My Boot!"...every snake hitting the target won them a piece of candy.  Even the teenagers stepped up for a turn.

The cake was made by the King of Cakes (a teen boy from our church) who always does a great job.

 I decided to do something different for party favors...and made themed cookies.  I didn't have cookie cutters for the horse head and cowboy boot, so I made a template and cut them out with a knife.  Once I began decorating them I realized I didn't have the right colors on hand, so I did the best I could with what I had.  Overall though, I was pleased with the end result...and have plans for more cookies in the future. :-)  Thanks to my friend, Christina, for the inspiration to give these a try!

Dr. Seuss' Birthday

To celebrate Dr. Seuss' Birthday, Claire's school asks everyone to wear their pajamas to school.  The kids are also allowed to bring along a favorite stuffed animal and a blanket.  We've had a Cat in the Hat costume for several years, so Claire was sweet enough to wear it for a quick photo before she left for school.  :-) 

YeeHaw! Max is 4 !!!

Our baby boy isn't a baby anymore...Max is 4!  Can't believe he is growing up so fast.  Since his birthday falls on a weekday, he has to wait until the weekend for his party.  The only thing he has asked for is a basketball goal (hope we can find one his size!). 

Blessed to be his mommy!

A Few Layouts

A few more scrapbook layouts.  As I said before, I'm making a real effort to get more caught up on my photos.  These are from 2004...my girls have changed SO much!  I used sketches for all of these (just not sure whose sketches...PageMaps maybe?).  Simple = DONE! 

Scrapbook Layouts

I'm making a real effort this year to get more caught up on the thousands of photos I've taken.  I have a room full of scrapbooking supplies, and my goal is to finally USE some of the things I've accumulated.  I'm working on pics from 2004, so there is quite a lot of catching up to be done!  I'm not into the detailed layouts of years past...I just need simple layouts to GET THEM DONE!

Chicken pox layout - my poor baby looked awful with the pox!

Tie & Tie Again - Allyson learned to tie her shoes in kindergarten (she's now in jr. high!).

Black & White Wednesday

Max was SO proud of the "puppet finger" (his words) he made at church...he asked that I take a photo of him with it.  Too cute!

Valentine's Day

Our Valentine's Day was sweet...literally.  We bought the kids some suckers, conversation hearts (aren't these REQUIRED?!), and a few other sweet treats.  Then, our daughter Emily wanted to surprise the family, so she made a yummy heart shaped cake (& decorated it all by herself).  I ventured out of my comfort zone and made a card for everyone too.  LOVE my family!

Visions of Hope

Want to get off of "auto" mode on your camera?  Lisa at The Long Road To China is giving away a wonderful photography class.  All of the paid seats are full, but Lisa is giving away a spot to two lucky people.  The great thing about this is that Lisa is also donating a portion of the proceeds to Half the Sky (a wonderful organization that works to help the orphans in China).  To enter, just leave a comment on her blog post!  Not interested in the photography class?  Just spend a few minutes looking through her blog....you'll find some WONDERFUL photos!!  And...if you're wondering...I was too late for a paid spot in the class so YES I'm definitely hoping to win a spot!! LOL  ;-)

SIX PEOPLE / TWELVE TIMES - Number 2

This isn't exactly what I had planned to do for our February "6 people" shot, but since this snow was a record-breaker I decided to take our pic today.   After all, it isn't every day that we get 23" of snow. 

Snow ICE CREAM!

Since we have so much snow, I see several batches of snow ice cream in our very near future!  In anticipation of our forecasted 4-6" of snow overnight, I set a large bowl outside to catch snow in.  Unfortunately, I couldn't SEE the bowl this morning because we got nearly 2 FEET of snow!  LOL   I think we'll have plenty of snow for ice cream!  :-)

Here's our easy snow ice cream recipe:

1 large bowl of clean snow (you know, NO yellow snow - blech)
1 can Eagle Brand milk
1 tsp. vanilla flavoring

Simply pour the milk and flavoring into the bowl of snow and mix well.  Add additional snow if needed.  You can also add a tiny amount of regular milk in if you want a smoother consistency.  Enjoy!

And Still More...

SNOW!!  Yes, more of the fluffy white stuff!  We now have a new state record...23" of snow in a 12 hour period.  :-)
I picked Randy up at the airport around 11:30 last night.  It hadn't started snowing yet, but must have started shortly after we made it home.  We woke up to about 12" of snow this morning, and it kept coming down for a few more hours.  When it stopped snowing, we measured several places in our yard - the snow ranged from 20" to 23" deep.  Our city isn't really equipped for this much snow, so we may be stuck here for a few days. 

More Snowy Fun

We received MORE snow on Friday!  The temps raised enough that we were able to play outside longer this weekend.  Just a few pics of our fun day, plus a little appreciation for nature's beauty in the icicles that were hanging above our front door.