Lent

We went to church last evening to the first Lenten Service and when we arrived home, we discussed together what we were going to give up for lent (I know, we are a few days late ). We each wrote down on a card what we were giving up :

Felicia and Sam -- Soda
Bethany -- chocolate
Steve -- Soda and Fast Food
Kim -- Candy (been eating a lot this past year)
Ellie -- candy and all desserts (she said "I want to be HEALTHY and strong !)

In addition, all 4 kids are giving up Disney Channel,Nickelodean and Cartoon Network to which I say AMEN !!!!!

Daddy/Daughter Dance

Friday night at Grange Hall ES was their very first Daddy/Daughter Dance which they titled the Princess Snowflake Ball. When Felicia and Ellie came home off the bus, we had to start getting hair curled, jewlery,nail polish and makeup on etc... These girls were so excited to have a special night out with their Dad , looking all glamorous.They went out to Applebees for dinner before heading to the Ball.
Ellie loves to pose
The girls, all polished and pretty, waiting for Steve to get ready.

Steve gave them each a bouquet before they left to go to dinner. They had a great evening with their Daddy. Steve said the gym at the school was decorated with lots of white lights and was very pretty. They danced a lot and stayed until it was over.

Science Fair

After three months of research, preparation, and implementation, the science fair projects are complete and out of the house !!! While an extra project is always extra work for parents (buying supplies, making sure they are keeping up with deadlines, etc.), it was a double whammy this year because Bethany and Sam's were both due on the same day ! They did a great job, though, and I hope it reflects in the grade they'll receive.
Sam's project was growing plants using different variables. One set of plants was played classical music 3 hrs. a day,one set was played heavy metal and one set had no music. All plants got watered every day and all plants were placed in a windowsill providing plenty of light. Unfortunately, NONE of Sam's plants grew. i guess he inherited my black thumb when it comes to growing things !

Bethany's project was a cooking one. She used potatoes, oil, salt and pepper, the same exact amount for each method ,and she cooked those in 3 different ways to see if it produced similar or different tasting potatoes. Baking, boiling and frying, the taste testers agreed that the fried potatoes tasted the best. Also interesting to note was the fact that each method took exactly the same amount of time to cook each potato.

What a Day

Well, today started out as the first day back to a normal routine after 2 weeks of school days off due to weather and holidays. Felicia woke up with a headache, but she does tend to get headaches, so that wasn't terribly unusual. After giving her Ibuprofen, however, it still hadn't gone away. i sent her on to school because she had no other symptoms and , yes, I had to to go to work too.
I had to pick them early today because all 4 kids had a dentist appt. I picked up Felicia and Ellie first, then drove to the middle school. By the time we picked up Bethany and Sam, Felicia was laying down in the back seat. By the time we got to the dentist, she was running a fever and saying her throat hurt. The three other kids went into the dentist, I called the doctor to make an appt. Felicia then went to the restroom at the dentist office and threw up twice.She was going downhill FAST. The kids were finally done after Bethany and Sam had their wires removed to get their teeth cleaned, then had to get their wires put back in AFTER the cleaning. Luckily, the ortho and dentist are side by side. Once we were completely done at the dentist with Felicia's appt rescheduled, we headed right to the docotor's office,where we soon found out that she had strep throat, something she's only had once before in her life in first grade.
So, we still remain out of a normal routine for this week. I will be home with Felicia and hopefully she will bounce back quickly like our little Tigger always does.
As I like to say "Always expect the unexpected !"

Valentine's Day on a dime

For Valentine's Day this year, I made heart shaped pancakes for breakfast since it was a Sunday and I had time to do that. I even dyed them pink ! I had a little gift bag for each child with a small gift and some candy. Then I told them all to get dressed and wear either red or a heart on their clothes. The rest was a surprise. Bowl America had a promotion for Valentine Weekend that you could bowl a game for free if you were wearing red/hearts. We bowled a game, Felicia and Ellie bowled a second game, and rented our shoes for only $14.00 !
The cool shoes !!!!
Looking for the lightest ball
It turns out that Sam is a pretty good bowler ! He came in second after Steve.
Felicia and Ellie played their own game together. Felicia helped Ellie push her ball down the lane.
It has been a long time since I bowled. i came in third out of 4 !
After we bowled, we stopped by Dunkin Donuts drive-through to pick up a sweet snack. half a dozen donuts -- $4.99

After the kids were in bed, I made dinner for Steve and I -- chicken breast topped with crab and cheese. So delicious ! Dinner made at home - $7.00 for the groceries

Bowling--$14.00
Donuts $4.99
Dinner $7.00

Time spent with loved ones --$$$$ priceless !!!!

Getting our Valentines ready

With all the time off we've had for snow, we had plenty of time to get our Valentines together this year. Here is Felicia helping Ellie get hers all done.They did it all in a surprisingly short amount of time!
Every Valentine you send these days has to have candy attatched, so Ellie and Felicia gave airheads and nerds attatched to theirs.
I had to do Valentines for my preschool class. We are "The Busy Bees" and I happened to find thses note cards that have a bee on the front and say Busy with the bee picture right after it and it was red ! I have this really cool punch that punches the edge of paper into these curly loops, so i did that to the bottom of each straight edged card. Now I know you are thinking "she's putting a lot of time into these Valentine"s", but I only have 7 students, so it didn't take me long at all .

I had a stamp that said "BEE MINE" with a bee on it. Perfect ! I thought they turned out cute.

Snow Uses

The snow came in handy during our Superbowl Party to keep our drinks cold ! No ice buckets needed !

The kids have also been making snowcones for snacks using fresh snow and adding juice.

Anyone have other useful tips for the snow?

Superbowl Party

This year, after getting a little cabin fever with all the snowstorms, we decided at the last minute(meaning the day before ) to host a Superbowl Party. What fun we had ! We ate lots of great food, everyone brought something. The kids had a blast upstairs and occasionally down with us. the important thing is that the evening ended without spills,major messes or injuries. that equals success ! We have great neighborhood friends and it is always a good time when we get together.
Halftime show -- Felicia and friends

the evening ended with a beauty pageant. The contestants were Ellie and her friend Katherine. Aren't they gorgeous?

Thinking Tropical

since it is cold and snowy for what seems like forever, I decided we needed to have some fruity tropical drinks to make us forget there are 12 inches of snow on the ground.

Take Lemonade, add frozen strawberries, blend. for adults, add rum, tequila, or vodka ! Delicious!

3rd Winter Storm

Over it ! This is the 3rd storm we've had this winter so far, when we're used to having one or none. We are lucky to have narrowly missed the huge amounts this particular storm is dumping just north of Richmond. We are still in the middle of it, but we are getting rain/snow/sleet mixes, so the accumulation is not much.The upside is that we have not have any power outages so far !!!

Snow Removal

Two of the neighbor boys came knocking on our door yesterday with an offer we couldn't refuse."We will shovel your driveway for $2.00 !" Now , anybody that's been to my house knows how long our driveway is. I hired them immediately !! I'm no fool !
Since the snow was light and slushy, it only took the two of them about 30 minutes, but those 8 year old boys worked hard, not resting the whole time.

They were thrilled when they got paid, and I had to give them more than they asked for, since it was such cheap labor. they went on to shovel two other driveways in our cul-de-sac before it got dark.
We are thrilled since we don't have to do it ourselves and no other kid/teen has ever done that in our neighborhood before.

My little Crafter

This past summer I found a great desk to add to my "office" (aka scrapbook room). It has since been claimed ownership by Ellie, who loves to come up and "scrapbook" with me. She has a whole box of paper, stickers, glue sticks and pens.Ellie loves to do anything relating to art, so this is heaven for her, but I have to say I don't quite trust her up in that room alone. I came up there one day to find she had been in MY stash of stuff ! I didn't get too upset, I know how tempting that must have been !!!

Scrapbook Retreat

This past weekend, I went away for the weekend to a scrapbook retreat.
During the weekend, we had a huge snowstorm, dumping 12 inches of snow on central Virginia. I was happy to have a reprieve from the wet snowclothes I would have been drying constantly. I was perfectly content to spend time with my friends doing something I love,having meals made for me, for the entire weekend. Pure bliss !

Here we are with all of our stuff creating our memory albums ! I was only disappointed that we didn't get snowed in an extra day !!

Happy Groundhog Day

Well, the groundhog in Punxatawny PA tells us that it will be 6 more weeks of winter. Big surprise considering I am looking out my window at 12 inches of snow and 12 more predicted for this weekend. The kids are off of school the past two days and possibly tomorrow, do I really need an animal who lives underground to tell me that winter will be sticking around ??!!!