New pictures

Just a few new pictures that I recently took and found to be cute. The first is of Claire's new found activity. She loves to wash dishes. On one hand it keeps her busy for almost 30 minutes at a time (which is a long time for Claire), but on the other hand, what a mess she makes. I always end up with sopping towels, and a new change of clothes for her. The next picture is of our shamrock pancakes on St. Patty's day. The next one is scrapbook page that I recently finished. It is of Claire's first Christmas. No, I am not that far behind with my books, I am just still trying to finish pages that I started a long time ago. It is going slow, but each time I finish a page it feels like a little accomplishment. The last picture is just so cute. I love to see my husband actively playing with my kids. He is really good at playing and is a kid at heart. I was a little nervous about this big guy on the swing meant to hold up to 100 lbs, but it held ok. We just got back from Pennsylvania, so once I have gone through all of my 200 pictures, I will post about the trip.

free day

I don't generally feel that our children need to know the details of our finaces, but I do think that it is important that they understand the importance of a budget. Yesterday we had "free day". We were clear to our kids that it was a family day that cost us little to nothing in terms of money. I wanted to do this so that my children understood that there are so many fun and entertaining things to do that don't involve buying anything. The older girls are at an age that when we say "we are having a family day out", they will often start spewing out ideas for the mall, Chuck-E-cheese, or the Build A Bear store. When they started in on these kinds of ideas yesterday, I simply reminded them that it was "free day" and they became excited to come up with other cheaper entertainment.
So our day started with a trip to the Kalamazoo Valley Museum with a cool exhibit about sattelites. I love how kid friendly (and free) this museum is and the kids have fun everytime we go. Next we went out to eat at a little family friendly restaurant that we had won a gift certificate to. (yes, this was not free, but when the kids begged to go to Chuck-E-Cheese, we were able to say that instead we were going to use the gift card to keep our cost down.) Next we went to the local library and both big girls picked out some books and movies and both got their own library cards. (all free) After the library, we went to the park and the kids had some friends over for a sleep over. Our total cost for the day was $3 for a tip at the restaurant. It was fun for the kids and I felt as if I was teaching them some lasting lessons.

St. Patty's Day

We are not really Irish, but we enjoy celebrating St. Patrick's Day anyway. Haylee made a Leprechaun trap for school. I am not sure who enjoyed the project more, Haylee or Kevin. It turned out great and was very creative. Mackenna had fun picking out green clothes and I let her take pictures of green things around the house with my camera. All of the kids ate their green shamrock pancakes this morning and had a blast pinching me before I got dressed as I did not have any green on my PJ's. Today's weather has been beautiful and Claire and I played with chalk, jumped on the neighbor's trampoline and took a walk. Kenna and I played frisbee while Claire napped and it was so nice not to have to wear a coat. I am planning corn beef and cabbage for dinner, but it may have to wait until tomorrow since I have some yummy steaks and it is a great day to grill. I will be sure to enjoy a Guinness with dinner though cuz I have to sit through another 2 hours of gymnastics tonight. Enjoy the day.

Brrr

The view out the window today was very deceiving. It was amazingly cold. I attempted to go out for a run and ended up just trying to plow through the wind instead. My face is still red and splotchy. The weather this year has been strange and somewhat annoying making me anxious for nicer days. Haylee is almost done with basketball and we are looking forward to a few weeks off before soccer starts. She had her last practice on Monday and when she and Kenna came downstairs in these great outfits to go to practice, I just had to snap a picture. They will be mortified when they are 16 and care about what they wear. We also made up some cute end of the year baskets for all of the players and I was able to use my Cricut that I got for Christmas to make some little award ribbons for each girl. Our plan is to have a little pizza party after the game to celebrate how hard the team worked. (no wins this year, but what great improvements they all made). Other happenings the last couple weeks included a visit to see my friend Angie's baby. This picture is so cute. She looks like she is thinking "Yeah, I know I've got it good". We had a nice visit and I loved cuddling a baby for a little while. Kevin was in a fundraiser at school called "Are you smarter than a 5th grader". He did well except that he had to use all of his life lines. It was very funny and the older kids loved watching dad up on the stage. I also attempted a new recipe. I came into ALOT of tangerines and was not sure what to do with them. I found a Paula Dean tangerine cake recipe and decided to try it. It was SOOOO good, but not so good for you. I gave most of it away or brought it to bible study so I only ate 2 small pieces, but it was definitely a recipe that I would make again. Have a great week.