Easter prep

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Tessa

On Saturday we colored Easter Eggs. I bought two dozen and tried the bake method instead of boiling. It was so much easier! The kids quickly went through two dozen and requested more. Next year I’ll have to spring for three dozen!! :)

After lunch and a brief rest we headed to the skating rink to skate with the Easter Bunny! The kids were really hoping he knew how to skate, after our “Skate with Santa” experience in which Santa didn’t know how to skate! Fortunately the bunny did know how to skate, unfortunately he wasn’t terribly social with the kids. Oh well . We had fun anyway.

Skating with Grandpa Tom.

Testing out the new skills G’Tom taught her. Look at her go!

The kids all got a plastic egg with a candy inside. Eve’s egg also had a “grand prize winner” ticket. She won a pretty cool glow stick thing.

Lex was praticing his slalom skills around the cones.

Eve kept talking about how fast she was going, “the fastest person in here!” I was just happy that she was moving fast enough that I didn’t have to stop and wait for her, instead I could slowly roll along with her. :)

Eve and the Easter Bunny.

We got home around 4:30pm and by 5:30pm Eve was a ball of tears. She kept sobbing, “I don’t know why I’m crying.” Oh baby, I know why! I got her snuggled in bed eventually and then went to work with my late night plans…

Friday

Posted on March 31, 2013 by Tessa

On Friday Eve brought cupcakes to school to celebrate her birthday. Chocolate with pink peppermint frosting twirled on top and lots of pink and white sprinkles. Just as she requested!

After school they had their final swim lesson of the week. Mema and Grandpa Tom joined us for pizza dinner beforehand, then they came to watch the kids swim and jump off the diving board! Eve’s second time and Lex’s first. They were both SUPER excited!

I switched the camera settings between jumps. Afterwards I let them shower in the locker room (a treat!) and then we watched some college frisbee practice for awhile. A good night was had by all.

Today

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Tessa

We survived another day of busy week. I subbed half day in fourth and half in fifth. Not my best day. :/ Then we chilled at home for a bit then rushed out the door to swim lessons. Thankfully they were super excited to go, although it took them ages to get out the door.

Once we were there though they jumped right in and I sat for half an hour. We all enjoyed.

I love their little swimming bodies. They are not the most graceful of swimmers, but boy do they try hard!

Basketball

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Tessa

Lex came across an empty cereal box this morning and decided to make a basketball hoop. He went right to work and in no time was playing ball!

He shoots… he scores!

Homemade hoops

I decided to put the camera away and teach him some basics about basketball.

This afternoon we got a Disney package from Uncle B that had a Mickey ball in it. It took a few trips through the hoop too! :)

Collegiate Swim Lessons – one more time

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Tessa

This week we are doing lessons at Dartmouth College again. Twice a year the swim team offers private (or semi-private) lessons to the community. This is our fifth time doing it and the first time they both were both eager to jump right in! I was thinking it would be our last time (the whole process stresses me out!) but now with them both so eager and excited I’m wondering if maybe we should continue. We’ll see.

Can you pick Lex and Eve out of a swimmers line-up? :)

One day done, four more to go. I hope their enthusiasm lasts the week. The only one cranky so far was me!

Party weekend

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Tessa

We had a party-rific weekend! Friday night was movie night at school. The kids crowded into the library to watch Wreck-It Ralph. Half way through they paused the movie for intermission and the kids got free popcorn and juice boxes, and could buy cookies and cupcakes and brownies for a quarter. Good times, right?! I volunteered to bring cookies and at the last minute ran out of time so I bought them from the grocery store! I felt guilty, how’s that for lame! :) They were delicious, though what all the kids flocked to were the chocolate frosted cupcakes with sprinkles on top. Those went fast!

We got home late, of course, and the kids went to bed exhausted.

Saturday Eve and I went to a Good Beginnings party at the bouncy house. They host this party every year for staff, volunteers, and recipients with kids five and under. Eve just squeaks in this year! :) I’m sure I’ve said this before, but it’s sometimes surreal to go back to a place we frequented when they were young and see my kids now as the big kids. I didn’t even bring Lex this year. I also didn’t take any pictures but just imagine a room full of little kids running around, Goldfish crackers everywhere, parents trying to socialize and monitor their kids at the same time, you know, life with kids! It was kind of nice to have just one big kid though, no strollers or diaper bags. On the way out a woman was holding a one year old on her hip and trying to prevent a toddler from escaping. I remember those days very well!

While Eve and I were at the party, Lex and Alan took their first bike ride of the season. I was nervous for them and made them both listen to my worry-wart-mother safety warnings. They both humored me nicely and came back alive. What more can I ask for. :)

Saturday evening we went over to Popcube’s house for dinner and family visits. Greg made a delicious meal and the grownups sat around the table chatting while the kids played on the exercise bike in the basement. Good times all around. Once again, no pictures.

Today was a pool day. Eve was invited to two birthday parties, which conveniently were both at the pool, both today, and at overlapping times! One was from 12pm-2pm and the other from 1pm-3pm. I thought it would be great. Mostly it was. I let Lex invite a friend to play as well, so I found myself split a few times between watching the boys in the water and being with Eve at a party. They parties also didn’t follow the same format, so while one had pizza then swimming then cake, the other started right with cake, which resulted in Eve having pizza then swimming then cake then cake then swimming. She was exhausted! It’s hard work being popular! :)

We had a little quiet time when we got home (I needed it!) and then Alan wanted to have pizza and a movie night, but the kids both opted for pizza, stories, and bed. I had lights out by 6:30 and they were both asleep by 7:00pm.

Lex tried his hand at pool basketball for awhile. He’s got some growing still to do!

Both parties had doll cakes. The other one had a fondant dress and this one had beautiful edible butterflies!

Tired happy children having fun.

Lex is finally big enough for the big slide and boy was he happy.

Wheeeee!

Lex dropped his towel in the shower (don’t ask, I don’t know how he managed that) so when it was time to get out of the pool Eve shared her towel with him. :)

This week we have a week of swimming lessons at Dartmouth. Normally I go for the 4:30 time slot, but parking on campus totally stresses my out, so this time I’m trying the 5:50 time slot hoping that the parking will be better. We’ll see! I think I’m going to feed them before lessons, and probably give them a little snack and straight to bed after lessons. Hopefully the kids (and me!) are not totally cranky by Friday. Then next weekend it’s Easter and Eve’s birthday! We’ll rest again in April. :)

Love notes

Posted on March 24, 2013 by Tessa

The kids like to write me notes on the tablet. I LOVE discovering them!

I’m in!

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Tessa

I got my acceptance letter from UVEI today. It’s a preliminary acceptance based on paying a deposit and finding a suitable mentor. I’m happy to get the letter so we can move to the next step. Should I be more unsure or nervous about this? Perhaps I used up all my uncertainty over the past few years! (Who am I kidding, it will be back next week, I’m sure!) Right now I’m just wondering how in the world I’m going to do it. Working full-time is hard work! I subbed today and now I’m zoning in front of the computer while the kids are entertaining themselves. Eve is actually sitting on my lap coloring. :) I have pretty awesome kids!

Next up – internship (school and grade) placements! I’ll keep ya posted.

Day 8: Heading Home

Posted on March 21, 2013 by Tessa

Day 1: First Flight
Day 2: Just Hanging Out
Day 3: Disney Fun
Day 4: Lego Land
Day 5: Kennedy Space Center
Day 6: The Zoo
Day 7: A Drive Along the Coast

Exactly one month ago we left Florida and headed back to the chilly north. I figured I should get this vacation series done before another month flies by!

We woke up very early on Thursday, day eight, so we could check out, grab some quick breakfast from the lobby buffet, and head to the airport, just 10 minutes away. Alan dropped the kids and I off and went to return the car. We headed for the luggage check/print tickets line. It was longer than I was expecting at 6:15am. We waited, mostly patiently, and eventually got our tickets and checked some luggage. Then we headed for the security long, which was LONG!! So long. I guess Orlando airport gets a little more business than our local MHT. So we waited, and waited, and waited! We eventually we got through and started running. They have a little train thing that takes you to the gates, so we had to ride that. When we got off we heard a last boarding call over the loud speaker. We RAN! We made it to the gate, just before they closed it. Then we were faced with finding seats on a packed airplane where the only available seats were single middle seats. Alan took Eve and I took Lex and we tried to find seats together. I was able to get a woman to (grumpily) move to a different seat so Lex and I could sit together, and as I turned around I saw Eve settling in between two men and Alan heading for a row or two up. I almost cried! I grabbed the closest flight attendant and begged her to help. Eve is too young to sit alone! I couldn’t believe how many excuses people had for not moving. In hindsight I should have given her a lollipop and told the people next to her to have a nice flight! I bet they would have been begging to switch seats real soon. However, at 7am, after running through the airport, I was not amused. Finally a guy agreed to move over and Eve ended up sitting across the aisle from me. Thankfully! I know it was our fault for being late, but we were at the airport an hour before our flight. Sigh.

After all the excitement, and the complete disappointment that my efforts for the A group boarding were in vain, we settled in and the flight was fine. I was exhausted and resorted quickly to the digital aides.

They had no complaints.

Since we were shuffling people around on the flight anyway, I had made the wise decision to do so as close to the front of the plane as possible. When we landed in Chicago we were able to get off the plane fairly quickly and make it to our next gate. We even had time to grab a quick snack and watch them load the luggage onto the plane. I was happy to see our suitcases go on!

I have to take a moment here to bid a fond farewell to my lovely backpack. It saw me through many years of college, kids, travel, and much much more. The rip in the front seam has been there for awhile, but when a large hole appeared at the shoulder strap I figured it was time for retirement, before disaster occurred! It was a wonderful backpack and will be missed.

As we boarded our final flight home the attendant made a dramatic announcement that the flight was… practically empty. She suggested we all spread out. Once again my A group boarding efforts were in vain. Oh well. This time Alan sat with Eve and I sat with Lex.

Eve was happy to show Alan all the drawings she did in her Doodle book. A great impulse buy at CVS before the trip! It kept her busy for hours!

He quickly resorted to the digital aides as well. We were all pretty tired at this point.

Lex, however, had been inspired throughout the trip and decided to take this final flight time to draw plans for a new train track. It included slides and flying trains and much more. He was on a roll! He even built it as soon as we got home!

We arrived safely in Manchester where everything was dirty and gray. Florida was so shiny and clean and not covered in salt and sand! It was nice. We got back to our dirty car and headed home.

A wonderful vacation was had by all! Alan liked it so much he even suggested we do it again! Music to my ears! We just need to recover from this trip first. :)

An Easter craft

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Tessa

Today we did an Easter craft from a Martha Stewart magazine from many years ago. I tore the page out and bought the supplies two or three years ago, but never got around to actually doing the project. Lately I’ve been feeling a touch sad because my kids play so well together (tough life, huh?) and rarely involve me in their activities anymore. They used to love to participate in anything I suggested, but these days they each have their own agendas and plans for the their free time. This afternoon while they were working on a new paper airline (Navy Air, to go along with the Navy boat they made yesterday… pics of that to come later) I decided to pull out the Easter project and see what happened. Luckily, for me, they were both intrigued and happily switched gears to do a project with me for a little while. I relished in it, before all too soon it was over and I had to cook dinner while they went back to their own projects.

Without further ado… Easter chicks!

Here’s how you do it, in case you want to make a few. They are quick and easy!

Start with two pieces of yellow felt pinned together. Then trace ovals. Martha Stewart had a downloadable template for this project, but my oval shaped measuring cups worked just as well. The original directions said to use disappearing markers or something, but we used an orange Crayola washable marker. I kind of like the orange outline visable.

Then, using a smaller measuring cup, trace another oval about 1/2″ inside the first one.

Cut the big sheet of felt into four, then recruit some helpers to stitch around the INNER circles. Eve chose to use white thread, Lex and I both used yellow. In the end it doesn’t really matter at all.

Sew around the oval, stopping about an inch before the end. Using a funnel, fill the pocket with beans or something. We used popcorn kernels and lentil beans. Anything that gives it a “beany bag” feel will do fine.

Stitch up the hole to complete the oval. Using pinking shears, cut around the outer circle. Cutting around the outer oval with pinking shears gives your chick a fluffy sort of look. Lastly, decorate your chick. Lex chose to just draw on his with permanent marker. Eve and I drew eyes, but then used orange felt to make beaks, wings, and feet. Whatever makes you happy. Hot glue works well here. I suggested googly eyes, but they both strongly vetoed that idea.

Lastly, and probably the most important step, take pictures of your kids and their amazing Easter crafts! Enjoy.

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Calm and Chaos: Life with kids

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