5 on Friday

Four random things for your Friday:

1. The geese are coming. One of my favorite things about living here are the geese. In the fall they head south and I love to hear them coming from inside the house. When I hear them I look out the window to watch the swarms flying by in their formations. They are fascinating. Now they are starting to come back from the south. This only give me hope that spring is coming soon. I remember last spring here there were geese all over the place and they had their babies all over the place. We even saw a mama with her babies parading through the grocery store parking lot. Come on geese, come on north and bring the warm southern weather with you!

2. My mom said it was 92 degrees in San Antonio Monday. That's INSANE! As much as I'd like to pack the coats, boots, gloves, hats, etc. away I really don't miss HOT February days. 92 is probably one of the warmest days we had this summer.

3. Maddi has her first dance competition this weekend. She only has one dance on Saturday and the rest on Sunday. That means doing her hair and make up twice. Ugh! She is very nervous, but excited. I can't wait to see how they do.

4. Were any of you obsessed with glasses as a kid? I remember really wanting glasses. I also really wanted a broken bone so I could have a cast too. I got the cast and found out it wasn't as great as I thought it would be. Thankfully I've never had the glasses or contacts. Maddi had told her teacher, nurse, dance teachers and Brett and I that her eyes are burning for several days last week. Then she told me her friend got glasses. Apparently Maddi thinks if your eyes burn, you get glasses. So since the eyes burning shenanigans didn't get her glasses, she has punched out the lenses of sunglasses and she wears them all the time. I refuse to let her wear them in public. I hope for her sake that she has healthy eyes and never really needs glasses.

5. I have a new favorite food. One of my most favorite foods is cinnamon rolls or anything with cinnamon. I have just discovered the cinnamon crunch bagel at Panera Bread. It is to. die. for. It's like a cinnamon roll, yet it's not near the fat and calories of a Cinnabon. My whole family is totally addicted to these bagels. I buy them by the 18 pack and freeze them. We go through them very quickly. Me and the kids don't even toast them, we just eat them plain. But Brett toasts his and it makes the house smell so good when they are toasting. I highly recommend you visit your nearest Panera Bread today and go ahead and get the 18 pack!

Saturday at our Casa

1. A Girl and Her Dog......Cocoa is protecting Maddi while she sleeps (Maddi with vomit bowl are in the background of the picture). Friday around midnight we were awoken by Maddi vomiting in the hallway and in our room on her way to tell us she needs to throw up. I swear this girl needs her vomit bowl as an accessory in her room so she can just use it as needed. Poor Maddi (and Mom and Dad) barely slept a wink between midnight and 5:00 am. She was very sick to her stomach and had a fever. Today, Saturday, I carried her to the couch around 10:00 am where she stayed until 4:00pm when Brett carried her to the bathroom. She walked back to the couch and stayed there until 6:45pm when Brett carried her back to her room. She spent most of the day taking sips of fluids and late afternoon she was actually showing signs of life. She then ate part of a blueberry bagel only to have it come back up and started feeling miserable again around sunset. I hope she has the 24 hour bug and wakes up tomorrow feeling like herself again.
2. A boy and his Legos......Cade spent most of the day like he spends every day....building with Legos! He is a Lego-maniac and I'm pretty sure his mission is to drive me crazy leaving Lego creations all over the house. This photo shows one of his projects from this morning he left out all over the play room. God love him, the poor guy woke up at 6:00am bright eyed and bushy tailed as always. I gave him some "lovins" and then asked him to go downstairs and play because me, Maddi and Brett were up all night with Maddi's tummy troubles. Sweet boy took off downstairs and started building with Legos while watching Cartoon network. Around 7:30 he came up asking if he could eat breakfast and helped himself to an uncooked pop tart and water. Call me "mother of the year". Finally around 8:30 I made myself get out of bed and joined Cade downstairs. He was invited over to a friend's house and he was so great about letting us sleep in that I didn't make him clean up his Lego's before he left. So, they'll be waiting for him to play with in the morning.

3. A dad and his Golf....Brett spent most of the day watching golf (is there anything more boring on tv?), practicing his swing, and cleaning his golf clubs. There is a new place that opened here in December that has glow in the dark putt putt golf but also simulated golf. Brett went with a friend to play 18 holes of golf tonight. Poor guy is going crazy not being able to play golf for so many months of the year. There are also indoor golf ranges (inside big bubblish igloo type things) but the simulated golf is like playing at a real course. It's a whole different world up north.

4. A mom and her Memories....I'm going a little stir crazy myself after staying home all day with a sick child on the couch. When Brett left tonight I decided to tackle cleaning out the guest bedroom. Between the kids playing with gift wrap in there, sorting out the kids clothes I need to donate, stuff from Maddi's room redo all over, etc., it needed some organizing. A few weeks ago the kids were playing in there and knocked over a box of pictures and I started looking through them as I organized them. They were from 2004 and Maddi was 3 and Cade was 1 1/2 years old. They were so precious. They have grown and changed so much, yet they are still so much the same, just in bigger bodies.

Fun Friday

Cade didn't have school Friday and Maddi only had a half day so we went to McDonalds for lunch. Cade enjoyed an ice cream cone for dessert. Me and Maddi had a cookie for dessert, it was too cold for ice cream. Notice Maddi is eating in her jacket.
After lunch we headed to the DuPage Children's Museum where the kids had fun making sculptures. Cade's piece of art is the 5 paper towel rolls with a pyramid on top.
Maddi was making a snow scene with her sculpture. As usual the kids had a blast at the museum. We got a year membership that is about to expire, so we got in one last visit.

The kids and Brett are off Monday for President's Day. We wanted to head into the city to see the frozen art exhibit at Millenium Park but Sunday is supposed to be rainy/icy/snowy and Monday will be brutally cold. Oh well, maybe we'll finish the chair rail in Maddi's room.

Hair and Half B-day

Today Maddi and I went to get haircuts. I finally found a girl I liked at the spa at the gym and she no longer works there, so I had to try a new girl. This girl had cut Maddi's hair before and I wasn't thrilled with her as she was telling me as she cut Maddi's hair how she really doesn't like kids and doesn't plan to have any. But then she was going on and on about how good Maddi was and she was the best child she's ever cut hair for etc. Maddi just got a trim and she doesn't have much hair and the haircut turned out fine so I decided to give her a try.

I told her I wanted long layers but I wanted my hair as thin as possible to make it more managable. She said I really should have more layers to make it thinner. I said I don't like short layers because I don't want pouffy on the top and then longer hair like a mushroom. She assured me she'd cut layers only in the back and it wouldn't be a mushroom. Let's just say I should have never let her talk me into the layers. I actually liked my hair the way it was and I should have just had her trim it and clean it up! No, I'm not posting a picture of the new hairdo. Not now anyway. I'm still in hair shock. I don't think I ever like my hair when I first get it cut. So, I'm adding a poll to see who likes their hair when they get it cut.

To top the bad haircut off, Maddi's comment was....."I really like it. You look like you're pregnant." Nothing against pregnant people, but my memory of myself pregnant is not the way I want to be described. How funny is that that she thinks pregnant people have a certain look or haircut!?! I know my mom says people's nose or lips look different pregnant, but do they have a "hairstyle"? Oh, well. It's just hair and it will grow back.

Tonight after the haircuts we went to dinner for Cade's "half birthday". I'm not sure when this started but for some reason we now celebrate our kids half birthdays. We try to let it slip by and not make a big deal of it but Cade has been asking for months when his half birthday is. So, we went to the Colonial Cafe and had dinner and ice cream. The 12th is his real half birthday, but we celebrated tonight since Maddi has dance and Cade has karate tomorrow night. My baby is now 5 and 1/2 years old! How does this happen? I guess time flies when you're having fun!!!

Company Showcase

Today was Maddi's Company Showcase where the dance company shows off all the dances for the season. Nice hair, huh? This is the "before" picture. It was like an extreme makeover with hair, makeup, jewelry and costume. Cade was watching it all and thought it was quite entertaining.
This is the "after" picture. We even had to glue fake eyelashes which actually went really well. Where is my 7 year old daughter? I know what she'll look like going to prom!
You can tell Cade was thoroughly enjoying himself during the showcase. We got him a new movie and a cartoon for his ipod. He watched his stuff and was quite happy. We'd make him pause the show to watch Maddi's dances. The knock off mp3/video player brought didn't work very well so we ended up buying him the real ipod nano. I wasn't wild about spending that much for a 5 year old, considering I don't even have an ipod. But, it was so worth the money. He will have many dance events to sit through and it makes it less painful for all involved.
This is the "Mambo #5" jazz costume. Cade calls her big bird, isn't that sweet!?!
Me and my little dancing queen. I know I'm a bit biased, but I think she did an awesome job! She has grown so much as a dancer this year. Brett and I were talking about how she used to be so shy and didn't want anyone to look at her when she scored a goal in soccer and now she loves to be up on stage. Dance has given her so much confidence and brought her out of her shell.

I leave you with a video of the beginning of their lyrical dance. Maddi is on the back right as you watch.

An Exhausting Day

This morning Maddi had dance as usual. I went over the days agenda with Brett about 3 times before I left to sub a class. Brett had to fix Maddi's hair and get her dressed and take her to dance. Then he had to get all of her shoes and tights and hair clips for competition because tomorrow is their Showcase(like a recital of company dances). He tried his best to relay all of the information to me, but I still had to stop by the dance studio to make sure he was correct on everything. Poor guy. I must give him credit though, he's catching on to the whole dance thing.

Then I went up to the kids school to work the Fun Fair from 11-1. He came up to school with the kids when Maddi was finished with dance around 1:00. The kids had a blast playing games, visiting with friends, etc.
This is Cade with a friend of his in the bounce house.

They had a "dad's cake walk". They announced a cake walk round only for the dads and they had the dads dancing and being silly as they walked around. The things parents do for their children!
This is Maddi doing the cake walk. Last year the cake walk was a source of drama in our house. Maddi really wanted to win a cake but never did win, but Cade won a chocolate cake. Maddi doesn't like chocolate cake and she was upset about not winning a vanilla cake for a week.
This year she won!!! And it was a pink cake with valentine hearts and red hots. Talk about one happy little girl. When the day was over we had won 3 cakes (the pink one, a chocolate cake, and a carrot cake). Maddi had also won 6 treasure jars (bags or jars filled with treats, pencils, etc.) and we ended up with 6 vouchers for free goldfish (just what we need). We stayed until the end and they were getting rid of all the prizes. The kids had a BLAST. When we got home I cut the cakes and made plates of cake slices for our neighbors. We do not need 3 cakes along with all the other candy/junk they won today. If we are going to get fat from cake, our neighbors are going to get fat with us!
Around 5:00 tonight I was at the grocery store and Brett couldn't find Maddi. Cade and Brett were looking all over for her and found her asleep in her bed! She was writing/drawing in her book that's under her head and she fell asleep. Poor girl must have been wiped!
Since it was only 5:00, Brett woke her up to eat dinner, bathe, etc. She's in bed now, but she's not asleep yet. It's such a catch 22. She's so tired she needs a nap, but if she naps she's up all night. Hopefully she'll fall asleep soon because she is incredibly excited about tomorrow.

I've still got to check her costumes for loose crystals and glue them down and get all of the different pieces for each costume organized into bags. I just finished tacking down her tutu to her dress for the tap dance. Who knew I could be so crafty!?! The things you learn to do when you are forced to learn.

Check this out...

Who doesn't like to get a good deal on things? You won't believe my deal of the day today! My friend, Erin, told me about an airline that has 10 seats at $10 on every flight. Today I got an email from the airline that they were opening seats on flights through July 31st. After much frustration and getting kicked off the website a few times I finally got 4 round trip tickets to Greensboro, NC with taxes for (drum roll).........$128! After booking I had to confirm with Erin that our plane wasn't going to fall out of the sky because it was missing a wing or something. Don't get your hopes up Texas readers, they don't fly to/from Texas. Why are we going to Greensboro? It's only 200 miles away from Myrtle Beach where Maddi has National Competition for dance. I still can't believe that price.

For all of you who need another way to procrastinate, here is a blog that I read about in the Chicago Tribune a while back. Sometimes she has some really funny stuff and I was cracking up when I read her blog from today. I find it so true. Check it out http://mom2my6pack.blogspot.com/. Sorry but I don't know how to make it wear you just click and it takes you there. Copy and paste the address in your browser.

I'm off to get my beauty rest!

11 minutes of sunlight!!

So, as I was reading the paper while eating breakfast this morning, I checked out the weather section. I was shocked when I read this from the Chicago Tribune...

February's opening days have hosted just 11 minutes of sunlight!

Are you kidding me?!? I know it's been snowy, cloudy, foggy, etc. but I didn't realize we've only had 11 minutes of sunlight in 4 days. I know you're thinking of calling the movers and moving up here right now. Better hurry and get here, we're about to get another 8-12 inches of snow tonight. That's on top of the 8-10 inches Thursday/Friday and the 3-4 inches Sunday during the Super Bowl. Just make sure you bring your shovels so you can clear a path to get everything moved in! On the bright side, it's a nice and warm 34 degrees today.

Snow Day

We had a snowstorm dump about 8-10 inches of snow on us last night so school was canceled. The kids are enjoying playing in the snow with friends and I am going crazy hanging up snow suits to dry. They play in the snow and get all bundled up and then come in for a while, then bundle up and come in, etc. It's making me crazy trying to keep the floors clean and dry.

Cocoa is not a snow dog. She LOVES the snow and will stay in the snow forever but she was not meant to live in the snow. She is so little and so hairy that she gets covered in snow. She turns into a big snowball. Click on the picture above to enlarge it and look at Cocoa's front legs. They are caked in snow. So when she comes in from the snow we have to blow dry her to melt all the snow stuck to her and then we have to keep blow drying her to dry her hair so she isn't freezing. She has a snow jacket, but I'm thinking we need to find snow pants/boots. I wonder if I could find that?!? She loves her jacket so I think she would like the boots too.
Cade and Maddi each made snow tunnels. This was their first time to make them and they thought they were really cool.
Maddi is showing off their snow slide. Luckily the temperature was around 28 today, so it wasn't too cold. It was warm enough to actually enjoy the snow.

I can't wait to see what the Groundhog says about winter. Please tell me it's almost over!