Mother-Daughter Projects

The girls and I recently tackled some long needed "to-do" projects.

Starting with Paige. She and I completely cleaned and organized her room. It ended with two big bags of trash. It seems like all the popular toys for kids are mini, like Polly Pockets, Littlest Pet Shop, etc. We were buried in tiny pieces of toys and junk. It took a couple of hours but we finally finished. Even better, Paige really appreciated the results and worked very hard the whole time. In fact, she is so happy with her new room, she has been spending hours up there playing all by herself, but has reassured me she is not making a mess!

Ashley's project was a little different (but believe me her room is also on the project list.) Yesterday, I checked her out of school an hour early and we went shopping for a swimsuit and shoes. Thanks to Ashley I had a totally new experience when it came to swimsuit shopping---not being able to find a good fitting swimsuit because you are too skinny. Trouble finding a swimsuit, every woman knows about that, but being too skinny? THAT WAS TOTALLY NEW TO ME. In fact, I am pretty sure that I will only have to deal with it vicariously through Ashley. She was a little frustrated, but I told her to take my word for it, you could have a worse problem. Obviously, you can't wear a baggy swimsuit but in order to find one tight enough, she was having to go down two clothing sizes, which puts her close to wearing the same size swimsuit as Paige. Of course, this didn't work because then it was too short or skimpy. In the end, we found a tankini at Justice that isn't perfect, but I'll just feed her donuts for breakfast for the next few weeks. As for the shoes, no luck. We will have to go out again. The girl's feet are huge, we are definitely shopping in the women's dept. She also has the longest freaky toes but once again very narrow feet, making a good fit difficult. I miss the days, I could just pick things out myself without needing her to try things on.

P.S. in case you were feeling like Paige got a raw deal, she's the one who ended up getting some new summer shoes :)

Ahh, Mother's Day

Mother's Day was very nice around our house. The effort that Dave and the girls put in to making the day special for me was so sweet and a great reminder that I am truly appreciated.

In the morning, I slept in and then stayed up stairs to shower and read books while the girls were downstairs prepping for the opening of the Mother's Day Restaurant which has become an annual tradition in our home. This year the restaurant featured a breakfast menu of blueberry pancakes and an omelet scramble. Chef Dave did a great job with the food, while the girls were excellent servers and hostesses. For entertainment this year, both the girls played songs on the piano for me.

I was also given some of my favorite hair serum (which is must for someone with frizzy hair like me) and some workout clothes. Dave's mom also sent me a cute bracelet and a fridge magnet--isn't that sweet?

What a great day. I'm glad I'm a mom and that I know and have learned from so many amazing mothers.

Reading, Baseball, and Freezing

Every year the girls' school is part of a reading incentive program called Ozzie's Reading Club. If the girls read a certain amount of time, they are given a free ticket, t-shirt, and hot dog meal for a Kane County Cougars baseball game (the local minor league, single A, Oakland A's affiliate.) Of course, day after day of warm weather and the night of our game is FREEZING cold. It was a little rainy, very windy and super cold, but since we already had our tickets and the girls were looking forward to going we loaded up the blankets and braved it. After about the 3rd inning, we realized that we would have to be crazy to stay any longer as we were already delirious from the cold:

At least the girls picked up their free t-shirts, ate a hot dog at the ball park, and marched in the pre-game parade:

The Egg Drop

For the past few weeks, the kindergartners in Paige's class have anxiously been tending chicken eggs in "incuvators." Finally, on May 5th the chicks arrived:

They learned all about oviparous animals and to end the unit they were given the "egg drop" assignment. This was my first time ever doing this but here is what Paige and I came up with:

We started with a raw egg and placed it in a ziploc bag with puffed rice cereal. Then we put the bag between two pieces of foam packing we had leftover from when something was shipped to us.

Next, we wrapped the whole thing with packing tape, over and over. We couldn't find a box that fit the size requirements, so we went without--figuring that cardboard wasn't going to make much of a difference protecting the egg. After it was wrapped up tight, Paige went to town decorating with stickers and ribbon.

Here is the final product. Paige took it to school, where the Vice-Principal dropped it from the roof of the building while the Kindergartners watched from the ground. And the verdict on our engineering...it didn't break!! Way to go Paige!

Tasting Good

My new food find is Broccoli Rabe or Rapini. I have had it before at a Chinese restaurant, but this was the first time I bought and cooked it myself. It was so good and so easy to prepare. The girls were okay with it, but Dave and I loved it. I kept it very simple--a quick boil in chicken broth, followed by a saute in olive oil and garlic.

It will be back at our dinner table again. I am pretty sure the girls will eventually develop a taste for it, I know I have.

It's a Little Scary

The tickets are purchased, dates are set, with less than 45 days until departure here is today's news:

1- for Dave's travel to Hyderabad, India

2- for mine and the girls' travel to Thailand

Fine Arts Night

Ashley at her school's annual Fine Arts Night. She is holding a clay medallion she made and imprinted with the tread of her tennis shoe.