Silence is golden unless...

I was downstairs folding laundry, working on the computer, or something.  I realized that it was so peacefully quiet.  Then I realized I have a toddler.  When it's peacefully quiet with a toddler, you know it's going to be bad.

I walked upstairs to find this...

and this...

and these...

and finally...

Eli and Ruby taught me a lot about being a mom.  Nothing they ever did prepared me for this sensory-seeking (and sometimes sensory-avoiding) little boy.  What HE has taught me, is to get the camera first, and THEN begin the clean up!

Date Night with Ruby

Back in January I shared about my date night with Eli.  In February, it was Ruby's turn with Mom.  Just like with Dad, she wanted to go to the indoor water park with me.  Absolutely no complaints here!  We did crab races in the kiddie pool.  She jumped to me off the side of the pool and we did water slides until we were so hungry we couldn't do one more slide!

After the water park we had lunch at the pretzel place-- two orders of mini pretzel dogs and root beer!

Her original plan was to go earring shopping after lunch (since the next day she would be able to change out of her "starter" earrings).  While we were eating, though, she had to brilliant idea to go check and see if there were any good movies playing. 

As it turned out, "Escape from Planet Earth" was at the theatre.  She loved it and she loved not having to fight a toddler to sit on Mama's lap!

Afterwards, she decided she wanted to go earring shopping with her own money (since her date budget was gone).  She chose three adorable sets of earrings and we came home.  

She and Dad talked me in to letting her change her earrings that day instead of waiting for the next day.  As she was trying to put the new ones in, she must have gotten in out of alignment and poked her ear into a bloody mess.  Yep, I know, I should have trusted my gut and insisted that she let me help her the first time.  Anyway, she now has about 15 pairs of cute earrings that she refuses to even attempt to put in her ears again.  Ever.

I love spending time with the kids individually.  It gives me a much better sense of their emerging personalities.

Seuss-tastic weekend

We love celebrating Dr. Seuss' birthday.  This year we had the same old green eggs, ham, and Seuss hat pancakes.  (Seriously, I think my kids would revolt if I ever tried to change this!)

Ruby made her dad and me Cat in the Hat hats.

Dad bought Seuss Memory...

and I found an app where you can listen to, and interact with, the Cat in the Hat story.

On Sunday we went to a Dr. Seuss party at the library.  We were expecting a craft, a coloring page, and maybe a small snack.  Let me tell you, they went all out.  It was awesome!

Despite it being Read Across America day, David was most interested in watching "The Cat in the Hat Knows a lot About That" with Thing 1 and Thing 2!

Our crafty Ruby would have stayed until she did every single last craft (if we could have let her!).

My favorite part was "Hop on Pop" where they had laid out bubble wrap in a long hallway and encouraged the kids to pop it.  I think we may be adding that to our celebration next year!

David's 2nd favorite part was eating green eggs (vanilla wafers, icing, and green M&MS).  As a matter of fact, he tried to do this station twice!

Happy birthday Dr. Seuss!

Heart Attack

I originally found this idea on Pintrest (of course!), although several blogs had variations of the same idea, some fancier than other.  I went fairly simple, because, well, doing something consistently over a long period of time is not my specialty!

Starting on February 1, I woke up early, cut out a heart for each of the two big kids, and wrote something I loved about him/ her on it.  (When the waking up early part didn't work, I did it while they were at school.)

Ruby discovered the hearts right away and bounced out of bed each morning to read what I had left on her door.  Eli was a lot more low key about the whole thing.  It was about a week before I ever even caught him looking at the hearts.  Each one, though, in his or her own way, conveyed thankfulness for me having done it.

I will definitely do this again.  Next year I hope to have all the hearts made in advance so that all I have to do is write something and tape them up each morning.  That certainly would have simplified things!

Although this was great for Valentine's day, I think the idea could be incorporated at other times as well.  The first thing that comes to mind is a heart with what you love about your spouse, one for each year you are married, during the month of your anniversary.  I think this activity was even better for me than it was for the kids; it helped me put the focus on the fantastic children they are, rather than focusing with the slight irritations they might cause occasionally.

Sample "I love"s:

1.  I love what a hard worker you are.

2.  I love how freely you give hugs and kisses.

3.  I love how original you are.

4.  I love how flexible you can be.

5.  I love how energetic you are.

6.  I love how you stand up to bullies.

7.  I love how appreciative you are.

8.  I love what a good goal-setter you are.

9.  I love how forgiving you are.

10.  I love how cooperative you are.

Toothless Grin

Even though this was only taken a couple of weeks ago, this toothless grin is already starting to disappear.  Some days I forget that today is the day... today is the day to go outside in the 6 feet of snow (okay, it just feels like 6 feet!) and capture that toothless smile and all the memories that go along with it!

Valentine Family Fun

Valentine's Day has become a favorite holiday (since I accepted the fact that it's about showing extra, special amounts of love to my family instead of sitting around expecting some huge romantic gesture).

We started with Hungarian Pancakes filled with strawberries and strawberry milk straws.  Of course, the kiddos also got their Valentine books (what has now become a tradition).  Eli received a story recounting the story of St. Valentine.  Ruby got a Valentine's Day Amelia Bedilia.  David got a Valentine's Mickey Mouse Clubhouse book.

Both big kids decided to buy their lunches on Valentine's Day, so no heart-shaped sandwiches were made, tear, BUT this left plenty of time of the holiday photo shoot!

Inspired by "Lady and the Tramp", we had a very romantic meal of spaghetti with meatballs, garlic bread, green beans, and heart-shaped fruit kabobs.

After dinner it was time for our two favorite Valentine games-- steal a kiss and heart bingo!  (Steal a kiss involves putting a big pile of Kisses in the center of the table and using chopsticks to retrieved them before your opponents!).

We finished the night with a free Red Box-- "Ice Age: Continental Drift" and "A Charlie Brown Valentine's Day".  What a fantastic day to celebrate the loves of my life!

Valentine's Puppy Chow

This puppy chow is going to be... wait for it... legendary!

I found this recipe from Life, Love, & Sugar for strawberries & cream puppy chow and decided to try it out for our Valentine's Day MOPS meeting.  To say it was a hit was an understatement!  WOW, did I ever get compliments on this stuff.  My kids were staking out leftovers even before I left the house (luckily they were not disappointed!).

The recipe really is quite simple:

Strawberries and Cream Puppy Chow

5 oz white chocolate or white vanilla candy melts
5 oz red candy melts (Found in craft stores like Michaels and Hobby Lobby)
5 cups rice chex cereal, divided in 2 parts
1/2 cup strawberry cake mix
1/2 cup powdered sugar
M&Ms

1. Put 2 1/2 cups rice chex cereal into a medium sized bowl.
2. Slowly melt white chocolate in the microwave, stopping it every 30 seconds or so to make sure it doesn’t burn.
3. Add melted white chocolate to chex cereal and lightly stir to coat evenly. Be careful to not break the chex cereal too much.
4. Add the powdered sugar to the white chocolate covered chex cereal and lightly stir to coat evenly with powdered sugar. You could add the chex cereal and powdered sugar to a ziplock bag, then shake, but save yourself the bag.
5. Repeat the same process with the red candy melts and strawberry cake mix (instead of the powdered sugar).
6. Allow to dry completely and then combine the two kinds of puppy chow together and add M&Ms.

Enjoy!

I will say that I very rarely consume food coloring, so this had a bit of a twangy aftertaste to me (I think it was from the cake mix), but nobody else seemed to mind in the slightest!  I am thinking I might even play around with this general recipe to make it fit other holidays.  Try it for dessert tonight, or, try it next week; everyone will love you so much for making this, they won't really care if Valentine's Day is long gone!