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After Jen's, of course; see for yourself. Imbibe in teh cutefest.
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James Class Birthday Celebration

Monday, March 7th. The beginning of the school week. The evening before I was up late preparing cupcakes. They were from the box, but James requested orange icing, and as the only icing I had in the house (premixed anyway) was pink, I put a bit of effort into making the pink turn orange. My friend L had lent me her mini cupcake pan, so instead of one big cupcake, the kids would each get two small ones. Much closer to their size. And another pan of regular sized ones came out of the batch too. So we're clear on the set up- up late Sunday, making mini cupcakes and creating orange frosting from pink. Which is more difficult than it sounds. Come Monday, I have James' library books together in his bookbag, along with some other papers in his school bag, and his "Star Student of the Week" decorated posterboard showing some things about our magnificent star boy. We take Ava to school, and as I had spaced the whole plates/napkins/cups scenario, we stopped at the grocery on our way home to get our things and head back for his day at school. We get everything together, and head (almost unsuccessfully as now he wants to stay home) out the door. It takes us several minutes to make the long trek from the house to the garage (what, 30 feet?) and now I am getting stressed as our dear boy is refusing to move into the garage. I place the cupcakes on top of the car, throw the bag of dinnerware and my purse into the car, and go get him and place his sweet limp body into his carseat. (Going limp is his latest form of protest.) I get him buckled in, look at my watch and climb into the car. I get him to calm down, and we agree that we are going to school now and we are going to have a great time. I get out of the garage, turn out of the alley and on to Curdes. Waiting for traffic on Anthony, I finally get an opportunity to turn right. Mere seconds after I get onto Anthony, I hear a terrible sound. I am scared to pieces. I look into my rearview mirror terrified of what I might see there. Do you know what it is? Go back into the story if you don't. I didn't put the cupcakes into the car-the tupperwear is bouncing down the road and there is orange covering the pavement. I immediately burst into tears- maybe from relief I didn't kill anyone/thing, but maybe because all my toiling is now splattered onto Anthony Blvd. I whipped around the block to collect the tupperwear, and threw it into the back of the wagon. I calmed myself down before telling James that we would be having a DIFFERENT snack at school today- did he want donuts or cupcakes? He called cupcakes, so after dropping him off I ran over to Meijer to pick some up. There was no orange frosting, but there was ONE package of a dozen smaller cupcakes (green for St. Patrick's Day so fun!) on the shelf which I grabbed quickly, paid for, and headed back to school. James was none the wiser. We had a great day at school, I got to see what a good job he does, and what a good listener he is. It was a full, busy day that included the first time in the year they got to go outside and play at their playground. He had a blast, and the cupcakes were for me a memory. There wasn't even any orange frosting on Anthony Blvd by the time we picked up Ava and got home!

James Third Birthday

We celebrated twice for James, once at home, and once at school where he was the "Star Student of the Week". We had a lovely cake at home which we shared with our dear friends and newest neighbors. We had presents later, all of which were a hit. Mostly it was Matchbox stuff, but he was so into it, he didn't mind a little lack of variety. Some new clothes were obtained, including his new favorites, a dinosaur tshirt and some Hulk pajamas. And some new rain boots for splashing in spring puddles. Here's the one who is constantly reminding me he is a "Big Boy!", our little three year old.

Ava's Sixth (!!!) Birthday!

We celebrated the sixth anniversary of Miss Ava Pauline's birth on Tuesday evening with presents and cupcakes topped with lavender frosting. She could hardly wait to open all her presents! Her favorites came from Arizona, especially the Barbie and the Diamond Castle dvd which premiered last night when she had her friend Kara come and spend the night. We cannot believe how amazing a little person she is (really, we can, but...) and we could not be more proud of her. She immediately asked to wear her bathing suit and cover up, and although we told her no, she was very patient and opened the rest of her gifts. PJ even noted that this is the first year she is reading her own cards! We got her her first chapter book, about a girl her age. Its a series, and the main charachter I believe is in first grade. We will get that book from the library over the summer, but in the meantime I think Ava likes reading about this little girl. It was a very successful birthday with hula hoops and clothes and a singing Care Bear and entertainment and swimgear. And a good time was had by all.

Early Spring

We have decided that spring has sprung earlier this year than it did last. Never mind that we have snow in the forecast for this evening, and a roaring fire in the fireplace (at James' request, wha??) right now. As March is still happening, I would say that we have gotten a bunch of yard work done and a bunch of outside playtime done already this year, which is an improvement over 2008. One thing we have learned this year is that the boy spends most of his indoor time YEARNING to be outside. When it is cloudy and 50 and windy, he will get in my face, point out the window, and declare, "But MOM, it's NICE outside!" when I balk at going anywhere besides my comfy chair.
With the retention pond (soon to be rain garden) posing such a big temptation (I watch them out the kitchen window throwing dirt globs into the big hole) I don't like them out there by themselves, but they have been good kids and learned that if they don't stay away from the hole they are coming inside and mom means BUSINESS. Anyway, long story short, we have enjoyed quite a few lovely days playing outside. Fred loves this too, as the kids will occasionally find a stick for him to chew. We've been keeping an eye out for Mama Cardinal who built a nest in the tall bushy thing up against the back of the house (outside our room). We were afraid she would abandon it once we got out there but PJ said he peeked into the nest the other day and saw a red tail feather- she was in there with her eggs. Needless to say we are keeping an eye out for her, staying the heck away and making sure others do too, and watching for Daddy Cardinal who sometimes keeps watch from the pear tree nearby. Ahh, nature.

Super Big Responsible Girl

In an effort to teach Ava about responsibility, we got her a "Chore Chart". It's a magnetized board with different tasks, and for each day of the week that you complete the task you get a marker, and if you complete the task all week, there's kind of a "good job" type magnet that goes at the end. We don't use that one, but we do use the chart to help her learn about chores and allowance. For each day she completes all her chores, she gets a certain amount of money. We make sure the chores are things she either does anyway (gets dressed, brushes teeth) or things that we want to become habit (feed the kitty, make her bed). There are a few others, but nothing that makes her day difficult to complete. And for the first time EVER last week, she completed EVERY task EACH day out of the week for our first time ever complete chore chart! We were so proud of her, and made sure that she was proud of herself and recognized her accomplishment. I think later this year we may add another chore, once she is on track with a complete board more often. She is growing up much too fast!

Daily Awesomeness

Childrens tales with awesome music AND a Volkswagen? Doesn't get any better.
Will blog VERY soon, (I promise!) with photos and everything!


Slagsmålsklubben - Sponsored by destiny from Tomas Nilsson on Vimeo.

Angela is a Total Slacker

At least in the blogging dept. I do have a few things to catch up with-James' birthday, his school party and funny story re: orange frosting, and a bit of general cuteness. Things are plugging along here- weather has been unseasonably nice around here so we've been out more than usual, at least that's what I am going to use as my excuse for not blogging. In the meantime, here's something to put a smile on your puss. Pause the muzak, for this has it's own appropriate soundtrack.