Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Making the Most of It...While It Lasted
The blizzard from a few weeks ago left us surrounded by snow that seemed as though it would never leave...Well, it did. We officially have no more snow in our yard and, fortunately, no water in the basement. The mighty wind that blew through here the other day helped with that blessing. Anyways, we took advantage of the snow while we could...We had to wait for some warmer days to be able to pack it. Our kids weren't all about Frosty this time around...It was all about forts and snowball fights! We had some good times and great memories!
Climbing Mt. Everest
Snow Fort Building
More Snow Fort Building
Snowball Playing
Duke's New Snow Fort House
Snow Ball Fight!!!
Monday, February 14, 2011
My Little Crusher
When asked if she'll ever get married, Julia always vigorously shakes her head and says "No Way!" Daddy can at least relax for now, because it seems that when she starts Kindergarten that the vigorous head shake will turn into a nod and a "Yes Way!" He has a few years to savor the idea of his little girl remaining his little girl forever...Soon enough, she'll be moving on to her first crush. Probably at about the age of five...
How do I know this? Well, Alex has become quite the crusher. Does he have crushes on all the girls? No, not really. Alex still really only has eyes for Christina...Remember back when-"Mommy, I don't even think she knows my name?" Me-"Well, why don't you introduce yourself?" Alex (moving on)-"What are those things on her face?" Me-"Freckles." Alex (sigh)-"I don't really care what they are...I like them!"...Well, Christina hardly notices Alex and only really regards him as a good friend. Funny thing is that Alex returns the favor to all the girls who have developed crushes on him this year in Kindergarten. He hardly even recognizes their existence in the girlfriend sense...He loves being their friend, but fails to notice their fluttering hearts and oh so obvious love notes they send home with him everyday.
His first victim was Kimberly...Fortunately for her, despite an invite to her birthday party and attempts to gain his attention by tying Alex's shoes for him, seems as though she has been able to move on and just keep Alex in best friend status. Alex's second victim, Donna Jo, still seems to be vying for his attention and is even willing to put him in head locks and play as if she were a boy (racing, playing video games, playing tag, etc.) in order to succeed. Unfortunately for Donna Jo, his greatest acknowledgment of Donna Jo has been him asking me "why she changes her clothes so much?" Me-"Because that is what girls do...Haven't you been paying attention to Julia and her frequent clothes changes throughout the day?" He simply just shrugs his shoulders and moves on...
Most recently, Alex has been coming home with love notes in his red folder. Yes, love notes...not exactly a note per say. They are Kindergartners afterall...but, there are lots of pictures with hearts on them, paper cut-outs of colored hearts, and get well pictures from a certain someone when he was sick. The most blatant love 'picture' was a drawing of Emily with a heart and a drawing of Alex which all happened to be encased in a large heart. I asked Alex what it was (despite knowing quite well what the picture was telling) and he responded..."I don't know...It is just a picture that Emily drew for me." Completely oblivious...And, I must say...I like it that way.
Well, today, I was surprised at the beginning of Alex's Valentine's Day party at school to have another little girl, Heather, approach me and proudly proclaim that she was Alex's girlfriend. Poor Heather apparently has not been noticed on Alex's five year old radar...I hardly ever hear him mention her...Perhaps she should try a little bit harder. Some love notes to send home, tying his shoe laces, fluttering her eyelashes, etc. Then again, all of this charm has not worked on him quite yet. Heather is going to have to get creative...If only she paid attention to his show and tell routine. The way to Alex's heart is through army men, aircraft carriers, battleships, Legos, and dinosaurs. When will they all learn?
During the Valentine's Day party, Emily's mommy started telling me how much Emily talks about Alex. I then started to tell her about all the love notes Emily sends home with Alex. She was not to surprised and then told me...Emily told me the other day that Heather really likes Alex, but that it wasn't a big deal because she LOVED Alex. We both had a good laugh and Emily's mommy told me that she didn't remember crushes and the love word being thrown around when we were in Kindergarten. She then said..."If Emily is this bad in Kindergarten, her poor father is going to have his hands full when she is in high school." Ain't that the truth?? And, then I thought of poor Daddy...
Julia is still just so sweet and innocent and is definitely Daddy's little girl. Her Valentine's Day shirt said it all..."I Love Daddy!" Hopefully, for his sake, it stays that way for at least a little while longer.
**Names Have Been Changed to Protect their Identities**
How do I know this? Well, Alex has become quite the crusher. Does he have crushes on all the girls? No, not really. Alex still really only has eyes for Christina...Remember back when-"Mommy, I don't even think she knows my name?" Me-"Well, why don't you introduce yourself?" Alex (moving on)-"What are those things on her face?" Me-"Freckles." Alex (sigh)-"I don't really care what they are...I like them!"...Well, Christina hardly notices Alex and only really regards him as a good friend. Funny thing is that Alex returns the favor to all the girls who have developed crushes on him this year in Kindergarten. He hardly even recognizes their existence in the girlfriend sense...He loves being their friend, but fails to notice their fluttering hearts and oh so obvious love notes they send home with him everyday.
His first victim was Kimberly...Fortunately for her, despite an invite to her birthday party and attempts to gain his attention by tying Alex's shoes for him, seems as though she has been able to move on and just keep Alex in best friend status. Alex's second victim, Donna Jo, still seems to be vying for his attention and is even willing to put him in head locks and play as if she were a boy (racing, playing video games, playing tag, etc.) in order to succeed. Unfortunately for Donna Jo, his greatest acknowledgment of Donna Jo has been him asking me "why she changes her clothes so much?" Me-"Because that is what girls do...Haven't you been paying attention to Julia and her frequent clothes changes throughout the day?" He simply just shrugs his shoulders and moves on...
Most recently, Alex has been coming home with love notes in his red folder. Yes, love notes...not exactly a note per say. They are Kindergartners afterall...but, there are lots of pictures with hearts on them, paper cut-outs of colored hearts, and get well pictures from a certain someone when he was sick. The most blatant love 'picture' was a drawing of Emily with a heart and a drawing of Alex which all happened to be encased in a large heart. I asked Alex what it was (despite knowing quite well what the picture was telling) and he responded..."I don't know...It is just a picture that Emily drew for me." Completely oblivious...And, I must say...I like it that way.
Well, today, I was surprised at the beginning of Alex's Valentine's Day party at school to have another little girl, Heather, approach me and proudly proclaim that she was Alex's girlfriend. Poor Heather apparently has not been noticed on Alex's five year old radar...I hardly ever hear him mention her...Perhaps she should try a little bit harder. Some love notes to send home, tying his shoe laces, fluttering her eyelashes, etc. Then again, all of this charm has not worked on him quite yet. Heather is going to have to get creative...If only she paid attention to his show and tell routine. The way to Alex's heart is through army men, aircraft carriers, battleships, Legos, and dinosaurs. When will they all learn?
During the Valentine's Day party, Emily's mommy started telling me how much Emily talks about Alex. I then started to tell her about all the love notes Emily sends home with Alex. She was not to surprised and then told me...Emily told me the other day that Heather really likes Alex, but that it wasn't a big deal because she LOVED Alex. We both had a good laugh and Emily's mommy told me that she didn't remember crushes and the love word being thrown around when we were in Kindergarten. She then said..."If Emily is this bad in Kindergarten, her poor father is going to have his hands full when she is in high school." Ain't that the truth?? And, then I thought of poor Daddy...
Julia is still just so sweet and innocent and is definitely Daddy's little girl. Her Valentine's Day shirt said it all..."I Love Daddy!" Hopefully, for his sake, it stays that way for at least a little while longer.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Snotorious B.I.G.
Yeah, I too thought that it was funny when I first heard this 'proclaimed' name of this storm...If hurricanes have names, shouldn't blizzards as well? Well, I am all for fun...and names, but this name has worn on me and it truly no longer funny to me. Just like Alex..."I am so done with the Blizzard of 2011." This quote, just one of many of the past few days, from the little one who did actually help shovel us out, but really didn't have it stressful enough to throw himself into exasperation over it.
Daddy and I stayed on top of it as best as we could considering the amount of snow and the blowing that came with it. In all, I went out three times to shovel with Daddy and he went out once more after supper on Tuesday. We were out at Midnight and when we looked out in the morning across the Winter Wonderland, I proclaimed..."I don't think it is that bad, I can see some of the sidewalk leading to our porch. I'm glad we stayed up late to knock it out!" Oh, how wrong I was. The driveway looked like a sea of snow complete with waves and ripples once we headed out. In some places it had drifted to as high as 3 feet. I'm not sure if it was best that we tried to 'stay on top of it' or not. But, I do know that we were able to get our entire driveway cleared yesterday despite the massive drifts across it...
so, maybe in the end, it worked out for us.
It was funny to survey the storm today as we drove around after cabin fever had set in. In the end, the experts claim that we received 13 inches. Accurate?? I'm not sure. I don't know how they can tell when the wind was blowing the way it was. Neighbors at the very end of our street seemed to have only a few inches of snow covering the driveway and had no massive piles of snow alongside the edge of their driveway. We, along with our neighbors, on the other hand, seemed to have at least a foot and a half where it wasn't drifting and more where it was. It seems so unfair how Mother Nature dumps on one of us, yet spares someone just a block away. All in all, I did decide we were quite lucky. Although we had some crazy drifts in our driveway and a monstrosity that rivals Mt. Everest in our backyard, they did not compare to some of the drifts that we saw while driving around today. Yes, it could have been worse...
we could have been stranded on Lake Shore Drive.
I'll say we conquered it...We have access to our street. We can safely pull our vehicles out when cabin fever sets in. Dukers has plenty of space out back to do his business and even more space now that the cold has set in and he can walk around on the drifts. Hopefully, he doesn't try to escape on the North end. Alex and Julia finished their Valentine's mailboxes and Alex finished his Valentine's for school already (**sigh** no worries about that over the next week and a half). Julia was able just to get hers started, but was distracted and kept looking out the window and asking "Where is the blizzard? I don't see it." It was quite obvious that the blowing, swirling snow out back was not what she was picturing in her mind for what a blizzard actually was. In her three year old mind, it was just snow. A blizzard was much more. My house, one would assume, would be sparkling right now and smelling of Fantastic and 409. But, alas, it is actually messier now than when this whole ordeal started. There are mountains of coats, snowpants, sweatpants, gloves, socks, boots, hats, and scarves hanging everywhere in attempts to dry out before our next venture out. I'll get it all cleaned eventually...maybe when Spring arrives and I can kick everyone outside!
Daddy and I stayed on top of it as best as we could considering the amount of snow and the blowing that came with it. In all, I went out three times to shovel with Daddy and he went out once more after supper on Tuesday. We were out at Midnight and when we looked out in the morning across the Winter Wonderland, I proclaimed..."I don't think it is that bad, I can see some of the sidewalk leading to our porch. I'm glad we stayed up late to knock it out!" Oh, how wrong I was. The driveway looked like a sea of snow complete with waves and ripples once we headed out. In some places it had drifted to as high as 3 feet. I'm not sure if it was best that we tried to 'stay on top of it' or not. But, I do know that we were able to get our entire driveway cleared yesterday despite the massive drifts across it...
so, maybe in the end, it worked out for us.
It was funny to survey the storm today as we drove around after cabin fever had set in. In the end, the experts claim that we received 13 inches. Accurate?? I'm not sure. I don't know how they can tell when the wind was blowing the way it was. Neighbors at the very end of our street seemed to have only a few inches of snow covering the driveway and had no massive piles of snow alongside the edge of their driveway. We, along with our neighbors, on the other hand, seemed to have at least a foot and a half where it wasn't drifting and more where it was. It seems so unfair how Mother Nature dumps on one of us, yet spares someone just a block away. All in all, I did decide we were quite lucky. Although we had some crazy drifts in our driveway and a monstrosity that rivals Mt. Everest in our backyard, they did not compare to some of the drifts that we saw while driving around today. Yes, it could have been worse...
we could have been stranded on Lake Shore Drive.
I'll say we conquered it...We have access to our street. We can safely pull our vehicles out when cabin fever sets in. Dukers has plenty of space out back to do his business and even more space now that the cold has set in and he can walk around on the drifts. Hopefully, he doesn't try to escape on the North end. Alex and Julia finished their Valentine's mailboxes and Alex finished his Valentine's for school already (**sigh** no worries about that over the next week and a half). Julia was able just to get hers started, but was distracted and kept looking out the window and asking "Where is the blizzard? I don't see it." It was quite obvious that the blowing, swirling snow out back was not what she was picturing in her mind for what a blizzard actually was. In her three year old mind, it was just snow. A blizzard was much more. My house, one would assume, would be sparkling right now and smelling of Fantastic and 409. But, alas, it is actually messier now than when this whole ordeal started. There are mountains of coats, snowpants, sweatpants, gloves, socks, boots, hats, and scarves hanging everywhere in attempts to dry out before our next venture out. I'll get it all cleaned eventually...maybe when Spring arrives and I can kick everyone outside!
About 4:00 PM, Tuesday, February 1st, 2011.
Daddy after shoveling at about 6:30 PM...This picture does no justice. His eyebrows and eyelashes were white with snow. For some reason, it just did not show up in the picture!
Looking out across our driveway (I think? It is hard to tell...I took quite a few pictures) at Midnight. I love how the flash catches the snowflakes!
The kids had more fun playing it in rather than working...Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011.
Julia's attempt at snowball making!
Showing off the drift at the end of the driveway. Yet another deceiving picture...It doesn't look that deep there, but to the left, where it is lower, there is probably 3 or 4 inches of snow on top of the driveway.
When Alex decided to finally chip in and help!
The pile as tall as me...It would have been taller,but the snow kept falling backdown the other side.
Looking out back from the garage door...
Duke and Gia having some fun!
Mt. Everest
Duke fought the shovel and the shovel won...Check out his bloody lip!
Another angle of Mt. Everest...
Neighborhood hoodlums getting into trouble between the fences. It told them to head back and get out of there because I wasn't saving them. They continued...so, what did I do? I took their picture! Andrew's mom finally came and got them and gave them a good stern talking to!
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