Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentines Day!  I came home yesterday to Spiderman running up the stairs yelling "Mommy's home!!!"  What a way to end a hard day at work. Valentine's day sure is different when you have kids.  Last night I bought some un-healthy Lunchables for the kids, and bought a bottle of wine with which to make my famous cheese fondue.  We all enjoyed our dinner, then had ice cream sundaes for dessert.  The kids don't have school tomorrow, so we opted for a sleepover on the floor of my room.  All in all, a very nice evening!

Avery's first tooth is out!

I came home from work this morning to discover that Avery has FINALLY lost her first baby tooth.  She was so excited.  We put it under her pillow in the hopes that the tooth fairy would trade it in for some cash.  Asher was a bit freaked out by all this... he did NOT want to wake up with some weirdo fairy in his room!  Nevertheless, the tooth fairy did come and brought $5, with a note stating that she wouldn't be getting this much money in the future, but since she lost it at school and it was her first one, it was special. :)

Weekend report

We had a nice weekend. Saturday after lunch we drove to the Children's Museum in Flint where we met up with my friend Leah and her husband Joey, and their kids Jaden and Kacey.  We were there a few hours and the kids really seemed to have a good time. Afterwards we drove to Linda, Richard and Mike's for a drop in visit.  Linda was in the hospital earlier this week with a blood clot.  I drove down to see her on Wednesday, but wanted to check in.  We only stayed half an hour or so before driving home.  We got to stop at the Olive Garden in Saginaw on the way and had a wonderful dinner (so long diet).  There was about a 45 minute wait and the kids were both so good.

Sunday after church I went grocery shopping, then the Coady's came by. Kate and I made about 150 meatballs while the kids played and the guys worked on Katie's car.  While the meatballs were cooking, we played Clue, Spot-it and Bananagrams and drank wine (me and Katie).  The kids all played together really well and everyone like the meatballs we had for dinner.

Kiefle weekend 2012

This weekend, in addition to Avery's birthday celebration, was also the weekend mom and Uncle Richard made kifle. I sort of elbowed my way into the tradition, hoping I can pass it along someday. As usual, the weekend began with Richard's arrival and the commencement of cocktail hour. Paul made his famous dirty martinis (which I've established that I prefer filthy) and we made the kifle dough. This year my family was here too, and we all went to Sleders and had burgers and fries. Avery was brave enough to "smooch the moose" so Papa bought her a t-shirt. We all retired, and woke up to hot bowls of "groul" and toasted dilly bread. We made the filling for the kifle by grinding the nuts and whipping the egg whites, adding the sugar and mixing together. Jamie kept the kids occupied while Richard, Mom and I rolled and filled, rolled and filled... and repeated for hours until we had over 400 little kifles. Paul hovered looking for blowouts that he could take off our hands, but we were so good at rolling he got nada. Occasionally the kids wandered in and got involved. Then, we packed up and made the drive back to Midland, kifle in tow. I had to keep Jamie to a 3 roll maximum or he'd have eaten our share within a week. I'm so glad I'm part of the tradition. :)

Avery turns 6!

Wow, Avery Rose is six years old.  Where did the time go?  It seems cliche, but it does seem like weeks ago I was bringing her home from the hospital, wondering what the heck I was doing. So, this year we, again, went to Traverse City for Avery's birthday.  Granny and Papa sprung for a night at the Great Wolf Lodge, which has to be her favorite spot on earth.  I left work early Thursday and we drove up to TC.  We met Granny and Papa at the Olive Garden (her other fave) for an early dinner.  It was good we went early, because that gave us time to play at the water park before bedtime.  We spent about an hour and a half there before returning to our room and putting our jammies on for Story Time.  In the lobby someone read us a story, and we sand Christmas songs while "snow" fell from the ceiling.  Rudy Reindeer was there for hugs afterwards, then we ate some popcorn and turned in for the evening.  The next morning (Avery's actual birthday) we were so pleased to find our elves had jumped into our bags (just wish they'd have brought the one with all my toiletries in it, which I left behind in Midland- boo) and had magically brought us donuts and blackberries.  Paired with the juice boxes and oranges I brought and a strong cup of coffee for daddy and me, we waited patiently for 9 o'clock (funny sometimes how years fly by, but minutes can crawl) and suited up for the water park.  We had a wonderful time playing! There weren't very many people there, so never had to wait for a slide. It was nice this year, because both Avery and Asher are terrific swimmers from having a pool in our home; so between that and all the life guards and the lack of a crowd I felt more comfortable if I lost sight of them for a minute. Last year it seemed more chaotic and I didn't enjoy it as much.  Avery, as usual, loved the slides.  We even got Asher to ride down them, and he screamed the. whole. way. down. I couldn't quit laughing!  Both kids got brave enough to stand under the bucket with daddy, who nearly lost his shorts every time.  Papa showed up halfway through the morning and he rode the slides a million times with the kids. I swam in the lazy river with Asher for what seemed like an hour... he would swim underwater next to me as I floated on a tube, and I felt like I was swimming next to a dolphin.  That afternoon we went back to Granny and Papas house where we had a taco dinner, red velvet birthday cake and lots of presents for Avery.  All in all, a very nice birthday. 

Another weekend north

We went up north again this weekend.  This time Barb, Ben and Andy were there.  We arrived late Thursday night.  Jamie, Paul and the boys got up and out early because they were going to go fishing on a charter boat that left from Leeland at 6 am.  It was SO windy that day, and they said the waves were huge.  Both Ben and Andy spent most of the time throwing up into the lake but all three of them managed to catch six really nice fish, which we got to take home (yay!).

We went into Suttons Bay, where they had sidewalk sales and I bought a great $8 pair of shoes and some little things for the kids.  We met up with everyone at the Roman Wheel for subs and pizza, then more shopping.  I was wondering what we were going to do to entertain the kids, but Ben and Andy kept them occupied.  They played hide and seek and flew a kite and threw a frisbee until Grandma arrived for dinner.  We grilled hamburgers and one of the fish the guys caught.

The day was a little less windy and a tad warmer.  Mom packed up some snacks and we went to the beach for the afternoon.  It was still a little chilly because of the wind, but the kids had a blast playing in the big waves.  Asher was completely worn out when we finished up.  Avery looked so pretty in her little wetsuit with her wet pony tail doing cartwheels on the shore, saluting after each one.

We got back, got cleaned up (got Asher napped up, thankfully..he was a mess) and were enjoying a glass of wine when grandma arrived.  We had a nice rib dinner on the deck and wrapped up the day playing frisbee and bocce ball.  Barb and the boys left to go to grandma's and we turned in not too long after they left.  We cut it a little shorter this weekend and were home by noon, which was nice. I was worried about the trip home because the kids had been fighting all morning.  It was good though, even though I had to listen to Spongebob the whole way.  We got home early enough so that I got a chance to re-pack all the fish, go grocery shopping, make dinner and spend time outside with everyone around a fire (I promised s'mores if the kids were good in the car, and was surprised I had to pay up!).

Beauty shop

Yesterday as I went to work, the kids told me that when I came home they wanted to do my hair. I came home and had to cook dinner (as I was cooking, Asher gave me a 'letter' with an I love mommy note in it with an old credit card telling me that's what I should use to pay them), then I took Asher to gymnastics and returned books to the library and by the time I got home it was nearly time to go to bed.

I told them to get their jammies on, and I would do the same and meet them downstairs in their beauty parlor.  For the next half hour I sat on Avery's bed while they both worked on brushing, braiding and ponytailing my hair.  When I was done I must have had 20 clips, ties and bows in my hair. Of course I used my credit card to pay, which they slid through a crack in the door which served as the card reader.  I also had a fairly large headache from all the 'pampering' but it was totally worth it to spend time with them like that.