Easter fun

Easter is so early this year that it seems to have snuck up on us!

But we got some egg-dying in last night:



Here's a cute picture of the kids waiting for T. to finish he Gameboy game so they could look for baskets and eggs:
And the baskets--and CANDY!

Second Snowiest Winter on Record

We've officially surpassed almost all other winters in terms of snowfall. The "official" snowfall for Milwaukee this year (recorded at the airport) is 96.9 inches, with 12.9 inches falling on Friday the 21st (yep--C's birthday party).

Luckily we had gotten some bare spots and the roads and sidewalks were bare before this snowfall. We still had banks built up, though. I can't imagine what it would have been like if we'd not had any settling...
We're several miles north of the airport, and closer to the lake and we got at LEAST 14 inches. You can see it piled up on the wishing well below:
But since it was such heavy, wet snow, it was perfect snow for making snow bunnies:
or snowmen in the neighbors' yard:
Temps hit 50 on Saturday and (unfortunately) both the bunny and the snowman lost their heads...

OK, I'm perfectly happy being second snowiest--we can be done now. No, seriously!

C's Birthday Party

Her 13th birthday isn't until next Friday, but with Spring Break, we decided to have C's party this Friday.

She had 12 friends over for a 70's themed party that lasted SIX hours (yikes....).









They painted pet rocks:

People brought 70's music and they danced, played twister, watched The Brady Bunch, and generally hung out and did teenager things. :)

There was pizza--and cake, with singing:



The cake was a layer of chocolate and a layer of yellow cake, with mocha cream filling and buttercream frosting.

That's five boyfriends, if you're keeping track...

I think a good time was had by all--and six hours wasn't "too long" after all!

Schwa eats a worm!

Actually, she ate TWO...

I think I posted before about Schwa's refusal to eat earthworms and how we had to buy fish for her. Well, all that we read said that fish is not an adequate food source on its own and that alternating fish and worms is the best thing you can do for a garter snake (short of feeding it mice--which we're NOT doing!).

We'd been trying to put worms into Schwa's terrarium, but she ignored them. I decided that maybe she would respond to a hand-held worm, so we tried again.You can see that the experiment was a great success! :)

C's New 'Do

C. has the thickest, most wild hair I've ever seen. She has repeatedly tried to grow it out, but it just gets bushier and bushier! So we talked about it, and she decided to go with a short, funky new hairdo. Her hair got long enough to donate to Pantene Beautiful Lengths, so she got it cut today. Here's the before pics:





And the after pictures:

She looks SO much older!

Here's the hair T. had cut off last year (top) and C's ponytail from this haircut:
Now all I have to do is get to the post office....

Lazy Vacation Days

Most years, winter break seems to be over with very quickly--too quickly. But this year the kids had two FULL weeks off of school and G. had over a MONTH off of school. In addition, Grandma K. came and stayed with us for over two weeks.

It was so nice to not be rushed to get things done in a few days. We had lots of time to just relax and play with our new gifts.

Here's G. and M. I think he was holding her because he wasn't sure he'd be able to pick her up after she turned five..Here's T, probably watching "Myth Busters" on TV--giving his hands a rest from playing Guitar Hero III:

And here's Grandma K., begging me NOT to take a picture of her (I always was a lousy listener...):

Christmas Day

The "it's too early in the morning" photo:
Actually, the kids were the LAST ones up this morning! I got out of bed around 7:00, and the kids got up between 7:30 and 8:00.

Here's M., building a tower with all of her unwrapped gifts:
G., modeling the hands-free flashlight he got:
And the BIG hit of the day: Guitar Hero III for wii:
C. also got Dancing with the Stars for wii, and M. got Big Brain Academy--all three are really fun!

I got some cool laptop accessories, Uncle S. got a remote starter for his truck, and Grandma K. got an iPod!

Best of all, we have nowhere to go on Christmas day. :)

The feeding of the Schwa

Last time I posted about C's pet snake, we were having trouble getting her to eat. C. called the local (wonderful) pet store, Hoffer's, and they suggested that we try fish. That day we bought 5 rosy red feeder fish, took them home, and Schwa snarfed them down in no time flat.

This time we took photographs (so skip the rest of the post if you don't wish to be "entertained" by watching a snake eat....)

Here she is BEFORE we put the fish in her dish:
Once she smelled them, she made her way over...
I love this picture of her tongue, as she's smelling where they are:
GOT ONE!
She carries it out of the water to eat:chomp, chomp...
And then back for more...

Remember me?

Yikes! I am SO out of the habit of blogging. I can't believe it's been over a month since my last post. Apologies galore...

So here's the month in a post:

I got a new computer--a laptop! The kids' computer completely died (the motherboard on a crappy eMachines) and when I went to find a replacement, they had this Compaq Presario with a dual processor on clearance for $399--which was cheaper than any of the desktops they had.
I have always wanted a laptop ;) I haven't taken it out of the house (to cool coffee shops or wherever) yet, but just the fact that I OWN a laptop is cool. I didn't realize how much I used the number keypad on the right until I no longer had it! I also am not a huge fan of the touchpad, so have a mouse connected when the computer's at the desk. Still, going from a half dozen plugs (CPU, monitor, speakers, etc.) down to one makes the desk area a lot neater, too. And now C. wants one of her own for Christmas--she's thinking of saving her money to get one. With five people currently fighting over the internet connection on two computers, I am not discouraging her.


T. had his half birthday, so he's now closer to being ten than being nine. YIKES!



And here's a picture of C. and T. wearing the Halloween tees I bought them on clearance:

C. has been enjoying Schwa. Schwa is very cuddly and friendly and loves to be held. She isn't a big eater, though. We think she's maybe eaten two worms in the month + that we've had her...



And Grandma K. retired! She had enough vacation saved up that, although her birthday isn't until January, her last day of work was November 2nd. She's been down to visit already twice (and will be here for Xmas)--which is more than she often can make it in a year! The kids are loving it!


Besides that I've been tutoring like crazy (sometimes 7 times a week). I have a great bunch of students this year, and I am helping most of them with double subjects (both Science and Math). G. is on bedtime duty most nights and it's so nice to not worry about things like that. Even if he has an evening obligation, C. can watch the kids while I'm gone.

I also have sent in my application to substitute teach. I'm not sure if that's something I want to do for long-term, but if M. really does go to school fulltime next year, that opens me up (for either subbing or taking classes so that I can go back as a regular teacher). G. will have a few weeks off in January, and his semester finishes almost a month before the kids are out in June, so between that time (and actually Spring Break, too), I should be able to get into the schools enough to at least pay back my application fee and maybe I'll decide that I love subbing!

I've been helping out a lot at the elementary school (not many opportunities at the Middle School), and between M. and T's classrooms, plus the social events (coffees with other moms), I'm seldom home in the morning while M's in school. It's both good and bad!

We had teacher's conferences for all three kids, that overall went well. For the first time, C's conference was the harshest. All her teachers love her, but the disorganization and general sloppiness is catching up with her. I'm hoping that she'll figure things out before high school.

It was our turn to host Thanksgiving here for both families, but we lucked out in that my brother didn't come, so it was only my mom from my side, and G's brother and sister went to their in-laws, so we only had his parents! G's sister's family did come later, for dessert, but the actual meal was pretty simple.

And now I'm off to tutor, so I'd better post this, or it'll take another week to get anything on the blog! :) I'll try to do more keeping up.