M--at school

This photo made it in the weekly newsletter, sent home from M's class:

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!

500th Post

I logged on to try to catch up on my blog and noticed that I was at 499 posts, so for post #500, here's a picture of a real cutie-pie:

M's story

Our local PBS station (maybe it's all PBS stations?) does a yearly Writer's Contest for kids in grades K-3. This year the top prize in each grade wins a laptop computer. I told M. about the contest and she was very excited! I explained that the book has to have at least 50 words and at least 5 colorful pictures illustrating it. The instructions say that the text can be handwritten, or typed on a computer, so M. started typing hers out.

This is her story--all in her own words, typing and spelling by her:

A butterfly friend’s with a flower

Once there was a butterfly that had a friend, which
was a flower.
The flower said I love you to the butterfly. The
butterfly said
I love you to! The flower and butterfly were happy.
They
Loved each other. They lived together. They knew each
Other well. They loved each other so much. They liked
Living together. They love each other so much!


(me again)
As adorable as it is, I don't think it's contest-winning material (yet)!

M's Birthday Party

M. wanted a dinosaur party for her fifth birthday. I was thrilled to see that most of her friends who'd already had birthdays had simpler, at-home parties, so we decided to do the same.

She invited seven friends who came for lunch after morning kindergarten. They had mac & cheese, dinosaur chicken nuggets, petrified leaves (sun chips) and baby dino eggs (grape tomatoes).
They made dinosaur hats with googly eyes:
And played dino-themed games like "Pin the tooth on the Tyrannosaurus" and "Stinky Dino Egg":
After dino cupcakes and ice cream and then presents, everyone was exhausted (G. actually took a nap!).

M. got some great gifts, including THREE more Webkinz! Overall, I think it was a success. :)

My "baby" is five years old!

This is what a five year old looks like:

Present time!

She got some more Littlest Pet Shop things; an iDog amp'd; purple Crocs; bling for her iDog and mp3 player; Sims Pets; a bunch of My Weird School books, and some clothes.

She chose California Pizza Kitchen for her birthday meal, and then we came home for "Better than the Playground" cake (you know the one--with chocolate, sweetened condensed milk, hot fudge, whipped cream and Heath pieces):


and of course we had to measure her to see how much she'd grown...
She's 41 inches tall (the height T. was when he was 3 1/2) and 37 lbs.

So far I'm really enjoying having a five year old again!

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. :)

Holiday Concert at the Elementary School

Today was the Winter Concert at T. and M's school. Pictures of them dressed up, before the concert:

M (and the rest of the K4 and K5 kids) sang Jingle, Jingle, Jingle; Lights on the Tree; and Patta patta pan. Here she is with the whole kindergarten crew (she's circled in each):

T (and the rest of the 4th graders) sang Deck the Halls; When the Winter Comes; and
T. even got to play the xylophone on When the Winter Comes.

Unfortunately, G. couldn't make it to either performance this year, but neighbors videotaped it for us. (We really need to get a camcorder that works...)

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.

More Halloween Pictures

T. and M. had their school Halloween parties on Wednesday.

M. was a bunny:
And T. was Harry Potter (I didn't get pictures since, in 4th grade, they only change into costumes at school, so these are from his teacher's website):



On Saturday, our village "downtown" had Trick or Treating with the businesses. One of the businesses had a stand offering free airbrushed tattoos.

C. got a skull on her face:

M. got a sparkly butterfly on her hand:

And T. got a snake on his pipes:

(supposedly they last for up to 3 weeks!)


Saturday night was a costume party at the home of some dear friends of ours. T. was again a mad scientist:
M. was a bunny (minus the makeup nose and whiskers)
C.'s getting into the goth thing:

And G. and I were Mario and Princess Peach:

The party (as always) was a blast!

Sunday was trick-or-treating, so we had to carve pumpkins:
Unfortunately the pumpkin M. picked out on her field trip rotted in back (and it was REALLY tiny) so she decorated it with stickers and marker):


And then it was TOT time. T. finally got to wear the Darth Vader costume:

C. and M. were goth and bunny again:
And this is C. with two of her best friends. M1 is Frida Kahlo (check out this picture and this picture, if you don't know who she is--the costume is fantastic) E. is a fairy:
It was a great Halloween season (and it's not even October 31 yet...)!