Lesson Learned

We had our 1st Pine Wood Derby back in Jan (I know, this is so late). Gabe nor I had ever built one, so we were unaware of the little tricks to help your car go fast. So, when it came time to race Zach was so pumped for the first few races. After about the 6th or 7th he started to realize that his car wasn't very fast. In fact he lost all of the races. It was so sad to watch his face get longer and longer as each race ended. Oh how I wanted to take his pain away. Afterward we had so many people tell us to do this or do that, where were they when we were making it? Well, it was a good lesson to teach Zach and remind me: Learn from your mistakes and do better the next time. Next year he is going to have a great car!!! LESSON LEARNED

1st race, he was so excited!

3rd race, his is the last one. Can you tell he is loosing his excitement?

Valentine Party Hype

Valentine's Day has become quite the day since I was in school. I helped with my children's class parties this year, I am amazed at how many parents don't participate. This party was as big a deal as their Christmas party. The kids had fun and got loads of sugar! And Natalie is lucky she has 2 brother's in school, she got to go to 2 parties!!

Much needed advice

I hope that some of you can help. Recently my son said a "word" that is, well for lack of terms, a swear word. We talked about it and how we don't say certain words. I explained, I thought, what the word was. But then last night at his Pinewood Derby he dropped the same word again! I wasn't around, so Gabriel talked to him. So, hopefully we won't hear the word again.
But here is my question. What do you do if it is said again?
And what about the other words? Do I tell him what the words are so when he hears them he knows right away that it is not a good word? I have told him there are other words and if he hears a word that we don't say here at home to let me know and we can discuss if it an appropriate word or not. But it didn't work with our most recent bomb that was dropped. So, if any of you have any advice on how to handle this I would really appreciate it. Thanks a bunch!!

New hobbies

Natalie has 2 new hobbies.
1. She loves to "help" mom. She has become my little helper. The other day I set out to make breadsticks for dinner. (Which they are very good and pretty easy. If you would like the recipe let me know) She ran to get an apron and started helping by moving the flour all over the cupboard, chair, floor and anywhere near her. Then she started taste testing the flour and dough and I caught her!


2. Her next new hobby is to do the dishes, aka: play with the water and bubbles! After we were done making our breadsticks I started to wash the dishes and she promptly moved her chair over and said she wanted to help. It isn't always how I want it to go or look, but I hope she holds onto these hobbies and I hope I can too!

Who wouldn't want a face like that doing their dishes?

January in Texas

The weather here is funny. One day it will be freezing and the next it is in the 70's. You really don't have to pack away your shorts, because chances are you will wear them in January here. This was a few days before our ice storm, last Friday. Natalie and her little friend, Natalie, went to the park to play. I love swings and thankfully so does she and she likes to go really high. She would stay in it for hours, only my arm gets so sore from pushing after the first hour!

She has also discovered the joy of taking "friends" down the slide. What an amazing world kids live in. Where everyone and everything is your friend. I love the weather when it is warm and then it goes really cold where you just want to stay home by the fire. You never get tired of one thing!

What to do when school is cancelled?

School was cancelled here for 2 days this week due to an ice storm. The ice storms can produce some pretty thick ice. Our ice scrapper broke while my husband was scrapping our cars off! Even today the top of our driveway is still pretty slick and my poor flower bed is still a bed of ice. So, while school was out we played. The boys got creative with our hill and their little sisters toys. I have realized that even if you don't have toddlers, kids will still play with the toys.

This is what we woke up to Wednesday morning. This is our grass changed into little blades of ice. The kids thought it was great how the grass was crunchy.

Zach was amazed at how the ice froze coming out of the drain. A few hours later as it was just pouring water out he was still captured. His poor hands were not dry after this.

The kids were all excited when they saw this and starting planning how they were going to build a snowman! I just chuckled inside and smiled. I wish I could have captured their faces when they went to make a ball with the ice. Utter disappointment and surprise.

But they did enjoy knocking the ice off of everything in sight. Natalie thought that one of our crayons were left outside. She said, "Mommy look. My crayon got cold" After I explained to her what it was I had to keep my eye on her. She wanted to lick all the ice! (she loves ice) That would have been fun to try and fix.

My tulips started to come up just before our storm and now they are part of an ice lake. I hope they survived.

This was their favorite thing. They used Natalie's toys and slid down our hill out back. It was perfect! The fence's shadow kept the ice from melting up there. They had a lot of fun and now they are back in school and I miss them already. Hopefully we can get another storm before winter is over.

Dog sitting

For the last week we have been dog sitting for some friends while they're out of town. Most people know that I am not a dog person, if it is in the house. I grew up where all animals lived outside and never came in the house. This has been quite an adjustment. Luckily the dog is a small one and trained very well. We have only had 1 accident and she sleeps all night, as far as I know. The kids have absolutely loved having her here. They are constantly asking to take her on a walk, maybe that is why she is sleeping so well at night, we wear her out. The kids love holding her leash and being in charge. Gabe and I never hold the leash, unless there is another dog. Here are a few pics of us walking the dog.