Easter and Ballet

Amelia had her first ballet class on Saturday.  In contrast to the dance class that she took last summer, Amelia LOVED this class.  She participated, smiled, had a great experience, and can't wait for next week's class.  Ken took her to the class and since I wasn't there to see it, Ken took a bunch of videos.  Luckily for you, I'm only posting 1 video here - of Amelia's favorite part "Good-bye Toes, Hello Toes".

Saturday we also colored Easter eggs.  I finally had enough courage to do something I love, but can potentially be very messy, so this was the first time the girls had done it and they loved it.

Amelia doesn't look very happy in this picture, but I think she was just in deep thought ;)

And then we had our annual Easter egg hunt in the backyard . . . in between rain showers.  I hid 69 eggs and the girls found 67.  I found 1 of the "lost" eggs later that day, and Sophia found the other "lost" egg today.

 Part 2 of the egg hunt:

Fortunately, Amelia was a nice sister, and gave Sophia the pink egg that they had both grabbed for at the same time.  I wish I had caught that on video too.

Here are the happy, not quite rained out, egg hunters, with their very full Easter baskets.

Conference & Children's Museum

Last weekend was General Conference . . . and I loved it.  If you didn't have a chance to see it, or like me, watched it with a few distractions, check it out here.  I loved that Amelia remembered watching Conference 6-months ago and was looking forward to our traditions.  Here are the girls waiting for it to start.  It's hard to be relatively quiet for 2 hours at a time, times 4, but with a large collection of quiet toys/ games/ activities at their disposal, the girls did really well.  I even heard Amelia say on Sunday morning, "Yeah, it's General Conference!". 

On Sunday, the girls saw Daddy taking notes, and wanted their notebooks to take notes too.  Don't they look so studious?  Too bad that was before the meeting even started ;)

Ken had Monday off, so we went as a family to the Children's Museum in Olympia.  The girls have been there a few times before, and they know what areas they like to play in, but strangely, this was the first time they ever played in this old truck.  Sophia was so excited for her turn to drive the truck.

One of their favorite areas to play in is the craft room.  This was the first time I've let Sophia use scissors and she happily, though a bit awkwardly, cut up a little paper cup until it was time I move to another area.

Amelia surprised me by dancing on the stage.  It surprised me because there were lots of other people watching her and she didn't even seem to mind.  Maybe she'll be a Thespian just like her mother ;)  Sophia had fun dancing on the stage too . . . but just not in front of the camera.

But Amelia's favorite part of the museum is on the outside.  She would have been just as happy . . . or maybe even happier . . . to have spent the entire time at the water feature without even going inside.  And maybe Mom would have been happier too, since that part is free ;)  I promised Amelia that when it got warmer, we'd come back, with appropriate water gear, and just play in the water.

Chopsticks Hairdo

So I'm cooking, and I turn around to find Amelia and Sophia doing each other's hair . . . with chopsticks.  First they use them to eat "sticky" popcorn, and now to do hair.  Who knew chopsticks were so versatile?

A Labor of Love - Part 2

In case I haven't mentioned it before, being a mom is hard!  And a LOT harder than I ever imagined it would be.  I always wanted to be a mom.  Whenever my employers asked "where do you want to be/ see yourself in 5 years?"  I always told them that I wanted to be a stay-at-home mom . . . but seeing that I wasn't even married, that was a long way off.  I managed people, I ran multiple departments, I could multi-task and thought I was pretty good at what I did.  But none of that prepared me for being a mom.

I quickly learned that I could NOT function on a lack of sleep, am NOT nice when I'm tired, am NOT a patient person, and I yell TOO much.

Yesterday was UGLY - no patience, lots of yelling, frustration at every turn.  And by bedtime, all 3 girls (yes, me included) were in tears.  Poor Ken, when he came in and found us all crying, I'm sure he wondered how he could get back outside without being noticed.

But today, today was a new day.  I knew I didn't want to repeat yesterday or any of the other days that have recently been like that.  Determined to not repeat yesterday, I prayed A LOT for forgiveness, for patience, for love, for kindness.  And my prayers were answered.

And then I got the best compliment from one of our neighbors.  Every time I see her, she tells me "your daughters are beautiful".  But today she says to me "your daughters are beautiful; they're a reflection of a good mom".  Wow - that made my day.  She thinks my daughters are beautiful, not because of an outward appearance, but because she sees something in them that she attributes to me.  I'm not sure I can take all the credit for that one, but today it made my labor of love worth just a little bit more.

A Labor of Love

Today was the day.  I prepared physically and mentally . . . and this was the end result.

The bread isn't perfect looking (I haven't made bread for about 6 years), but it tastes good.  Amelia enthusiastically told me that she likes my bread better than the bread with "sprinkles", ie. Sara Lee 12-grain w/ oats on top.  I'm glad she liked it; I was afraid that after all of my effort, only Ken would like it.

Out of curiosity, I did some math and figured that each loaf costs approximately $.96.  Not too bad, since the Sara Lee bread we buy costs about $2.50/loaf.  But then I realized I hadn't figured labor into my cost . . . and that's when I decided that making bread is a labor of love . . . and there's no price for that.

St Patrick's Day and Other Ramblings

• Yesterday while eating our lunch, Sophia got a little bit too wiggly . . . and did a head-dive right off the counter-height chair onto the floor.  She got a huge goose-egg, but after some ice and Ibuprofen, she seemed to be okay.  Maybe she was trying to get a bit of green on to celebrate the day.
• We traditionally have corned beef for St. Patrick's Day, but after last year's dinner, Ken and I decided that corned beef just wasn't as good as we remembered.  Then I read an article that said the Irish never ate corned beef . . . so I pulled out the Irish cookbook a friend had given us and chose a new St. Patrick's Day dinner - Dublin Coddle . . . sausage, bacon, potato, and onion stew.  It was yummy and even better with the Soda Bread I made to go with it.  We both thought the Dublin Coddle was better than corned beef, but maybe we'll try a different authentic meal next year.

(The picture doesn't look as good as it tasted - you'll just have to trust me.)

• A few weeks ago, Ken told me that he'd pay me $5 if I'd start making bread.  A few days ago, Ken told me he'd been saving up his "fun" money and was waiting to give it to me in exchange for homemade bread.  I guess I better start making bread ;)  I wonder if the girls will even like it . . . they weren't as excited about the soda bread as Ken and I were.
• I can't wait for warmer weather.  We've had a few days of sunshine and warmth to tease us.  I've also been noticing that the girls are growing out of their winter clothing - sleeves a bit too short, pants too short, etc.  I think we'll all be ready for the warm weather.
• Today we made Mother Goose popcorn . . . or as the girls call it, sticky popcorn.  And of course, Sophia doesn't eat sticky "anything" without a spoon or fork.  Today Amelia wanted to eat the popcorn with chopsticks, so of course, so did Sophia.
  

They didn't do too bad with the chopsticks either . . . and because it took them longer to eat the popcorn, they actually ate less ;)

Sidewalk Chalk

Amelia got sidewalk chalk for her birthday, and she finally reminded me to play with it when it wasn't 1) raining 2) bedtime or 3) on the way out the door.

Besides the normal doodling, I drew a hopscotch board for the girls.  They thought it was pretty fun.  Some day I'm going to figure out the "real" rules to hopscotch.

Here is Amelia (and Sophia) in action.

Now it's Sophia's turn.

I drew a big circle for Amelia, and she drew this cute face . . . but I think her face is cuter.

This is Sophia's smiling face.  It's a little hard to see, since she used yellow, but she actually got 2 eyes, 1 nose, and a mouth (although I'm pretty sure the mouth is running vertically).  She didn't want to sit and smile for me though, so you miss out on another smiley face.