Favorite Things

One of the books I enjoy reading (actually singing) to the kids contains the lyrics to the song from the Sound of Music about "raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens...". What the kids consider to be their "favorite things" is often changing so I thought I'd write a synopsis of their favorites at this current stage of life.

Food for dinner:  

Ian: pizza, chocolate chip pancakes, grilled cheese at Friendly's, fish sticks, and nuggets from McDonald's

Nadia: macaroni and cheese, tuna noodle casserole, spaghetti, and pizza  (in that order)

Oliver: pulled pork, baked beans, and split pea and ham soup

Toys

Ian: Legos, Star Wars toys, and superhero toys

Nadia: Princess dolls (Barbie size ones, little tiny figurine ones, and 18 inch ones) and every time she takes a bath she takes Ariel's mermaid sisters in the tub with her

Oliver: play food, shopping cart, toy broom, stick horse, stuffed animals (for example today he took them in the ball pit in the master bathroom and almost every day he has a sort of "tea party" with play food and stuffed animals), and the Elefun game

Desserts (it's hard to think of a sweet the three kids don't like):

Nadia: chocolate fudge brownie ice cream, cookie dough ice cream, brownies, chocolate peanut butter chip cookies, and M&M's

Ian: brownies, chocolate chip cookies, M&M cookies, candy, etc.

Books

Oliver: Good Night, Gorilla, books by Sandra Boynton, books by Iza Trapani, The Three Little Pigs, Goodnight Moon, books by Eric Carle, and Pete the Cat books

Nadia: This girl loves SO many books it's hard to narrow the list down. She absolutely loved Anne of Green Gables, for example, but I think if she had to pick ONE series, she'd pick the Ramona the Pest books.

Ian: He loves The book with no pictures, books by Lauren Child, and many many more! He loves being the one to "read" Good Night, Gorilla to Oliver.

Food for breakfast

Ian: Cocoa Puffs, Froot Loops, Apple Jacks, Reese's Puffs, toast with grape jelly, Pop Tarts

Nadia: Frosted Mini-Wheats, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Raisin Bran Crunch, Cap'n Crunch, Pop Tarts, strawberry oatmeal, or scrambled eggs

Oliver: peach oatmeal, toast with grape jelly, Pop Tarts

Shows:
Oliver: Sam the Fireman and Sesame Street

Ian: Spiderman and his Amazing Friends (from 1981)

Nadia: Mulan, Mr. Peabody & Sherman, and Pippi Longstocking

Food for lunch
Ian: peanut  butter crackers, hotdog with mustard and ketchup

Nadia: ham and cheese hotpocket, egg salad sandwich, peach yogurt

Stuffed animals: (who they pick to sleep with)
Ian: Yoda, a little green dog, Mike Wazowski, and Squishy

Oliver: Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck

Nadia: her Dragon pillow, Elsa, teddy bear, panda bear, and penguin

Activities:
All three of them love playing what they call "the running game," airplane rides from Mommy, hugs, kisses, being tickled, playing on playgrounds (indoor out outdoor), playing in the snow, watching tv, playing on the iPad, dancing to music, and riding rides at amusement parks.

Changing seasons

Thursday night marked the end of the kids' first ice skating class. They were in the "Snowplow Sam" class for 5 and 6 year olds. Next winter they would both be able to be in the Level 1 intermediate class. Thursday night was also Nadia's last basketball team practice for the year, and yesterday she had her last game. Paul's parents met us there to see her play. Everyone was hoping she'd make her first basket, but it didn't happen. She was closer two weeks ago. Everyone was pulling for her - the coaches of BOTH teams, the ref, players on both teams, etc. They kept feeding her the ball, and she had many attempts. Last year I had zero expectation that she'd make any baskets, but I admit that once she started making them in practices (as many as 12 in one night), I definitely got my hopes up that she'd make one during a game this year. Last week she wasn't feeling well when she played, so I had my hopes up yesterday to finally see her make a basket. I admit I felt very disappointed, but I didn't say a word about it. She loves playing basketball has improved in many ways over the past year (dribbling, defense, etc.). Paul's favorite moments were when she dove to the floor for the ball.

She is very excited about playing basketball again next year, when she'll be on a 2nd/3rd grade team. She's been on a K/1st team the past two years. The kids will be getting more practice at basketball the next two weeks at homeschool gym classes with the coach from Bucknell. Ian right now is not too thrilled at the idea of playing on a basketball team next winter, but we are going to sign him up anyhow. We are trying to get him out of this phase of saying he's too shy to do such things. We want our kids to try different things and then they can decide what they want to continue to pursue. Paul will be coaching Ian's U6 soccer team this spring. We haven't heard from Nadia's coach yet, but practices will be starting in the very near future! They will be missing two of the eight spring games due to our trip to Florida. They played all eight soccer games in the fall, and Nadia played all eight basketball games this winter.

Since it will be officially spring in a few days, a couple of days ago I also went through the house and took the remaining snowman decorations to the basement. Tomorrow it's supposed to feel like spring outside  (high of 59). I am planning on taking the kids to the playground for the first time in months. WOOHOO!

My fever broke on Saturday morning. PTL! When it still was registering at 101 on Friday afternoon I called the doctor's office, but they didn't have any openings until Monday.

Normally Paul's parents come over to our house when they come up for soccer or basketball, but they didn't come over yesterday due to all the germs floating around our house with three of us coughing. They met us at church this morning to hear the kids' choir sing in the second service (Nadia had a short solo at the beginning of the song), and instead of coming to our house they treated us to lunch at Pizza Hut so we could have a little more time together, as we hadn't seen them in a month. Hopefully we will be healthy soon so they can come to our house for a visit. Our church has an average attendance of 1,500+ so I was pleased with Nadia's poise during both services this morning. In April they are singing three verses of "Jesus Loves Me" - two of the verses they will also be signing in ASL and the third verse they are singing in Spanish in honor of those in our church who are deaf and those who speak Spanish.

Thankful Thursday

1. We all enjoyed lunch at Dunkin Donuts and the Eric Carle performance at Bucknell on Saturday afternoon.

2. We also enjoyed the Music Man performance on Sunday afternoon. I had been hoping to go to the Matthew West concert that night, but since #1 I didn't have anyone to go with and #2 we are trying to be as frugal as possible, I decided it was better to take the kids to see the Music Man. We keep trying to spend as little money as possible even though we keep coming across unexpected expenses (such as over $600 in medical bills last month and last week we paid $300 for two tires for the van). For example, because of the tire expenditure, we didn't buy tickets to the Frozen ice skating party. The kids enjoyed the musical although it was long (2.5 hours plus a 15 minute intermission). It's a hoot hearing Ian singing various songs around the house such as "Lida Rose."

3. It was a treat to have dinner at McDonald's on Monday night using a gift card Oliver received at Valentine's. Lately I've been cooking seven days a week, which has rarely been true over the past 13.5 years of marriage, so I appreciate a night off from cooking even more these days! We even splurged and let the kids get ice cream. Ian had his very first hot fudge sundae, and he LOVED it. I have even gotten him to eat hard ice cream at home lately. Maybe the next time we're at Friendly's he will eat a sundae? We had planned to go to Friendly's yesterday night because Wednesday is the best day to go (kid's meals are cheaper) and spring break seemed the ideal week to go, but the fact that Ian and I had a fever nixed that plan. It's a good thing we didn't go because Ian didn't eat his dinner last night.

4. Yesterday I "bought" four tickets to SeaWorld and four tickets to Kennedy Space Center using Paul's credit card points so we didn't spend a penny for those eight tickets! Woohoo! Oliver is still free at both places (and at Disney) since he won't be three years old yet.

5. Due to our fevers, Ian and I didn't go to church last night. Paul took Nadia and Ian to AWANA and just hung out at the church with his chemistry textbook. I can't remember the last time I had one-on-one time with Ian. Usually if I am home alone with one child I'm with Oliver. We built a cabin with Lincoln logs, read books, etc.

6. I am very grateful that thus far Paul and Oliver have escaped this bug. Nadia still has a cough (day 8 for her), and Ian and I still have fevers, runny nose, cough, etc. Every time I check my temperature or his, the lowest it has been is 100 degrees and many times we're at 101. Paul had a hard time sleeping last night due to my coughing (sounds like a bark). I do have a little bit of energy today. Yesterday I couldn't even bear the thought of going to the grocery store to get some bread (so I sent my sweet hubby for it).

7. Yesterday it got up to 54 degrees! If I had been feeling even a tiny bit better than I did, I would have taken the kids for a walk, but I didn't have the energy even to drive 5 minutes to the grocery store. I never left the house yesterday, but it's supposed to be back in the 50's on Monday. The snow has been melting so maybe we can go to the playground on Monday? That would be awesome! I know that it will technically be spring next week, but it's very encouraging for the weather to start to feel like spring is around the corner.

8. Oliver has slept until at least 7:00 the past five mornings in a row. WOOHOO! I am now a big fan of DST! Ian sometimes gets up to go to the bathroom earlier, but he has been good about not coming in to our bedroom until at least 7:00. He proudly walks in with his Batman clock to show us that it's 7:00. Way to go, Ian!

9. Oliver stayed dry in bed every day over the past week even though he's been sleeping in later than usual! If it wasn't for the fact he had one accident during the day, I would be able to say he went a full week without any accidents. Once this week he waited too long and made it to the bathroom but peed on the floor (and in his clothes) before he got up on the toilet.

10. Nadia and Ian enjoyed their field trip to the Maple Sugaring program on Tuesday.; It was nice that Paul was able to watch Oliver at home during that trip as he wouldn't have enjoyed the 2+ hour long program.

11. It has been SO nice having Paul working at home this week since it's been spring break. We usually don't eat any meals with him Monday-Thursday, and sometimes the only meals we eat together are on Saturdays/Sundays. He's been spending a lot of time this week working on the computer (up in our bedroom), but he has been coming down for meals and such which has been WONDERFUL.

12. I finished our taxes for 2014 this week. It's always a good feeling to know that is no longer on one's "to do" list. Our federal refund is much smaller than what we got back the past three years, but I am still thankful for what we are getting back. Every little bit helps! Ideally Paul would be able to do research this summer so that he could apply for industrial computational chemistry jobs in 2016. We had assumed if I didn't get a part-time job that he would need to work this summer to earn some extra money, but we are trying to see if we can possibly make ends meet without him doing that so he can put his time this summer into a bio-physical computational research project with two other profs at Bucknell.

13. We had free pizza tonight that I didn't make from scratch. Yay! We all enjoyed pizza and other goodies at the kids' ice skating party this evening. I am so glad they were able to take these lessons and learn how to skate forwards and backwards. Then Paul took Nadia to her last basketball practice for the year. The parents played the kids this evening. We're looking forward to her last game on Saturday!

14. We're almost done reading Anne of Green Gables. What a delight! Next up is Mary Poppins!

Fevers and a Field Trip

As the day progressed yesterday, I was feeling worse and worse. At 9pm I crawled into bed with four blankets on top of me, and I still felt cold. Ian slept until 7:15 (yahoo!), and Oliver slept until 7:30 (amazing!). I was in bed for 10.5 hours, and I had a very hard time getting out of bed. Paul went down and brought me a glass of water and four Tylenol. Thirty minutes later I took my temperature, and it was still 101 even after taking the pills. I wasn't sure how I could function today, but after a shower and some oatmeal, I did feel like I could stay vertical. Ian had a 100 degree temperature so I also gave him some Tylenol, but aside from a minor cough, he seems fine. My throat is killing me, but the body aches, fever, and headaches are my chief complaints. I can't seem to get warm. I didn't give Oliver a nebulizer treatment this morning because he seems to have fully recovered from his cold. I haven't given Nadia any Dimetapp today because she is doing much better.

Last year we went to the Montour Preserve on one of the days they are open to the public for their maple sugaring program. This year I had called and scheduled a field trip for homeschoolers. I purposefully scheduled it for this week, while Paul is on spring break, so that I could leave Oliver at home. I wasn't sure this morning if I would be able to do the field trip, but since I had been the one to call and set it up I felt like I needed to go even though I had a fever. The program lasted over two hours and included tapping a sugar maple tree. Nadia was one of the first to turn the drill, and Ian was the very last (so he had to put some muscle into it as it was hard to turn at that point). We were told the sap wasn't running this morning (too cold), but it did run out of the tree they tapped! We each got to put our fingers under the spile and taste the sap, which tasted like water since sap is 98% water. After visiting the sugar shack where they were boiling the water off of sap, we each received a spoonful of delicious pure maple syrup to eat. Nadia read a book about Lincoln (step 3 reader) and finished a chapter book about the Gold Rush but that was it for "school work" today aside from the field trip and watching a 10 minute DVD about Lincoln. I did read several books to the kids even though it hurts to talk, but I didn't feel up to doing math, spelling, piano, etc. with Nadia today. Hopefully I'll feel better tomorrow!

Spring Forward

I have been counting down the weeks until DST. Ian typically doesn't wake up as early in the morning during the months we are on DST. On Saturday night we put the kids to bed about 15 minutes early knowing they would be losing an hour of sleep that night. I went to bed a full hour earlier than usual in an attempt not to lose any sleep. I had to wake Nadia up to get ready for church, which I felt badly about doing since she hasn't been feeling well. Since she usually gets up the latest in our house, she was the one who lost an hour of sleep that night. This morning I let her sleep until 8:15, which meant she got a full 12 hours of sleep last night, and she didn't have a fever this morning for the first time in five days! I had decided to call the Pediatrician's office if she woke up with a fever again today. Her cough is worse though so I did go to CVS this morning and got her some Dimetapp, and that has definitely helped her out. Ironically Ian woke up earlier than usual on Sunday morning (5:40 which would have been 4:40 the previous day). I was not expecting that to happen, but he went back to sleep and slept until 7:15, which was what I was expecting because he usually wakes up around 6:15. This morning was pretty much a repeat of yesterday in that Ian woke up at 5:50 and then went back to sleep until 7:20, which was when Oliver woke up. All three kids got an extra hour of sleep last night (11 hours for the boys and 12 hours for Nadia compared to the usual of 10 hours for the boys and 11 for Nadia). The extra hour of sleep translated to Oliver having a very hard time falling asleep for his nap this afternoon, but I was more stubborn than he was.

Oliver's cough is almost completely gone, and his nose isn't runny any more. I only gave him one nebulizer treatment yesterday. I am thinking I'll see if he can go without one tomorrow. Unfortunately Nadia, Ian, and I are now sick. Ian just has a little cough. Nadia's four day fever went away, but she has a runny nose and a more significant cough. I have a fever, sore throat, and mild cough. Hopefully we'll all be healthy by the weekend because we're hoping to see Paul's parents (whom we haven't seen in a month) at either Nadia's last basketball game of the year on Saturday or at church on Sunday when Nadia will be singing a short solo with the Soul Patrol choir.

A fever, cloud, caterpillar, and chameleon

Nadia has had a fever since Thursday morning (anywhere from 100-102 degrees each time I check her temperature). The only other symptom has been a decreased appetite. Some mornings she has skipped breakfast. Last night she skipped dinner. This morning she was crying that her stomach hurt and was refusing to eat breakfast, but I figured at this point it was a case of having an upset tummy from excessive hunger. She LOVES eggs, so I got her to stop crying and eat some oatmeal by promising to make her two scrambled eggs. On Thursday I asked her if she still wanted to go to the ice skating lesson and basketball practice, and she said yes, and she was out playing on the ice with the neighbors the past three afternoons. Our grass has been covered with snow non-stop since the end of January, and the last several days there has been a layer of ice on top of the snow.

Today when we showed up for her basketball game, we learned that only two other teammates were playing today. Three kids play at a time during the game, so this meant the three kids needed to play the whole game (36 minutes altogether) whereas usually they each play for 18 minutes total (6 minutes on, 6 minutes off, etc.). The other team had the same problem so at least it was a level playing field since all six kids had to play the whole time. If Nadia had been playing as well as she did last week, I think she would have made a basket today since she had more playing time, but due to the fever, it wasn't her best game. She made TWELVE baskets at practice on Thursday night, so it is within her reach! It would be so awesome if she could make one basket next Saturday. Her shots weren't as good today as they were last week. With a fever she just didn't have enough "oomph." I was proud of her for playing during the whole game, especially considering she wasn't feeling well!

After her game we had lunch at Dunkin Donuts (used part of Nadia's gift card she got for Valentine's Day from Grandma) and then headed to Bucknell. We weren't planning on getting donuts with our lunch (just egg and cheese bagels), but they were still selling the brownie batter donuts so we splurged and got a half dozen donuts. In November 2012 Paul had taken Nadia to see a production at Bucknell by the Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia of three of Eric Carle's stories. This time all five of us went. Both years they did The Very Hungry Caterpillar. This year they also did Little Cloud and The Mixed-Up Chameleon. The kids loved it! They use black lights and large puppets to tell the stories. In 2012 the other two stories they did were Brown Bear, Brown Bear and Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me. Tomorrow afternoon I'm taking Nadia and Ian to see the Christian school's performance of Music Man at our church. In preparation for that over the course of a week we watched the classic movie. I've been hearing a lot of "76 trombones" sung around the house. They are ready to see the show tomorrow!

Thankful Thursday

Oliver feeds Grover some chocolate ice cream

1. The kids had a lot of fun playing dodgeball for the first time in their lives at the homeschool gym class on Friday morning. There won't be any gym class this Friday or next Friday, but they're starting up a six week session on March 20. This time it will be 2 weeks of basketball, 2 weeks of kickball, 1 week of soccer, and 1 week of dodgeball. My kids will probably miss the class on March 20 because we're planning to meet my parents in Harrisburg at the State Museum that day (which happens to be my mom's 70th birthday), but we should be able to attend the other five classes. I am very grateful our church is offering these classes!

2. On Sunday evening I made a trip to CVS. The original prices of my 22 items would have totaled $70.46, but I paid only $3.74 (and received $6.87 back in Extra Care Bucks to use on a future purchase).  The kids were excited because I got Mini Wheats (one of Nadia's favorite cereals) and M&Ms that I used to make a batch of cookies on Tuesday night. Paul was happy about that because I made oatmeal raisin cookies last week (which he won't eat), and he likes M&M cookies. The kids are also enjoying some Valentine's candy I got for 90% off (such as conversation hearts).

Cookie Monster gets strawberry ice cream!

3. Last night I attended a fabulous concert at our church that was put on by a chorale from a university in Indiana. Six people who work at our church (or the Christian school at our church) were in this chorale in the past, including our music pastor and his wife (who is the music teacher at the school). The 80+ members of the choir did an outstanding job last night. My two favorite songs were "A Mighty Fortress" and "When I Survey." Absolutely gorgeous!! I was tempted to have Nadia skip AWANA and join me for the concert. If they are back next year, I think I'll do that. This week is their spring break. Their tour is concluding with a performance at Carnegie Hall this weekend (a requiem). Two young men from the chorale spent the night at our house last night. One of the young men grew up as a missionary kid in Namibia.

4. Oliver hasn't had any accidents while awake for over two weeks! He got his pants wet at church once last week when he was on the potty because they didn't take his pants completely off like I do, and sometimes he still makes a mess on the toilet seat because he doesn't wait for me to come and wipe him after he poops, but it's nice to feel that we are nearing the end of accidents while he's awake. As for sleeping, he has been averaging 1-2 accidents a week. Last week he wet the bed once during a nap, and this week he wet the bed once early in the morning (6:15 am). Last week and this week he also peed on the carpet one time early in the morning right by his door. He woke up before wetting the bed but didn't make it to the potty in time. Overall, he is making progress.

5. I love watching Nadia and Ian play together. Last week Nadia told Ian she was going to teach him how to play the piano. They sat down and she went back to the first pages of her piano book and started teaching him. And several other days in the week she told him it was time for him to practice. Cracked me up and melted my heart all at the same time. I guess you only need to play the piano for about 2 months to be ready to take on your own students, ha ha! They say one of the best ways to learn is to teach someone else (I talked about that in my dissertation on cross-age tutoring) so I am not going to interfere with his piano lessons even though in reality I don't think he's really ready to start. I am very pleased though with Nadia's progress. She's moving quite quickly through the book. Next week she's going to start learning to read music! This week she's shown progress in particular with holding notes for the proper length (ex. a dotted half note for three beats).

6. We are so thankful for BOOKS. Nadia is absolutely LOVING Anne of Green Gables. I thought it would take awhile to get through the almost 300 page book (with small print), but we are flying through it because she cannot get enough of it. I adored that series when I was a child. It is my pleasure to read it again! Ian is crazy about The book with no pictures, and both kids are enjoying Mix it Up by Tullet. It's not as funny as his book, Press Here, but it's similar and does a fantastic job of teaching the kids what colors result from mixing other colors.

7. Oliver came down with a cold a week ago. Thankfully this cold has been much milder for him, and it hasn't spread to the whole family like it usually does (although Nadia woke up with a 102 degree fever this morning). I am thankful that the nebulizer and Singulair seem to be doing the trick for Oliver. I have noticed that exercise is what sets off his worst asthma attacks. When he doesn't have a cold, he can run all he wants, but if he runs while he has even a mild cold, he has a bad asthma attack. It's hard to explain to a two-year-old that he shouldn't run.

Absent minded professor

Nadia resumed taking gymnastics yesterday afternoon. The boys and I ate dinner at home, and I had dinner ready for Paul and Nadia to eat when they got home. I was expecting them to get home around 5:50, and when I saw it was 6:05 I decided to call and see what was up. When I retrieved my phone from my purse I saw I had a voice mail message. I immediately called Paul, and when I asked if he had Nadia he asked why he would have her. YIKES! I reminded him that he was supposed to pick Nadia up at 5:30 from gymnastics. I listened to the message, and then I called one of the coaches back to let her know that my husband was on his way. She had said on the message that Nadia had said her Daddy was going to pick her up, but the gym only had my phone number. Awhile ago Nadia had both of our phone numbers memorized. I need to work with her on that again. Paul arrived at the gym at 6:15. The good news is that she was safe (other classes were still going on so it wasn't like she was the only child there), the coach didn't seem upset, and Nadia didn't seem to mind. Now if it had been Ian that had been "forgotten" I think that would be a very different story.

I almost called Paul earlier in the day to remind him, but I thought to myself it was unnecessary since we had discussed it several times (including on Saturday and Sunday). The plan had been for me to go get a haircut once they got home (I haven't had one since the middle of December), but I'll wait until next week since Paul forgot. Remembering dates and times has been a challenge for Paul as long as I have known him, but this was the first time he forgot to pick up a child. I will be more diligent in reminding him from now on! Considering he finishes teaching at 4:00 pm and arrives in his office sometime before 7:00 am on Mondays, I think it's reasonable for him to leave at 5:25 pm to get Nadia on Mondays. Next week he has spring break, and I doubt he'll forget to pick her up the other six weeks of the session after this experience! Today has been a stay-at-home day for the kids and I. Paul was supposed to go to a soccer coach meeting this evening, but that has been postponed until next Tuesday due to inclement weather.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

The past two months we have been staying home all day on Mondays. Since I signed Nadia up for an eight week session of gymnastics on Mondays from 4:00-5:30, we will be venturing from home each Monday afternoon for that. I will be taking Nadia to the class, and Paul will be picking her up at 5:30 on his way home from work. We were out and about this morning as well, and although the kids enjoyed the birthday party for Dr. Seuss at the library, I am grateful that normally we're at home on Monday mornings. After the party was over we went into the main part of the library so I could check out some books. They have many toys, puppets, computers, etc in the children's area. Ian and Nadia do just fine, but Oliver just wants to RUN and be loud. Lovely. It was pretty much impossible to keep him under control AND get books from the shelves. I could only do one of those two tasks at a time. This made me VERY grateful that the library allows you to request books online, and they have them waiting for you at the front desk. Paul usually stops and picks them up for me. Until Oliver is more mature, this will definitely be the way I will go. I am so glad that Paul can pick Nadia up at 5:30 when her class is over. He was teaching until 7:52pm on Monday nights in the fall so I had to hang out at the library or a playground with the boys during her class. I am so glad I can just take them right back home. Once the weather is nicer, I'm sure I'll take them to a playground during at least part of her class, but today we will just head home and have dinner.


The advertisement for today's event mentioned cake. I had told the kids we would be having birthday cake. Thankfully they either forgot or didn't care because they were perfectly satisfied with the pretzels, goldfish crackers, and apple juice the librarian had available at the party. She read them several books and had activities around the room set up for the kids to do such as throwing balls into a Dr. Seuss hat, "pinning" a yolk on a large green egg, counting goldfish (one fish, two fish), etc. The publicist for the library took a picture of Ian (doing the goldfish activity) and had me fill out a press release form because she was submitting the photo to a newspaper. Nadia was in the newspaper once in her costume at a different library. Oliver was wearing the costume today that I  bought for her in 2011. I will post a picture below of her wearing it four years ago. A walk down memory lane for this momma!

Best Medicine

When I started dating Paul in 1997, one of his qualities I found attractive was his sense of humor. He loves to laugh. He laughs at his own jokes. Many times his joke doesn't make me laugh, but his laughter after he tells the joke is very contagious. The kids and I love it when he reads part of a chapter book because he will often laugh SO hard. This happened recently with a portion of Cheaper by the Dozen (we edited the book while reading it in some places). Of the three kids, I think Ian is the one who is like Daddy in this regard. If you want to see Ian laugh hysterically just read The Book with No Pictures by B.J. Novak to him. What a hoot!!! The only bad thing is that Ian is still prone to reflux issues after laughing really hard.

On Saturday Nadia came AS close as possible to making a basket without actually making one. Several of her shots were REALLY close. She has plenty of height now (as shown in one picture below the ball actually was near the top of the backboard). I really thought the one basket was going in. I didn't take a picture of that particular shot, but the ball bounced around on the INSIDE of the rim and then bounced out. There was a collective groan "Oh" by many watching the game after that shot. Her teammates and coaches are definitely hoping to see her make a basket during a game. There are two games left this season. It's hard to believe (considering the ground is still covered with snow) that soccer practices will begin right after that.

Look at the height on Nadia's shot!

After the game we took the kids to Ard's Farm (where we go to pick pumpkins each October) because they were having a free "Frozen Day" from 10-1 which included various activities such as getting pictures taken with Anna and Elsa. We arrived at 12:00 after Nadia's basketball game, but as we pulled into the parking lot we were told the wait (outside the building standing in the cold) would be at the very minimum 90 minutes and could easily be 2.5 hours long. Some people still chose to park and go stand in line, but we were one of the ones who promptly turned around and left the parking lot. I consoled Nadia with the reminders that we are planning to take them to a Frozen ice skating party at the end of March and that we have tickets to go to Disney in May. I wonder how long the hype for this movie will last?