The Life

The other day we were relaxing in Jack's playhouse (well, he was relaxing but I was kind of scrunched) and we had the following conversation:

Jack: This is the life, Mom.
Me: Yeah?
Jack: Yeah. "The life" means "really good," Mom. I saw it on Scooby Doo.

This was one of those "the life" kind of days where there was nothing we had to do, so we stayed in bed until after 8:00 listening to the rain and then stayed home all day and played. Here are a few pictures of the life.

Playing out in the rain

Worms!

Resting

Happy Mix-a-Land--Eventually the Bionicles showed up to terrorize the Backyardigans, but then the Little People came to the rescue with their pirate ship.

Making shadows--this is a shadow tent.

Camping out in the bathroom with some books.

HiHo Cherry-O!

Tonight we watched the Charlie Brown Easter special (I have never seen anyone laugh as hard at these as Jack does) and then Jack went to sleep--after about an hour of biting his fingernails and switching blankets. Tomorrow is bowling and pizza, so hopefully we will both get some sleep tonight!

St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day! This day has been a pretty good one for us--exactly three years ago today we found out we would be moving here, and today marks the (unofficial) halfway point in our current adventure. We had a pretty busy day today!

Bright and early this morning--ready for rain!

Storytime

Lunch and shopping

During lunch I noticed that Jack's hair seemed to be kind of crispy on the side--like he had sprayed hairspray on it or something. I asked him a couple of times what happened to it, but he just shrugged. Later I was trying on something in the dressing room at the store and he said, "I'm sorry, Mama." "Sorry for what??" "There was some water under the flower at the play thing at the mall and I put it on my hair." At this point I just about fell out of the dressing room trying to figure out WHAT he could have found on the floor of the mall play area that he is now telling me he rubbed on his head. Water definitely does not make your hair crispy. I tried to block it from my mind and we went home and he got a shampoo first thing.
For St. Patrick's Day we read Jamie O'Rourke and the Big Potato, played with some new St. Patrick's stamps, and had baked potatoes for dinner.

Showing off his new swimsuit. He is dying to get in his new pool.

Finally asleep!

I heard, "Riddle me ree!" so many times I had to threaten to ban Squirrel Nutkin from the bedtime story rotation. Tonight and tomorrow we may finally get some of that rain we have been hearing about. We're staying in!

Early Easter

When we moved to our first house almost three years ago, we started having a Thanksgiving dinner for the three of us the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Then we added a Christmas brunch a few days before Christmas and Easter dinner the week before Easter.

This year we added Easter breakfast. I tried this recipe for resurrection rolls that Dawn posted a while back. Her pictures are a lot artsier looking than mine. And let me tell you that you should definitely put another cookie sheet under the one you're cooking on. (On the chore list for tomorrow: clean the charred marshmallow out of the oven.) They were easy to make, though, and quite tasty--kind of like a quickie cinnamon roll.


After breakfast I started in on lunch while Jack worked this puzzle. He worked it over and over and when he got it just like he wanted it he decided to glue it down for posterity.

Jack couldn't quite make it until lunch without sneaking a little taste. And no, those definitely aren't Valentine's decorations on the windows. Who would still have those up in March??

The spread

This afternoon we spent several hours outside. I cleared out all of the leaves from around the bushes and pulled a bunch of weeds. I cleaned out the deck box and I even managed to put the new floor down in Jack's playhouse!


We may get some bad weather over the next day or so, so I thought I would make sure I could fit the car in the garage. Apparently my estimation skills are not so hot because I just about had to pull a Duke move to get out of the car when we moved it in. After all that we'd better get some hail!

Countdown to Spring

We are ready for spring!

This morning was chilly, so we stayed in and had pancakes and watched cartoons. This afternoon we went to the library and to lunch. Jack wanted to eat "in the seats" at Taco Bueno.

I don't know why he is making this face.

This afternoon we worked on tomorrow's Easter dinner. We do one at our house a week early before the big family get-togethers. We made jiggler eggs...

...and real ones, too!

Chatting on the phone

Rock Star

This evening it was a little warmer, so we played outside some.

Jack's new belt

This game never gets old for either of them.

"Look, Mama! I'm a scarecrow!"

Jack was asleep by 8:00 (he was up at 6:30), even though he doesn't think he should have to go to bed if it is light out. I did read The Tale of Benjamin Bunny twice, though, so he was satisfied.

Playing

We did a lot of playing today. This morning it was a little chilly and it looked like it might rain, but it warmed up nicely and ended up being perfect weather for being outside.

Since it was chilly, we saved the playground for after the grocery shopping. Jack cannot go grocery shopping without going to this playground. They go together. Always. Don't even try to skip it.

While I put away the groceries, Jack played birthday party.

This afternoon we went to another park and Jack got his first bloody nose. It didn't slow him down, though, and we stayed for two hours.

He thinks it's cool to wear his sunglasses like this.

This evening Jack got to play with the elusive purple paint.

This is the first time all week Jack was asleep before 9:00, so I used the time to exercise and do a little cleaning. Tomorrow we have lots of fun planned, so I'm off to bed!

All Around the Town

We went just about everywhere today! While I had my meeting this morning, Jack and Grandma went to storytime.

Ready to go!

They came back to meet me at the house and we went back to lunch at Victoria's. Jack ate his spaghetti piece by piece. By the time he was done I am not sure you could tell he had eaten any.

Our next stop was WalMart (where we found Underoos!!) and then to the mall. I found Jack the cutest dinosaur tie, but they had no shirts in his size--except at the other store on the other side of the city. So it was off on a little road trip.

Jack thought the car tables at the food court were pretty neat.

When we got home we tested out the croquet set we found at WalMart and played outside. I left to get a haircut and when I got back about two hours later, Jack and Grandma were still in the backyard.

Think he likes this game?

The truck from his first birthday still gets a lot of use. Thanks again, John and Angie!

We went to dinner and didn't get back until bedtime. It didn't take Jack long to fall asleep.

Tomorrow we are planning on sticking closer to home!

The 100th Post!

There's not too much excitement for 100, though. This morning we went to a Pampered Chef party and to the store. Jack threw a big fit there, so maybe that counts as excitement. Thankfully he calmed down before too long.

Apples in the basket

We met some friends at the park in the afternoon.

When we got home we did some bubbles from our cool new bubble wand.

Grandma came to visit this afternoon and we went out to eat and did some shopping this evening. That's about it. Maybe #101 will be a little more exciting!