:: a glimpse of spring ::

Sunday was such a warm, sunny day, and a welcome sign that spring will come someday after this loonnnggg winter. We spent the morning snow hiking around Hartley. How lucky are we to have all these trails, singing birds and plenty of opportunities for inquiry, right outside our backyard? 

These are types of pictures I get when I ask for nice smiles...

 

Of course there are wrestling matches along the nice peaceful trails. Why would I think otherwise....

It was so mild out on our walk back that jackets, mitts and hats needed to go!

Helping a brother out.....climbing trees is hard work.

We can't wait for you spring!

:: dinner for.....18 ::

Last year, we had our friend Russ come in and cook for Seth's 31st birthday: steak and lobster. It was amazing. We had family over and it was literally one of the best times ever. Check that out here.

This year, we thought we'd have a group of friends to share in such a fun experience. So, for Seth's 32nd birthday, we went Cajun style! We had gumbo (yum!), red beans and rice, crawdad etoufee and bread pudding with whiskey sauce. Oh....and wine....lots and lots of wine. Deeeeelicious!

As a last minute idea, Seth wanted to have a guys table and girls table. Interesting idea, I thought, so we tried it. It really was a great way for everyone to get to know each other.

I don't know what they were doing at the guys table, but I bet they didn't get a full-on scarf tutorial. Sara finally got it - thanks, Kim :-)

Oh nooo.....the wine's all gone. Poor Seth.

Dessert time!!

Seth getting comfortable between Brian and Melissa......

Yes. We thought this was very amusing... I blame the wine.

Fab Night. Fun friends. Great food.

Annnnd.....adding 'large entertaining space' to the necessity list for the house hunt this summer.

:: valentine's love ::

We always get the special privilege of celebrating Valentine's Day and Seth's birthday together. Happy 32nd Seth!

Fun breakfast!!

The boys put together their own Valentines a couple of days ago. I love giving the boys the opportunity to put them together themselves. I don't care how much time I don't have, store bought Valentines have an immense lack of personality. But, no offense to those who do buy them because I'll be going to Walgreens to buy such personality-lacking Valentines for my classroom today. :-) S'more valentines for Owen and mini bird feeders for Ald. Thanks, Pinterest!

Oh, and a late night up before Valentine's Day would not be complete without making cupcakes for no apparent reason....

:: hockey weekend ::

We had so much fun at Owen's Mite hockey jamboree at our home rink this weekend. The transition is complete: we are officially hockey parents :-)

The Texas Roadhouse armadillo is really all Alden cared about the first day

#9 - Owen

Best view at the rink!

Seth on the mic - there was some good announcing going on :-)

Here's a little snippet of one of O's goals!

:: normalcy ::

Normalcy. Something I'd been craving for weeks and came to a head last week during the fourth business trip Seth took during the month of January. I had overcommitted myself. Grad school homework, 27 handmade hockey team posters to make, being present on the hockey jamboree committee, attending Owen and Alden's conferences, starting my field experience Laura MacArthur elementary in a first grade class that is chocked full of behavioral issues....oh, and then there's going to work, making dinner, playing with the boys making sure the boys were still alive, doing laundry, making lunches. It was literally too much and I lost my damn mind on Wednesday. By Thursday, I was extremely exhausted, Alden had been sent to the principal's office for disrupting naptime at school 3 days in a row, Owen had been sent in the hallway for not listening in class, our house was a flippin' train wreck and all we wanted was for things to be normal.

The living room became the poster cutting zone.

The dining room became a multipurpose poster design, homework, hockey gear and laundry area.

The sitting room held a permanent fixture of Lego pieces allllll week.

And the kitchen....welll...I have no words.

If you know me at all, you know I cannot live like this.

I decided Thursday evening that the posters needed to wait, despite their looming deadline, and we needed to get back to our normal lives. The boys and I cleaned the house, put in some laundry in, made a real dinner, made school lunches ahead of time, sat down together and ate, gave them a bubble bath, read stories, organized what was left to finish on the posters, and went to bed at a normal hour.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh......deep breath.

Friday morning, I felt so much better! We started a school behavior chart in which after earning five days of good school behavior, they can choose a treat for our family. Seth flew in, picked them up from school, and reported that they had excellent behavior at school. All they really needed was for both Seth and I to be present and active. What goes on at home has such a definite effect on kids' behavior at school.

This is all they really needed; wrestle time:

And I finally finished those damn hockey posters!