Sparkly New Clothes

My last day of spring break plans got the boot when an offer from the girls' grandparents came in. That's okay, though. I love when that happens. They had a great time together. The girls came home with some sparkly things and they couldn't wait to wear them to school today!

More spring break

Becca's fav part of Skate City--getting an Icee!

Bridget is getting good at skating. Becca won't try.

Clare, Bridget, Becca, and the polar bear back behind them!

At the park at home, buried by Clare

Becca getting buried too!

I have been trying to keep the girls busy this week and I think I am doing a good job so far. Monday was Crown Center, Tuesday we got a new Barbie movie and they watched it with a friend then we went swimming for hours, Wed. I took them roller skating, and today we went to the zoo. Let me share, with those that don't know, I think our zoo should be called the Kansas Shitty Zoo. Today, it lived up to my given name. First it was so very crowded. More crowded than I have ever in my life seen any zoo be. Then, once inside the horrid place, there is a sign that says that the Africa part of the zoo is closed. No big deal right? NO! Africa is half the zoo--including the elephants, lions, hippos, giraffes, zebras, and my favorite, the meerkats. Oh! and the sea lions exhibit was closed. We did see the polar bear, sleeping tigers, sleeping kangaroos, and a bunch of farm animals that we can visit at Deanna Rose. Regardless, the girls still enjoyed it for the most part. I tried to get a friend for each of them to go along today. So many families leave town, that I was able to find a friend of Bridget's, but Becca's were not available. She didn't seem to care much as she knows most of Bridget's friends and Kelsie went along.

I have been debating about keeping the zoo membership or getting a pool pass. Today made my choice crystal clear. Pool passes and Deanna Rose are in our future summer.

After we left the madhouse of the zoo, I took the girls to our neighborhood park where they seemed to enjoy themselves just as much as the zoo!

Crown Center fun

This week is Spring Break for the girls. Actually, they were out of school starting last Thursday, making an 11 day off break for them. Since they have only had 2 or 3 full five day school weeks since Christmas, why not have 11 more days out? Anyway, many of the girls friends are taking fun trips to warm places. We are not going anywhere warm so, we will do some fun things here this week. Today we went to Crown Center and explored. They have this kid area all set up as an underwater world, we did a session at kaleidoscope, and ate at Fritz's. Pretty cheap day for all the fun!

Dark or bright

Becca was just starting to read me her nightly reading book from school. The illustrations included what appears to be an African American family. Without reading any words, she tell me that this story must take place in Africa. Well, it could, but the first line says that they are in Florida. Then, off to a new subject, leaving the book aside, Becca tell me that this boy in her class is part dark skinned, like African Americans, and half bright. Yep, she said BRIGHT.

THEN, she thought a second and came up with this gem: I wonder what they would have done with (boy from class) when they brought the slaves over in chains from Africa? Since he is half dark and half bright, he would have needed two jobs--part-time slave and part-time something else.

Tumbling Meet

Today Bridget was in her second tumbling competition. The first one was in November and she placed ninth. The coach tells them to do this for fun, that is is hard to place, which is 1st to 7th, and to gain some experience the first few times. Bridget heard those words, but I could see it in her eyes today that she intended to do better and place. She was the first one up in her group and it was the best she has ever performed that routine! She was put in fifth place and she was thrilled! She got a big green ribbon for her efforts and gets to compete in the next level, the championship meet in two weeks. This competition is part of MATS (Mid America Tumbling Society) and included 17 teams from Kansas and Missouri.

Close up, so we can see the curly pony.

First one up on her mat.

All ready in her new team leotard.

Lord of the Rings

Today is Martin Luther King Day. Funny, I just mis-typed King and typed Kind--hmmm, interesting. Anyway, the girls were out of school today for that and out tomorrow for a teacher work day. The usual deal around here on non-school nights is everybody can stay up as late as wanted--no bedtimes. Bridget is a night owl and loves this. She will stay up until midnight or whenever I go to bed (she doesn't want to be up alone). Becca on the other hand will plead with me, asking if she can go to bed at 8:30 or 9:00. I recently told her that I'm never going to tell her she cannot go to bed. She said she knows that, she just asks because she wants me to know when it is time to come tell her good-night. That made me laugh. Sooooooooo, last night when Becca and Schaun came upstairs and found Bridget and me asleep it was odd. They had been downstairs watching Lord of the Rings. Becca stayed up until 11:30 to watch the whole thing! I was shocked. Then she talked about watching part two with daddy tonight throughout the entire day. That is where she is, down watching the movie with him. This is not her type of movie. She secretly(don't tell her I shared) still loves Dora and most pre-school shows. She loves the Barbie movies too. Lord of the Rings doesn't fit into her genre.

I was thinking about while I was pregnant with Becca (near the end of the pregnancy) we went to see the last Lord of the Rings movie and Becca kicked and moved around in me frantic during that whole movie. I remember this because she was so violent. Maybe that night influenced her into liking this movie now. Just thinking.

Snow Days

 Today and yesterday were snow days! We have had lots of snow and it is cold cold cold! That does not stop these kids from wanting to play in the nasty stuff. So while I was out shoveling the drive, the kids were going crazy. Thanks to the snowplow man they had an awesome "fort" for snowball fighting. And, even though she HATES the cold, Ruby dutifully followed us all outside--isn't she so pretty (even with her crooked face)?

Becca's best snowball

Bridget had to out-do Becca's snowball

So happy to be out in the snow

Everybody trying to take the fort

So happy to be cuddled up and warm again

My faithful friend

Here I am again!

After I reclaimed my blog in October, I then neglected it soon enough huh?

I have been an absolute slacker with my camera. Thanksgiving and Christmas went by photo-less. Sad. In early December the girls participated in a cheerleading competition. They have been in this before and they ended up in third place previously.  so the goal this time was to move up of course. It was harder this time because they were in a class higher and most of the girls were older than them. In spite of that, they took second place. This is great for them because first and second places move on to the regional competition. That is in a couple weeks. While at the girls were cheering, I was so busy cheering them on I forgot to snap a photo of the group. So, I have a couple pics of them at the end with the trophies. If they don't look as excited and two kids that just took a well earned second place, that's because we had to arrive at this event EARLY in the morning.

The other photo is obviously from our trip to visit Santa. We always go to the Bass Pro Shop where they set up this nice "winter wonderland" scene. 

Halloween 2010

It is after 11:00pm right now. The only thing I have to complain about this Halloween is that it is a Sunday night, which makes it a school night. There are going to be some tired kiddos in class tomorrow. My girls went to bed an hour ago, way past normal school night bedtime, but it was worth it!

Bridget decided long ago that she wanted to be a gypsy. Becca wanted to be a tiger. I knew the gypsy would be doable fairly easy, I was concerned about the tiger. As it turned out I found a tiger costume on my first trip out for costumes. I pieced the gypsy costume together as I found things. They were both thrilled with the costumes and of course looked adorable!

I decided at the last minute to dress as a gypsy too. Before trick and treating, I carved four pumpkins and the girls painted the other four we had. Schaun continued his tradition of grilling and passing out hot dogs to people all evening. We blast loud Halloween sounds and music from the garage and this year we added the firepit for some warmth. When the candy collecting was all done, the kids resumed normal play in the cul-de-sac and the adults gathered around the fire. We had a fantastic time!

Halloween Spider

Things have been very busy around here. The normal activities, plus throw in Halloween. Yes, I know Halloween is a week away still, but today was the school parties and we had to be ready today. Last week Bridget was in her third grade musical. I have not been through all my pictures, but I'm getting there soon.

Today when I went over to show off my last minute costume to my neighbor, Lynne, I saw this cool looking (or really creepy looking if you are Lynne, hahaha) spider. It was black and yellow and it had orange and black striped legs. Oh remember the other spider I posted about? I told it not to come inside. I don't know if it was that one or a friend, but I was NOT pleased to find it crawling over my foot and checking out my living room.