Monday, March 31, 2008

Trip Day two...





Today has been busy...but I think any day that begins with Lego store (second photo) right after breakfast and the American Girl store right after that... has to be a parental day of exhaustion!!


I always love the lego store but couldn't commit to anything that we "need" so we left after a lot of play time. And headed to one of the best run, best place to give away copious amounts of money without really noticing store I have ever been in. The American Girl Store really is well organized. They are uber friendly!! And they have everything you could think of or maybe not think of for a doll or child. The hair salon (photo 3 Ana at work) was like a group of miracle workers as they recovered our lovely Elizbeth's hair and made her all lovely and clean just in time for lunch. And lunch was beyond words. The cafe (photo 5) itself is done in pink, black and white stripes and polka dots. It is decked out and you are treated like royalty. But I must say they have this so timed and are shoving you out but you do not feel shoved out...just efficiently run...and the dessert plate was gorgeous!! And they give you 3 desserts!!!!!!!! What's not to love it you get 3 desserts!!! (photo 1) We then had to narrow down the shopping and escape with our aching feet back to the hotel for a recouperation period.
Ella's favorite thing for the day was escalators we spent over 45 minutes going up and back down them at the shopping center before Lego opened! (photo 4)
We hope to wander back out tonight for a carriage ride, a surprise for the ladies. Who knows what dinner will entailed I feel like all we have done is eat, which isn't such a bad thing!! Too bad I have a physical when I get back!! Yikes!! It is a misty rain kind of day today and Bronwyn and I have a serious curling issue of the hair today, did I mention our napkin ring at the American Girl Cafe was a black and white polka dot scrunchie we got to take home??? LOL is there anything they don't have covered??? More as days warrant!!


Sunday, March 30, 2008

A Day Truly Seized!!





We left early this morning from Ann Arbor, after a really bad night in a dorm like hotel, to arrive in Chicago at 12pm. We checked in at the hotel and took a very long meandering walk to The Field museum. (Which after joining the hands on museum in Ann Arbor, I found is a sister museum and we got in free and will also get into Science and industry on Wed for free!!!) The girls very happily saw Sue as Ella puts it "For Real" and Bronwyn soaked in all the exhibits, this place was entirely up her alley especially since she can read most of it all by herself. The ladies were completely exhausted but very pleased to get to sample the public transportation in form of taxis, buses, and trains today! We did make it to my favorite restaurant Earwax, and I had butternut squash and bean quesidillas (seen above). Also above scene from the train, and milennieum park forgive my spelling this evening I have a headache and am so very very tired!!

Tomorrow we get American Girl...and who knows what else we may add...the girls have high hopes of riding a "Dicker Decker" or "Ticker Tacker" ie double decker bus...they each call it so weather may be good enough on Wednesday...

B has been keeping a scrapbook of everything she has done and it is turning out really quite nice!! More as events warrant!!!

Friday, March 28, 2008

Break time


It is spring break!!!! Usually, this doesn't have a huge impact in our world as I am usually busy and work and John is fending off the lovelies! But this year we are packing up for a little escape! We are going to a hotel in Ann Arbor for a night and hoping to take in the hands on museum there and one of our favorite restaurants (Seva) plus the hotel has a pool!! Then we are hopping a train for the slow road to Chicago for a few days of exploration and hopefully rest!! I am looking forward to a meandering break with the gang! Just get caught up on the down time! I have spent today tidying the house so it doesn't look like a bomb went off and so when we get back I can relax and get ready to go back to the world of work!!
More as we wander!!

Monday, March 24, 2008

Back to the grind...



All the glory and freedom of the Grandparent visit is now past. I hauled my sorry self into work, B was back in school, and Ella had to watch as we all left her at home. And now as witnessed from the bottom photo, we have retired to the couch in semi-upright positions, too tired to think of food and really just anything else... We look so forward to the visiting and escaping and then the flurry is over and we are all off our game and just plain ol' tired!! So we have a few recovery days before we head off to Chicago for some more exploration.

Above is my pavlova on my newly thrifted plate which I really, really like and just seemed perfect for my grasp at spring. It is a very yummy dessert that John's Aunt in Ireland showed me how to make, although this time I had a few issues with my merangue but covered it all up beautifully with the fresh cream! Sneaky lil cook I am!

Second, we finally got a friend's artwork framed! It only took about a year! And we were trying to decide on a place to hang them so left them sitting in the blue room, and we decided that we both really kind of enjoy the look of them right there on the floor! We will see how long they last and if they survive the ladies!!

That is all for my update today! Back to my snuggly blankies!!

Sunday, March 23, 2008

Easter...




Happy Easter to all!! As you can see our eggs took a new direction this year!! When you forget the coloring improvise! I actually love the new styled eggs!! We are hanging out at home today and having dinner later ham and a tofurky roast for the vegetarian! We are having a few people over to share it all with us! I have a lovely pavlova ready to be assembled which is going to need a little repair but should still be yummy!

Above are views of a "new" cabinet I found to try and manage our clothing issues in the girls' room. I had been looking for a couple of inexpensive wardrobes but really wasn't finding much that I wanted in my home so I thought while John and I were out for our day sans children we could have a poke around the local antique mall. When I saw this cabinet I knew it was it...it had the shelves we needed and the color was even a good fit for future room re-painting that has been requested by our fashionistas!! The ladies helped clean and scrub and they worked to weed down the clothes stash so as to fit into said cabinet and voila we have clothes control!! I had thought of frosting the glass or putting some fabric in the window but the ladies said they like seeing the colors of the clothes so that works for me!! And with the new cabinet a new little nook was created for a much loved little doll, name this week Tika.

And as if this feat wasn't enough, I have had a few evenings out and about with my much loved Irishman. I feel just giddy and silly and like I got time to fall in love with him all over again!! Thanks Grandparents!!

Saturday, March 22, 2008

Some Mornings...



Some mornings you come down the stairs and all the world is bliss...it is peaceful...quiet...sunny...and everyone is productive...there are blocks and things being built...there are fuse beads being crafted...and books being read...and tea being consumed...these days are the best...

Thursday, March 20, 2008

HAPPY SPRING!!


Ok so I had to use photos from last April and May...but they made me think spring!!! We had some lovely sunshine today although we didn't make it out of the 30's today!! It is lurking and creeping in very slowly in this area!! But I look at these pictures and I hope... sunny sidewalk chalked days my favorite flower blooming so large and beautiful in my very own humble yard...

I got together with some lovely ladies from years past. It was nice to remember and reconnect. Although, in our absence one of them has had a recurrence of ovarian cancer...she is in chemo and looks good! So I will light candles for her and hope...

The Grandparents have arrived to spring John and I for all things fun! We are so looking forward to a day out. No idea what we are going to do but just to have some down time with him is all I could hope for!! Plus, the girls look forward to all the spoils that come with their visits!!

Wishing you all a peaceful holiday weekend! Filled with sunbeams and hopefully some sidewalk chalk!!!!

Monday, March 17, 2008

Slainte...





Happy St. Patrick's Day to all of you who are and all of you who claim to be Irish...
We are having a very quiet one here at home. Couch time for Mama, computer time for Papa and creating time for the lovelies. Bronwyn is writing her own book of jokes right now and they seem to crack her and Ella up....although I am afraid they may be lost on the over 7 set. Now she too has given that over for dancing....they keep saying "Is this exercise???" What a slug I feel like sitting here typing away!!
Ella is burning out her boundless stores of energy, she was "working out" as she called it earlier running from one end of the house to the other and is now doing "nastics" and dancing...so I am betting she collapses here in about 30 minutes!! I also bet it will be I carrying her little self to bed as I bet she will be all out of momentum for the stairs!!
Photos above were the promised maple syrup day ones funnily enough there are none of the tapped trees or our lovely pancake breakfast!! Photo 1: Cooking down pine tree bark to make shellac/glue for buckets and canoes. Photo 2: Me, taken by Ella out at the farm, the animals are still on vacation though, Photo 3: inside the very smokey wigwam Photo 4: Ella wandering at the homestead.
I should be up getting a bed made for my parents as they are coming Wed. for the Easter Weekend. The girls are off Thurs-Sun. and I have my goal set for an early bed time for me tonight!!! Two late shifts and an early today was more than my little body can handle!!!
Enjoy your day of all things green!!!

Saturday, March 15, 2008

Wish...

We just got back from the Maple Syrup Day at the Chippewa Nature Center, and I am a little chilled still. It was a lovely day out but just still that hint of winter nip in the air and my toes are still a little tingly! But then I come home and see the sun beam and all the snuggly blankies on my comfy couch and I want to embrace my inner, inner cat (I am not a cat person so it is a pretty hidden trait! Plus they make my eyes itch!!) and curl up in the warmth and all that is snuggly and drift back into dreams...not today though...my minutes are almost up and it is almost time to dash off to work...but oh how I wish it could be true!!! Pictures from the nature center tomorrow!!

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Our little Granny...

Bronwyn is our Granny. She used to hate when we called her tht but now I think she sees it as a compliment...and a statement of fact...She is a self policer. She is very aware, sometimes too aware, of the world around her and her place in it. She is caring. She is generous. She is dramatic. She is all things girly. She is thoughful. She can be really over emotional!! And so many many times she is just down right funny...we were coming home from a little Mom and Daughter time, she asks me for these days. She says she needs "me and you time". And I do whatever I can to make it happen. I want her to always have that opening to me. Because someday her issues may be a little bigger than "counting by twos". But I have totally skipped my little story, we were in the car and she was talking about her Grandma and Grandpa (my parents) and how much she loves them and she would be really sad and cry a lot if something happened to them or they died, very touching so far, but then she says "But you'd be surprised what you can live through!" I was taken aback and then I laughed so very hard!! Where these things come from I will never know. And that same evening while she and I were out she was commenting on our surroundings in a very mature fashion and I said how did you get so grown up?? And she replies very frank and to the point... "I had good raising." WOW!!!!! How does she know what that is!!??? And when I quizzed her to see if she knew what it meant she really really did. So maybe we are on the right track! You just never get to know as a parent...all the second guessing and what iffing and hoping...but here is my lovely 7 year old validating my whole being...really though where did she come from??? If she didn't look so much like me I would swear up and down she was switched at birth!! My husband and I are so not like her!! And her sister is the complete 180 degree opposite!! But she is mine and she is amazing...and I have a lot to learn from her!!

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Sigh...

I want to sit down here tonight and create something wonderful that everyone would rush to read, you know those posts you want to tell your friends about...hey you have to read this one...I need to bookmark this...but not tonight...life is just flying at me and I am running along beside it trying to keep up! And really what I would love is a day in my jammies...sitting on the couch...or even lounging around in my bed with books and journals...but I can't see that in my immediate future...actually March looks like it is out for me...how did so many things find themselves onto one tiny little calendar??? I am looking forward to the end of the month for Spring Break...we are hopping on a train and heading to Chicago to explore, eat and play...who knows maybe a miracle will happen and the ladies will let us sleep in while we are there!!!

Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Evening...


Evening is finally here...Tuesdays are our running days, all my doing, but it still feels blissful to sit on the comfy couch and snuggle the ladies and enjoy a mug of hot cocoa...I love snuggle days and every once in a while I take some time after the ladies have retired for the evening, and light the lovely candles in our faux fireplace in our room and find a book of meditations or of spirit to remind me to regroup and appreciate what is around me...mindfulness is something I work at and being in the moment and appreciating all the little things in my world right now that bring me peace and joy...I would be lying if I said I am good at this, a work in progress really, but there has to be a place to start...and my life can get a little stressful at time, work is topsy turvy, and finances are always something I work at...but we have all we need and life is truly good...

Sunday, March 2, 2008

Days...




The days just slip by for me. I seem to fill them all with something and lose momentum to say all I feel. So photos again...
I can't express sometimes how very much my heart aches as my lovelies grow...and change...and stretch even farther with their independence and their new cycles, moods, thoughts...I just try so very hard to store it all up and hang onto all the memories...
The memories above, my lovely B, getting so very grownup and helpful and considerate...
My little monkey E getting ready for a Birthday party in her ballerina attire and looking way too grown up! Why is it when you pull their hair back they age 5 yrs???
And the last, our morning surprise as E comes in while I am getting my first morning coffee and announces she has cut her hair. Oh the reactions...and she was so distressed! I asked her why she did it and she said she wanted it short again because she missed being three...at least it wasn't a hunk from the front...but she twists the heartstrings...and now we know we have to moniter the whereabouts of all pairs of scissors in the house...it is never ever dull!!!!!