Happy Saint Patrick’s Day 2009

Silly face picture!

Ok, so I dropped the holiday ball on this one! I completely forgot that it was St. Patrick’s Day until my neighbor mentioned her big St. Pat’s Day breakfast. Well, the kids were already dressed for the day-not in green-and we had zoo plans. This worked wonderfully since everyone else in Des Moines wore green and it’s Spring Break so we all convened at the zoo to play-oh, and see animals. I could spot my red and blue shirted kids quite quickly amidst the sea of green! The weather was surprisingly warm (74) so the kids acted as if they had just spent the last four months indoors. ??? We enjoyed many hours of animal gazing, fellowship with our sweet neighbors, lunch, feeding animals, walking, pushing strollers and finally topped off the outing by a trip to McDonalds for some ice cream. We dragged ourselves into the house in time to get cleaned up and dinner ready for dad. The kids were asleep by 6:30! Happy St. Patrick’s to everyone, hope YOU remembered to wear green!

I’ve Been Sleepin’ in the Stairwell

Ah, the children are asleep, dishes done, laundry snuggly put away, house back in order, it’s time for some relaxin’ time for ME. Wait, what was that? Oh, couldn’t be, both children are fast asleep-I know this for sure! “Greg, I think I hear Alea in the stairwell.”-I’m not getting up, I’m having ME time. “No, she’s asleep, trust me”-back to playing the Wii. There it is again . . . I’m not getting up, ME is more important! “Greg?” “It’s not her.” All’s quiet, OK, must have been a false alarm-oh the sounds of multifamily dwellings . . .

An hour later . . .

“Erin, you’ve got to come see this . . .”


I thought she was in the stairwell-just not like this!

“G”reen Eggs and Ham

So, do you like green eggs and ham? We’ve been discussing the letter “Gg” in preschool and I thought I’d share this idea (I read about-not an original) we did with Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham book. The kids had so much fun that I had to spread the funness. We died some vanilla yogurt green. Drop, drop, stir, stir so exciting! Then, we dumped the green yogurt onto a plate. Plop, plop, goo, goo this is great! Finally, we added an apricot half to the middle. Pluck, pluck, squish, squish what a treat! It was an interesting and tasty version of the green eggs and I gave them sliced ham on the side. They did so like green eggs and ham.

Kidsfest '09

Sunday, we went to a family/kid oriented activity called Kidsfest. It is basically just games, prizes, candy, coupons, advertisements and contests presented in a fun way. It made such a big impression on Alea last year, she has been talking about it ever since. We began by standing in line with a hundred or so other determined families outside in the bitter COLD. By determined, I mean, determined to get a good parking spot, determined not to stand in line once admittance was granted into the building and determined to avoid arriving during the “rain shower” that was only letting up long enough for everyone to get inside the building-how nice. Finally, the doors opened and the line quickly dissolved inside the building. Alea was beside herself, she wanted to conquer THE two things that she just couldn’t bring herself to do last year and those are: the big inflatable slide and the inflatable train. As we stepped inside, she stood in utter amazement that the slide all but greeted her right inside the door. We quickly made it to the slide and train, and I am happy to report, she both masterfully and skillfully conquered both of these obstacles. We had so much fun and even met our neighbors there, though the children took us in opposite directions. The kids rushed the stage when Dora made a guest appearance and danced until they just couldn’t dance anymore. They also got to see the crew from Star Wars and the Veggie Tales characters Bob and Larry. Benton amazed us with his “luck” at every game he attempted: landing on the ONLY white spot on the wheel, finding a green pig and picking the “extra prize” candy bar-sounds like his daddy. While we were playing, the rain shower turned into a beautiful snow and it was fun to watch from inside the warm building. Kidsfest ‘09 was such a success!

Women's Retreat '09

I attended our annual women’s retreat with the church Friday night. Thanks Greg for the support and encouragement to go and your willingness to stay with the children, I wouldn’t have done it without you! Notice this posting is NOT accompanied by pictures. Amidst silly string, toilet paper and Whose Line is it Anyway, I only snapped off 4 pictures, not 1 of which is decent enough to share on this site! Women getting together to have fun, giggling until it hurts, and just getting down right silly all while in the security of a Father that is all present, all knowing and created us to be just who we are, that’s the women’s retreat to me. I have always looked forward to women’s retreats. Even the first one-after marriage-when I cried to leave Greg, oh how times have changed! Memories were made that I will not soon forget and I want to thank the sweet “roomies” I had and say that you girls made my retreat so much fun! Callie, Lori, Mom and April, our day will come again! Until next time ladies-“press on”.

Eagle Watching

Last Sunday, Alea and I went out for a “girl’s night” (as she says) and attended an Eagle Watch auto tour at the lake up the hill from us. We had so much fun!

We gathered at the first stop and got a map-Alea was in charge of tracing our way once we were in the car- watched an eagle movie and then began our journey. We made three stops where we got to look through spotting scopes and saw three big beautiful eagles-in the wild. They looked so amazing. They had small spotting scopes set up for the kids and Alea felt so grown up looking through them. I don’t know that she ever really saw one of the eagles through the scope, but she did see them in the trees across the river. The final stop was at a lodge and they had a show, with a live eagle participant and then we got to watch a releasing of an eagle, which had been contaminated with lead poisoning, into the wild. As the picture testifies, Alea had as much-if not more-fun sliding down the hill of ice outside the lodge than the whole releasing of the eagle!

It was so fun and we really bonded so I thought I’d share the “girl’s night” and pictures with everyone.

Other Side of the Sun

Say, say, oh playmate, come out and play with me, and bring your dollies three, climb up my apple tree. Shout down my rain barrel, slide down my cellar door and we’ll be jolly friends forever more. Say, say, oh playmate, I can not play with you, my dolly has the flu, boo-hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo, hoo. Ain’t got no rain barrel, ain’t got no cellar door, but we’ll be jolly friends, forever more.

I always wondered about that song and thought it was literally talking about a playmate (as it very well may be) until I had an epiphany. Last week it was so warm, we spent a few days outside and even got our bikes out! The kids had so much fun running around and riding their bikes. Once we had been out of doors a little while, I couldn’t help but notice how they BOTH kept looking over to the side of them---at their SHADOWS. It was like they each had their own playmate that was right there beside them doing everything they did and wanted to do. Unlike a human playmate, their shadows didn’t give them any disagreement and was with them wholly, continually and completely. Benton would run like the wind all the while looking over at his shadow, cool . . . Alea would pedal until her legs burned and continuously looked over to see her shadow mimicking her, wow. . . I was blown away at how both of my children found such companionship in their shadows! I guess when you don’t see one for a while, it is such a novel rediscovery. Instantly, I thought of this song, probably the word playmate, and it had such a different meaning. Oh, the simple things we take for granted.