Yahaira

age 5 1/2

Anthony

age 8 1/2

Italy!

Cassandra traveled to Italy during spring break.
10 days spent exploring the sights and landmarks of this wonderful country. A few of things she visited included Rome, and the Trevi Fountain, the Coliseum. Vatican City. The Leaning Tower of Pisa. Milan. Lake Como. The Spanish Steps.
She took a lot of pictures, her friend took even more....combined I have the makings for a wonderful scrapbook. So amazing to look at these photos and realize she was there, so cool to hear her and her friend talk about these places they experienced. What a trip!

cash for kids auction

was today....
so thrilled to be able to bring home something from each of their classes
for yahaira the breathtakingly beautiful quilt, each of the kids hand prints are quilted into this amazing piece of art.
the quilting was done by one of the kindergarten teachers, simply amazing! She was so excited when she saw it
and had to show me each of her friends hand prints, loved watching her tell me about each person, love knowing that the little bit we donated to purchase is going to help classrooms next year. Anthony's grade made a book on shutterfly, a picture of each student and their signature, what a wonderful keepsake, and what a great idea!

filling easter eggs

for the annual Easter egg hunt....
always so happy when I find some willing volunteers to help with this job...
of course the offer of chocolate was certainly a good motivator...
we are ready for the daycare egg hunt this coming weekend...
now let's just hope the weather cooperates.

Circus

I often say my life is a circus, all those little ones and big ones tend to add a creative
blend of interesting moments in my day to day life. Last Friday, my circus met an actual
true to life circus...the kids were wowed! their dad (who took them solo) was not so wowed!
apparently the mass marketing of gizmo's and gadgets just about ended his patience .....
I suggested he look at the memories they created, his glare suggested that wasn't possible.

well hello spring

how we have longed for your sunshine, and warmer temps
lighter coats and melting snow...
how we have missed your fresh air and space to run...
it's so good to discover you once again!

PInewood Derby

held last Tursday...
He was excited to go, and happy that his car was intact (it would seem his dad had to keep fixing just one more thing)
a huge thank you to Shirley who once again provided pictures from the event, since the camera was left, once again at home.

pure

wonderfulness!
after far too many days and weeks it so wonderful to once again be venturing outdoors to enjoy bits and pieces
in the fresh air and openess that has been sadly missing from our days this winter.

well

that isn't something you see everyday...
a hole, a rather large hole in my basement floor...
a necessary development to perhaps prevent an even more interesting scenerio this spring when all that wonderful snow we have been collecting decides to melt.
when that little project is complete we will have a newly installed sump pump which should help prevent any other major home repairs.

the final

Wednesday for the I love to read month at school, to dress as a favorite book character (or in our house perhaps to dress as the character we could pull together)
Yahaira was set on the princess and the frog(got to love Disney and their marketing) we did read the The Frog Prince and of course she liked the story with the disney version,so we compromised and came up with this costume, which maybe lasted all of an hour at school if that, it was itchy she said...
Anthony's resulted from a comment by Beckie who suggested a where's waldo costume, so with a bit of searching we came up with this. He was happy and all of the kids have rediscovered the fun that is searching for Waldo.
Cassandra was home the night we were putting the finishing touches on the costumes and insisted she needed to try it on too...

searching for spring

in an attempt to grasp a wee bit of spring I made a stop at the garden center when I was in Mankato this past weekend.
my goal was to find this... a tiny bit of spring. So happy to see they had numerous bulb gardens in stock and by the time I returned home the first few crocus's had started to bloom, each day a few more bloom, which has led to a riot of color exploding on our table. I think we have all been drawn to the cheerful, colorful blooms through out our day, if only to gaze for a moment at the promise of what will be soon here...

especially when the view out our window still looks like this.
wondering if all those bulbs we planted last fall will even have a chance to sprout this spring....

wacky hair day

as part of I love to read month at school each Wednesday the kids could participate in a different theme each Wednesday.
One of the themes was wacky hair day...anthony's hair was quite simple to do, some gel and the hair blower, and instant spiked hair. I did caution him about running into walls since I was fairly certain the hair would simply snap off. Yahaira's hair took a bit more doing, but winter accommodated us with giving us a two hour late start, imagine that a late start for us. so we braided and braided and braided some more...when she returned home from school she was more than ready for all those braids to be removed.