Our Feb. Snow Day!

 

Yesterday, school called a very unexpected snow day. I was fully prepared to barge forward through the last week in February with my students- even going as far as to give them a big pep talk about how were going to be in school every day this week and to get back in the swing of things after our crazy schedule last week. Guess what? I was wrong. So, so wrong.

Oh well...I guess there is always next week, right? 

Michael and I had a great day together. It was truly a blessing and I loved spending every minute with my special guy. We went outside twice and Michael had so much fun just stomping around in the snow. I love how beautiful our neighborhood looks with all the snow covering it.

 "This snow is REEEEAL deep!"

After our snowcapades, we came back inside to eat a delicious lunch of pancakes (now a snow day tradition). It felt so good to stay home for a day and now I'm ready to get back into the swing of things at school. The countdown to spring break is in full force but I am determined to get as much work done as I can with my students before I go.

I'll be back with instafriday tomorrow (I promise!). 

Have a great day!  

InstaFriday

 

I made this fruit and jello salad for the first time ever. This is like passing a rite of motherhood, right?? Michael was super jazzed about it...and also about Jello in general. 

 

We've started our countdown paper chain to Disney and I've been reading up on it every night in bed. Michael stole my book and I think he was looking for pictures but just found boring words instead. He did find a map and traced a route saying, "and this is how we'll get to Florida!". It is so cute that he kind of knows what is happening. 

 

Michael and I went to Scott's hockey game on Wednesday night. We ate our McDonald's supper in the clubhouse and then came down to cheer him on during the 3rd period. Michael had a ton of fun and I can't hardly believe this was our first game since last year. It seems like it gets easier to go see hockey in the spring when it gets warmer and lighter out. Hanging out in a freezing area when it is already dark and freezing outside is not fun to me!!

Scott took us up to Ames for a basketball game last Saturday. It was fun but lots more work with a toddler. We were sitting in the second to top row at Hilton....so high up! It was a workout to climb all those stairs to the top- luckily Scott made the trek to get us family clone cones to share. Delicious! I love getting back for games and I hope we can make it more of a family tradition as Michael gets older. 

That's it for our week! I hope you had a great one too...have a great weekend!

Linking up today...
 
        
        
            
            
        

InstaFriday, Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

I have loved seeing everyone's updates on the fun things they were doing for Valentine's day this year. It is such a fun little holiday and a great way to show people we love them. What could be better?

We started celebrating by getting heart shaped donuts at the really crazy brand new dunkin' donuts on Saturday. Michael loved them. 

I was really proud of myself for ordering these cars cut-a-part valentines from Walgreens.com this year. I designed my own cut-a-parts last year and ordered from persnickety prints but didn't have time (or a patient 3 year old) to do a cutesy photo this year so I found these. I like the photo ones so I can send them to family too.

I found some cute little Cars themed boxes of chocolate and tied the valentine on with a bow. Voila! I thought they were cute. Next year I am definitely going with the non-candy valentine. Boxes of crayons, maybe? I debated my decision the day before Valentine's day but then I had already bought the candy so I stuck with it. It is hard to know what is the right thing to do!

Michael and I had fun making sprinkle cookies the night before Valentine's day. They looked really cute all rolled in sprinkles but I think it did something to the taste because they tasted pretty weird. Oh well- at least it prevented us from eating more than one! Sometimes I think things like that are more fun to do than the actual end product. 

In other news....I've been trying to get to the gym most days (seeing Hugh Jackman on the tv is a bonus). It is hard and I'm not really seeing results but I am sticking with it. I do think it makes me mentally feel better and gives me a little time to myself. I can't wait until summer so I can start Zumba again! :o)

I've been getting catalogs almost daily for spring planting and it is so overwhelming to me right now. I am excited to start getting out in the yard and see what is going on but I'm not anticipating making any  changes or adding new plants. I feel like I can't even think about any of that yet! 

Have a great day!

Hello, Sue.

Happy Valentine's Day! I bet you thought today was going to be a super cute post about Valentines and fun projects, right? I totally fooled you! (that is coming tomorrow for instafriday....my real camera died when I was going to take photos of the fun things we did). 

The Science Center of Iowa has a guest this winter: Sue the T-Rex from the Chicago Field Museum. It is a pretty big deal to have her and since we have a Science Center membership we haven't used as much as we should, Michael and I headed out for a little Saturday morning adventure. 

Seeing Sue in person was pretty cool. The Science Center was packed with people but Michael still got a chance to get a good look. They also had a copy of her skull that you could get up close to and look at but Michael said he thought "those big teeth were too scary for him".

We had a great time exploring the Science Center since it had been a year since we last visited. Michael loved the animals the best which makes me long for warm summer days at the zoo. His favorite continues to be this silly badger who looks so realistic hiding in the grass. 

We had a great time at the Science Center. By accident, it turned out to be an excellent test run for our upcoming Disney trip. How, you ask? 

• Gave me a test drive of my new rapid strap for my camera. It was awesome, very lightweight and I felt like my camera was easily accessible. However, it did bonk Michael in the head when he was walking behind me on that side. He quickly learned!
• Helped me gain perspective of crowds and lines. I had never been to the Science Center when it was so busy- there was a big line out the door to get in, a line for the IMAX movie, a 20 minute line for lunch, another 20 minute wait to get our food, line to get our parking ticket, line to get out of the ramp. It was crazy (in addition to the huge line we encountered earlier at the newly opened Dunkin' Donuts) and helped me realize that this is probably the way it is going to be at Disney....except 20x worse. 
• The food situation. I didn't even bring a purse in with me and we hadn't orirginally planned on eating lunch at the Science Center so I was very unprepared. I think Michael really only wanted a snack and something to drink so I was really kicking myself for not thinking ahead and bringing something. At Disney we are definitely planning on brown bagging it for meals and snacks so we can eat when we need to and not wait in line. 
• Michael running off.....yes, this happened. Luckily, it was when we were in the children's area but still it is nerve wracking. We had a talk and a time out about running off from Mommy but I am hoping it will be easier at Disney because we will be using a stroller. 
• The stress. I really thought I would be more overwhelmed by the crowd and people but it was fine. I think I am getting better at this since I am basically around crowds of stressed out people every day at school. :o) 

So I realize it is not exactly the same, but it gave me a good perspective on being in a crowded place and dealing with it. Overall, we had a great time and can't wait to go back to the Science Center...hopefully sooner rather than later as our pass expires in June!

InstaFriday

I am a bit late (again) posting my Instafriday. I don't know what is happening lately but it seems like I am using my computer less and less at home. Partly because I think it is slowly dying and we are waiting to purchase a new windows 8 touchscreen and partly because when I am home I want to be home.  I used to have a nice routine of morning computer catch up time and now I am using that time to hit the gym and well, it just never adds up. Oh well, isn't that the way life seems to go sometimes?

Things are good and life is chugging along as usual. I have a busy week at school but after this week it will be countdown to Disney World time! :o) :o) :o)

I love driving a white car but during the winter it seems a little impractical. Luckily we a had a nice day last week and Michael and I made our favorite pitstop after school: the carwash! He thinks it is so fun. It is great entertainment. He says to me just about every day that my car is dirty and we need to get it washed.

Speaking of school chugging along- I have finally figured out a good planning system to use. Every year I feel like I am doing something different and tweaking things and what I am doing now finally feels like it is working. It also doesn't help the fact that honest-to-goodness if I do not write something down I do not remember it. Does anyone else have this problem? It seems worse this year than most just because I am juggling two different programs but maybe some of it is my aging mind? :o)

We've been trying to eat healtier to get ready for the big Disney trip and it is fun trying new things each week. It forces me to branch out and be more creative with things in the kitchen. I am liking it!

And finally, some morning snuggles in bed with my favorite guy.

Have a great week!

A Night Out with Friends!

This past weekend I had a rare treat and went out to see a show with a group a friends. A night out! Wow!!

Scott was in CO skiing so I was dateless, but my good friend Gwyn came along with me. It was so super fun. I hope this is the first of many fun nights!

We started the night out at Americana, a really fun restaurant downtown. They had all sorts of fun drinks on their menu. I had my first Moscow Mule! I think part of the fun is that you get to drink it out of a cool copper mug. We also got their "small plates" for dinner, which are like appetizers you can eat for your meal. It was super yummy and I can't wait to go back, even though it is pretty rare I get to go out for dinner at a place other than McDonalds. :o) 

 The above photo is our proof that we actually made it out together without kids! The lights are really weird in the theater so that is why it turned out so blurry- but still nice to have the documentation! 

We saw Book of Mormon and it was really entertaining. I loved the music, energy and the dancing. I know people said it was shocking and yes, I knew what it was about but I was still pretty shocked. It took me a while to absorb it and now I think I am ready to start listening to the soundtrack again.

It was a fun night and I had a great time! Thanks again to my friend Skippy who organized it all- lets do it again soon!

Instafriday

We had lots of fun on our snow day together this week. Making blanket nests on our trampoline and reading books; playing playdoh with mommy; doing snow day school with print outs; and laying around (that was mostly Scampy). It was nice to have a day off without my normal to do list staring me in the face all day (as demonstrated below).

Last weekend we had a great Saturday of playing at the library (below) while Scott was at work, then naptime, then out to the Y for family swimming. So much (free) fun! Afterwards Scott treated us to a dinner out at Jethros. It was a great place to take a kid because it was LOUD and BUSY! I didn't pack a change of clothes from the Y and didn't fix my hair so yes, I was wearing sweatpants...but I'm pretty sure lots of people wear sweatpants when they go out to eat BBQ so I wasn't the only one. :o)

Tonight I am looking forward to a night out with friends to go see Book of Mormon. It was organized by my dear friend Skippy, as seen in the above picture. We still look the same as we did 10 years ago, right? 

Have a great weekend!!