The Good Ol' Days

I saw this article over on ParentDish.com. It gave me a good chuckle and, even though I'm not part of the "Over 30 Crowd" mentioned, I remember the days spoken of in the article. Days before MP3s and cell phones and Call Waiting. Days before realistic video games. I love how she describes it:  We didn't have any fancy PlayStation or Xbox video games with high-resolution 3-D graphics! We had the Atari 2600! With games like 'Space Invaders' and 'Asteroids'. Your screen guy was a little square! You actually had to use your imagination!!! And there were no multiple levels or screens, it was just one screen... Forever! And you could never win.. The game just kept getting harder and harder and faster and faster until you died! Just like LIFE! 
I won't paste the whole article here, but here's a link: "PaRant: I AM That Mom Who Says, 'You Kids Had it Easy.'" It's good for a laugh!

Their Irish Eyes Are Smiling

Well, they were smiling. But I guess they got tired of saying "cheese."

I was looking through past blog posts and saw the green eggs and ham that I made for St. Paddy's day a couple years ago. I was less ambitious this year, not to mention my kids didn't seem thrilled about the idea of eating green eggs. We wore green, but that was about the extent of our St. Patrick's Day celebrations. 

I did spend a little time contemplating my kids' eyes, thinking about the song "When Irish Eyes Are Smiling." My kids' eyes sure steal my heart away. 

I've been playing around with my camera lately, trying to get better at taking pictures. I just have a little Kodak point-and-shoot, which I'm trying hard to be happy with, so I've been fiddling around in Picasa too. I figure if I can learn good editing techniques, maybe I can make do with the little camera I have. 

I happened to discover that our bathroom has really nice lighting for pictures between the hours of 4 and 5 in the afternoon. So I made my kids sit on the edge of the tub so I could take some portraits. Owen and Samantha were pretty cooperative. Drew was less so. He thought it would be more fun to monkey around and ham it up. At least it was entertaining.

Here are a few of the best ones:

Owen:

This shot is straight out of the camera. Not too bad, but it doesn't look real special.

I clicked "I'm Feeling Lucky" in Picasa's editing tool. I kind of like the result.

Another "I'm Feeling Lucky" treatment.

Samantha: 

Again, "I'm Feeling Lucky" treatment, plus I used retouch to make her cheeks less blotchy. I know, they still look blotchy but they were even worse before. We got a lot of sun that day.

All I did to this one was a crop and a Retouch to get rid of blotchy cheeks and some Cheeto stains I noticed on her sleeve.

Drew:

No editing here.

SOC

Another "I'm Feeling Lucky" treatment.

SOC

And if anyone is making a horror film and needs a picture for the cover, I've got just the thing: 

Samantha jumped right as I took the picture. Isn't it scary?! It gives me nightmares. Drew and Owen thought it was hilarious so they asked me to take a "ghost picture" of each of them. Theirs didn't turn out, though. Some things are just hard to do on purpose.

Signs of Spring

Yesterday was absolutely gorgeous (today isn't bad either, though it's a little windy for my tastes). I had planned to go to the store and get the boys some zip up hoodies that they can wear this Spring, along with some new Sunday shoes since they've grown out of the old ones, and some more "four-year-old underpants," as Drew calls the new underwear I finally got for him and Owen (because the "two-year-old underpants," which actually were almost two years old, are "just too small"). 

We got our sweaters on and headed out the door, and made it as far as me backing the car out of the driveway and parking it on the street so the kids could ride their bikes around the driveway. We ended up spending about two and a half hours outside, just playing and enjoying the warm sunshine and the uncharacteristic lack of breeze. 

While we were out, I decided my flowerbeds could stand some attention, so I got out my gloves and went to it, pulling weeds and other dead plant matter that had piled up in the Fall and had been sitting there all winter. It was pretty gross. But I'm sure all that stuff helped keep the bulbs warm underground, since we didn't really have much snow to insulate them from the cold.
The kids had a lot of fun helping me clean up the flowerbeds. It became a sort of treasure hunt as we discovered new life poking up out of the dirt. 

We found my amaryllis:

Which, in the summer will look like this:

We found my crocuses (croci? I'm thinking not, because my spell checker isn't liking that word. Who knows):

Which, in a few weeks will look like these:

We found my tulips:

Which will soon look like this:

(The bunch of leaves on the right is what the amarillys looks like in the spring. All those leaves will die before the stalk with the flowers pops up.)

We found some new strawberry leaves and shoots, and a lovely ladybug crawling among them:

They'll look like this in a few months (not that the lady bug will magically become a strawberry--that'd be weird):

I'm looking forward to Spring so much! (Or, as Samantha would say, "mo munch!" I love it when she tells me, "Teenk oo mo munch!" when I do something for her.) Today was just what I needed to get me through the last few days of Winter and the crazy weather that always accompanies a Southeast Idaho Spring. For example, Sunday it snowed, Monday was upwards of 50 degrees and sunny with nary a cloud in sight! 

Vacation; Days 9-10

Day 9: What I Call Vacation

We had a really laid back kind of day on our last full day of vacation. It was the kind of day I like the best when I'm on vacation: just hanging out with good friends, chatting, watching the kids have fun together, and doing nothing in particular. 

We went to McGrath's Fish House for dinner. I ate New Orleans Catfish, which was sooooooo yummy. The menu describes it thus: Petite Prawns, Andouille Sausage, Mushrooms, Scallions, Peppers, Tomatoes and Cajun Cream Sauce over Blackened Catfish. I describe it as pure deliciousness. 

Then Madeline and I went through some old photos she took a couple summers ago when they were in town. We came across the following gems:

Lunch at the park.

Drew, wearing Madeline's glasses.

Owen, waiting for his turn on the swing. I love how chubby their little arms and faces were! Look at Owen's elbows...

Evie and Samantha sharing a swing.

Samantha doesn't like to swing too high. Or relinquish food in order to play.

She loved the swing if it wasn't moving. She's still like that, even now. But she'll go down the tallest slide she can find all by herself with no second thoughts.

Drew climbing on a little jungle gym.

Day 10: On Our Way Home

We started our trek home on Wednesday, February 10. We stopped in Portland on our way out of Oregon, so that I could go to a Thai Market I learned about online. It was everything I hoped for and more! They had plenty of ingredients for Thai food, lots of yummy Asian candies and they even had a deli where I could purchase some already made Thai food. And I got to practice my Thai with the people working there, which is a rare occasion for me. Owen even practiced his Thai (he can say "hello" in Thai; the employees thought it was pretty cute).

It was pretty late by the time we got out of Portland. We were hoping to drive straight home, but we got a little less than half way and ran into a blizzard. We stopped for the night, and when we woke up in the morning, most of the snow was gone! Weird. After a few final hours in the car, we made it home safe and sound. It was such a fun trip. I loved Oregon (this trip was the first time I'd been further than about 20 miles into Oregon). I hope to go back soon!

Vacaction; Day 8

Day 8: Evie's Birthday

The Birthday Girl

We had a blast helping Madeline get ready for her girl's Fancy Nancy birthday party. The kids were all so excited when they saw the table loaded with adorable decorations, and delectable edibles. They were excited to be dressed up again, too. And when Evie's friends started arriving in their fancy dresses, things really got fun for everyone. 

The refreshment table.

I made these little purses based off a purse Madeline picked up at a little store. They're just cardstock wrapped around a Dove chocolate, and sealed with a bit of glue and a sticker. The handles are ribbon.

Drew, Owen and Samantha in front of the party tent.

From Fancy Free to Full-on Fit in no time...

The little girl in blue looks like she's saying, "Let's share--I'll have some of yours."

Drew's cupcake creation. Mmm...

Samantha loved the bright colors of the red velvet cupcakes. Of course, they tasted great, too!

The party turned out to be a lot of fun. I think my kids were the only one who threw tantrums, though. Darn. Drew threw one big tantrum and, as I was hauling him off (picture me carrying him under my arm like a football), his pants fell down, revealing his backside and at the same time revealing that he had no underwear on. It was hilarious. For everyone but Drew. 

Later that evening, we went to Chuck E. Cheese's for Evie's birthday dinner. All the kids had a great time running around, pretending to drive all the cars, but when we put tokens in the cars to make them move, suddenly they weren't interested. The adults had a great time playing skee ball and basketball, and winning tickets. The kids caught on quickly, and they didn't want to "waste" any more tokens on car rides. Owen put a token in a machine when no one was looking, and won a balloon. We thought he took someone else's prize, but the people standing next to the machine said he played the game himself. Smart kid!

Evie and Owen riding a roller coaster simulator.

 There was a screen so the parents could watch the kids enjoy (or not really, in this case) the ride. 

Looks like we need to have a talk with Samantha about riding in cars with boys...

Owen and Samantha had a great time climbing on the jungle gym.

"They have Mario Kart! Just like we have at home!" 

She really had a lot more fun than it looks like in this picture. I think this must have been taken shortly after the mascot, Mr. Chuck E. Cheese himself, came around to give all the kids high-five. She started crying when he talked to her.

We had so much fun at Chuck E. Cheese. I used to mock it, because the commercials make it look like a (pardon the pun) cheesy place to go. But I would totally go back. Drew says it was his favorite part of vacation. Owen's favorite part was Brytton and Madeline's house in general. When we ask Samantha what her favorite part of vacation was she says, "I'm scared of Chuck E. Cheese."