The spring that almost wasn't

I thought it was silly when we had snow on Easter.
I didn't really like having snow on Mother's Day.
But I never thought I would see the day when it was snowing on our anniversary.
Until today.

We still have comforters on all our beds. I turned on the fireplace today at lunch.
It's the last week of school for crying out loud!
This has got to stop.
It might be funny if it weren't so infuriating.
Let's just say that next year I won't be such a hurry to get my garden planted...

It's Great to be Eight

Guess who had a birthday...

For some reason I gave in and got him this cake. I never buy cakes. They have like a 500 percent markup. But he wanted one with flowers. For his Bakugan party, what else?

That was on the Saturday before and then went to Chuck E Cheese on his birthday {Tuesday} with his cousins. Then we ended up at Arctic Circle for dinner and I realized when we got there that I went to Arctic Circle on my 8th birthday too. Weird. I got a new coat, because my birthday is in February.
Somehow his celebrations were stretched out over the course of the week, we went to get his free scoop at Baskin Robbins on Friday and Daddy took him to Red Robin on Saturday for his free birthday meal. How did he end up so spoiled?

make new friends but keep the old

It’s been years since I had fuchsias. They are one of my favorites, but I just can’t stomach the $30 for a basket of them to hang up. But I was at a local garden center a few weeks ago and saw some starters for a couple bucks each. I’ve never seen them that way before. I decided they were worth a shot, so I grabbed a couple. So far so good--they've at least doubled in size. Here they are in their {$3} urn, looking all perky.

And I don’t know where I’ve been, but I just discovered these fabulous flowers. Ranunculus. Who knew? Well, you probably did. I noticed them at the same garden center and I grabbed a couple, since I had just read about them in Sunset. This little bloom broke off and so I stuck it in water. It’s been cheering my kitchen window for days and is still going strong. I’m going to stock up on some more of these too.

Did you catch the Black Friday sale at Home Depot this weekend? I hauled home a load of pansies, snapdragons, boxwoods and burning bushes. And a grill. Then The Professor traded it back in for a grill he found at Sears. Yes, we keep swearing off that store, and yet somehow keep finding our way back. . . This time he bought the grill online and it was cheaper {probably because there was no commission to pay} and then picked it up at the store.

There seemed to be some confusion

about whether it was Easter or Christmas
Does this look like Easter to you???

Winter Sport

The kids just finished off a round of gymnastics. They had great fun. It's always disappointing when it's over. We could only take pictures on the last day. So I made sure to bring my camera with its accompanying low battery. sigh.


They awarded the kids little medals at the end. I think they liked the medals almost as much as they liked the chalk. I mean, really, it looks like it is snowing indoors...





And on a completely unrelated note, the other day I was at the dollar store and bought some easter eggs to make a wreath for the door. It turned out great. This is actually not the first version.
Because it swiftly dropped to the floor and most of the eggs popped right off. So I had to glue 'em back on.



It is now properly fastened to the hook on the outside of the door.

My house was clean yesterday--sorry you missed it

If you can see a handprint on the window, that means I just cleaned it.

Because before that there were so many handprints on it that they all just ran together.


Have you ever wondered why it is so bothersome to do certain things over {and over} when you feel like you *just* did them? {Speaking of course about laundry, dishes, etc.} I mean, it’s not like I have ever thought, “Come on, I just ate three hours ago!!” or “I slept last night!” I don’t even say, “I just worked out yesterday!”
You know what I mean??

In the bleak midwinter

This photo was not taken today.
If it was, there would be a lot more white stuff in it.

Looks like I made it through February without posting. Let me sum things up: first Cuddles was sick, then Easy, then me, then Easy was sick again, and then Cuddles was sick again. Somewhere in there I also took care of my little sister when she had her wisdom teeth out. I guess the good news is that when I am stuck at home with sick kids I get projects done. Mostly involving sewing {two bedspreads, two sets of curtains, baby bibs and quilt, and a couple other random things.} And some reading too.

Oh, and I did have a birthday. With cheesecake and my favorite Papa Murphy’s pizza. If you’ve never tried this, you need to order a Hawaiian pizza but get the garlic sauce. You will never look at pizza the same way again.

And have you noticed the new Cheerios?? I discovered how to put them to good use:

Substitute them for the rice krispies. Put your hands together!