Overnight Adventure

(in pictures)

More to come...

Unexpected

We went to the airport to pick up Grammie.  Miss C took a nap on the bench:

But...it wasn't Grammie who arrived.

It was.....

THIS.

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Remember How Christmas Was Super Warm?

And so we all went outside and tried to take photos for Grammie to use in a (belated) Christmas (aka Valentine's) card?   And the G-man decided he was NOT into photos that day?

I was a little worried about helping her get a pic when it started like this:

Poor photo-averse boy!

While we tried to get him distracted by fun! in! the! backyard!, I got the two girls together:

Nope, still not working:

Thought for awhile we'd have to go with the distance shot!

Even considered photoshopping him in:

But, in the end, we went with a collage:

Why am I showing you all this today?   Because Grammie arrives this afternoon for a weekend visit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  HOORAY!!

Wordless Wednesday

Like An Eagle*

Yesterday, C's preschool class visited a local aviation museum onsite at what is apparently the longest continually operating airport in the world-- since 1909!

I knew we had visited this museum before but had to do some deep digging to reconstruct the history.  Turns out it was over Christmas break in 2009, so more than 6 years ago!!   Obviously, Miss C had no memories of it since she wasn't around then!

I was impressed with both the tour guide's ease with children as well as the children's attentiveness and cooperation.  Lots of planes to see!

 Fun fact:  the sign to the left of the bottom pic names the plane the "Curtiss Jenny."  As a former resident of the Finger Lakes area, I knew immediately that was thanks to Glenn Curtiss!

There's one plane that is available for exploring.  The Two Miss Cs climbed on in:

Where CJK's brother had once sat more than 6 years before!!

Speaking of big brother, check out the book we found!

And the WWI Flying's Ace's plane, too!

Why anyone would put the "photographic cut-out display board" RIGHT in front of windows is beyond me, but thanks to the wizardry of about 10 different photo editing tools, you can actually see us!

The last part of the field trip was making a paper airplane and then using a launcher to send it flying!

But the last part of our adventure was a trip to (the nearby) IKEA and some soft serve because have you met me?

*If those of you who were East High Choristers aren't now singing "...I will race above the clouds**.  I will spread my wings and fly into the suuuuuu-uh-uh-uuuunnn," then we can't be friends.

**A google search tells me that one line in the song is "race above the stars" and the other is "soar above the clouds" which basically means that my memory is not so good.   So now I'm depressed...and 10 minutes delayed in writing this blog post!

Dunkin'

(but, amazingly enough, NOT DONUTS!)

Our shopping adventure Friday also took us to World Market where I had my $10 in birthday rewards to spend.  I decided to get this knife, which I now see is on sale online-- ha!   (But hey, you gotta pay shipping online.)

Miss C still had some birthday money to spend, so she first picked out a few craft kits.  I had noticed on previous visits that WM carried the Goldie Blox line that received a lot of press sometime back for encouraging girls in engineering pursuits.   The store is either no longer getting in new supply or just was out, but we finally found one remaining set hiding in the toy section to finish out her birthday spending.   Behold:  Goldie Blox and the Dunk Tank:

Building with the Big Guy:

And showing it off with Big Brother:

On Organization and Mathematical Thinking

I am nothing if not obsessive about options for solving problems RIGHT NOW so here's a snap from our outing to HomeGoods yesterday:

Any organization-lovers getting heart palpitations?  This is the latest step in the Lego Sorting Saga with a nod to the New Workspace Project.   We're making progress!

Side note: HomeGoods is such my happy place.

After our shop-a-thon, we enjoyed a car picnic:

Which quickly turned emotional when she realized she has a loose tooth!

(She's actually been super excited at the prospect of losing a tooth but, upon feeling the wiggly-ness, got a little freaked out that she might swallow it.)

Later in the eve, we hung out at the elementary school for Family Math Night:

My friend Shira organized a fundraiser with Gamewright because she is both awesome and loves games.  Sometime back, she had suggested Rat-a-Tat Cat to us so we bought it and have really enjoyed playing it while secretly working on math skills.  Last night, we bought Zeus on the Loose and Sleeping Queens, both of which are math-a-riffic as well.

Through such a fundraiser, Gamewright gives the partnering entity (in this case, our PTA) 50% of the proceeds which is pretty awesome considering the games themselves are priced well.  I paid $12 for each of the games and a quick look on Amazon shows me they are $10 each there.   So I paid $2 more but the PTA gets $6?  Sounds like a good deal to me!

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Thursday Grocery Report

I'm not usually a huge fan of paying extra for convenience items (exception: buying pre-cut butternut squash) but I picked up this giant bag of "broccoli stir-fry" the other day and was as pleased as I hoped.   I feel like stir-fries are such a great way to get in a bunch of veggies and there are so many options for tweaking the protein or the sauce flavor or the stuff upon which it is served.   Last night, I went chicken/orange/rice noodles.  Ugly pic but definitely now a fan of that bag o' veggies!

And, in continued Oreo flavor news, we tried these:

I'm trying to stay away from the Oreos so I only had one--for research purposes--and the overpowering thought was "CHOCOLATE."  So if you like a whole lotta chocolate in your cookies, this would be a good one to try!

Mid-Week Randoms

Wait-- is it really Wednesday?  Because it's the first day of school for the week and we're all kinds of confused!

As it turns out, I didn't take any pics yesterday, except for a shot of my computer screen to capture a recipe to then look at while running through a grocery store for ingredients.  Does anyone else do that?  It's actually kinda amazing how helpful having a phone camera can be!  (And yes, now I realize I could have actually "called up" the recipe website on my phone but that was an extra step.  Efficiency, people!)

Hmmm....what else?

Yesterday was the weirdest "snow/ice day" since it was 40 degrees by 9am so things were pretty much melted.  Someone surmised that, if a 3-hour delay were a possibility with the school systems, that would have worked great.  The 2-hour delay, however, just wasn't quite enough time to ensure that all icy surfaces would be gone for walkers and buses.  

The biggest accomplishment of our extended weekend was converting some "play space" to "work space."  I will save pics of that switcheroo until we do a little more organizing but I'm pleased to say that the BG was about as productive with both science and football planning/grading as I have ever seen him now that he has a work station, and I earned enough money through my own 6+ hours of work to pay for some of the new room arrangement!!  Hooray for productivity--and part-time jobs!

Okay, I really need to go get the B-man ready to walk to the bus stop... 

It's Already 46 Degrees...

...but we got a bonus day off from school today!!

It snowed about 4" inches yesterday and then turned into hours of freezing rain which made everything a skating rink.   It then turned into lots of rain but the question was always whether the changeover would happen in time for school buses to run safely this morning.  We all assumed there would be a 2-hr delay so color us shocked when we saw at 4:55am that it was canceled!!

Guess we'll have another day of playing in the elaborate system the BG set up:

I went back in the ole files to find a pic from when we first acquired that bus.   It was almost exactly 6 years ago!!

These Monday Holidays Are So Confusing

Because it sure feels like Sunday!

We don't plan to leave today because there's snow and then ice (and then rain) on the way.  So we'll be snuggled in at home--hopefully accomplishing everything we've put off so far this weekend.

We did manage to escape for a bit yesterday and dropped by to take a full-of-red Valentine's pic with Miss Olive:

While we were there, Fake Auntie Chisty painted C's nails and she was still admiring them a little bit ago after she woke up:

Happy Day o' Presidents, everybody!

Sigh

I'm now experiencing "day after" blues.  Today doesn't seem as fun when I know it won't be filled with greetings from near and far!  :-)   (And thanks to all of you who sent birthday wishes!)

It was a 5-star day!   We were kinda slow-moving in the AM but then Christy called to tell me that, for my birthday, she'd tracked down a car part I needed after the BG *might* have dropped a bulb and socket into the deep recesses of my vehicle during an attempted light bulb change.  (We should all have a Christy to make the phone calls we don't like to make!)   Since the dealership she found happens to be right next to a Target, Miss C and I just went on ahead to have a little adventure.  On the way back from visiting those two places, we drove to the local bagel place where I treated myself to a sammie I haven't had in a looong time.  It is possible my lips were tingling and pruney after all that salt--some of which I brushed off--but man was it tasty! 

Obviously, I then needed to counteract that with some sweet so we then drove on to check out a nearby French patisserie where we selected an array of treats:

Spoiler alert:  they were yummy, especially that big thing that was a chocolate pear croissant! Ooh la la!

We ended up at a local (sensing a theme here? I do love to support non-chain places!) Greek restaurant for a dinner that resulted in lots of leftovers since we treated ourselves to two delicious appetizers!  (And OF COURSE that olive got the boot as soon as I took this pic!)

Now it's back to reality, although the Friday of a long weekend isn't too bad.  Busy, busy with Valentine's parties for both kids.   Here's what we did this year:

HAPPY FRIDAY!

Triple Prime

Why yes, I have thought about how this age I become today is not only made up of two digits that are each prime, but also forms a prime two-digit number.

NERD ALERT.

Anyway, it's February 11th-- the day I celebrate my birthday twin, Carrie!  (We've already been texting this morning!)   For the first 2/11 that I can remember, I have literally NOTHING on the calendar today.  No meetings/appointments/playdates/school visits.  Sooo....I think I'm gonna wander around some stores and into at least one local patisserie.  And I'll do it with this girl:

Happy Emily and Carrie (and Carrie's dad!  And Brandy the singer!  And Jennifer Aniston!  And Burt Reynolds) Day to you all!   :-)

Wayback Wednesday

Five years ago.  We still reference the dance moves today-- anytime there is someone tapping to the beat, either the BG or I will yell, "SIDEWAYS!"

LOVE (February, 2011)

Oh, sweet little Brooksie.

Delays Are The WORST

(or...why I'm already tired and bitter at 7:30am)

We went to bed last night with visions of a snow day in our heads.  All the weather people admitted it was an incredibly difficult forecast, but with calls for a few inches of snow starting overnight and continuing through the day today, we figured there was a good chance we'd have an "encouraged day of laziness."

I woke up several times during the night but willed myself to go back to sleep until closer to a normal dawning time.  Finally, at 4:53am, we were both awake and checked the district website-- nothing.  Then I got out of bed to go look out the front window, expecting/hoping to see white-- nothing.   Ugh.

Since nothing was happening outside and it was 5am, the BG got up and began his normal routine.  About 10 minutes later, the district announced a 2-hour delay.  But he's already well on his way to being cleaned up and dressed so there's no going back for an extra snooze.  And, since the district said they'd make a final decision by 7am about whether to open/close, there was just another period of waiting.

By 6am or so, it's started to snow.  Website research shows that half the county is getting even more/heavier snow than we are.  We wait.  Other districts switch to a closure.  Ours announces that it will OPEN after the delay.

BG heads to school-- super early for a delay day but what the heck else is he going to do? And of course B-man popped up right at 7am.  Exciting news for him:  he gets an extra 2 hours of screen time.  (Like I'm supposed to have enriching entertainment planned for him this morning on the fly?) Cue maternal guilt.  And, best part of all, the bus will now pick him up at 10:35am which is 5 minutes after C's weekly dance class starts.  So she'll miss a chunk of that.  (He's the only kid at our bus stop so it's not like another parent can watch him.)

Hey, at least she has a fabulous new 'do to show off whenever she does finally get to class:

And my healthy eating goes out the window as I go slice another piece of Great Harvest Cinnamon Blast bread that I picked up yesterday since a) I was in the shopping center and b) I thought it would be good snow day food!

Grumble, grumble.

PS:  Yes, it would be far healthier not to pin any hopes on weather forecasts!   But the drama and intrigue is kinda fun!   :-)

UPDATE:  Dance studio just emailed that they're going to be closed this morning.  Never boring around here!

Yesterday in Food

Miss C ended up busting out with a fever Saturday morning which meant we were homebound the rest of the time.  (No complaints, except that I somehow still managed to accomplish no tasks around the house.)

She's pretty much back to normal now so all is fine there.  And she sure got her appetite back in time to eat these chocolate "donuts" (basically muffins but donut-shaped.  Thanks, King Arthur Flour!):

While nobody here really cared too much about the big game, we definitely were in for the watching.  And the eating.  Decided to just to go all the way with a big ole platter o' dip:

YUM!

Still Giggling

Wednesday afternoon, I realized I didn't have a pic for yesterday's blog [before the Great Frosting Challenge unfolded, obviously!] so I snapped this quick one of C modeling some fun eyewear:

Then, not 3 hours later, out of the blue, AKHG sent me this pic collage:

WHAT ARE THE CHANCES?

Happy Friday!  Find yourself some stylish glasses and hit the town!

Got Extra Frosting?

Have a YouTube-inspired "challenge," of course!!  (Props for idea go to the BG!)

I took the remaining frosting from C's birthday-part-deux cupcakes and divided it into 4 bowls.  Each bowl got a few drops of a different extract.   Ah, the fun times we have around here...

Update From The Trenches

(the Oreo-tasting trenches, that is.)

These are tastier than I thought they would be:

I didn't need to know that.

Cupcake Playdate, Take Two

Since Miss C's birthday fell right after the blizzard, she had to settle for cake with her fam.   Thankfully, the two preschool friends who were supposed to come play that day were both able to reschedule for yesterday after school (with their moms, too, so we all got a visit)!

The decor was all gathered hurriedly on the day before the snow started since I wanted to be prepared!  We bought the little Lego Friends "Birthday Party" sets for each friend as a favor:

Lots of dressing up!

Speaking of dressing up, for the candle-blowing, C modeled a "Grammie Sheils" original (hand-me-down shirts to wear as dresses are so fun!):

I think she's REALLY five now!