St. Patrick's Day

Holidays with kids are so great.  This morning a little Leprechan came and dyed our milk green and left little bags of green goodness for the kids. 

I'll have to take care of the leftovers.  I wouldn't want to dash her believe in leprechans.

I had such high hopes of the fun things I could do today, but frankly, the leprechan is tired.  

I am growing another human afterall. 

But even with my mild effort, Brooklyn was LOVING every minute of it.  I think she looked at the green milk in the fridge at least 8 times before she left for school. 

I must mention that none of the rest of us drank any of it.  What is it with strange psychological blocks?  It's probably some built in safety mechanism.  If something doesn't look like it should, you really shouldn't consume it.  Makes sense. 

I would open up the fridge for a tall glass of milk and just couldn't stomach the idea of drinking it green. 

And Jack just about flipped his lid when I offered him some at lunch.  I'm pretty sure Brooklyn will have to drink it all.

She spent the rest of the day skipping around kind of like this little leprechan.  I wish I could move like that.  I need a picture of a leprechan with a big ol' pot belly.  Ya, that would be more like it.  Maybe if I spent more time running around and less time raiding her backpack for St. Patty's Day party treats...

At the end of the day - what was going through my sweet Brooklyn's mind?

A Thank You note of course. 

I am sure that if she knew where to find the leprechan, she would have left all kinds of notes and treats on his pillow.

Instead, she left this note by the front door-

A lovely picture of herself and the little friend that brought her lots of joy today.

Why can't life be that simple and magical forever?

Mr. Flush

Can someone please explain to me why Exhibit A:

is so obsessed with Exhibit B:

Or more specifically:

I figure that at 6 gallons per flush, Bradley has managed to waste approximately 300 gallons of water, just this week.

Do I even want to know how many $'s that translates to?

Skills shmills

I am very appreciative of the marvelous job my daughter's Kindergarten teacher is doing.  Brooklyn is developing in leaps and bounds and I couldn't be happier with the way things are going.

However...there is one little thing that I should have been consulted about before it was taught to Brooklyn. 

Is there a reason that a 5 year old needs to learn to tell time??? 

I mean really, that's not necessary. 

How am I supposed to get away with putting the kids to bed early when she knows that it's early?

This could put a serious cramp in my style.

Treasures

I have moved several times in the last decade.  Each place I have moved into it seems has contained a special token from the previous occupant.  You know, priceless items like half used bags of rat poison, old plungers, or scratched up pots and pans.
Today though, I found the best one yet.  I have lived in this house for 10 months now, but today as I was searching for my missing chicken boullion cubes, I stuck my head in the cupboard.  It's one of those pointless cupboards in the corner of the kitchen that extends to all depths of the house, but only has about 1 foot square accessable space.  An ideal place for "special" items to collect.
Let me show you the sweet treasure I was thrilled beyond words to find today.

Nice, huh?

What, you don't know what this is?

Obviously it is a brain mold.  Don't you have one?

I think we'll have Jell-O tonight.

I am thinking I could win a prize or something for the world's most random thing left from a previous occupant. 

Can anyone beat this little gem?

P.S.  Has anyone seen my bouillon cubes?

Destination: Hanford

Grammy & Gramps came for a quick visit and decided to treat us to a little ride on the train down to Hanford. 

All aboard!

Jack was LOVING every minute of the train ride.  I think we could have travelled all the way to Kansas and back and he wouldn't have moved from his chair.

Here we are (at least some of us) in the booming metropolis of downtown Hanford, CA.

What was the main attraction you might ask?  Yes, we rode on a train for 30 minutes each way to have a banana split the size of a newborn child.

Oh the anticipation...

No one was happier than Bradley.

In the end, we had 3 happy kids...

Who, like always, displayed superior manners and behaved like perfect angels while in public...

And who certainly did not leave that really big glob of strawberry ice cream on the floor.

Disney on Ice

Brooklyn and I had a little girl party.  Disney on Ice came to Fresno so we splurged for Skittles and 2 tickets to see the big show.  We certainly weren't disappointed.  It was a great show and of course it was fun to spend time together - just the 2 of us!

Waiting for the show to start.  There were vendors EVERYWHERE selling really exciting things like $12 snow cones, $8 caramel apples, and $10 boxes of popcorn.  I couldn't believe the dollar bills flying out of the wallets of helpless parents.  Brooklyn kept pointing to everything and saying, "Mom, we don't need those things."

That's my girl.  :)

One little picture from the show - she couldn't wait to go home and tell Jack all about it.

For the pre-show they had lots of princess stuff including a couple of real-life princesses.  The place was pretty crowded (I was thankful to only have 1 child with me) but people moved through pretty well so she eventually got a front row view of the lovely Cinderella.

We got pretty wet waiting in the rain (notice the crazy hair), but we had lots of fun! 

For the record

Our little Bradley man has reached a milestone...18 months old...HELLO NURSERY!!!

Stats:

Length: 32.5 inches - 50th percentile

Weight:  22 lbs 8 oz - 12th percentile

Most striking features:  his gorgeous blue eyes, extremely unruly hair, and lovely battle wound-looking birthmark which is beginning to disappear.  :)

Favorite food: bananas

Favorite toys:  cars, trains and books

Favorite word: NO

Favorite activity:  "Bringing it in" for the Bowen and/or Sunbeam cheer, ring around the rosies, going outside, running naked after his bath, and copying his two favorite role models.

I think we'll keep him.