Monday, March 30, 2009

Loooong Overdue

My, has March been a busy month! And, when Mommy gets busy, the blog suffers :( Here's the quick rundown of our month before I get to the pictures (which I know you will probably scroll down to, then maybe come back and read this part of the post....):

March 1-7 - Major UMW fundraiser at church, only slightly impacted by the weather
March 7 - my birthday :)
March 9 - Miss M's tonsillectomy
March 9-23 - Miss M's recovery from tonsillectomy (yep, it really takes 2 weeks)
March 12-15 - Visit from Mom (we celebrated BOTH of our birthdays with a yummy, baked-from-scratch carrot cake and a girls-only dinner out)
March 20-21 - overnight trip for scrapbooking fun with friends!
March 27-29 - solo trip to my Dad's
March 30-April 3 - kids' Spring Break from preschool

So - you wanted pictures? Here they are - don't say I didn't warn you that there are PLENTY!

Mister J visiting Miss M post-tonsillectomy. When I looked back at these pics, I realized just how miserable she looked. Some interesting tidbits - she refused to wear the hospital gown (or any other PJs, for that matter) the entire time she was in the hospital; she wanted to eat bananas more than anything else post-op, and didn't care for popsicles at all; she got very annoyed by the pulse/ox monitor on her toe, and pulled it off several times; I have never been so thankful for NOGGIN shows available 24/7, as we were up most of the night that we were there.

Grandma and Grandpa R sent flowers to Miss M while she was in the hospital, but she didn't get a chance to really appreciate them until we got home. Still working on where we will plant the azalea when the weather finally warms up!

I didn't take a picture of the delicious, two-layer, made-from-scratch carrot cake with delicious, made-from-scratch frosting that I baked for mom's and my birthday celebration weekend. I suppose that pat on the back I just gave myself will suffice.

The next weekend, I got away for an overnight trip! Spent the night (and ate Chinese!) with my former student worker-turned-great friend, H, and got to catch up the latest news that I can't get via her blog. The next day was a HUGE, all-day scrapbooking event! We were joined by my friend J and her friend B for the beach-themed day of fun! Don't we look cool? (The answer, in case you aren't sure, is most certainly YES!)

J, B, H, and me

It was back to real life for a few days, then I was off on another solo trip - this time a weekend at my Dad's! (Seems I didn't copy a pic from my camera that I was going to post here.... can you tell I'm wiped out by all the busy-ness of the month?!?). I had a great time, and wished I could have stayed longer - but I sure did miss my kids! It hit me most on Sunday morning when I was sitting on the couch all by myself, watching the news, and nobody interrupted me. Never realized what a treasure those little interruptions are!

The kids are on spring break this week, so today I took the kids to a new-to-us local park for a picnic and some geocaching. Mister J has been asking to go 'treasure hunting' for a couple of weeks now, since Big J told me they wanted to upgrade my membership at geocaching.com for my birthday (yay!).

This first picture is for those of you who asked me to post more photos of the kids' lunches. With the addition of a baggie of crackers and my big, blue bottle of water, all three of us ate from the Laptop Lunch Boxes today.

Mister J was trying not to squint even though he was looking away from the sun. Oh, and how cool is it that I took this pic with my cell phone and emailed it to myself and posted it here?!? Yes, you should be impressed. I have an even cooler trick up my sleeve, but I'm waiting until the next cell phone photo op to share.

Next shot was me trying to get a photo of them together. Well, they are together.... I never said I would be able to get them to look at the camera at the same time! Check out how big they are getting!

Oh, look - here they are again, and they are both looking at the camera! I managed it once - on our only cache find of the day. They sure had fun checking out the treasures inside, but in the end we TNLNSL.

Aren't they just the cutest little geocachers you have ever seen? They were pretty adventurous today, and stuck it out even though we were 1 for 3 today. There was another interesting find at the park today - a 500+ year old poplar tree. It's been struck by lightning, and the remains of the trunk are now hollow - a pretty cool hiding spot for a 5-year-old!

Here are a couple more shots as we were wrapping up our afternoon of geocaching. The kids enjoyed the gravel path (picking up and tossing the rocks) and thought the storm drain under the path was very cool. They wanted to crawl through it, but I exercised my mommy-veto power on that one!



Jonah was a big help today - he carried our caching backpack when Miss M got too tired to keep up with us and 'needed' to be carried (though she had plenty of energy to play when we stopped here!).

On the way home, we got a call from friends who were meeting for a quick playdate at another local park. The kids were excited to see their friends E and C, and I enjoyed a brief visit with my friends AW and AT. I was amazed that the kids still had enough energy to keep their eyes open - nevermind swing, climb, run, and generally just play hard!

I did manage a snap of Miss M and Miss E when they were taking a breather. They are hanging out under the playground equipment playing with - what else? - rocks! Not sure what it is about rocks, but my kids both seem to want to pick every one they see. Is it a stage? Will they outgrow it? Insight, please!

So, what's in store for tomorrow and the rest of Sping Break? Well, tomorrow is the dentist - the kids have back-to-back appointments. Wish me luck! The forecast for the last half of the week is for rain, so perhaps we will do some crafts. Big J's birthday is Thursday, so we also have to do a little shopping. We have to buy a gift, of course, and the ingredients for a(nother) delicious, two-layer, made-from-scratch carrot cake with delicious, made-from-scratch frosting! Yippee! Perhaps I'll remember to take a picture this time!

1 comment:

Heather said...

These are such great pictures. And I had a blast spending time with you!