Ellie Ballerina

On Sunday afternoon we "enjoyed" the capstone event of Noelle's first dance class experience - her first recital. It was something special all right! There were five classes, each with two short performances, one tap and one ballet. I am confident that Noelle's classes ballet routine was the best of the ten dance bunch, but the other nine were little short of torture. I paid super close attention to Noelle's class; otherwise I entertained myself by texting Julia several rows ahead as we were appalled at how horrible the experience was for everyone in the auditorium. Thankfully we only paid $50 for this experience, it was approximately 12 seconds from our house and daycare, and that price included ten 45 minute classes that my daughter absolutely loved, as well as the lovely blue leotard you see here. Dance is not my daughter's talent. I think next fall we'll be back at gymnastics - something that allows her to get more energy out and requires slightly less discipline, at least for 3, 4, or 5 year olds.

 

Herbal Goodness

Saturday night, mere hours after having a late lunch/early dinner with Minnie and friends, I hosted moms for another installment of our themed dinners. This time we focused on fresh herbs. Earlier in the week I took a crack at making pizza dough with fresh rosemary and thyme incorporated throughout. It turned out pretty well for my first attempt at homemade dough. Then while Bryan was getting the kids ready for bed, I began getting my ingredients ready and rolling out the dough. Fresh tomatoes, mozzarella, basil, mushrooms, prosciutto, arugula, and Gouda cheese - yum! I was slightly behind on getting things ready when friends began arriving but pizza is better right out of the oven, right?

First up for the evening was our appetizer and cocktail. Suzanne made some mean mojitos and Melissa made a bruschetta with strawberries, herbs, goat cheese, and honey. Both were fabulous!

Next up was our soup for the evening which was a chicken tomato and herb soup. It was perfect for the evening.

Salad was up next and Vanessa tossed greens, carrots, and green olives (which the non-olive lovers couldn't taste!) with a homemade oil and vinegar dressing featuring mint and other herbs. Tangy and delicious.

Finally we had our carb heavy main course. Our sides were orzo pasta with mozzarella, corn, and tomatoes and a mint and pea risotto. Both were excellent. I had made several pizzas for the night. My favorite, and the prettiest was my mushroom, gouda, arugula, and prosciutto pizza with an olive oil sauce. Two more were traditional sauce with mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes, and the last was prosciutto, arugula, and traditional sauce. They were tasty, even though I learned a valuable lesson about topping my pizza only when the dough is safely on top of the pizza stone.

Our final course was dessert, my favorite of the night. Stacey made a delicious lemon basil agave cheesecake. I am not even a huge cheesecake fan and it was fabulous.

Here are some of the girls after dessert. Yes, I got out my finest china :)

Love themed dinner nights but I think I need to start sponsoring some mom nights not involving food - they derail my health eating the rest of the week!

Mousekteers

Last Saturday afternoon we journeyed to Brookeville to celebrate Avery's second birthday. I can't believe how big all these kids are getting! We enjoyed some gorgeous spring weather and played outside with balls, bubbles, and cars in our Mickey and friends attire. Then we feasted. Parties with Catherine's family are always great because her brother is an awesome cook. Kellen took down almost all of the mini-hot dogs while the rest of us enjoyed the grilled chicken and pork BBQ and various sides and salads that were to be had. Thankfully we had to leave before dessert got too out of control, but Noelle got a special ice cream cupcake from Catherine's dad and we took our cookies, Mickey rice crispy treats, and Minnie cupcakes home with us for another day. All in all it was a great time and I feel so blessed that my best friend from third grade is still my best friend and the godmother to my daughter almost 30 years later. Love you all!

B I N G O

Last Friday night I went to the big fundraiser for Noelle's school, purse bingo. And it was intense. As someone who has not played bingo since my parish hall days at St Peter's (circa 1992) I was totally unprepared for this event. Doors opened at 6:30, games started at 7:30. Erin and I walked in at 6:47 and had to beg for two seats together at the last row of tables. Our entry got us 3 cards to the 20 regular games. The five special games (two of which were worth over $1000 in donated prizes) cost an additional $1 play. There was also a few raffles and a 50/50. The whole thing was pretty impressive.

Erin and I had heard that people bring in their own drinks. We each came with a beer. What we didn't know is that people brought in coolers of food and full bottles of wine for their evening out. Next year my friends.

It was fun but now that we know what it is all about, we'll be coming next March with a table full of moms, a cooler full of food, and some yummy drinks. At 6:15 pm. And we'll make sure to go to bed early the night before - that was an unexpected late night!

I did win one game. I got a Thirty One backpack, Portalli's gift certificate (brunch here we come!), Starbucks mugs and coffee (anyone have a grinder?), and a certificate for a loaf of bread from The Breadery. Fun times!

Just Keep Swimming

We really wanted to do swim lessons for Kellen and Noelle this year. Our schedule and my sanity just aren't going to allow it til at least the summer, and then I think it will just be for Noelle this year. But we wanted to make sure that the kids are ready for the pool this summer. A newly rebuilt rec center opened up this past year nearby so last Friday I took Kellen to their open swim while Noelle was at school. Three of my mom friends came with us and we had the pool to ourselves. It was wonderful. And I am happy to report Kellen is still a have no fear of the water fish. He loved every second. Well every second minus a few after he demonstrated his favorite move from last summer, floating face down for a second til mommy rescues me. But even that didn't keep him out of the water. And he loves floating on his back, blowing bubbles, and kicking. I am confident that I can get him swimming a bit by the end of the summer. But even if he isn't, I am sure he'll love another summer at the pool!

We look forward to a few return trips to the indoor pool as a family before Memorial Day weekend!

Sight Word Swap

My second busy bag swap of 2014 consisted of sight word and word family activities for Noelle. Ellie is doing pretty well with learning to read. She can sound out easy words and knows a few dozen words by sight but we haven't done much work on reading yet and with Kindergarten fast approaching, it is time to get serious. This swap had my favorite activities of all and Noelle is already excited to play and learn with them!

Our goodies include:

• My sight word beach ball (try to sound out whatever word your hand is on when you catch)
• Sight word dice (complete with sheets to track what you roll - I love it, reading and math!)
• Sight word bingo
• Sight word build-a-house worksheets
• Read and spell sight word sticks with color and lower case/upper case matching
• Word family Easter eggs 

There was also a sight word target practice and sight word ping pong game but we could only pick five so we missed out on those. I was so impressed with all the creativity - another shout out to the amazing site that is Pinterest!

Reading world, here comes Noelle!

Parental Support

It has a been a hard few weeks here. Bryan has been working crazy hours and I had a big evening event last week for work as well. Plus, everyone has been craving spring. Bryan had a scheduled wills for heroes event on Saturday and I just couldn't handle another weekend full day on my own. So my mom came to town to offer a little back up to keep me from going crazy. Luckily, her neighbor was also in MD, giving her a driving home partner back to the OBX.

It was so great to have my mom here to help with the kids and Maddie, do some fun outings, and to let me have a little break for a few hours. I always feel bad when she comes since she helps clean, cook, and watch my kids so it is definitely not a vacation for her in any way, but we love having her come!

During her visit, Noelle had school Friday morning so my mom and I did a few errands and then took Kellen to the local library for some playtime and the parachute class they had. Again we couldn't really remove him from the train table (sweetheart, we have one of these and so does Ms. Rose so you really can do other things when we go places!) but he did last a total of 3 minutes in the parachute class before I gave up. From what the other moms said, we didn't miss much.

Friday afternoon we had a Costco shopping adventure and then after Kel's nap we did some biking, triking, scooting, and strollering around the neighborhood.

Last week I bought a living social for an annual membership at the Science Center and then ended up getting it free since others bought off my link. Yay! We are so excited. We spent a bit of time Saturday late morning down there checking out the dinosaurs and kid room. Before our visit I even made it to an awesome exercise class in Columbia. The Science Center was great and we can't wait to go lots over the coming year!

We also enjoyed some outside time despite it being a little breezy down in Baltimore for snacks and at the tire park after Kel's nap. Spring is coming and we can't wait!

My mom's close friend from Olney then joined us for dinner and dessert. Then we did church and Sunday school the next morning together before my mom headed home. Like always it was a quick visit, but it was so wonderful to have my mom here. Thanks again for all of your help and see you soon in Disney!

Happy Snowman

Kellen calls his favorite Frozen song, Happy Snowman, aka In Summer. We used our snowy Monday to preorder Frozen - can't wait to watch it with our family of four this weekend. Here is our happy snowman. Happy because he represents our last snow of this winter I hope. Our crocuses are coming out - we don't need another 6-7 inches after our St. Patrick's Day! Where is spring?

He had a change of outfit during his creation. I will say I think this snowman was our best of the winter. We've really got our process down after all of our snow this year.

Keeping Busy

Our busy bags actually work! Good thing, since we had a round two trade last week and got six more bags for the kids to play with. And lately we have needed them. With all the snow this winter, reading, art projects, and the train table have only kept my kids away from the television for so long. Thankfully the bags have added a bit more time in. I won't say my kids haven't watched any TV during our snowy days, but at least we don't spend the entire day in front of the tube!

My kids favorite busy bags are definitely the dyed pasta I originally made (the stringing doesn't really work but sorting and pouring are so much fun!) and the sponge tower building we just got the other day. I love busy bags, and I am excited for the sight word and word family activities we'll be getting later this week to add to our collection.

 

We love our busy bags. And yes,we wear our pajamas pretty much all day on snowy days. We even have those babies on under our snowsuits 97% of the time :)

The Roundtable

Last Saturday we got a little family time in and headed down to B&O in Baltimore. We got a family membership from my grandmother for Christmas and while Kellen and I had been to the main museum and we had done the smaller Ellicott City museum twice over the holidays, this was Noelle and Bryan's first adventure to the main museum. We timed our outing for one of the three Saturdays during the year that they demonstrate how the roundtable is used to move trains. The station and roundtable date back to the 1880's or something like that so it was pretty cool. The kids had fun, we enjoyed some nice weather in Baltimore, and Noelle at least was on her best behavior. Kel really wanted to play with the train tables. Hmm, that seems to be a pattern in our life right now. Oh well. Once we tore him away and he realized we weren't going to cave or let him ride on the carousel he eventually decided that the event was cool.

We'll definitely be back quite a few more times in the coming year and are excited to finally do some of the train rides around town on a future trip!