worst mom moment

When Malcolm asked if he could eat crackers right after I had vacuumed, I pulled a stool up to the sink so he could eat over it. I felt pretty awful about that, but he didn't seem to mind!

I will be very happy when there's some warm weather and we can eat outdoors!

"best playdate ever"

Trevor is in Jane's class and they get along very well. They are both readers, so they sit next to each other reading and talk about the books they read. Jane says Trevor asked her to marry him. :) His younger brother Colin will be in preschool with Malcolm next year, so we enjoy playdates with them. The other day Trevor helped Jane make a cardboard castle. The kids made swords, crowns and shields out of construction paper and had a great time playing.

I spoke with their mom later that day and Trevor had said it was the "best playdate ever."

spring?

We were very excited to see the first crocuses last weekend! Now they're all covered with snow.

St. Pat's party

Our parent network had to cancel the yearly Valentine's party because of a blizzard, so it got rescheduled on St. Patrick's Day. It was so adorable seeing all the kids dressed in green! Jane and Malcolm enjoyed their treats, especially the cookies with frosting and sprinkles for decorating.

The playspace has Batman to play with, so Malcolm was happy!

arts buffet

After going home for lunch after the pancake breakfast, I took the kids to the arts buffet at Jane's school. I like to take Malcolm there whenever I can since he'll go to preschool there next year. They made mosaics, leprechaun traps, braided bracelets and robots. Next year I won't schedule both events on the same day so they can spend more time doing art.

They checked out the kids' tiles on the way out.

back to the farm

We had reservations for the farm's maple breakfast last weekend. It was yummy and a lot of fun. Since we didn't get to explore the whole farm when we went the week before, it was nice to spend more time there.

We can't wait to try the syrup!

school play

We went to the middle school's play this year. It was a lot of fun! As you can tell, the auditorium was very cold. I think theater will be in Jane's future, so she will take after her mom.

evening chores

I signed us up for an "evening chores" program at the farm. It was a lot of fun! The kids haven't been very excited about playing outside or going to the farm lately, but this was enough motivation.

Checking out some baby goats:

The kids got to help feed the chickens and collect the eggs. Because of the different breeds, the eggs were all different colors!

They fed hay to the sheep, then got to pet them.

They also got to feed the cows hay by dropping it from a hatch upstairs in the barn, that was fun! At the end they got to try a Finnish pancake that we had put in the oven before doing chores.

freezer paper stencils

A few moms in my parenting network got together earlier this week to do freezer paper stencils. The kids had fun picking out their shirts and what would be on them! The project was so much fun and I plan to make many more.

In case it's hard to see, my black shirt has Stevie Ray Vaughan on it.

beginning of March

We headed to the MFA a few weeks ago. It wasn't a very long visit because there weren't any kid activities to keep Jane and Malcolm occupied.

I let Malcolm use the computer one day when he did a good job leaving his friend's house.

We got the idea from Jane's classmate to make a grocery store at home!

Jane's school had crazy hair day!

I happened to be helping in the library that day so I got to see all the kids.

Last weekend Jane dressed up as Harry Potter.

We went to the mall and she was still wearing the scar on her forehead.

One evening, Jane did the dishes.

Here's Jane looking at her lunch menu after school. I've made these every day since she had a fit over some quesadillas earlier in the week.

The other day I needed work done on my car and I got a rental. The kids were very excited to ride in it. It was bigger, newer and fancier than my car!

Jane looked for clouds and birds through the sunroof.

We went to the Science Discovery Museum and had a lot of fun.

Yesterday we received a very exciting package! I got copies of some of the cookbooks I helped design. The kids had a wonderful time with all the packing material.