Field tripping

Today I strapped the little kids in the stroller and we walked behind Claire's kindergarten class in a field trip to the local cemetery. That might sound a little creepy, but our local cemetery is 150 years old and has some amazing memorials and monuments. 

Like....

Herman Melville 

Joseph Pulitzer

And Elizabeth Cady Stanton

It was quite chilly as we started off and I felt like a terrible mother because my kids were only wearing hoodies, but by lunch time the temp was up to 65.  I chatted with some of the other parents, and when we first started out we were saying that when you look at 50 Kindergartners it doesn't look like that many people. 

By the end of the trip we all agreed that it looked like a lot more people than it had at the beginning 

Mice

When I was 4-years old, the cabin we shared with some family friends had a mouse problem. My family loves to tell the story of my dad emptying out mouse traps with me following behind him saying,"dad, they're sorry. They won't do that again." I hated to see the mice get in trouble (little did my preschooler mind understand the consequence of mice getting in trouble which was an awful, poisoned death) just for coming I I the cabin.

 

This week I caught 2 mice in my electrocution trap.

My 37-year old self doesn't feel any differently about killing mice than my 4-year old self. I hate killing things, but I also hate mice poop in my baking dishes so it's a compromise. 

And on a lighter, unrelated note. Millie is teaching me a little bit about living her best life. Here she is after having dumped out a whole bag of trail mix just to eat the M&Ms.  At 8 am. The quest for chocolate can't start too early or be dissuaded by too many peanuts, almonds or raisins. 

Easter

We spent this Easter with our cousins in Boston.

We had loads of fun. And Uncle Tad taught us an important Easter ritual--using whopper eggs as lipstick. 

No one was fighting in the back seat and we turned around to see this.  He had also put "lipstick" all over his sister.

Just because I love this picture.

So many babies in a stroller

Stylist for hire

Last week Millie was outside for some bubble blowing dressed in her finest rain boots, Mardi Gras beads, and life vest. You know. Because water safety is a real concern of hers

Spring

This picturing the moment that Noah realized that the eggs we were coloring for Easter didn't have anything inside them but egg. 

Millie was the official egg taster and dropper

Rats

Okay. They're not rats.  They're mice. And I will admit that it's possible that there is only one of them. But he's a tricky one so it seems like he shou be considered in the plural. 

Last week he escaped from a sticky trap twice (proof above. You can see a fur outline and soooo much poop. Maybe sticky traps, peanut butter and chocolate chips are the trick to mouse poop production) so I pulled out the big guns and bought one of those traps that electrocutes the mouse when he steps on it. That was 2 days ago. No mouse yet

I'm only slightly deterred by the factthat the   instructions assured me that mice were easy to catch and that only rats represent a real problem. Maybe we just breed smarter mice around here.

Bed head

This may be Millie's greatest bead head ever

The trick seems to be puking in the middle of the night, rolling over, and going right back to sleep. 

Dance

That girl in the v-neck with the graceful arms.  She's mine. Hard to believe that my no graceful self gave rise to that, but we're running with it.

And no, she is not suddenly a tiny person, she is just a 5-year old in a class of 8 year-olds 

Winter in NY when you want it to be spring

For some reason during the third week of Feb it seemed like everyone I know was in Hawaii. We were not. We were here, it was a little gloomy and cold.

But not at the Botanical Garden.

There were orchids there. Oh, so many orchids and for just a minute we felt summer. 

(Do you see that little hand resting on his dad's knee? I mean right?)

Photo dump

I've had pics and stories ready to post for weeks. They're all just coming at once. 

Matching hair day

Valentine's Day.  (Yes we practice King Fu on Valentine's. Don't you?) That last pic is when I attempted to make chocolate covered cinnamon bears. I know it sounds weird, but they are amazingly delicious. I almost had them right. Next year.

My brother and his family came to visit and we had such a lovely time. We took them to Washington Square Park on a Saturday which is a guaranteed good time.

We also forced them to play 1 million rounds of Uno.

100th day of school party. 

And finally, two artists and the cutest pig tails you have ever seen

YouTube

Did you know the highest YouTube earner in the world is a woman with perfectly manicured nails who opens kids toys and plays with them?  You never see her face or body, just her hands. There are hundreds of people who review toys. Some of them do it with their kids, but most of them are adults who know the name of every Hotwheels car.  

You might be thinking, what is the target audience? Who on earth would watch that?

Right there. That's it. 

How we watch the Super Bowl

This is the selfie I took at 10:00 last night. See that smiling, giggly baby?  We have church right during nap time and it basically messes up everything. 

I feel good about the game. I'm firmly on team Beyoncé, so luckily my team always wins. 

Road Trip

Saturday afternoon we took a road trip to Ikea. Now, ikea is only 37 minutes from my house so some of you may be questioning the term "road trip" but trust me, by minute 10  the parents were questioning our decision to go at all, and by minute 27 we were counting down Siri's estimated minutes until arrival. The kids were anxiously awaiting Siri estimating the same number of minutes as their age. At 5 minutes (Claire's age) until arrival they erupted into chanting "5,5,5,5" which lasted until it switched to 4. At 3 minutes (Noah's age) until arrival the chant was repeated. At 1 (Millie's age) they decided that instead of chanting "1" they would just say "da da" over and over, because Millie can't say 1 but she can say "da da."  All three of them chanted for all of minute 37. It was the best minute of the whole trip.

Here is Millie climbing the stairs during dance class. I call this her "Drew Carey" dress because I swear she looks just like Mimi in it.

The Museum

Friday afternoon we veered off the path of sane people and drove 45 minutes to Connecticut after school in order to spend an hour at a little children's museum there. 

The kids fought the whole way there and the whole way home. 

But dang, they love it there. 

Was it worth the drive? Hard to say. Will we do it again? Yes.

Bribes

Noah saw a marble set and really wanted it and I really wanted him to go to bed without sneaking out and down the stairs to "help with the dishes," so We struck a deal; he would stay in bed after he was kissed goodnight and I would get him a marble set. 

I took a video of him using it and asked him how long he had to work for it. His reply, "like seven years."  Yes, something like seven years. 

Next step is getting him to stay in his bed all night long. I'm going to have to start saving up.

The snowy day

We got a lot of snow here this weekend

A lot. 

We made good use of the time we had at home. 

Did some baby wrasslin' 

Why yes, Millie is wearing Jammie's and glittery cowgirl boots in this picture.

We practiced making squishy faces

Did some sailing

And I made good use of the sourdough starter I just got from a friend. I'm still not a great bread baker, but we're getting by.