The Big Events and the Everyday

Just like February, March flew by in flash.  We did a lot of our regular, everyday stuff and there were a few highlights too.

We worked on some sight words with play doh after rest time (thank you, Pinterest for helping me to come up with an emergency, exciting, learning activity when I am desperate in the afternoon).

Cate and Timmy snuggled and watched PBS in the morning before school.  They always remind me of an old, married couple first thing in the morning when their faces are still puffy and they are sleepy.

Cate had to bring an umbrella for "weather week" at school, so both kids got a new, Disney umbrella.  They played with them and went for walks in the "rain" (no rain at all) for about a week.

Timmy continued his love for all things chocolate.  I think this was at one of our new favorite places, Zoe's Kitchen.  He went crazy for their chocolate cake.

Timmy also seriously upped his coloring ante this month.  He really does color quite a bit, and is generally pretty focused and serious about it.  I dated the picture above and stuck it in his little file (also Pinterest inspired) because he was so precise with the race car.

There was carnival at a church just a few minutes from our house, so we braved the hot afternoon to ride a few rides with our buddy, Norah.  They loved the burlap sack slide and the giant swings.

In March, we also helped to organize our first block party and rented our first bounce house.  It was fun to get to know some of our neighbors better before everyone is locked inside for the heat of the summer.  We vowed to do it again for Halloween (which seems to be a desert coming out of the heat party), so hopefully we can be organized enough to make that happen.  We'll see.

Cate and Timmy had their regular dentist appointments.  At their last visit, there was a lot of crying, freaking out and complaining.  I think I did a better job this time of threatening  preparing them, so all was smooth and easy.  They got good reports (against all odds, especially for Timmy who squirms so much when I brush his teeth that I often just give up), so it was a successful visit.

At the very end of the month, of course, was Easter.  Mimi, Pop and Jenn came to spend the long weekend with us.  We went for a LONG hike on Saturday and went to church at noon on Sunday after both Easter baskets had been found.  We did Disney themed baskets this year, with new sunglasses, notebooks and flip flops to celebrate our impending first trip to Disney World in the fall.

After we took everyone to the airport on Monday, the four of us went to our first ever Arizona Diamondbacks game.  It was so much fun to watch Cate and Timmy's expressions when they first saw how big the ball field was, or when the dome started to open.  It was a really nice night to sit out at a game and the great thing about having a 3&4 year old is that you can go to a baseball game, eat a bunch of junk food and leave in the 4th inning because they need to get to bed.  Works for me!

February 2013

 February has been a busy month at our house.

We spent some time getting ready for Valentine's Day...also known (at our house) as "hearting".

We did hearts, cards, stickers and coloring.  And lots and lots of gluing.

We visited the Arizona Science Center with our friend from college, Jon, and his family.  The kids panned for gold and dug for dinosaur bones.  I'm not sure what the connection is between the two, but panning for gold seems to be a common attraction at Arizona museums and events.

We had a few really warm days to ride our bikes, but mostly, February was cool and sunny.  Just right in my opinion.  

We hiked with C&T and the dog on a cloudy Saturday and then, to make Timmy happy, picked up pizza on the way home because we were all starving.

Timmy's new obsession, as evidenced by his scratched up body, is tree climbing.  He will suddenly jump off of his bike (while it is still moving) if he sees a good climbing tree.

 Cate had to bring an umbrella to school last week for the letter "U" week.  I didn't have anything fun for her to bring, so both kids got a new, Disney umbrella.  Then they insisted on taking several walks with the umbrellas...even though there was not a drop of rain.

Our most recent news is that Tim got their new swing set put together last weekend, so we are hoping that they will get a lot of use out of it before the weather gets too hot!

The Week After Christmas

We didn't really have any plans for the week after Christmas.  I figured that the second week of school vacation would be kind of slow and lazy and that by the end of the week, we would be ready for our regular schedule.

To my great surprise, Tim ended up taking off a few days to just stay home, hang out and get a few jobs done around the house.  It was so nice to have what felt like an extended weekend to do a few things that we always talk about but never do and also to hash out some home repair and maintenance details.

Our first order of business was a morning hike.  It was actually pretty cold that morning and we really needed our hats and gloves.  Cate and Timmy made it around the whole trail.  Cate made it with no whining and complaining, Timmy made it up the mountain without whining...not so much down.

Next to Cate, Zeke got the award for happiest camper.  He doesn't usually get to go out on a hike first thing in the morning.  I guess that's a good day for a dog.

Timmy's main complaint during the hike was that he was hungry (as usual), so after the 45 minute hike, we stopped for bagels on the way home.  We also picked out new paint colors for the outside of our house before settling in for an afternoon rest.  

One of my goals for this winter is to actually do something with all of the citrus fruit in our back yard.  Since mexican food is often on the menu, I do use a lot of lemons and limes, but so far, we have not used any oranges.

 I saw a small, manual juicer at the grocery store and decided to pick it up so that the kids could help to squeeze some orange juice and maybe some lemonade.

The oranges that we have don't really come apart in sections, so they are kind of hard to eat, but they are very juicy.

 See that orange juice in the bottom of the juicer?  It took about 30 oranges to make that.  Each of us got about two sips in a cup.  Fun afternoon activity.  Not doing it again especially considering that we don't even drink orange juice around here.  Maybe next year we will think about investing in a better juicer so that it isn't so labor intensive!

After the juice experiment, Cate and Timmy went up to her room to work on beading necklaces.  Cate got a beading kit from Uncle Rusty for Christmas and she LOVES making jewelry with it.  Timmy was pretty intent on his work too although I had to give Cate the stink eye to get her to allow Timmy to touch her precious beads.

I'm not sure what Timmy is looking at here.  Maybe Cate's black striped leggings, navy blue dress and heart patterned shirt.  I would like to say that she dressed herself and that we were allowing her to make choices or something like that. Actually Tim picked that out for her because he was, and still is, convinced that it looks good like that.

This morning we were rudely jolted back into the school routine, but it was a little bit easier than usual because we are all rested up and relaxed from a fun two weeks at home.

First Phoenix Christmas

 This year for Christmas, we hosted both sides of our family in our new house.  I had visions of being very organized and getting lots of food made and frozen in advance.  Then our oven broke and I was without an oven or stove for two and half weeks.  Until two days before our first guests arrived.  So that was out the window.

Organization aside, we had a fun, relaxing family Christmas.  The weather was nice but cool enough for sweaters and pants, so we even used our fireplace quite a bit.  For just about the entire time that we've lived here, I wondered why in the world we had a fireplace since in the summer, I didn't even want to look at it in case that somehow made me even more hot.  In December and January, we are getting lots of use out of it which is nice.

We went to church the day before Christmas Eve in an effort to keep things on the calm and relaxing side.  I didn't want to pack too much into any one day, so we spread our activities out.

We tried to snap a few photos outside of our church since it is really pretty, but the kids were not interested.  At all.

On Christmas Eve we made a turkey and got out our wedding china for the very first time which was fun.

Cate and Timmy were so excited about everything.  We took them outside on Christmas Eve to see if they could hear Santa's sleigh.  They did hear a very loud bell ringing (almost like someone was ringing it right behind them...) and both of them started crying.  So much for Christmas Eve magic.  

We played lots of games at night and Cate participated for the first time.  She absolutely loved playing charades.  She took several turns and did a great job.  Timmy was not so interested.  He picked up one of Cate's purses and went to work collecting scraps of paper from everyone to put in it.

On Christmas morning Cate and Timmy found their big present, a clubhouse/swing set in front of the tree. We can't wait to get it set up outside.

Cate and Timmy both got such fun presents.  Cate was very excited to get her new cupcake set from Bee Bee and Mr. B. This is her second set.  She loved the one she got from Auntie Jenn so much last year that she wore out the markers and has been waiting for an occasion to get a fresh cupcake set.

Timmy got lots of "Cars" related gifts, but he was very excited about getting "Sally" and "Mac."  He loves his cars.

We spent the rest of the day lounging around and playing with new toys.  It was so much fun to have a full house for a few days and we were definitely sad to see everyone go.