Trying to juggle

Well, it's official I got into graduate school!  I started taking a class at a time in the fall to see if it would fit into my life before really committing and I'm going to go for it.  I would be lying if I said I'm not struggling at times to keep it all together but I'm working on it and it's starting to feel more manageable.  I'm excited and relieved that I got in and am very excited to have something to call my own.  Something I am doing for me- and something I can show the girls is worth working for.  I want them to see that women have as many options as men and they just need to work for what they desire in life.  Maybe I'm reaching and I just wanted to go to school, but hey we all justify right?

Who knows how things will be once baby comes along but for now I am very lucky that when I have something I need to work on the girls are typically content to just hang out and play together.  Emma is getting much more verbal so she can really play with Ada and it's extremely fun and satisfying to watch.  Here are a few random shots of them in action.

Building a super wicked awesome tower castle.  They kept this up for a few days and played with it every morning first thing.  Very cool.

Putting all the children (or as Ada says cilgren- must get on tape!) in the daycare to sleep.

Putting babies to bed is a recurrent theme around here.  This time Ada and Emma were the mamas and decided to all snuggle together with their babies.

The lines on the carpet are "balance beams".  Sometimes we make them straight or curved and this time we made them criss cross.  Ada's building another castle and Emma is walking the beam.

Also, I don't have any pictures of me recently but rest assured I'm getting huge!

Happy Valentine's Day

In an effort to get my act in gear I switched out the stuff that has been on the shelves since before Ada's birthday and put some Valentine's Day stuff out.  It's mostly just what we had out last year I just added numbers in the heart cups for Ada to say aloud when she puts the marshmallows in and wrote out the names of the colors in the color sorting for her to sound out and to practice writing too.  

 I cut 6 small squares of cardstock and did my best at freehanding a size-sorting heart work with numbers written on the back to check their work- well Emma can't do that yet.  Emma likes to hold the little one and say "so cute" in the most adorable way and cock her head to the side which makes me roar.  Ada likes to tell the story of the Grinch and say that the Grinch's heart starts so tiny then it grows and grows.  I love it.

Then of course I pulled out a selection of books about love and put them in the bin.  I've added a few more since this photo was taken.  We've been enjoying them.

We did some painting with heart cookie cutters although the girls quickly decided to put those down and use brushes and their hands.

And last but not least... a few pictures of the two best sisters in the world (yes, I'm totally biased)!

Sleepy and sick snuggling on the couch.

Daffodils

Not much time for writing today but wanted to share some photos of the girls.  We were shopping and TJ's had those $1.50 daffodils so we got some and decided to get some that were closed so we could keep checking every day and see how long it takes to get them to open up.  They each got a vase and a pair of scissors and voila....

Ada's Birthday Recap

Sorry it's been so long, but I just haven't had the motivation to write about stuff lately.  But I wanted to give some credit to all the awesomeness that was Ada's birthday.  She got to celebrate on her actual birthday, at her party, then again when we visited Nana and Grampa in Florida (another post).  Mostly I can't believe she's 4, but I'm also a little happy we got through 3 in one piece.

Started off her actual birthday with a special birthday breakfast of banana bread strawberry shortcake, singing and candle.  Nice start to the day!

She had a Sun Celebration at her school where I was able to go and she walked around a candle/ earth for each year she has been on the Earth and we celebrated her there.  Then home for lunch and nap.  She went out to collect eggs and found a HUGE egg that turned out to be a double yolker- we decided it was a gift from the chickens.

 

She decided she wanted a breakfast burrito for lunch and so she had.  Plus 3 drink requests-water, milk, smoothie:)

We had a nice playdate/dinner with some friends and then home with Emma and me for some cake before bed.  I had seen this idea on Pinterest and loved the look of it.  This was one half of a cake recipe in one round cake pan and I just wanted something simple to make it look nice.  Just used parchment and cut out a "4" that was the right size, stuck it to the frosting and started sprinkling the nonpareils on, peel off the paper and that's it.

Next we had the party.  She was allowed to invite four friends and luckily they were all able to attend.  The theme was rainbow/ painting and the main event was painting a canvas.  We made the decorations.  Paper chain rainbows and a masking tape relief painted banner.  Other than that just blew up some balloons and that was it! Lots of inspiration from Pinterest but nothing specific- you can check out the board I created for the party here. 

Pre-party nap wake up reading with Poppa.

I made up some simple goodie bags with watercolors, markers, playdoh, and cake batter popcorn.

And I had to include a picture of her thank you note envelopes because I'm just so stinkin' proud of this girl.

The morning after the party we were off to Florida to visit Nana and Grampa and Nana had another birthday celebration which was extra nice since we missed celebrating her birthday too!  We sang to both of them (sort of) and ate cake and ice cream- a big hit!!

Don't remember life without you

I cannot believe that four years have passed since you were born.  You are singlehandedly the most life-changing thing that has ever happened to me and I love you more that I can stand.  I love your enthusiasm, passion, diligent work, and loving heart.  You are amazing.  I am so proud of you.  I love you my Ada boo!

Things I love about Minnesota

My love for MN has been hard won.  I was reluctant when we first moved here from Massachusetts and for so long all I could see was what was different than all that was familiar to me.  Now I'm to a point where I can see the differences and appreciate them.  Here's a short list of some of the things that won me over.

1.  Traffic.  Or lack there of.  I can get anywhere I need to go in about 10 minutes.  If I go somewhere that takes 20 minutes or more it feels like forever.  Anyone reading this from eastern MA is rolling their eyes because 25 minutes to get just about anywhere is typical.  I'm already totally spoiled.

2.  Corn.  While my 20 year old self sometimes yells inside my brain about Monsanto and all the evils of agribusiness, I really love that the girls not only see the change in the season through the leaves and weather but from the agriculture that surrounds us.  Each morning on the way to school they notice the state of the fields- plowing, planting, growth, harvest.  It's powerful.  Subtle, but powerful.

3.  Horse and buggy.  It is not atypical to see Amish and Mennonite folk around town and just yesterday while on the freeway I saw a quintessential horse and buggy on an overpass.  Simply beautiful.

4.  JM.  While living in Mass I met my very first Minnesotan.  She remains one of my favorite people ever.  If this state can produce her, it's a good place ;)

5.  Minnesota Nice.  I was reluctant about this because I am naturally skeptical about overly friendly people.  While this can sometimes be downright annoying for this Yankee on a whole it is wonderful to have so many nice people around.

6.  Auction-style livestock listings on the radio.  While listening to the radio I was treated to a commercial for various livestock.  Breed, weight, price, etc. all up for sale.  Seriously awesome.

7.  The Mississippi River.  It's beautiful.  I've only seen a few parts of it but it is truly an impressive piece of nature.

8.  Ice fishing.  There is something serene about looking out onto a lake and seeing still and silent shanties set up on the ice.  Some with ATVs parked some with smoke coming out.  A few lonely souls even on the ice without the wind protection sitting on crates.  While there is no way I could see myself ice fishing...ever, I think it's pretty cool that some people are hard core enough to do it.

That's all I have for now.  I will be posting more with pics soon since I know most of the people who read are looking for photos of the girls :)

News in the New Year

It's been a hectic holiday season and despite the fact that I still haven't completely recovered from the Christmas shenanigans things are starting to get back to normal around here.

This will be short and to the point.  We have some news to share... the girls are going to have a little sibling this summer!  This morning I was able to see the little muffin on my first ultrasound and even see the baby sucking his or her thumb.  I don't remember ever seeing that with the girls- very cute!  Everything seems to be going along well aside from mama still being pretty nauseous and tired but this will pass I'm sure.

Just wanted to share our excitement!!  And just in case you were wondering we plan to be surprised by the gender like we were with Emma- a truly amazing surprise!