I Looked Out My Window and What Did I See?

March madness. For some people it means basketball.

For other people, it is a good excuse to dress up as a Littlest Pet Shop, clone trooper, and princess in polka dot rainboots and have a parade up and down the sidewalk in your neighborhood.

March madness can also involve those tricky little leprachauns. They manage to elude the traps the kids make and set every year but they do leave behind naughty sugar cereal, big Irish polyester hats, and gangsta style clover light up necklaces. (We have a really classy dollar store here in the hood!)

March madness always involves a day of crazy hair and socks.

March madness is the only explanation I can think of for the day I walked in the family room and found Pippi Longstocking frozen on my TV screen with a big green mustache placed in just the right place.

And I knew March madness had hit an all time low when I walked in to HB's bedroom and found Barbie all in a tizzy over the condition of her living quarters.

(And so help me...I swear I walked into HB's room and found Barbie with her hand over her nose. I did NOT pose her and her hand has not always been positioned in such a snotty way over her nose! But the living conditions were pretty bad!) I told Barbie to buck up and count her blessings...she could be living in the room next door!

March madness sometimes involves frogs. My family has always had a special affinity for the green amphibian...especially after my mother saw them flying through the air one night during a rainstorm while on a road trip through Nebraska.

And if you are very, very, very lucky...then March madness will include some amazing days romping around the city with cousins...oh what fun we had! We sincerely hope that cousin frolicking will become a permanent March madness tradition!!!

March madness may include fighting invisible aliens in the front yard with a big stick...and crazy socks...because it was crazy sock day at school...or maybe because crazy socks scare aliens.

This year March madness also included 5 really good friends competing in Knowledge Bowl at the district level. Go Killer Snowmen!!! You did an AWESOME job! (Super proud of these super smart boys who make being this smart really cool and fun!)

(We had a hard time finding "Killer Snowmen" shirts...but apparently "Abominable Snowmen" shirts were all the rage this year.)

Ah, March madness. Forget the basketball...we like to make our own kind of crazy!

Happy Spring.

Frogs

Sometimes...just sometimes...when you kiss a frog...

You get yourself a very handsome prince!

Hope you are having a day full of good luck and unexpected, delightful surprises!



Today

Today. How many todays have gone by in my life so far? Sometimes our "todays" can seem so ordinary. And then we have a today, that for no apparent reason, is extraordinary. Is it my attitude? Is it how I choose to see my opportunities? Is it the spirit that I choose to live with? Yes. To all the questions. Oh, if I could learn to make every "today" like today.

Today...my daughter made her very own paper dolls out of notebook paper, markers and scissors. And we sat on the floor in a patch of sunlight and played. I marvelled at how creative and smart she is. I want to be just like her someday.

Today...HB and I went back to bed after the boys left for school this morning and slept for an extra hour.

Today...I swept and mopped my kitchen floor. It only stayed clean for an hour but it was so shiny...and I felt proud that I had made the floor look so beautiful.

Today...my 10 year old son and his best friend packed a picnic "snack" and we all went to the park and sat on a blanket and ate delicious, random food.

Today...it was warm with a gentle breeze and I sat in the sunshine for a long time.

Today...I rode my pink Schwinn bike all over the neighborhood. I love my bike. I love riding my bike. It makes me happy, happy, happy.

Today...I took a nap on a blanket in the park. The sun was warm on my back and my children and their friends were all playing on the playset next to me. It was wonderful to nap to the sounds of their laughter and playing.

Today...I went to Young Women's and loved the girls I work with. I love their laughter, I love their stories, I love the phone that gets passed around with the picture of the boy that just asked one of them to prom. I love that they are so good and fun and kind and wonderful! They make me so happy.

Today...I celebrated some of my dear friends and the big events happening in their lives. It is a miracle to dream and hope and wish for something and then find your wildest dreams coming true.

Today...I dreamed some big dreams for myself.

Today...I felt so grateful for my children. I felt so grateful for the years I've been married to my husband. I felt so grateful to be a wife and mother with the time to be at home.

Today...I felt grateful for time. Time to learn, time to grow, time to reflect. This time in my life is so amazing. I could never have imagined a life like this for myself.

Today...was so sweet.

Beating the Winter Blues With Cake

I'm a firm believer in the power of cake. Call it emotional eating, call it feeding the gray, cold weather...call it whatever you like but I assure you it gives you a little "rush" like nothing else can. Now I don't necessarily advocate making a cake without a solid reason...although I would be happy to provide a solid list of "good reasons" to make a cake...I suggest finding a person you love (and even just like alot) and celebrating their birthday. If you have the good fortune of coming from a large family and then being smart enough to marry into a big family, you have lots of birthdays to choose from. We can pretty much find a birthday to celebrate any month of the year, any day of the month. I love it. And it doesn't hurt that these are people who I love celebrating...people I love need big cakes. And now this paragraph has come full circle.
In the last week, we have had the amazing good fortune of celebrating two wonderful people. First, my father-in-law who technically doesn't have a birthday every year. He was born on leap year...if you celebrate on February 28th, you are a day early. But if you celebrate March 1st, you are a day late. So we just pick a day and eat cake...and tell him how much we love and appreciate him. He is a man/father/grandfather who deserves lots of celebrating. Our family has the good fortune of living exactly 3.2 miles from him...and we would be lost without his amazing talents, abilities, and generous service. Thank you Grandpa!


Grandpa being silly.

Grandpa being scary.

Grandpa finally blowing out the candles before the house burns down...
(Refer to coconut birthday cake story...)

The next birthday belonged to my fabulous sister-in-law. My brother showed his finest smarts in choosing this amazing woman to marry. She has blessed our family with grace, elegance, wisdom, humor, and so many talents. Her culinary skills are expert. Her ability to host a party is exquisite. Her ability to speak French is perfect. She is all I hope to be when I grow up...I consider it a huge blessing to call her "sister"...and to live 20 minutes away.

How I love a party with these people...Happy Birthday wonderful ML!

Now it must be said that if you are going to spend much time eating lots of cake, it needs to be somewhat balanced with a little moving. We took care of that on Saturday with our annual cross country skiing trip! This year we headed up to Soldier Hollow in Midway, UT for a day of brilliant blue skies, warm spring weather, and smooth snow gliding. It was perfect!

OK, so "smooth" gliding may be a tiny bit of an exaggeration but we fall with much grace and drama...I feel quite confident in saying my children get all their drama from their father...OK, so that is an exaggeration as well. The drama they get from their mother. No question. The cool, level headed, calm they get from their father. It really would only take 5 minutes in our house to figure that out...but back to the skiing.

I am amazed at how effortlessly my children strap on their skiis and head out. No fear. No hesitation. And then Chris and I spend the rest of the day trying to keep up with them. Young legs go much faster than "old" legs who eat too much cake.

She has the shortest legs but the longest endurance. This little girl cross country skiied for 2 hours before giving any indication that she was getting tired! She is a natural.

Don't we look so hip and "Utah"? We really do love it. I love that we have a "winter" activity that the whole family loves doing. Next year we may venture to the actual mountains and see if our enthusiasm is as big for the "downhill" part of skiing.

This is how you get the 6 year old back to the lodge when you have pushed her too far....

I needed the big dose of vitamin D and family time. It truly did my soul good.

So here is hoping that you have lots of people you love around you, lots of reasons (made up or real) to eat cake, and a warm day to go outside, lift your face to the sun, and feel grateful!  

Winter Blues Game

Who would like to play a little game? Something to brighten these long winter days?

I found this lamp at anthropologie...

Anthropologie Lamp

And I am so in love that it hurts. But so does that little price tag...$98.00 for a lamp shade is currently out of my budget...unless we quit eating for a couple of weeks (Don't think that I haven't entertained that idea very seriously.)

So here is my challenge. Let's all make one. But there are some ground rules! First, the whole project MUST cost less than $10.00. Find a lampshade that you already own, go to Good Will, garage sale, steal a neighbor's...and the materials must be inexpensive. I'm thinking a darling little number out of felt. I'm shooting for less than $5.00. Then, take a picture of it and post it on your blog and/or send it to me and I'll post it on my blog. Or better yet, send all your darling creations to me and I can keep them.

So...who wants a little challenge? Ready...set....GO!