Random March Pictures

I actually meant to post these pictures before I posted the Zoo pictures, but I'm sure you will forgive me for the slight discontinuity.

Mom was over at the house and bending over to talk to David on the floor. Jack decided to have a seat on her shoulders...crazy cat!


These pictures are from another trip to the Zoo a couple of weeks ago. We went with Bobby's cousin, his wife and Baby Mikey.

These are from St. Patrick's Day, when we were supposed to go to the Zoo (notice a theme here). We ended up in Audubon Park instead.

These are from Cole's bowling birthday party.

And of course we had to show our Tiger pride before the first game of the NCAA tournament. Goooooo Tigers!!!!

This is just one of the many reasons I love having a girl...bows and braids:)

Welcome Spring!

We celebrated the first day of Spring by going to the Zoo. We tried going on Tuesday, but our attempt was thwarted by record breaking crowds. Friday turned out beautiful so we met up with Aunt Tootsie and Baby David.

Here are some pictures of those three beautiful kiddos:)

And now for WAY too many pictures of the polar bears. But they are so cool!!! How can you not take pictures of your kids squealing with delight while they are coming nose to nose with a bear 10 times their size?!?

And finally, here is a picture of that happy boy and his momma.

Dressing up for Spring

I took the kids to the mall yesterday and, much to their dismay, started looking for spring clothes. I have completely fallen in love with these long cotton dresses for Meg. But I have not fallen in love with the price of said cotton dresses. They are sooo simple, they should be sooo cheap.....they are not.

So as any cheap, semi-crafty person would do, I stared at it, turned it inside-out, checked out the seams and decided to head to Hancocks. And there I saw the most beautiful sight in the world, pre-shirred fabric, right up front, ON SALE! If you don't know what pre-shirred fabric is don't feel bad, I only learned the name yesterday (thanks Kris). It is fabric that has been scrunched-up on one side, kind of like smocking....and yes that is the technical definition. So anyway Meg picked out a springy little plaid print and I picked out a long gorgeous red and black print (because every four-year-old little girl needs a floor length, dramatic red and black gown!!)

Of course I came home and washed my fabric immediately, pulled it straight out of the dryer and ironed it. Bobby would like to know how I am so proficient at ironing sewing projects but am baffled by ironing men's shirts...but I am perfectly comfortable with this dichotomy. I started "measuring" Meg (ie holding the fabric up to her and saying..."ehhh that looks good" ) and pinning the dresses. I was temporarily interrupted by having to feed my family, prepare for leprechaun visits and attend a class to become a substitute teacher. But in a total of about two hours, I had two adorable dresses at about 1/4 the price. And I'm telling ya', it is easy! Just a seam up the back of the dress and attach some ribbon straps. I have a feeling I will be making a few more of these.

Inspiration dress from The Children's Place.

Meg's two dresses :)

Poor Ryan, I don't make him clothes anymore. But he and his Daddy are OK with that. That and the fact that Mommy bought him khaki shorts with skulls and crossbones embroidered all over them and let him wear them for school pictures. Yep, Mom is pretty cool...this week.

They got us again!!!

Every year the kids set a leprechaun trap and every year the little fellas get the best of us. They make a mess of our house, turn everything green and sneak away before we can catch them.

This year was no exception......

They set the table with green plates and cups and much to Mommy's dismay they left a breakfast of Lucky Charms and donuts with green sprinkles. Don't those bad little dudes know I like for the kids to eat a nutritious breakfast?! Thankfully they also left some kiwi and pears.

A perennial favorite....the green toilet water.

Just before going to bed, the Mommy made the kids clean up the playroom and wouldn't you know the leprechauns got out all the green toys. Ryan was quite upset that he missed the lightsaber dual with his two green lightsabers and Meg noticed they had a tea party with all of her green dishes and food!

I have heard of crop circles before, but never Lego shamrocks!!

It's hard to tell, but even our milk was green!

The trap was sprung, but no leprechauns :( But they did leave a trail of gold coins in their hasty retreat.

Poor Rowdy always gets humiliated by the leprechauns. Last year he was covered in green hairbows and this year it was Ryan's frog towel.

And just to make sure our new addition didn't feel left out.....poor Biscuit got it too.

They even erased our Bible memory verse and left us a message in green chalk.


We'll get you next year!!!

The Power of a Good Book :)

Meg and I went to Barnes and Noble today. I was searching for a Travel book and Meg was perusing the children's section. Meg chose a book about Ballerinas and we headed to check out. Then, by the register, she spotted the book on shoe tying and she told me that she HAD to have it.

She has been wanting to learn how to tie her shoes for a while now, but I have been reluctant to teach her. You see Meg is a lefty and for the life of me I could not figure out how to teach her how to tie her shoes "backwards". Well the task was not too great for "Loose Laces". Ten minutes after opening the book and trying the "practice laces" this is what we had...

Oh yeah, she can double knot them too and was ticked that I didn't video that!

Family Literacy Night

Last night was Family Literacy Night at Ryan's School. It is a night where local celebrities, community leaders, teachers and students read books to groups of kids and parents at the school. It is a great event and all of the kids love it. They get to see their friends, hear some great books being read and even take home a book. There are so many cool books being read by so many cool people, but only 5 or 6 sessions in which to hear them.

Ryan and Meg got see a Mad Scientist preform some experiments, a Veterinarian read a book about puppies, a puppet show by the music teacher, and a St. Jude Research Scientist read about The Blood Hungry Spleen. But the kids absolute favorite session was the Memphis Football players reading the book Rat and the Tiger. They sat in amazement while they read, and ran up to them afterwards for pictures and autographs. The players were wonderful. They did a great job reading and were amazing with the kids. Ryan just kept telling them, "You Rock!!", "My daddy loves you!", and "We are HUGE Tiger fans!".....Daddy was really glad he took off early for literacy promotion :)

Bobby is not a liar...

After a VERY long Friday night that included three hours of PTA report writing, Bobby and I headed to bed early. While crawling into bed, Bobby mentioned something about getting a couple of inches of snow on Saturday. I laughed.

"It is not going to snow," I told him and he looked at me quite offended.
"It is too," he repeated emphatically.

You see I am usually pretty up on the weather, especially snow. But I must admit I have been so busy lately that I had missed the forecast for several days. At this point I still thought Bobby was teasing me, but he was getting angry!

"Are you calling me a liar?!?!" he asked.

I didn't answer this question, but looked at him unbelieving and flew to the living room where the 10 o' clock news was Tivoed. Ten minutes later I crawled back in bed and said, "I guess you were right." Bobby was not satisfied with this pitiful admission of wrongness. So in order to prove that my husband is not a liar, I shall post the following pictures....

By the way, he was WAY off on the number of inches:)

Ask Allie about the big blue box:)