St. Patty's Day Fun

Today is a beautiful, spring break St. Patty's Day! Happy St. Patrick's Day to you, from Cousin M., Bennett and....it looks like someone didn't get the memo. Ainsley chose to wear all brown on this special day. Her flip-flops are aqua blue. Oh, Ainsley.

Although quite overcast, it is a warm springish day. We decided to pack a picnic lunch and head to the park. Here is a photo of sweet sisters riding double down the fast slide.

Bennett is growing up, but she's not too old to enjoy the park!

Ainsley's favorite activity was going down the fast slide backwards and on her belly because it caused a wipe out at the bottom every time. Ainsley, now I understand why you chose an all-brown outfit today! Very wise choice!

Some drawing went down today as well. What does a huge, angry fish have to do with St. Patty's Day? Nothing.

Oops...sideways picture...forgot to rotate...sorry! Ainsley drew a lovely little girl with her Easter bunny. First the brown outfit and now this. Such a little nonconformist.

And we have another Easter bunny on St. Patrick's day. This one is Bennett's work and is fashioned to resemble Grandpa L. I'm sure he will be honored when he sees it, well except he might not care for the pin striped bibs.

Our Weekend: Cooking, Cardboard, Swords and Snowboards

We had a lovely weekend. Just lovely! Here are some highlights. I had some freezer meal making to do on Friday night. We ended up hanging in the kitchen as a family while I cooked for a good portion of the evening. It was pretty fun!!!

Bennett sat at the table, drawing her heart out. Her drawing theme for this particular evening was Easter.

Cardboard and duct tape have been very popular crafting supplies for the girls lately. Ainsley roped Dad into doing some major cardboard crafting with her while I cooked. Here they are putting wheels on a cardboard car, later to be turned into a boat. They are both flashing some kind of gangster face in this picture as well, and Ainsley is flashing a gang sign with her tools. They are so tough and they are serious about their cardboard crafts. Fo shizzle.

Here it is again...the cardboard car turned boat. Guess what? It wouldn't float. Back to the drawing board, kids.

And for your viewing pleasure, some videos from the weekend.


We got to hang with some super sweet friends from church. They are new friends and we are still getting to know them, but we can already tell that they rock in every way. Example 1: They love baked asparagus. Example 2: The Dad in the family is an excellent sword fighter, which makes Bennett and Ainsley very happy. Check it out!

And finally, Dad and Grandpa L. got to do something they love, love, love to do. Snow-tocross. As I've said before, this is an event where snowboarding and hillbilly collide. Pure ridiculousness.

Bennett's Bizarro Bedroom

You just never know what you will stumble upon when you enter Bennett's bedroom. Last night when Dad and I put her to bed, we stumbled across some crazy things. An owl in a bike helmet. Dad asked Bennett what was up with this. Her response was that "Owls are very wise, you know. He does not want to get injured when he's on the trail." Next time you are on a family bike ride, keep an eye out for biking owls. Share the road, people!

Here we go again with the creepy rubber fetus. I do not know what is the draw to this 12-week fetus we got at the Right to Life booth at the fair, but it is P-O-P-U-L-A-R. I would put it near the top of the "Most Played With Toy" list. Here we have a baby holding a fetus. Don't even ask. No one, not even Bennett, has an explanation for this.

A dolphin, lounging in a hammock. He looks rather uncomfortable to me, but whatever.

And I am SO THRILLED to see the return of random drawings to the back side of Bennett's math tests! She always drew crazy things on the back of her math tests last year in school, and we just loved them. This year she has not drawn much, in fact this may be the first drawing that has come home. It appears we have an outline of her hand containing an alien celebrating several American holidays. Makes sense. I know that whenever I finish working with numbers I immediately think about aliens and Easter. What is this girl thinking!?!?

Playmobil: A Peek Into the Soul

You can tell a lot about a kid by looking at the scene they create while playing Playmobil. Two very different girls live in our house! Here you have Bennett's scene. This is a group of explorers setting off on an expedition. They have gathered their supplies and animals in sleighs, chariots and the like and they are boldly traveling into the unknown! Bennett = Action, adventure, new vistas

And here we have Ainsley's scene. Babies, toddlers and children sweetly snuggled in their beds while a pan of cherry bars cools on the stove. The bars are most certainly a treat for the children and the grazing unicorns. Ainsley = Love, nurture, and magical creatures!

Just Dance!

What do Bennett and Ainsley do when their cousins come to visit? They dance, and dance, and dance some more!

Q & A

Bennett has been home for five days straigh with the flu. This means she has been asking questions and fact finding for five days straight...when she hasn't been wiping her eyes and nose and coughing. Here is a sampling of the Q & A that's been going on here. And a shout out to Google. What would we do without you when inquiring minds want to know!? Bennett wants to know: Q - Are Gerald Ford and Henry Ford Related? A -No. Q - Who was a better baseball player...Babe Ruth or Jackie Robinson? A - Babe Ruth. Q - How old were Lewis and Clark when they began their expedition? A - 29 and 33. Q - What is the population of our town? A - Around 10,000. Q - What is the animal population of our town? A- I have no idea.
....And the questioning goes on. Bennett has also spent a lot of time informing me about facts already known to her, such as...Fact: Robert Redford played Butch Cassidy on the movie "Outlaw Trail." Fact: About 6% of the people who have ever been born are still alive now. (Is that really a fact? Who knows...let's go with it.) Fact: Bill Clinton plays the saxophone. Fascinating! Having this girl home sick has been an educating experience for me!

Influenza: A Survival Guide

Well, it seems as though everyone and their dog has been hit by this Influenze B bug. Our family is no exception, as Bennett fell ill on Saturday morning and continues to live in a state of off and on misery. How does one survive a bout with influenza? Let me show you the approach we have taken. Read and read some more! This is really not a survival tactic, it is just what Bennett does every day. I am glad that this flu bug has not kept her from being able to read. She has had spells where she was too miserable to do so, which allowed me to do some reading TO her, which I don't often get to do anymore. That was fun!

On Sunday, day 2 of the flu bug, Bennett was fever-free and it was a beautiful day. We cleared her to get fresh air, which is a surviving the flu tactic. She did some scootering and playing in the wet snow. Was this a wise tactic? I don't know, really. It was great while it lasted!

Flu survival tip: pretend it is summer and do some grilling! Burgers and brats, grilled asparagus and potato salad lifted our sick spirits.

Flu surival tip: play with Legos! The girls received their very first Legos as a Valentine's Day gift from Grandpa and Grandma and they have been a HUGE hit! I will most definitely need to douse them with a major spray of Lysol though.

Flu survival tip: BEG your grandparents to stop and visit. Both sets of grandparents stopped by with Valentine's Day goodies. We were all so thrilled to see their healthy, smiling faces!

Flu survival tip: Eat a completely inappropriate, yet delicious breakfast. This is Ainsley's breakfast from this morning, Day 4 of Bennett's flu bug. Bacon and chocolate covered strawberries, oh yeah! Bennett had the same breakfast, but did not end up having any appetite to eat it. Not even the bacon, her FAVORITE food on earth! The child is clearly ill!

And this is the face of the flu on Day 4. Misery. She actually looks worse now than she did when this all began. From what I'm hearing, the misery may continue for several more days, and I am running out of survival tips! Send help...and Kleenex!

Family Reading Night!

Ainsley is just growin' right on up! She loves, loves, loves school and would like to go seven days a week if she could. This is a stark contrast to Bennett, the home body, who would stay home seven days a week if she could! We are so excited that Ainsley is excited about learning. She was super excited to attend her class' Family Reading Night last night! Ainsley asked Dad to please stay home with Bennett. Family Reading Night was HER deal, not her sister's! That was cool. I took her and we got to hang out with Cousin M. and Aunt C. Here are the girls listening to Aunt C. read a book.

And here is Ainsley NOT listening to Aunt C. read a book. Don't get me wrong, Ainsley is loving to learn, but she is mostly loving the social aspects of school. Books are okay, but friends are better. Also, she was quite fond of the popcorn and juice served at the reading event.

There was a clown who put on a little show at the reading night. Ainsley was completely tickled with her performance. She laughed her head off and when offered an opportunity to help the clown, she was more than willing.

More fun with the clown, who did a great job entertaining our group! When we left the school Ainsley told me, "AHHHH, THAT WAS SO, SO, SO FUN!" It was fun to watch her having such fun. The fun ended when we got home and the other car was gone because Dad and Bennett had gone for a visit to Grandpa and Grandma's in our absence. Then Ainsley was SO, SO, SO MAD!!! I guess Family Reading Night, as fun as it was, cannot compete with fun at Grandpa and Grandma's house...I think that's an okay thing!

Randoms

Here are some randoms from our week... A friend did some closet cleaning and Bennett and Ainsley inherited some WONDERFUL books! We are beyond thrilled to now have books 1-29 of the Boxcar Children, as well as many other great titles. I need another bookshelf now!

Last night I went into Bennett's room to check on her, and I found her sleeping like this. She had two wolf dogs staring at her. This seems a bit unsettling!

And this morning, we got to put her 2010 Halloween costume to good use. It is biography week at school and Bennett chose to research and write about Amelia Earhart. Today she was to dress as her subject and give her research report to the class. Lookin' good, Amelia, lookin' good!

Sledding At Knicky-Knack!

This past Saturday was a beautiful winter day! Thirty-two degrees, snowy, and sunny with no wind...perfect for some serious sledding! Look who's ready to hit the hill?! A tiny kid in ski goggles is quite cute and funny.
Here they are ready to take on Knicky-Knack Hill (we named it that ourselves) on our bargain toboggan. Dad found this puppy at a garage sale a couple of summers ago. He wheeled and dealed and purchased it for $7! As if I didn't have enough reasons to love this man, we can add avid bargain shopper to the list. SO AWESOME! This 8 ft. toboggan is F-A-S-T and so smoothe. We love to sled with this thing, and on a sidenote, the boy you see in the picture is a friend of Bennett's that we took sledding with us. I think he had fun, as I heard him exclaim, "THIS IS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE!!!" while we were sledding.

Hmmm. This picture is sideways and I have no idea why. Oh well, just tilt your head a bit. Here is the toboggan team in action!

When we got home from sledding, the girls played outside for a bit. To our amazement, the elusive "Fluffy Tail," our neighbor's cat who NEVER comes near people, waltzed right on over to Ainsley. Nothing short of amazing.

Right after "Fluffy Tail" left, along came another neighborhood cat, Sylvia. What is up with this!? Two stand-offish cats approach our child within a matter of minutes! Ainsley must have become some sort of cat whisperer. Craziness.