St. Patrick's Day!

**These pictures are a little out of order, but it's cool because we've been doing the St. Patrick's Day thing for so many years now that I'm pretty sure you get the gist - besides, I'm being lazy and don't want to take the time to fix it.**

 

The leprechauns came to our house and left many, many trails meant to confuse the children and keep them from finding the treasure.

But the kids found it anyway...in the garbage can! Oh you sneaky leprechauns!

The kids had a great time this year decorating their box. I remember the first year we did this, how I wrapped the box in paper so that it looked nice and neat. I've realized that my kids don't care one bit if the box is a blank slate or not, they love this tradition so, so very much regardless. I think their box turned out awesome.

As usual, it was full of good loot. Green shirts for all the kids, green socks for the boys (because they wear uniforms to school, and this way they could wear something green), candy galore, and a new chew toy for Disco.

Those stinking leprechauns stole the notes I wrote out of the boys lunches! Devious!

Happy St. Patrick's Day from these twinner sisters!

She's embracing her Irish side.

We had green pancakes, green milk, corned beef and cabbage, and a lot of candy. The kids had a great time. Truth be told, I sort of forgot about this holiday, but my kids reminded me. They were so excited to decorate a box. Justin told me that I brought this on myself, but really, I love it. I love it when ordinary days get to be special. I think it's part of the magic of childhood. 'Til next year...

Valentine's Day

Valentine's day for us meant:
Fancy Valentine hairdo's:

Making beautiful, sparkly necklaces for our favorite Valentines (and then never giving them out because we lost them - oops).

Spending time together:

Concentrating really hard on making our Valentines (does his tongue sticking out crack you up? I love it!):

"You're one in a Minion, Valentine!"

Finishing up our Valentines for school (side note: I LOVE that they were able to make these by themselves. It almost makes up for them being too cool for our traditional "picture-of-them-holding-a-lollipop" Valentine cards):

Valentines breakfast. Complete with pink pancakes, boxes of chocolate, and love notes:

Ha! This was right when the boys woke up so it was a little bright for them. They begged me to turn off the kitchen light, but I took pictures anyway (because, you know, I'm a good mom):

Bless his heart, he tried to look awake:

This baby makes me happy:

We decided to be extra fancy for school (even though he has to wear a uniform, it's not going to put a damper on HIS sweet Valentine's Day style!):

 Baby Valentine hair! It kind of took forever, but I think it was so cute:

Basically, we just hung out together and enjoyed each other (and a whole lotta Valentine candy).

 

The next night was date night. No, no, not for me and Justin. See, every so often Justin steps out on me with another lady. A younger lady who is much prettier than I am. I know he loves and adores her (and she loves and adore him) but I'm pretty fond of her myself, so I don't mind one bit!

 

They had their "day date" to a place called The Pigeon and The Hen. It's a paint your own pottery place. For a little lady who absolutely loves doing a project, this was right up her alley:

 Justin looooves (sarcasm) when I give him the camera and ask him to take pictures, but I'm really grateful he does it anyway. Precious moments, precious moments:

Josie painted this awesome Technicolor zebra. (Not sure why it's sideways. I'll call IT and get them to fix that...eventually.)

Justin, who is officially the sweetest dad of all the dads, painted Josie this cute little jewelry box. She loves it.

 While their projects were drying, he took her for ice cream.

 Love these two so, so much!

For their evening date, they went to a fancy dinner...Red Robin. Josie got all dressed up and Justin wore purple to match her. Seeing Justin treat our daughter like this makes me love him even more than I already do. Josie is a lucky lady to have such a great dad.

Not sure what we're going to do in a few years when Sammie's old enough to understand what's happening. I suppose he'll have to have two Valentine's dates.

Here are my favorite Valentine cards:
Josie's was completely random, but it's cute because most preschool things (with their jaggedly cut edges, and randomly placed stickers) are:

 This one's from Noah. This kid. Swoon:

 And another close up of the jewelry box that Justin made Josie:

 He's kind of artistic, right!?!

 Sweet:

Valentine's Day around here was a pretty great day. I love that, for us, it's a low key, low expectation holiday. We eat a lot (okay, maybe that's normal), we make each other cards, we have heart shaped pizza, it's nice. I absolutely love these people of mine and, while I don't necessarily need a day to remind me to love them, it's nice to have that day to make it a little extra special.

 

**Off the subject - sort of: Justin gave me an iPad mini for an early birthday present (I know, right - he's the best). I took some really fun pictures with it, but can't find them to post to the blog. Anyone know how to do that? I feel that this will elevate my blogging (I know, how can it get better?? But just wait). Thanks!**

"I do not like the cone of shame."

Disco has been scratching for a while. At first it didn't seem like anything major...until his hair started coming off and his skin was sore (poor pup). So we took him to the vet. Fleas were ruled out - thank goodness - so now we think it's allergies. Hopefully it's just seasonal allergies (we'll know in a few months). They shaved his back end a little to make sure there were no fleas and gave him a steroid shot to help with the itchiness. Now he's on an antibiotic to help with the sore he gave himself...and also to help with his lyme disease (apparently giving your dog Frontline doesn't mean they won't get this disease). Yeah, came as a shock to me too. Lyme disease is only bad news in about 5% of dogs who get it though so I feel good that our boy will be just fine.

However, in order to prevent him from scratching/licking/reopening his sore they put him in the "cone of shame". If you've ever seen 'Up' you are unable to utter that phrase without doing it in Dug's voice:


So Disco must wear the cone of shame for about a week. Poor puppy.

And while it's sad and we feel bad for him, I must admit that there is something funny about watching a dog try to navigate the world wearing a cone. He's so ackward in it and he crashes into everything. Perhaps it shouldn't make me laugh, but it does.

Because we're good dog owners, we took the cone off of Disco so he could eat and drink. Because we're better parents, we put it on our kids:

You know you'd do the same thing.

So anyway. Poor Disco. Wearing the cone of shame. At least it's only for a week and at least he makes it look good (homedog can rock a fierce accessory!).

We love you Disco and hope it's only seasonal allergies!

First Day of School!

Well, it happened. School started and I am still two posts behind. Oh well, I suppose you don't need to hear about our completely uneventful drive home from Vegas (though huge shout out to my dad for driving with us again - he apparently didn't have enough road trip fun the first time). The boys and I ran in a color run 5k the day after we got back to Indiana and I think I will probably still post about that at some point for two reasons: 1. It was the boys first 5k. 2. It was tons of fun. It will be a good post - but not a post for today.

Yesterday was the day we had all been simultaneously looking forward to and dreading. School started! I say looking forward to because it's another school year, it gets us back into our school year routine (which I love), and the boys always grow so much (physically and mentally) and it's really fun to see how far they come. I say dreading because I'm one of those moms who genuinely enjoys having my kids home. My boys are big helpers. They can unload the dishwasher, vacuum, read to the girls, etc., etc., etc. Aside from the fact that I think they're super cool people to hang out with, it really helps that they're such big helpers!

We began the school year with the boys' back to school nights. When we went to Noah's we were really excited to learn that his teacher was the one that Clayton had had for reading flex his first grade year. I LOVED her and secretly had wished that she was his homeroom teacher instead of just his reading group teacher. Clayton loved her too (Justin and I think she was his first crush). Anyway, I am super excited for Noah's first grade year. The next night we went to find out who Clayton's teacher was. He was really wishing and hoping for one teacher in particular. Like, REALLY hoping for her. I was prepared for some major tears when he didn't get her (because, let's face it, the odds weren't in his favor). However, he got the teacher he wanted! It was so fun for me to watch as the students filled into Mrs. Harmon's room. Clayton knew almost all of them! At one point, I heard two little girls say, "Oh no! Clayton is in our class!" and then giggle in that little girl way that they do when they secretly like a boy. Made me chuckle a little myself.

The night before school, we made sure backpacks and brand new supplies were ready to go. We had grocery shopped and gotten all the things we needed for awesome back-to-school lunches and snacks. The boys had even picked out what clothes they wanted to wear (which isn't really that cool since they wear uniforms, but still).

The morning of, we had the traditional chocolate chip pancake breakfast (which both boys were really excited about)!
(**No, Clayton isn't naked, he's just in that phase where he sleeps exclusively in underwear. Sigh.**)

This year we had applied to try to get the boys into an elementary school in a different district. It's a school that is literally blocks from our house, but because we're on the wrong side of the boundry, my boys aren't zoned for it. Long story short, they have too many 4th graders so we didn't get in. I was bummed about it because since the school is so close, my boys could have more time in the morning instead of being so rushed. However, this year Kennedy reversed their bus route! The boys are one of the last ones on and one of the first ones off! So, while going to Prairie Vista would have saved us a little more time, we found that we have about 15 extra minutes in the morning. I love it, we've been taking our time in the morning this week and it's so pleasant. Plus, we really do love Kennedy so now we get the best of both worlds!

While we were waiting for the bus, the boys posed for some pictures:

 Doesn't he look excited to be a first grader?

Clayton chose those colorful high top sneakers for his school shoes this year. They fit me and I covet them. I hope he's not too hard on them this year because I'm totally taking them once he's grown out of them (if they're not too trashed).

 Love this. So symbolic of their attitudes this year. Clayton, the big bad 4th grader. Noah, the super excited and enthusiastic 1st grader.

 Silly poses:

Clayton was trying to do one of those pictures where it looked like he was holding Noah in his hand.

 Noah didn't understand what was happening.

 Walking to the bus stop.

 Getting on the bus!

 And just like that, they were gone (and on time too, I might add).

The girls and I missed them like crazy and tried to take our minds off their absence by going swimming. After school, we greeted our boys with homemade cookies and a glass of milk and talked about their days.

They both had a great first day of school and couldn't wait to go back. I know the novelty will wear off as the year progresses, but I think they both have phenomenal teachers and they are going to have an awesome year!

Happy back to school!

Now if someone would like to volunteer their services to come unload my dishwasher...