spring break for the kids - ted's guest blog - kind of

I'm realizing now that my idea of having the kids do a guest blog about their spring break may have been a little over ambitious. So, I'm going to pick up where Ted left off. I'm sure you'll be able to tell where that is.

1. I went to play with Wyatt in Parkersburg. 

Wyatt stayed with his grandma's, Aunt Lois, in Parkersburg for the week. So while Doh or Pap had some sort of dental procedure or cleaning, the kids played.

2. I slept in a hotel.
We called them one evening and they were in the car on the way to Columbus. Doh & Pap got to experience Ted's awesome hotel habits.

3. At the hotel I swam.
All Sophie has left in swimming suit world is this horrible bikini. I bought it to have the bottoms with a swim shirt. Unfortunately, that's all she has that fits right now, and she loves it. Needless to say, that's on my shopping list to pick up soon. We've done a lot of indoor swimming the last several months.

4. I went to Cosi.
They had a great time at Cosi in Columbus. Thanks, Doh and Pap for such a fun surprise trip.

Sophie went to Aunt Did's store to pick out a new charm for her bracelet. While they were there called to check in. Ted was having chips, dip and Coke for lunch. Gary Pap is VERY nice.

Sophie and favorite Aunt Did.

At my parents, they did the beads that you put on the peg board and melt with an iron. They also played with Legos a lot. Both are favorite toys from when I was a kid.

They played in the woods and found some treasures.

Other highlights included getting and watching Frozen, the annual trip to the Catholic church fish fry, and sleeping in the trundle bed. All in all, a great week. Thanks again to our parents for a great week!

spring break for the parents

This week was Spring Break for our kids. It was COLD most of the week. I handed them off to my parents on Monday and Ben retrieved them from New Martinsville on Friday. (I went to a women's retreat this weekend so I didn't see them again until Sunday afternoon!) They spent some time with each of our parents doing way more fun things than they would have done if they stayed home with a babysitter this week. You'll hear more about their adventures as soon as the kids finish their guest blog. It's slow going, but we're getting there.

In the past, they've spent time with our parents on more regular intervals for shorter amounts of time. But this school year has been different for various reasons. This week happened to work beautifully for both of our parents. There was a part of me that felt bad about sending them away when we should've been doing something fun over Spring Break. But the honest truth is that both of us still had to work and I would've ended up paying a sitter for 3 of those days. Plus, our parents and the kids were both so excited to get to spend time with each other. Why wouldn't I want to give them both that gift of spending time with their grandparents/grandchildren. It's one of the most special relationships in a kid's life. And so if our parents are able and willing and our kids are so excited about it, why not? 

And that left us home without kids for 4 days! It was a working vacation for us. Some highlights of the week included:

- waking up 1.5 hours later every morning and walking out the door at the usual time
- working late a couple of days and still having plenty of time in the day to do whatever we wanted to do
- being out after 8pm together and not having to pay someone to be able to do that
- my first YL college club and then going out after
- doing things spur of the moment
- going for coffee with a friend whose kids were also at their grandparents
- dinner out two nights, and leftovers the other two nights (no cooking!)
- a house that stayed clean all week
- no globs of toothpaste in the bathroom sink
- being a little more flexible with my schedule; not living by the bus, school and bedtime schedule
- spending several evenings in a row with Ben
- going to a pampered chef party while Ben went to a committee meeting

At one point during the week I said, "I remember who we were!" I remembered the days of doing ministry like crazy, never being home, not cooking and doing life together in a really, really different way. It was encouraging to me that we enjoyed this week so much and that we could find plenty to do together and on our own. It was a complete gift to us.

So, thanks John Pap, Doh, Gary Pap & Grandma. Thanks for loving our kids and creating great memories for them. I'm so thankful that we were all really excited about this week and it was a blessing all the way around. The kids did lots of new and fun things, and made memories with you that are precious and lasting. Thank you!

to be continued . . .

birthday banners, clean vans, baseball & puke

I have 172 other things I should be doing right now, but I'd much rather be doing this. This is going to be a real snoozer because I've got a couple of weeks to catch up on (nothing of real interest) and a whopping 5 pictures to show for it.

• Ben and I had our first real Monday date of the semester last week. Between snow days, rescheduled Valentine's Day parties, rescheduled dentist appointments and a few other random things, we had not had our Monday date since before Christmas. We celebrated with sushi.
  
• Although Monongalia County finally had a full week of school with no cancellations and no delays (the first since the week we went back after Christmas), our family did not. Sophie started puking Tuesday night (by letting it rip all over her bed and the things she hoards on her bed). Since it was spring break, Ben generously worked from home Wednesday while Sophie watched Disney Jr. all day in recovery mode with purple gatorade and a biscuit from Tudor's. (A plain biscuit from Tudor's is definitely our favorite re-entry food after a good stomach virus.)
• Frozen comes out on DVD on Tuesday. We can hardly contain our excitement around here.
  
• Baseball season has arrived and I think it's safe to say that everyone around here is thrilled. I love baseball because I feel like it's something I can do with Ted. Ted can play easily with his friends. Ben loves it the most and he and Ted spend a lot of time practicing together - which is excellent for Ted's "quality time" love language. He's always filled to the brim this time of year. The Kozels were over one beautiful evening last week so the boys could practice and the girls could play at the park. 
  
• Ben and I watched "Catching Fire" on Friday night. As much as I devoured those books 18 months ago, I COULDN'T REMEMBER what happened. So now I'm really concerned about the 3rd book and am going to go re-read the last several chapters because I really forget how the entire series ends. I liked the movie. I stayed awake for the entire 2.5 hours, which is a slight miracle.
  
• Ben spoke at church last week. My mom and her friend Becky came over. We had a great breakfast with them and my cousin Brandi and her husband Chad. We introduced them to the Poky Dot in Fairmont. Fairmont's best kept secret - real classy. It was a great morning! No pictures though.
  
• Last week was Spring Break for WVU. Morgantown is the LOVLIEST place when students are here. It is wonderful. You can drive anywhere in 10 minutes. Eat anywhere you want without waiting too long in line. Drive through campus in 30 seconds flat. But cram 30,000 extra people here and it really gets crazy.  As much as we love our leaders (and I'm sure as much as they love us), I think a little break is always a good thing.
  
• I drove to Charleston last Saturday for one of Beth Anne Isaac's wedding showers. Again, no pictures. I even got to see Adrienne! I ran to the mall, got a gift, attended the shower and was home by dinner.
  
• It's supposed to snow 2-4 inches tonight. They said that last weekend and we got a dusting. I really don't even care anymore because there have been a few 60 degree days the last few weeks and it has given me hope. Spring is coming. And we will all appreciate it so much more this year.
  
• Sophie is taking piano lessons. She has a real love/hate relationship with it. Every day when we practice she gets sent to her room for being difficult and stubborn. Then she comes back downstairs and practices like a champ. One would think she would catch on to this little routine we've got going. I'm thinking of sending her to her room just for kicks before we start practicing and avoiding the fight. She is actually catching on quite quickly. When I was in Charleston last week Ben send me a text: "I'm practicing piano with Sophie loosing years of my life." I guess I forgot to share with him our little routine.
  
• Last Monday I washed the van and then couldn't stop until it was clean on the inside too. Oh my word - I love a clean van! Sophie got it in to go to school on Thursday and said (in very dramatic fashion), "It's clean in here! Mom, the van is so cuuuuute."

Ben gathered up the cords for apple products that he could fine. There are still several missing. Is this sad?

We were outside all day yesterday. The kids earned a trip to see Mr. Peabody & Sherman with this hard work. This is the entire tree beside our house. (I didn't like that movie, by the way. For no other reason than I just wasn't all that engaged with it.)

Signs of spring, growing under piles of leaves no less. I love that!

Yeah, Ben finally took down the Happy Birthday banner that we put up for Ted's birthday - in OCTOBER. It stayed up for Ben, Jesus (both December), me (January) and Millie (February). I told him we should have left it up for Sophie (May).

These lovely people (and some others) cleaned at the Union Mission on Saturday. It was a fun project for us to do to bless the Mission. We busted out some work, which inspired me to come home and clean my own house. Kind of.

indoor sledding

We did some indoor sledding on this, Snow Day #15. Snow Day #16 comin' at ya tomorrow. No children were harmed in the making of these videos.