Some General Cuteness

James' little coloring adventure

So somehow, James thought it would be a good idea to go up to the kitchen, get the markers out of the craft drawers, go back downstairs and color the steps along the way.  These were the particularly bad spots...there were more, in other colors.

This was after water blotting with a towel.  

I still need to try rubbing alcohol, but haven't been too worried about it since we are planning on steam cleaning the basement soon anyway (read: hopefully before the baby is born).  Did you know that Crayola has a section of their website dedicated specifically to how to clean up their products from different types of surfaces?  In case you need it: http://www.crayola.com/canwehelp/staintips/index.cfm

A visit to the Cherry Blossoms

The weather was so nice that we decided to take a trip downtown to the cherry blossoms, with a thousand of our 'best friends' of course.  Rose was so excited to see all the pretty trees that she asked all week, if it was time yet.  We parked at daddy's office late in the afternoon and walked down; Daddy surprised us and said if we waited a few minutes he would join us!  

 Rose loved taking her own pictures (I will upload hers later when I get a chance).

 James trying to learn how to take pictures.  He didn't really understand where he was supposed to be looking!

 A cool effect on my new camera.

And a beautiful sunset while we have a picnic dinner.

A trip to the park

 How could I pass up a tractor shirt with camo shorts at the last consignment sale?

 And this boy CANNOT keep his socks and shoes on!

Dance Class Review

Rose started at a new ballet school this year and as you can see they are a bit more serious about actually dancing.  There are only a handful of kids in her class and her instructor is actually a ballerina in a dance troupe.  

 Here they are warming up for class after reading part of a story that has at some point been adapted to a ballet.  

 Barre work - plies.

 At the end of the class they dress up in costumes that fit the story they read at the beginning of class.  They just finished up Mulan.

Here is a short clip of her individual dance.

Updates Coming

I know I have been remiss in posting...I promise I will backdate the posts and put some up ASAP.  It has been crazy here and the weather makes it hard to stay inside and be on the computer!

Happy St. Patricks Day!

We had some school fun this week with a St Patricks Day theme.  

 First we worked on color mixology...you know, red and yellow make orange and so on.  The flag of Ireland is a great thing to paint with this in mind.  Then we did some rainbows so we could get the purple in the mix too.  Of course they are also associated with St Pat's Day.  

 Rose also had some fun coloring by number to reveal a pot of gold.

 Daddy made green, shamrock shaped pancakes for breakfast.  They were very excited as you can see.

To round out the day we had three other families over for a traditional corned beef dinner.  Luckily it just required the crockpot so very little cooking was done.  The kids ate homemade mac and cheese instead, then ran around and watched the St Patricks Day movie I won last year.

A Trip to the Zoo

 Really cute red pandas were playing in their cage.

 The pink birds really drew their attention.

 With our friends outside the monkey house.  These statues might have been the hit of the day, at least until we bought them ice pops.

Dentist Trip

I know that I have posted about their first dentist visits before, but these shots were too cute to pass up.  

 There is a tv in the ceiling and James is sitting in the sunny seat trying to see it.

So Hot!

Well, the weather has been about 20+ degrees above average, so we have been outside as much as possible.  On this particular day it was so hot I let them play with buckets of water and paint brushes on the sidewalk.  Of course, they got wet, so they spent time just laying in the sun drying off.  

Chalk has also adorned our front stoop quite frequently lately.  So much so that I had to purchase new chalk from the Target One Spot.  Now the problem is that we havent had a lot of rain to wash it off.

Dr Seuss Party

 We made Oobleck from "Bartholomew and the Oobleck"

 "One fish, Two fish..."

 "Green Eggs and Ham"

 "Butter Battle"

"Pink ink drink"

We had a bunch of friends over and decorated with crazy colors everywhere (forgot to get that shot!).  We meant to read books, but there were probably 20 kids and only 5 or so moms, so it was a little insane.  Fun, though!