march 9

the kids and i went to see the lorax in 3D tonight.  it was a great movie that we all really liked.  brooke refused to wear her 3D glasses, but gavin and i enjoyed seeing the whimsical, colorful movie in 3 dimensions.  gavin's favorite thing about the movie was the boy and his scooter/motorcycle, and brooke liked the part with the marshmallows.  after the movie we had dinner at chipotle and then headed home to wait for kevin to return from his trip.  it was a fun and very rare friday night out at the movies.

march 8

kevin worked from home this morning before his trip to wisconsin.  i walked by his office and found gavin sitting on his daddy's lap.  i ran for my camera.  i love moments like this.

march 7

kevin scored us some last minute seats to the fresh beat band at the taft theater tonight!  we were so excited to take the kids to their first concert.  brooke and gavin both loooove the fresh beat band.  they've been watching their show on nickelodeon for months now.  brooke knows the words to every song, and they both love dancing to the music.  so tonight was all about them :)  we had seats just 4 rows back and off to the side.  it was my first time attending a kids' concert, too, and i was amazed by the number of kids, especially the really little ones.  we ran into quite a few families that we knew including one of brooke's old zebra room classmates.  brooke was totally captivated for the entire concert.  the first half of the show she was kneeling in her seat, clapping, waving her hands in the air and singing her heart out :)  the second half of the show brooke was a little more serious as she concentrated on taking in every detail of the performance.  gavin had fun singing and dancing as well, but i think he lost interest before the end of the show.  i think i enjoyed watching my kids watch the concert more than i enjoyed the concert itself, although i have to admit that i knew most of the words to the songs, too :)  i hope the memory of tonight lives on in brooke's mind for a very long time.

march 6

we had the pleasure of celebrating my sister's birthday with her today.  the kids and i headed over to heather's house after school.  danny and stella were nice enough to share her with us today :)  danny and stella baked a birthday cake, and we all played outside in the beautiful sunshine.  stella, brooke and gavin had fun playing with stella's cat balloon that had legs and could walk along the ground.  mom joined us for dinner, and we shared a nice meal together.  i'm really appreciating being able to celebrate birthdays in person this year!

march 5

kevin left today for his first of two short trips this week.  it actually snowed a teeny bit last night, so i awakened with the urge to go skiing one last time this season.  i knew it had to be the last day that perfect north would be open with all the unseasonably warm weather we've been having.  so, i packed up all of our gear and lunch, picked the kids up from school and headed straight to perfect north.  i was pretty proud of myself for taking on the challenge of taking two little ones skiing, and i couldn't have been happier with the way everything went.  gavin took a little nap on the drive over, which was perfect.  it was quite cold and windy, so we got all bundled up and made our way out to the bunny hill where we did several runs together.  gavin was quite disappointed that the slushy snow made him go slow.  he kept yelling at me that he wanted to go "really fast!"  that just wasn't in the cards today.  he was too light to cut through the melting snow.  since there was almost no one there, i decided to be really bold and take gavin up the chair lift.  he's been begging to go up the chair lift for weeks, but we haven't taken him because he doesn't really know how to stop himself yet.  i figured today was a rare opportunity, so i took it.  brooke stayed on the bunny hill with scott the magic carpet attendant (i could see her the entire time), and gavin and i skied down to the chair lift line.  gavin fell almost immediately once we started going down a steeper slope, but we got him back upright, and he skied down to the line with no problems.  i was able to have the chair lift attendant slow it way down for us to get on and off, and gavin loved the experience of being on the chair lift.  i got him safely off the chair lift, and then i fell getting off!  thankfully, a man came to my rescue and helped me get up.  i gave gavin the end of my pole, and off we went!  gavin took one hard fall, but he shook it right off.  it took a lot of upper and lower body strength for me to turn us across the "mountain" while also controlling gavin's speed with the pole, but i did it!  we made it to the bottom of the "mountain" with just that one initial fall.  not so bad!  i wish kevin would have been there to witness gavin's first time up the chair lift, but then again, if kevin was there i probably would have been the one witnessing it and not doing it :)  after our bravery on the slopes, we headed over to go tubing one last time.  the only section open was the steepest hill, which we hadn't tried up to that point.  our first time down was super scary for brooke.  her face was white as a ghost, and her face was frozen.  but, we got to the bottom and she yelled, "let's do it again!"  i couldn't believe it.  so, we did it three more times, and it was great.  what a fun way to spend our afternoon!

march 4

tonight we said goodbye to the hulays.  we had a fun evening chatting, watching the kids play together and enjoying some great indian take-out.  i love how you can see the whirl of kids running through the frame of this picture.  that's how the whole night went :)  i'm so excited for our friends to embark on their new adventure in a new city and a new country!  i just know they're going to be extremely happy.  can't wait until we see them again!

march 3

we had the great pleasure of celebrating lexi and kenzie's 2nd birthday today at their super cute cowgirl party.  antje had the lemoine ranch completely decked out for the party with so many cute little details.  lexi and kenzie are so lucky to have such a great mama, and randall was super fun as always, dressed head to toe in his brand-new cowboy gear :)  brooke and gavin were so excited by all of the great things antje had for the kids.  they received personalized cowboy hats, candy, cookies, bandanas, deputy badges, and the biggest hit of the party - ponies on a stick!  the kids had so much fun riding their ponies around the house.  brooke and gavin talked about the party during the entire drive home, and brooke said "that was the best party i have ever had!"  it was so good brooke left thinking the party was for her :)

march 2

brooke's feeling better today and was able to go back to school and have a play date at our house with her friend sara.  my mom also came by and visited with gavin, so both of my children were happy and content :)  brooke entertained herself late this afternoon by playing restaurant in her room.  she invited me in and made a big production of it.  i loved all of the little details she included like menus for each of her "guests" and place settings with plates, bowls, cups and utensils.  she even wore her cute little apron and stirred the food for her guests :)

march 1

it's so hard to believe it's already march.  even harder to believe is the fact that i registered brooke for kindergarten today!  brooke hasn't been feeling well for the past 2 days so i took her to the doctor today, and now she's on antibiotics.  perhaps that's why she wasn't overly excited about seeing where she would go to kindergarten.  or maybe she's just not quite sure what to think of it yet... she did ask me a couple of questions like "will i eat lunch here?" and "will they make sure i get home safe?"  less than 6 months, and my girl will be in kindergarten.  i can already feel my heart breaking a little inside.

february 29

leap day!  an extra day in our year.  fitting that kevin and i used it to get some things on our "to do" list completed.  kaye came to watch the kids this afternoon while we went to sign some important legal documents and register our cars in the state of ohio.  naturally, things did not go smoothly at the bmv, but i did pass a written driver's test :) and get a new ohio driver's license.  that meant turning in my washington driver's license.  i had a hard time parting with it.  next to go will be our washington plates.  boo hoo.  it cheered me up to come home to happy kids who had been playing in mud puddles with ba kaye :)

february 28

tonight i had the pleasure of hosting book club for the first time in 3 years.  i also had the pleasure of having the entire day to get ready for it - probably the only time i can remember not rushing around or stressing to pull it all together (because it's the first time i've been off work while hosting).  kevin even got home early to help with the kids.  brooke was very excited that mommy's girlfriends were coming over.  she added her special touches to the table - like placing the napkins at the top of the plate so they looked like hair bows :)  i like that she sees me entertaining friends.  i hope it sets an example for her in life.  i think that's why i was happy to have her glued to my side all evening.  brooke quickly put on her matching apron once my girlfriends started arriving, and she was happy to help with whatever i needed.  i especially loved when she came over to me and whispered, "mommy, all of your friends are saying they really like what you made (cooked) for them."  it made the payoff of my work that much sweeter!  brooke even sat at the table with us and had a few bites to eat before kevin put her to bed.  it meant a lot to me that brooke was able to share in the enjoyment of having some of my closest friends over for the evening.

february 27

the week could not have gotten off to a better start!  it was beautiful out today!!  i got all my errands finished this morning, picked up the kids from school and headed home to enjoy the day.  it was so warm that i thought it called for ice cream.  i didn't have to do much to convince the kids :)  after gavin's nap we ran to great clips to get him a haircut before school pictures tomorrow.  it was his first cut by great clips, and i was a little nervous, but they did a pretty good job.  driving home we saw that all of the kids and parents in the neighborhood were out, so we grabbed a bike and a scooter and joined them.  it was a great glimpse of what summer is like in our neighborhood, and i loved it.  brooke was reintroduced to jade, a little girl who is 5 1/2 and only lives a few doors down, and they rode their scooters together along with gavin on his bike.  it was a really great day.

february 26

ouch.  it was a late one last night.  drinking, laughing, storytelling... it was great fun... until we were awakened by lots of energetic kids at 6:00am :)  kevin made everyone pancakes and that made the kids very happy :)  everyone rolled out of here by late morning, and we spent most of the day just hanging around the house.  when i looked at my watch and it was only 2:00pm, i knew it was going to be a very long day.  so, after gavin's nap we headed over to veteran's park and enjoyed a beautiful day, followed by an early dinner of indian take-out.  the kids were in bed and asleep by 7:00pm, and we weren't too far behind them!

february 25

the day of the big family sleepover finally arrived, and brooke and gavin could not have been more excited!  everyone had such a great time.  the kids played, the adults goofed off, we had dinner together and then made one big "bed" for the kids and turned on a movie (Rio).  i loved seeing them all cuddled up together eating their popcorn and watching a movie (one that actually held everyone's interest - what a miracle!).  by the time the movie was over, all of the kids were so tired.  stella really wanted to sleep with her cousins, but in the end, heather put her to sleep in the pack-n-play in the guest bedroom.  gavin got so tired that he asked me if he could sleep in his own bed, and i let him.  poor thing fell right asleep.  however, when brooke started whining to go to her own bed, i put my foot down.  jackson and joey couldn't be left to sleep in the toy room all alone.  there was a brief moment of chaos and lots of tears, but megan and i finally got jackson, joey and brooke to calm down and fall asleep.  then the adults got to stay up late and have some fun!

february 24

this is what our morning looked like in between breakfast and taking brooke to school...

february 23

today gavin had a special morning out with aunt megan, jackson, joey and chase.  megan took the boys downtown to meet zach for lunch and was so sweet to invite gavin to join them.  heather, danny and stella joined them as well.  i knew gavin would have so much fun, and i also knew that brooke would be pretty bummed that she missed out.  sure enough, i picked her up from school and had to explain where gavin was, and the tears just started flowing.  thankfully, i had picked up a new toy for brooke at target this morning for this very reason.  once i told her that i had something special for her at home, she dried her tears, and we headed home.  she loved the lalaloopsy remote control car and doll that i bought for her, and she was so appreciative, thanking me over and over again.