Better Luck next year.

Leprechauns?

We recently read a St. Patrick's day book about catching Leprechauns that Nora brought home from school and she is all about it.  I was a little disappointed when that was the first thing she said this morning and after work.  I am prepared as a parent for Santa and the Easter bunny, but I have to admit as Irish as I am, I still was not prepared for Leprechauns, thank goodness J.R. was.  So here is a picture of J.R. setting the trap.  (I had a few more pics but my memory card ate them up--trip to Radio Shack tomorrow).  We have a quarter hanging from a rope in the box (because Leprechauns like money for their pot of gold) and we draped the Irish flag over the box to attract the Leprechaun.  Now the story goes that if we catch one we have to make him laugh to get the pot of gold.   Stay tuned to see what happens....

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Spring= ice melting

This picture is from our deck around 5:30 on Wed 3/8.

Nora

Nora wanted me to take this picture of her for the "blog."  She is growing up so fast (not to sound like all mothers watching their children grow).  Nora will be 5 in a month and it shows, we had a rough patch a few weeks back but she has come through it with flying colors :)  She is really starting to become her own person; she spends more time alone/independently coloring or creating things, she can pretty much get herself ready in the mornings, and she is growing intellectually.  She is in a class of kids a year younger than her, so my prediction is she will just shoot up once she is in kindergarden with kids her own age.

Another day, another conglomerate of accessories

Outdoor show

Sat. we went to an outdoor show in Escanaba (the "big" city of 12,000 about 50 miles west).  They had a trout pond, ATVs, RVs boats, and various booths.  I fell in love with the campers. Clara could not get enough of the ATVs.  Nora fished and did a mini golf--it was a fundraiser for "Big Brothers, Big Sisters."  For $1 a person got three golf balls to make a putt, if they dropped it in the hole they won a 12 pack of pepsi.  Nora really wanted to do the golf, so of course we let her.  My first instinct was to help, but then I realized that I didn't want the Pop, well, Nora sunk her third shot!  She was sooooooo excited to win the Pepsi.  The irony is that there was Pepsi in school for a Dr. Suess thing 2 weeks ago, so now she has attached herself to that name--marketing at its finest--get them while they're young.

For all of you reading this wonder what has happened to me letting my kids drink pop, fear not, the Pepsi is in the garage and I talked to Nora's teacher about her not drinking pop.  (Soap box: Can you believe that the entire school got pop, I think even nationally, for "pop a top" (whatever that is) on Dr. Suess' Birthday?  Seriously I could go bananas thinking about marketing unhealthy foods to such young influential children! end of soap box)

Her are some pictures.

Random Updates

This weekend was pretty low-key comparatively, but we had some excitements.  The first, and biggest for JR and I, we had our first night with a babysitter!!!  What you take for granted when you have sitters around.  We just went out for dinner but hey, its been almost 4 months of always being with our kids--everyone deserves a break now and again.

The second is that I cut about 4 inches off of Nora's hair--how can I tell you and not have pictures--sorry!  I will try tomorrow.  She is definitely at the age of drama, tantrums and not agreeing to pictures if it is not in her agenda.  It is just below her ears now (the way I like it).

This weekend was also a turning point in settling in because Nora had a play date today.  We found out that the girl at daycare and in the 4 year old preschool class at her school (Nora is in the 3yr old class) lives one block over.  She turned four last fall, so it is a perfect match.  Its just one more thing for Nora to feel more settled.

And last but not least, we have put Sunny (Nora's beta fish) on hospice.  Sunny has been a good fish with all of the ups and downs of moving, but we feel that he is on his last legs.  He still does eat and move around, but the last few days he mostly hangs out on the bottom of the tank.  The water did get pretty bad in the last week, so we changed it this weekend and have fed him extra, but I think we are still on shaky ground.  Everyone is aware that he is not doing to good, even a 4 year old knows something is up when he won't move until you flick his tank about 8 times.  :) 

Goggles

Last weekend we unpacked many boxes that have been in storage, including toys and such for the girls.  The goggles were one of the items unpacked and Clara has quite the affection for them.  I see goggles everyday on her head, during dinner, bath time, play time, you name it.  Here is a sampling.

Treehouse

We have a treehouse in our backyard, and it actually has a real tree in the house!  Look closely.  Yesterday I went outside with Nora during Clara's nap, which was wonderful.  I hardly ever spend time with just Nora and I, the breakdown usually ends up with Nora and JR, and Clara and I when we separate with the girls.  Our weather has also been warming up too--it was a great day outside.

Updates

It has been a little bit since last updating....in the last few weeks we have had three different visitors and we have moved into a bigger house still on Indian Lake, opposed to our cute LITTLE cabin.  The upgrades include: the girls have their own bedrooms (opposed to Nora sleeping on her sleeping bag in our office), a toy room, a standard size kitchen (hooray!), a spare bedroom, the basement for an office, and lets not forget a replica of the Mackinac bridge in our backyard!!  When renting, beggars can't be choosers, but rarely do renters get to upgrade beyond their previously owned home.  My slow transformation over the last few years of wanting to simplify our lives and "things" not only got thrown out the window, but chucked out a window from the top of a skyscraper!  I love, love the house we are renting but my conscious does have trouble from time to time thinking about the energy keeping the Koi in the heated pond alive through the winter :)   Here is a preview of the backyard under snow...inside pictures coming someday soon....

Almost Kindergarden

I can hardly believe Nora is going to be 5 in just a few short months.  Today she came home from preschool telling me how they visited the Kindergarden class she will be in next year.  She will be in the same school going full days, just like this year, but she will have a school uniform next year.  I can't even imagine! (The big question is how am I ever going to find pants that she will wear, seeing that she only wears stretch pants now)  Just as all kids mature constantly growing from one stage to another, Nora has grown up so much in the last few months.  She is constantly reading letters on everything...t-shirts, papers, etc.  She hasn't put them together into words, but it is coming soon.  A person does feel a little invaded when she starts reading letters across the t-shirt you are wearing!

Sisterly love

This is an ordinary day in our house:  Clara dressed in who knows what and what you can't see in this picture is that Nora is in the laundry basket (who is the second child and who is the older one?).  Like I said, just an ordinary day of sisterly love.

Skiing

Today Nora skied a real distance for the first time.  JR was in the ice house so I trekked out with the girls.  Nora was a little tuckered out by the time we got there, she walked back instead of skiing, but she did great.  I found the easiest way to transport Clara--in the backpack!  I really enjoyed the skiing and I realize that the skiing is the most practical of the winter sports for a four year old (skating, snowshoeing, etc).

Ice

Friday afternoon fun

New Camera

We just got a new camera and look at the difference a camera makes!!  As most know we had camera trouble this fall and have been borrowing our friends' older camera, which I am grateful for, but as you can tell, there is a difference.  I am excited about taking pictures again!!

Ice Fishing

Last weekend we went ice fishing on our lake.  The girls were so excited.  They were watching JR drill the hole so intensely.  I think they were expecting the fish to jump right out.  When he got done drilling the hole they both looked for the fish.

Unfortunately the fish didn't jump right into our laps.  However, good thing we had plenty of gear to try our luck.  Nora used one of JR's ice fishing poles, but Clara wanted to use her fishing pole she got for her birthday in October.  Thankfully kids' poles are about the same size as ice fishing poles.  It was difficult to hold with mittens on though.  The funny thing about the whole experience is that I think sitting on "the bucket" was a bigger deal then the fishing itself.

Clara and I went in while Nora stayed with JR, then we came back out after nap time.  The joys of living on the lake!!  (I can really see why lake property is worth a pretty penny)  They did catch some fish, but only one perch was big enough to keep.  So much for Target and Toys R Us because Nora played with that frozen fish ALL afternoon.  I was watching her thinking all the mom things like "now I will have to wash her mittens" etc, but she was having a blast.

Here is Clara and I going back to the cabin.  She almost made it back to the cabin walking by herself.  I opted for using the sled on the way back out.

Long drives

One of my favorite things is when you get home after a long day and the kids are sleeping in the car.  First of all, it makes the bedtime routine MUCH shorter, but more importantly, they are so sweet.  I love this picture because we went to BWW earlier in the day, so they each had a balloon.  This was taken around Christmas time.

Jewelry Jewelry

The girls love to wear my Grandma's jewelry.  When she asked for Christmas ideas this fall, I told that they love her jewelry.  Well, they each got a "checkbook box" (got to love great grandparents) full of some of her old jewelry.  Nora picked one that looked nice to put on, Clara of course put everything from the box on, notice the earrings.  Nora's earrings were a little tight--they didn't last long.  Thank you for the wonderful Christmas gift Great Grandma Skluzacek!

My independent spirit

Picture taken mid-December.
Clara is my independent little dresser.  That is the nice way of saying you can't touch her to make things right--she knows what she wants and she will do it herself.  This is common with lots of kids and it happens everyday in little ways.  This picture is a perfect example of it.  She refused to let me help her with her hair--so this is how it was for the day (on the weekend obviously).

Allergic to the Christmas tree.  I also took this picture because I keep track of when she breaks out etc.  Well, it took until about the 2nd weekend of December to realize that Clara was allergic to the Christmas tree.  During the week her skin would start to clear up and by Sunday it looked like this.  Poor girl.  Now that the tree is gone, everything is back to normal with her.