Snowsuit, Bathing Suit, Snowsuit

This week started out with a bang. We had Monday off from school, so we went to Truckee to play in the snow with Ella's friend.



More photographic proof. We went to Sugarbowl. It is lovely, as you can see. That's one good thing about Reno. You drive 40 minutes in any direction & find magical surprises like this.


Overlooking Donner Lake (it looks like he's standing on the edge of a cliff, but apparently it was only two feet from up from a gently sloping hill.)


Hey Mom! Watch this!


The rest of the week was filled with playdates and chores and cleaning the kitchen and making snacks and making cookies and more cleaning the kitchen, and more cleaning. Saturday Ella had a Birthday Party at a local indoor pool. Gretchen is a TOTAL WATER BABY. She walked around the toddler pool for about two hours straight giggling. Laps and laps and laps. Ella climbed out and said, "Ok, I'm ready to go." and even after we gave Gretchen another 15 minutes of laps, she still screamed when we took her out.

And then it snowed in Reno. We got about a foot. Here's more photographic proof:



Hot Chocolate warms your soul. And your chin. And your belly. And your pajamas that are doubling as a snow suit.






Gretchen's new trick is to tell us that she's "Scared!" so that we'll pick her up and carry her everywhere. We'll be on a walk & she'll decide she's tired. Instead of saying, "Up please!", she says in a very dramatic voice, "I'm SCARED! Scared! Mommy! Scared!"

This morning Gretchen got a time-out for dumping her cup of water all over the floor (on purpose). When I went to get her out of her crib after time-out, she kept pointing to the closet and saying, "SCARY! SCARY BODY! SCARY BODY!" I told her the only thing in the closet are clothes & shoes & hats. No scary bodies. I showed her. We looked together. And she said, "No scary body?" No. Just a hat. "Oh, just a hat." Yeah. So apparently she's added a whole new level of creepiness to her two-year-old-emotional-manipulations by adding a "scary body" to the mix. She's tricky. (No, we do NOT watch CSI. I have no idea where she'd get this idea...)

It snowed so much that Ella's school was cancelled today. We're going to go make a snow fort now.

xo

Be Mine

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!!!
We hope your day so far has been full of flowers and chocolates and absolutely no sugar-low-induced temper tantrums. And if you live more than 10 miles from us, just pretend I was on-the-ball enough to send you a real Valentine Greeting in the mail...

And if I'd actually been organized to mail you a valentine, THIS is what it would have looked like (instead she just handed them out to her classmates & friends):


(Why yes, that IS Ella riding a trademarked pony over a field of green grass surrounded by flying blue peeps....)

And here's Gretchen's (CUTEST BABY IN THE WORLD ALERT!!!)
(I AM BIASED):



On Monday night, Ella's class had the CUTEST VALENTINES PROGRAM EVER. It was a special romantic dinner just for the parents. The kids brought us all a menu & then fetched our food for us. We got to choose between cheese or pepperoni pizza, and what type of soda we wanted. LUCKY! (To be said in Napoleon Dynamite whine.) I know.



Then they got their own pizza.



Then they played games while they waited for everyone to finish.



Then they put on a program & sang songs and recited a poem. SO CUTE.



Then on Friday they had a class party. Here's Ella taking her turn as "Valentine Mail-Girl". (See the visor? It's an official Valentine Mail Delivery Person visor.)



I was so impressed with the haul of Valentine Treats Ella brought home with her. Two boxes of chocolates, pencils, stickers & a plethora of other goodness. One kid brought roses for EVERY GIRL IN THE CLASS. A little girl looked at me and said, "He's my most favorite boy in the whole school." Yeah. He might be mine too.



And here's Gretchen's favorite tattoo EVER. (The one I was telling you about last week. SCARY BABY!)



This week was crazy busy. I finished my book proposal yesterday (going on the mail on TUESDAY. Because tomorrow is a HOLIDAY! Woot!) I made invitations for the PTA fundraiser. We volunteered for a study about addiction (as the "Non Addicted" participants. I didn't tell them about my sugar habit, my book habit, or my Thursday NBC Lineup habit...) AND we finished a service project with my mom's group. PHEW. AND I changed the sheets on the beds. I know. Pretty much amazing. Now I'm going to go read my BFF Janeece's favorite book & write all over the pages. LUCKY!

I know.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY LOVES TO YOU!!!!
xoxo

Fortnight of Fun

So I had the best intentions of catching up with my missed post from last week. But then I got super excited about this illustration project I'm working on & was TOO BUSY WORKING to talk about my kids. Weird. But true. Hopefully in another week I'll be mailing my new proposal to my rep & soon after making millions. And then I can catch up with everything else I've been postponing. Like changing the sheets on the bed. Ugh.

But, besides paintings of kittens (Regular kittens, not zombie kittens. Just in case you were wondering...), we actually had some fun times over the past two weeks. My new fabulous friend J called one night and said, "Hey Apryl, have you heard of the band Phoenix?" And I said, "No!" And she said, "Want to come to a free concert with me? VIP?" And I said, "Definitely!" And then I went online & did some research. And HOW HAVE I NEVER HEARD OF THIS BAND BEFORE? They are awesome and I had so much fun at the concert. (Plus, they have ties with Daft Punk & the french band Air, both of which I am in love with. SO COOL, I know. Gretchen especially loves Daft Punk. She has special dance moves for their songs & everything.) Going to a concert was way better than watching videos of my favorite bands on youtube. Way better.

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Since it was SO COOL of J to invite me to the show, I've tried to do something nice to say, "Thank you." But J is too nice for me to repay. Every time I try to do something for her, she just GOES AND DOES SOMETHING NICER IN RETURN. I invite her for a playdate, she invites us over for a playdate and HOMEMADE LUNCH. I will never make it up to her.

Colby's BFF from back-in-the-day happened to be driving through Reno. We met him & his family downtown to eat. Photos by Ella.




My friend L. from MOPS invited us over for a playdate. They are awesome and win the award for "Most Kid Friendly House In Town". They have a downstairs playroom with a door and a window (that is a fabulous combination. Downstairs = don't have to drag lazy butts upstairs to check on kids. Door = don't have to hear them. Window = can peek in and make sure they're "making good choices".) They had two (2!!!!) of those motorized cars for the kids to ride in. And they have working radios, so they pumped up some mariachi music and cruised the backyard till the batteries ran out. But the fun didn't end there. Then the rabbits came out to play.

There was one sad little catch. Gretchen & Baby V got into blows over who got to drive the truck. And Gretchen left marks. It was sad. At first it was funny (watching 2 year olds fight is hilarious. You know, when you're not responsible for it.... But I AM responsible for it, so I had to break it up. And just as I started walking towards them, Gretchen used her last 10 seconds of Full Contact to scratch his sweet little face. Twice. Grrrrr!)



Hey, watch what I can do with this rabbit! Mom! Watch!



Sorry Baby V. We'll trim Gretchen's nails next time. Sorry. Sorry!!!

We had about 50 books due back at the library, so I took JUST ELLA. It was nice. She doesn't pull books off the shelf or run screaming. Usually. And Ella picked out a new DVD. Does this sound familiar? MEKKA MEKKA HI MEKKA HINEY HO!



Pee Wee's Playhouse was my favorite show when I was a kid. The girls are SO FASCINATED by it. And I forgot how brilliant that show was. Hilarious. And random. And Miss Yvonne was such a hussy. My word!

Gretchen kept her eyes glued to the screen until she found something she had to share. Then she would yell it at me.

Gretchen: MOM! MOM! MOM!
Me: What, honey?
Gretchen: IT'S BROKEN?
Me: It's broken?
Gretchen: YEAH!
(in reference to something in the show opening? The sign on the pine tree I think...)

Gretchen: MOM! MOM! MOM!
Me: What, honey?
Gretchen: ROBOTS! UhUhUhUhUhUh (that's a robot sound). ROBOTS!
Me: Yeah, Robots, honey.
(in reference to Conkey The Robot. Secret Word Dispenser. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!)

And when we get our own house, we're going to put in a glitter wall, a magic screen, and some talking flower boxes. You're totally invited over to see it.

Gretchen has also decided she likes me to draw "Tough Tattoos" on her. The toughest thing she could think of last week was a "Scary Baby". She pulls up her sleeve & growls at us when she shows it off. And since it's church today, we're getting into the tub in about 5 seconds to wash "Scary Baby" away for another day.

And by next week we'll have Ella's Valentine ready. Here's our posed picture, ready to photoshop into something fabulous. WHAT WILL IT BE? Leave your guesses in the comment section...



HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!

Yo Yo Momma

We were sitting in the car a few weeks ago & I heard an echo. Gretchen. Was singing along to the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. And while the Yeah Yeah Yeah's totally rock, it made me think, "Huh. Maybe I should be using this time in the car to broaden our cultural horizons." So I went to the library and got a copy of Yo Yo Ma's Appassionato. (I heard Mr. Ma in an interview on the Diane Rehm show. He was so interesting! Listening to him talk about music made me want to be a better person. Here's a link to the interview if you want to hear it.) Anyway, we've been listening to it all week in the car. Yesterday...

ME: Ella, isn't this song so beautiful? What do you think it's about?
ELLA: Mom, what are you talking about?
ME: When you close your eyes, do pictures about the music come into your head?
ELLA: Yeah, I guess.
ME: What does this song make you think about?
ELLA: Food.
ME: Are you hungry?
ELLA: No. Well, yeah, kinda.

Besides broadening our cultural horizons through music, we've also tried a few new recipes. There's just no way our family will eat fish unless it's in "stick" form. But the homemade tootsie rolls were a semi hit. See the "special" one we made for Daddy? Awww, Daddy is so loved.

Smile for the camera sweetie!



No, that wasn't a smile! Try again!



So much better.

Gretchen has decided to start dressing herself. It's going moderately well...at least she has clothes on....


It's all about layering.





Though I blew off Ella's requests as long as possible, we FINALLY put her "Grow Your Own Pony" in water. (Nanna Joy gave it to us in the Super Awesome Pack Of Car Fun she put together for the girls. Thanks Nanna Joy!!!) It grew slowly over a week. And we watched it get creepier and creepier. At it's height of creepiniess, Auntie Amber suggested we put it in a specimen jar and save it for Halloween. It would have been awesome. But we decided to take it out because it was king of stinkey. (Creepy and stinkey. A magical combination.) Then we got to watch is shrink down, and the legs curl up, and the strange sponge-like-texture DOESN'T GO AWAY. Poor pet pony.


Grow Your Own Pony just wants to be loved. Anyone? Anyone?

That's what we've been up to! What about you?

Oh yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY UNCLE TYLER!!!!!!!!

Huh, I guess we actually DID do something this week...

Hey guys! So when I first sat down to think about this week, I couldn't remember what we did. Our life seems to be Stuck-At-Home-Boring or Non-Stop-Party. We can't find a happy medium. When we're stuck at home (above), the girls think of crazy things to do, like the "Marble Game" (below). The "Marble Game" is pretty new (thank goodness).
The Rules:
-Dump out Uncle Tyler's stash of marbles that were found in the closet over Thanksgiving.
-Pick up handfuls and try to roll (but inevitable THROW) marbles around the room.
-Physically roll YOURSELF in the marbles. (How can that be comfortable?!?!?) Laugh hysterically.
-Complain as mom makes you pick them all up. Be sure to say, "But this will take for-EEEEEEBVER!!!" at least 30x.
-As soon as they're all picked up, forget about how horribly draining it was to put them away and immediately dump them out again.
-Repeat.


Ella has started spelling tests in Kindergarten. I had to document. Awwwww, learning is FUN!



After school on Friday, a few of Ella's classmates met at the alluring Chuck E. Cheeses. So lucky, I know. Ah, the frantic faces of small children trying to garner as many "tickets" as possible to cash in for...a jelly bracelet. They don't see the irony. Luckily Gretchen is still small enough that climbing on the jet-ski-game is almost as much fun as actually PLAYING the jet ski game. Fun was had by all. Even the parents.



And by far the cutest thing we've done for a long time? Ella's school had a Winter Formal last week. A WINTER FORMAL. For Kindergartners. Oh my gosh. It was amazing.



At first Ella was intimidated by the flashing lights and loud music (luckily M.J. was on heavy rotation). But pretty soon she was leading the conga line. Except she thought it was a "train line", so she kept pumping her arm & saying, "Choo CHOO!!!!!"



Yesterday Auntie Amber stopped by and said...
Amber: Hey, I'm going to go try on wedding dresses, want to come?
Me: Uh, you mean with the girls?
Amber: Sure, why not?
(Now imagine every crazy thing they could do at a formal wear shop. Yes, they did that.)

I gave Ella the camera so she'd stop crawling through racks of $2000 dresses. Amber decided NOT to get this one. So pretty though.



A MESSAGE TO WEDDING DRESS DESIGNERS:
Hey, we know you're really busy debating pearls vs. rhinestones, but could you PLEASE make some dresses that aren't strapless? Believe it or not, SOME PEOPLE WANT STRAPS. I know, weird. That'd be super great though. Thanks.



That about sums up our week. Gretchen didn't sneak out of her crib too much. Ella is smart. It's supposed to snow tomorrow. Don't worry, you'll hear all about it next week.

Loves.

In Their Natural State

So, we're kind of having a problem. Gretchen can crawl out of her crib. And I'll be sitting, enjoying "Kid Free Time", thinking everything is wonderful and my baby is sleeping soundly. But actually Gretchen will be covering herself with diaper cream. Or talking to the birds out the window. Or screaming, "AIRPLANE! Mom. AIRPLANE!" Which is when I will discover this:



We're going to have to think of a solution. Barbed wire is out. Other suggestions?

Don't ask Ella for help, she's really busy.



We do have some good news. We went to a party last night with LOTS of kids, LOTS of noise and LOTS of toys to fight over. And Gretchen didn't injure ANYONE! She played happily and was kind to all. Dare we even hope that her reign of terror is coming to an end? I'm afraid to even dream it, lest my hopes be dashed. Again. Maybe it was just the Terrible Ones? Maybe? Oh please let all the time-outs and, "We're gentle with our hands..." talks and be working.

Packed Away For Another Year

Favorite Non-Family Related Activity Whilst In California:
Ella had recently voiced her desire to visit a "real museum". (Possibly because she loves the book "Olivia", and on rainy days, Olivia goes to the museum to look at Jackson Pollock and Degas paintings. Then she gets in trouble for recreating a Jackson Pollock at home. Time out.) And really, is there a cooler museum than the Getty? We went. It was wonderful. We stayed for about 4 hours, saw MAYBE 1/3 of their collection, and loved it. They had these cool "Art Detective" cards at the front desk for kids. They had a portion of a painting, a room number, and the kids had to find which piece of art it came from. Ella was definitely into it.

Me: (after looking at the Irises painting by Van Gogh) Ella, do you realize you're seeing some of the most famous artwork in the whole world? We are so lucky!
Ella: Yes mom. Because you've already told me that three times.
Me: What's been your favorite part so far?
Ella: The tram ride. It was like the tram at Disneyland. It was fun.

But really, she liked the museum too. Granted, the tram is pretty impressive.

Gretchen liked the naked statues. She kept pointing at them and saying, "Nurse?" Then laughing because she knew she was hi-larious.

After that outing, the rest of the trip was All Family All The Time. Good thing we all like each other. Christmas morning we went to Poppa Randy's house to open stockings. We coordinated with Santa to leave our stuff there. He's so nice, that Santa...




This picture of the girls with Grandpa Conrad just cracks me up. Ella is such a good poser.


Helicopter toy!


When we grow up, we want a hot tub and a pool. Dear Uncle Aaron & Aunt B, we may just move in... Hope that's cool with you.


Gretchen was so mad when we made her get out of the hot tub. (I was worried about leaving her in for too long, the water was so hot. She was literally steaming when I sat her on the edge of the hot tub. Steam rolling off her. She was not happy to be out of the water. She wanted to cook.)


Mom thought this was a goofy picture, but I think she looks cute. Plus, I love that gray wall in Aaron & B's kitchen.


New basketball hoop! Merry freakin' Christmas!


Gretchen & her adorable 2nd cousin. Awwww.



Then we got back to Reno. And for New Years we partied at TWO PEOPLE'S houses. I actually didn't go to bed until 2. I know, it was like I was back in college. Crazy. Then the next day we drove to Truckee to go sledding. Here's Ella & her BFF all decked out:


Then my camera died. But pretend I got a picture of Gretchen so excited about sledding that she couldn't wait for a sled. She just threw herself down the hill and slid on her belly. Multiple times.

We dog-sat Cooper, Auntie Amber's dog. And now we were grateful for our cat. Our cat doesn't tear up the garbage and eat things (things that I will not mention, that's how gross it they were. Ugh. Baby, stop kissing the dog!!)


Yesterday we went on a Family Adventure. We got Vietnamese for lunch downtown. Ella really wanted a coconut. Till she tried it. I got to finish it. Yay me!



Gretchen really wanted rice.


And to throw herself off the bridge over the Truckee River downtown. See my hand holding her back?



Now Christmas is all packed up for another year. Tomorrow Ella starts kindergarten again. We had a great time being with both our extended family and just the four of us this holiday.

Guess I'll got to bed so I can wake up at the crack of dawn & be a responsible adult. Or at least pretend.

xo