Before and After

BEFORE

We have slowly been doing some landscaping. And by "we" I mean Arlie :) Last year we redid part of our front yard by the driveway. We opened it up; made a beautiful walkway as well as took out the ugly shrubs and added flowers and Hostas. I love it. We had about 6 inches deep of rock that we (again meaning Arlie) had to dig out and get rid of. This is why we've been taking it bit by bit. It's a lot of work. We took the next 10/12 feet or so and redid it this week and again...I love it. Arlie does such great work out in our yard. I pretty much leave it up to him because he always impresses me! We still have quite a bit to do (eventually). Our next project is our corner by the street. We had to pull out the bushes because they were too tall and we got complaints from our neighbors and the city. Now we need to figure out what and how to redo it to make it look good. I have no doubts Arlie will think of something amazing :)

AFTER

Artistic Achievement

Jordan was selected by the school to represent Johnsville's 2nd grade class at the District 11 Art show at Northtown Mall. There is four 2nd grade classes at Johnsville with about 30 students in each. Five kids' projects were selected from the school and Jordan's was one of them. His was a self portrait quilt. We were surprised to learn of this. However, he is drawing and doing art projects all the time, so it shouldn't have come as a surprise.

We went and visited the Art Show. It was pretty cool. They set it up right in the middle of part of the mall with art from all different grades being showcased. We were very proud of him. He was pretty cute about it all. You could tell he was proud, but that was his least favorite project, so I think he was disappointed that they selected that one :)

The best kids in the world!

The best kids in the world!

Click on the link and it will be my kids spring photo shoot out at Grandpa's land in Sandstone.

Friends and games

Both kids had a sleepover the same night. Well...we kinda orchestrated one of them so that it worked out that way. Regardless, our good friends Lynn and Tony had no kids that night either and had asked if we wanted to hang out. We had a fabulous night. We went to Paninos in Shoreview. Delicious. The only thing I would say about it was that there were WAY too many good choices. You could go there everyday for a month and get a new Panino. After that we made out way to the Mermaid, where we played pool and darts. Arlie and I happened to get on a good run and won all 4 games of pool (ok so honestly, it was mostly Arlie as I think the first 3 games I only put 3 balls in the pockets. The last game, however, I did get 5 balls and the 8 ball). I won the first game of dart and then it went downhill for me from there :) It was not very crowded (although it was still pretty early for a Friday night...so it was probably a great time to go) so we didn't feel too silly playing darts and missing the dart board. Darts maybe wasn't our game :) After that we came back to our house and they taught us a new card game called Garbage. It was so much fun. Unfortunately Tony and I lost. We played until about 2am and then I couldn't keep my eyes open any longer. It went by really fast and was just a wonderful relaxing time. We don't take enough time to hang out with our friends. We have a lot of really good friends and have been blessed by a lot of friendships. I'm thankful they stick with us even though we don't always have the most time to invest in our friendships.

In the book

I got my hair cut while the kids were in school. When I picked them up I asked Sydney if she liked it. She said "Yes" (of course...she rarely says anything bad). I asked Jordan and he said, "Well, it's in the book." Sydney said, "what does that mean?" Jordan replied, "Sydney, it's a figure of speech, it mean, not up to my level". Yep, that's right. My hair cut was NOT up to his level. He did say that maybe if i combed it and it wasn't sticking up so much, it would be better ;) At least he's honest with what he's thinking even if he didn't quite get the meaning of the expression, "in the book".

If you saw it from the side it was sticking pretty much straight out in the back (thus Jordan's comment about combing it).

Bad Parenting 101

Jordan was up really late last night at a friends sleep over. Tonight, when we put him in bed we really wanted him to go to sleep right away to catch up on that lost sleep. He asked for a drink. We told him no because he just had a glass of water. About 5 minutes later he comes out of his room and asks for a drink. We told him that we already said no and to go to bed and not get up again. He was mad but went back in his room and was talking. Arlie went up there and told him that he would spank him if he needed to (although we very rarely use that punishment...it was looking like it might be one of those nights). About 5 minutes after that, Jordan comes out of his room again and says, "Dad, I'll make you a deal." Arlie and I looked at each other like he's going to get in big trouble. He just won't give it up. "Dad, you can spank me 3 times with the spank spoon if I can just have a drink." It was like getting punched in the stomach. I felt horrible. He felt like he needed a drink so badly that he was willing to get spanked to get it. Needless to say, we let him have his drink and without the spankings. He went to bed fine after that. Now I'm not sure if he was so smart to realize that would get us and he'd get what he wanted...if so...Kudos to him. He beat us :) Parenting 101, just give the kid a drink. It's not that big of deal.

One of my favorite things about spring....

One of my favorite things about spring is being able to go for walks (and not freezing). After a nice relaxing nap on Easter, we all went for a walk down to the park by the kids' school. Now that the kids are older, we don't even hear complaining when we go for walks. It's really delightful :) It makes me so happy when the kids play great together. It just makes the world feel right and good...and today they played amazing together. Going to bed, Jordan told me that this was the most AWESOME Easter he's had YET. (He did say he might have better ones in years to come). He suggested that we have another Easter in the summer except he'd like to go on vacation someplace nice like Florida to have it. (hmmm...well at least he doesn't have high expectations ;)). I informed him that the chances of that were, let's just say, very slight to none at all.

The karate man?? ;)

Basket Scavenger Hunt

We had a couple of books and a large chocolate bunny that we got the kids (only because it was the kind of bunny I wish I would've had when I was younger) that we thought we'd put them in a basket and then send the kids on a treasure/scavenger hunt. They had 10 clues they had to figure out and they had to do it all together as a team. I sent them from the back yard to the front yard to the back yard..etc. They kids were running like crazy. They figured out every clue and were thrilled with their baskets :)

Easter Egg Hunt

I don't know who gets a bigger kick out of this, the kids or us. We have so much fun getting the eggs ready. Each egg either got 3 marshmallows, or 6-8 jelly beans or M&M's. That way we could say, "You can have one egg" and know that it's not too much candy in one sitting. While I was cooking, Arlie hide the 54 eggs. We told the kids that each needed to count the eggs they found because they only got 27 eggs each and they couldn't take eggs from each other...and then we unleashed them. It was so much fun to watch. Sydney kept finding eggs and counting higher and higher. She was a good 10 plus eggs higher than Jordan. By the time she found all her 27, he had only found 16/17. He really does not see things right in front of his eyes (and no it's not because he wasn't wearing his glasses). It's absolutely unbelievable to watch. He'll walk right past them and wonder why he can't find any. Arlie and I said, this might be a good activity to do more often just to teach him to open up his eyes :) (minus the candy). After Sydney found all of her eggs, he asked her to help him find the rest of his. She found probably 6 out of the 10 left.

So apparently they both can walk right past egg and not see them

Easter

We had a surprise Easter visitor. Dayton came and visited us at 2:30 in the morning. Angie (Arlie's sister) ended up with a really bad case of food poisoning and got really dehydrated. She went to the hospital and we got Dayton. He is SUCH a great baby. He couldn't have been better. I had to teach my 2 and 3 year olds during church so Dayton sat with Arlie and slept pretty much the whole service. After celebrating the fact that we SERVE A RISEN LORD, we went home and cooked up a delicious meal. It was just our family, so it was nice and quiet. We missed our families, but it was delightful anyway!

Daddy and Jordan date

While the girls went to get pedicures, Jordan decided that first he and dad would play a game of battleship. Then they would discuss how he could earn some more money. Then lastly, they would go and play tennis. Apparently after tennis Jordan would help Arlie remove all the leaves off the plants and move all the sticks they cute down in the fall and make $3.50. He was pretty stoked about that. They played tennis (and I guess Jordan was impressed because he thought Arlie should coach his tennis team (he's planning on playing tennis this summer)). I stopped by to catch them practicing.

Mommy and Sydney date

I was looking at my toes realizing a nice pedicure may be a good idea. I also realized, as I thought about it, that Sydney would probably get a huge kick out of going to the salon and getting her nails done too and now she is probably old enough. So...I asked her. Let's just say, she decided that would be a GREAT idea. I told her we would probably be able to go either Friday or Saturday. On Friday she ran into my room as soon as she woke up, "Mom, is this the day we are going to get pedicures?" We ended up deciding to go on Saturday as a date. Sydney was so happy :) She actually got both her toes and fingers done. She loved picking out the colors and sitting in the big chairs..although she was disappointed she couldn't sit back all way so her back could be massaged too. It was really fun and so much more fun now that I can take her with me (the whole once or twice a year I actually pay to have it done :) ).

Isn't she a pretty girl?