Snowy Spring Break and visions of puzzle pieces dancing in my head

March 29, 2009
Snowy Spring Break and visions of puzzle pieces dancing in my head

Things I have learned this week:

1. The weather in Iowa never ceases to amaze me!
It’s finally Spring Break, the tulips have started growing, the sun was out, and guess what?? It gave us the dreariest Spring Break weather EVER! We weren’t able to go bike riding or play tennis even once. Then, last night, we got about 5 inches of snow. What?? Dude- its April this week, no more snow allowed!

2. A puzzle with 1000 pieces is just about the right size and it must have many contrasting colors.
We started the Newschwanstein Castle with 2000 pieces. It took us 1 ½ hours just to get the edges connected. The next day we worked for 2 hours and got 11 pieces on. So, we decided to change puzzles. We finished it on Friday night and we are gluing it together. I will include a picture.

3. Doing the dentist and errands on a dreary rainy day during Spring Break is no way to rank good points with your kids towards that “Mother-of-the year” award.
We ran errands until Alayna literally dropped to the floor (flat in the middle of the aisle) in the middle of Kohl’s, exclaiming (quite loudly I might add) that she couldn’t make even one more step. We had gone to the mall to meet dad for lunch, went to Michaels to get poster frames for our new BOM hero posters, went to the music store for violin book and a trombone spit valve (yuck), went to target, went to Barnes and Noble, and went to Kohls. Didn’t get to a bout 4 other places we planned to go. Oh well.

4. When you take one kid out of the mix, often it is quieter and there is less fighting.
It usually doesn’t even matter which kid is gone. Anyway, this week Tyler got to go to his friend’s house to spend the night and play Wii. Sounds like they had a fantastic time.

5. It’s a dang good thing I can speak a foreign language.
If I didn’t speak facebook and texting language I would have been COMPLETELY lost at Kayla’s birthday party. And I am not even kidding. Bob was glad he had joined facebook too or the poking, throwing of sheep and mafia wars would have made him highly confused.

6. Who knew that teens and tweens could and would go crazy over vampires and werewolves!?!
Again, it’s a good thing I read all 4 ½ books so I could understand all the conversations. Plus, there was a huge debate over who was hotter- Edward or Jacob? Kayla had an awesome, kick-butt Twilight Slumber Birthday Party! Happy 13th Birthday Kayla!!!
She planned the whole party herself and hopefully she will post it on her blog. Her party décor was AWESOME so I will include the pics. She and Marisa even put up streamers that looked like they had been shredded by vampires or werewolves. All the girls came over for dinner ( cant remember how many girls there were) Then we all went down and watched Twilight. (By the way, I think they watched that movie about 5 times by morning- not kidding) Then they came up for cupcakes with the new frosting recipe that Kayla requested and she opened gifts.

PS- She has a facebook account now and would LOVE to have some friends.

7. I am getting old
After cupcakes, they all went down and watched movies and played the Wii until 5:30AM!! Oh, to be young with endless energy again!! They were so LOUD! Finally at 2AM, when my I could pry my eyes open no longer, I dragged myself into bed. I heard they had a really fun time though.

8. The movie “Fireproof” has some hideous acting but a really great message.
So, if you have a chance to check it out, you should. Here is the trailer:
http://fireproof-trailer.blogspot.com/2008/08/fireproof-official-trailer.html

9. Busy weeks and busy schedules never get an easier
We head back into the swing of things bright and early tomorrow morning. When the alarm goes off at 5AM I swear it feels like it leans over and smacks you across the face. Really looking forward to that. Personally, I am counting down the days to summer. We hope the weather improves so Kayla can ride her brand new bike around the neighborhood with us. The girls both are in tennis full swing tomorrow and Les Miserables rehearsals become daily for Marisa. It will be a very busy couple of months!!


*Just a reminder that all the kids have a blog now and would love to hear from you!