spring break

Spring Break started off with a bang -- the biggest snow storm of the year!  Even ISU was cancelled so it was nice that Matthew didn't have to go teach.  We got to play outside and even go sledding!  It was actually a beautiful day.

 Then we went down to St. Louis for three days later in the week.  On Wednesday we went to the Magic House.  They had a fun exhibit where the kids help solve a crime and one of the activities was to crawl through the heating ducts and then go down a slide.  I saw a sign that said you needed to be 5 to go and told Phin that it was fine.  There was a girl sitting at the entrance and she looked at Phin and asked how old he was.  He said 4 and she told him he couldn't go.  I ran over and said, "His birthday is tomorrow!  He really is old enough to go up there.  Is it okay?"  And I knew I totally sounded like I was lying!  I mean, really, tomorrow?  Haha.

 ::Eating snow is one of Phin's favorite pastimes.

And the highlight of the day was when Lucy left her retainer at a restaurant -- her second lost since she first got the bite plate at the end of January.  Wonderful.  Then on Thursday, which was Phin's 5th birthday, Matthew and I went to the temple in the afternoon and we all went to the zoo in the afternoon.

 ::Right after this picture was taken, Matthew told Ibby to touch the bird.  She dutifully obeyed and was rewarded by almost being bitten and being squawked out loudly.  She cried.

 ::The birthday boy got to ride on a train around the park.

We went to the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner that night and then went to the Cahokia Indian Mounds on the way home.  For some reason no good pictures of that, but we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves -- even with no proof!

the law of entropy

This morning I had a super idea!  Hey!  Why don't I give the baby his own broom so he can sweep with me, and won't steal mine so that I can actually get the floor clean.  It was pretty cute as he grunted while helping me move the chairs and stayed so busy.  It was not as cute, and I soon realized my folly, when he discovered that his most favorite thing to do was to get the bristles of his little broom up under my pile and fling all of the detritus far and wide -- completely undoing all of my hard work.  This is pretty much my whole existence.  I just get the kitchen clean and someone comes in to have a snack; just get in the last load of laundry and someone changes their clothes; just mop the floor and someone walks across the floor with muddy shoes, or eating a juicy piece of fruit while walking and dripping (grrrr); pick up all the books and hear the blocks being dumped out; change a diaper and smell some new little gift -- I could go on and on!

But at least I'm kind of trying to keep ahead of the chaos.  I always think of the Orson Scott Card character who is always whittling away at a piece of wood so that something in the universe is being created instead of everything disintegrating into nothingness.  Ooh, does that mean my sweeping is some how a creative endeavor?  Reaching much?  Yes.  I still need to find something a little bit more artistic to fulfill that need.

Does anyone else feel like all they do is run in circles?

actual product tinier than it appears

 

I got this in the mail today.  I had thought I was getting a great deal on a cute banner for the boys' room, but for its diminutive size it looks like it was more of a rip off.  I guess it is a lesson in reading the fine print a little closer.  1 inch vs. 12 inches = huge difference!  But it does give me a business idea... get the kids to cut out teeny tiny triangles and set up shop!

little fox box

So I gave up shopping for lent (haha) but planned ahead by pre-paying, or rather subscribing, for a fun little box that comes every single month.  I've gotten three months so far and everything is so cute!  It's called Little Fox and you get a few baby/kid type things and an exclusive tee shirt. 

::Phin likes getting packages

 ::And opening them!

 

Oh, baby just woke up.  There is simply no time to pay this blog the attention it deserves!  Oh well.  Chat with you all later!