SnOw DaY AdVeNtUrEs in SlEdDiNg

We had another snow day today!  (#5)  And another tomorrow.

This time its about 2 1/2 inches and seems more like a legit VA snow.

Mike and the kids put a bowl of water outside last night.  This morning they had an ice bowl.  And they ate some cereal out of it. 

I am not a lover of cold weather.  I turned down an offer to sled with neighbors b/c I am so bah-humbug and was so cold already.  But after an early afternoon movie for the kids and nap for me, the motivation hit me.  I had a talk with the kids before hand.  We went through the order of preparation events (only took nearly an hour and a half) and then that they would carry their sleds the whole time, up the hill, over and over.  I would be watching, not carrying sleds.  They agreed.

(High water snow pants- each wearing a size or two too small.  Peter's snow boots are a size smaller than Lily's!  But he didn't complain once.)

 We hit the jackpot.  Where have we been the last few years?!  Clearly, not at the right sledding spot.  Or maybe just with younger kids who weren't quite ready?  And I don't think we really had a good snow last winter.  We went to one of our favorite parks in the next neighborhood over.  Clearly the whole neighborhood does it.  The street that is usually empty was lined with 15+ SUVs and vans.

And we passed friends on the way in. 

Peter is heading up the hill in the red hat and black coat.

 I feel a little lame about this "dirt" hill for our CO and MN siblings, but it was still fun. The snow was worn off this part but it was still plenty frozen.  :)

 Peter's top front left tooth is loose. See the big gap forming to make room.  Similar to his lower front teeth this time last year.  So handsome!

 I have to say I don't ever claim any mom awards but I was feeling quite proud of myself for taking them out.  They just had a blast.  It was written all over them.  And I really enjoyed it, too!  I even went down a few times with them!  

It was a step back in time for me.  I wore my size large jacket from college that I bought after growing up in Brunswick.  It fits over my belly.  I wore the snow pants that I bought at the A&N in downtown Harrisonburg.  I was really hoping I was incognito there b/c I was surely a sight.

And can I say, maybe first time ever... you know there has, in general, been plenty of complaining about walking up hills and in general, I don't often feel like P can hang with other kids.  But he was rocking it!  Up that hill over and over.  They both kept going and going.  No complaining.  No asking for help.  It was amazing and not overlooked by this mama.  And as I saw lots of mamas there holding babies, I couldn't help but visualize our family as having 3 next year.  :)

DIY Sofa Recover

I started on this project the weekend after Christmas.  So its felt like the project that goes on and on.  I anticipated that there would be a little figuring it out as I went, but I didn't anticipate the amount of time it would take.  It was tedious but it's done!!!

We started off with the couch that I bought before kids (I would never have bought it after kids, had a known what I know now).  I paid $600 for it, I think.  I've been wanting to re-do our living room.  It just wasn't a room we could spend much time in because the furniture just wasn't comfortable and practical.  I splurged on some $300 "mini" chairs that I ordered on Cyber Monday.  

To avoid spending more money, I decided to just recover our current couch.  I picked out the most kid durable material they had.  I thought about having someone recover it for me, but the estimate came in at $450.  Which would make this all cost more than I paid for the couch, that isn't overly functional for our life in this season anyway.  So I decided to do it myself.
Here is where we started:
New chairs, ripped couch.

I just pulled off the reddish-pinky material, used plyers to remove all of the staples that held it on.  Then laid it out on the table, pinned it to the new material, and cut the new material in the same shape. 

Then pinned the new material on.

 I actually did this back section first and used our bottom-of- the-line stapler for this section.

It about killed me and would jam every 6 staples.  I borrowed a nicer one from a friend but then thought I had the wrong size staples so didn't work on it for a few days.  Come to find out, I was loading it wrong.  After I finally got it straight and it worked like a charm. 

I slowly did each section.

I had the brilliant idea to add extra batting to the bottom section.  I felt a little like I was dressing a wound or doing plastic surgery around the arms with getting it cut and laying right. :)

But then I forgot to cut the bottom material a little wider to accomodate for the new batting.  So I came up a little short in some places (bottom front left corner).  

Next came the hunt to find trim to cover the staples.  I didn't anticipate this would be a big deal.  But I ended up going to 3 stores before I could find anything that was at all a possibility!  I wanted something a little wider to cover my imperfect work.  I finally found something and to my surprise, the trim cost MORE than than material!!!  What on earth?!  

Again, it took me days to get all of that trim hot glued on.  But I finished yesterday!  It felt like the project that took so much longer than I thought it would but its done.  Mostly.  Mike has to finish repairing the springs on the bottom.  By the time we buy those supplies, it may have been the same price to just buy a new couch.  :)

Sleepy Head

I think of this post often and I can still visualize her sorta like this.  She is still my excellent sleeper.  (And here's to hoping this next baby picked up the same genes!!)  She often sleeps til between 8&9am.  And wakes up all wrinkly and puffy and sweetly smiling, just like in those bath pics.

I guess this past week caught up with her too.  Yesterday, she and I ran an errand and when we got there, I looked back and she'd fallen asleep.  It was about 3:30pm.  So I drove her around for a while b/c the Andrews were coming over around dinner time & thought the sleep would be good for her before friend time.  She woke up after we got home but was grumpy.  That grumpy that's just really annoyed to be awake.  The boys went up to play and she went into her room and shut the door and climbed under a blanket.  She slept through the evening and 4 boys being here.  And woke up this morning around 6:30am.  Probably because her brother had been up since 5:30am.
Fifteen hours of sleep... that's my girl!

The Last Week

First off, TGIF!!!
We had a long weekend for the MLK, Jr holiday.  
After some work around the house, it was warm on Monday so we went to a park in the afternoon.  

{Another kid was wearing a cape so Peter felt like he wanted to use his vest as his cape.}

{Other kids were walking under this hedge along the creek (a path we didn't know about before) so the kids quickly got in on the action- such a fun childhood thing to do- made me remember the fun of doing the same thing as a kid).  They both ended up with wet feet and then Peter eventually slid down onto his butt when he stepped on a slippery rock- so home we went, but with happy hearts.}

We changed clothes and then continued on for a hair cut and a grocery run.

After this pic, Peter slept the whole time in this car and Lily cried the whole time- keeping it real.

And then there was a "prediction" of snow so they cancelled school.  I was pretty bummed...  the temps were then supposed to stay below freezing for days so the snow would surely stick around for days, keeping us out of school longer.  We quick raced to a park with friends to get some outside time before the snow.

 It didn't snow til LATE in the day on the first day out... and only ONE INCH!  Now we are still home 4 days later, without having gone to school at all this week.  They also have this coming Monday off.

Its been a mixed bag.  Now that its Friday, its easier to see the week as just a week off and embrace it more, but in the midst of it, it was challenging.  Struggles with anger mixed with moments of joy.  The beginning and end of things seem easy, its the middle where it gets complicated.  School has been wonderful for Peter.  He loves the stimulation and he needs the structure and does well (I think) with the instruction of others.  So it was hard to adjust back to the less structure and stimulation.  And I worried that when he went back, he'd have forgotten.  So we worked on a few things at home.  He is also making good progress on reading. Hallelujah!
  I really want to embrace it but its the laying aside of (or lack of) my plans and agenda and exchanging that for the need for extra patience and being "on my toes" at all times for guidance and refereeing of squabbles and extra mess in the house.

The kids have thoroughly enjoyed the extra time together.  There is plenty of bickering mixed in but they can get into some pretend.  And in the meantime, pull out everything and jump from one set of things to another.  We've been trying to strike the balance of freedom to play but a conscious effort to clean up one thing before moving on.  And trying to get them to help me with the daily clean up of rooms & a slight sense of responsibility (does that exist?!).  

What has saved our sanity is afternoon activities every day!  Seriously, God's grace to us.

We've done tae kwon do, speech, dance, even "open gym" at church for me to socialize too.  And the weather has been so sunny and bright with snow on the ground!  Just cold. 

You know this mama doesn't play in the snow much... esp with a big belly.  So I've just let them tromp around a little when we are already out.  And Daddy played with them the first morning.

TGIF!!

Daddy Snow Date & More

We had a small but pretty snow yesterday morning.  The perfect kind: a little snow in the morning and sun in the afternoon.  I went out for my walk with friends and Mike took Lily out to play.  It was a big hit with her.

 We've gotten off to a good start with the new "semester".  I like our schedule much better.  Peter goes to his tae kwon do classes while its still light out.  We are still running 7 afternoon activities per week (6 for Peter, 1 for Lily) but they are earlier in the afternoon so its more do-able. 

 Peter has talked about this several times this school year and I love it.  I think he is still adjusting to not going to a Christian school and hearing about God regularly.  He told us again this week that the teachers at his school don't know that you can have God in your heart (some of them do, of course!) and that he was going to pray for them.  Then he prayed for them out loud.  :)  He also said he told his teacher that "we all have sin in our heart".  She asked him what we should do about it.  He said, "God takes it away."  And she said "But we have to help."  ;)

Break

We've had a good break.  Mike's had to work this week (poor him) and I've been grumpy the last two days (poor him again!) but feel better today.  We went out to dinner with friends last night (sans kids)... that may have helped!  Its been nice to have both kids home during the day.  And to hear their little voices in the house.

We went out for some errands on NYE.

One was buying paint to have two rooms painted on NYD.

 More fun in the cart.. 

 This was the extent of our NYE fun.  We were lame this year.  

 My parents were very generous and came up to paint with Mike on NYD.  

Its my first time to pick a color this "pale".  It does look pretty in this pic.  It feels cooler (and less homey) but I think it will just take getting used to, and rehanging a few things on the wall. 

I'd made a deal with the kids that if we did "school" every day this week, that I'd take them to see Frozen on Friday.  We decided to redeem that early on Wednesday so I could get out of the paint fumes. 

\

It was a lot of fun.  My cool kids...

Lily's been carrying around this purse (from Glenda) with her lip gloss and hair bows. :)

They have been good about doing school this week.  School with them is how I give myself a pep talk.  We've done journal drawings and sentences, sight words, reading practice, thank you notes, homework from when he was sick, counting, etc.

  Today I wanted to write one of those "dear younger me" letters but "Dear Mom to 3 year old Peter, who staggered down the hospital hall....  

Look at how he's rocking it as a 6 year old!!  His knights are fighting dragons!"

Meowy took a nap during school.

 There have been tea parties and lots of pretending.

Check out some of Peter's recent building projects here. 

Back to school and the routine next week!  It will be good, but we aren't looking forward to the early mornings!!

Loves and Letters

It is so interesting to see boy, girl differences.  I love the variety it brings.  Peter loves all things mechanical.  And Lily loves all things arts and crafts.  Peter is working on a lego set at the table (I'm working on cutting material to recover a couch), and Lily is writing letters to everyone.

 Lily got envelopes for Christmas (she's used up most of mine) and is writing letters to Daddy, Mommy, Peter, Goo, Pop, Maw and Paw.  She also drew everyone beautiful drawings on Christmas Eve morning.

 And here they are all done :)