Joyful, Joyful

Just when you think life is dragging you along,

you put down the dish rag,

walk past the dog hair,

round the corner and wonder why everyone is being so quiet,

and you see something like this...

Smile, take a sip of coffee... all is well!

Great Backyard Bird Count

Baby Bee - A reminder to me of what Bri was like as a baby

We call her baby Bee... like a little bumble bee.  Some call her breezy. 

Life with Bee has been crazy.  She has finally given up spitting up all over the place.  She eats everything in sight.  No kidding.  For at least 6 mnths now she has been eating regular table food.  She recently ate a whole piece of papa john's pizza.  Her favorite food is green beans and she loves blueberries as well.

She laughs and smiles all of the time.  Soooooo unlike her brother did when he was this age.

She is pulling up and standing up and just starting to cruise the furniture.

She is sooooo easy to put to bed.  You just give her a bottle and then put her down after she drinks it.  She never fusses.  She sleeps... like... 12 hours a night.

She's such a joy to be around.

Great Backyard Bird Count

Hockey

Tonight the Capitals play the Sharks at 7:00.  Do you have your hockey gear ready?

Let's Go CAPS!!!!!

Great Backyard Bird Count

Birthday Recap

Someone had a birthday.

So, the night before his big day we made cupcakes for all of his friends at school.  Lulu was never much of a helper in the kitchen.  But, Bro has to be in to everything I do.  So, he helped me put the liners in the cupcake tin.

And then he modeled his new skates that Daddy bought him.

Then, he selected all of the colors for the sprinkles for his cupcakes. 

Lulu's schedule was too hectic on Bro's birthday, so we celebrated with a birthday breakfast the next day.

He insisted on having a butterfly cake like the one in this book.

And Fairy Grandmother delivered.  Look at her awesome cake.  All of the colors are perfect.  The head, the nose, the antlers... all are exactly like the book!  Our birthday boy was delighted!!!

Before we ate breakfast, he wanted to open his gifts... and play in the boxes.

One of the other greatest joys of being a mother... one that I would never understand, since I am an only child... the surprise of my life... is watching my children interact with each other.  It's little unplanned moments like this that just bring tears to my eyes.  {{let me pause while I look at this for a minute}}

Who can resist purple icing?

Happy Birthday Little Man

Great Backyard Bird Count

Life with Boys

The first movie that we took Bro to see way Toy Story 3.  He has been in love with Buzz and Woods ever since.

You know... one of the joys of being a mom... is the little surprises you find in the house.  {{ahem... some are better than others}}

I just had to take a picture of this little gem I found on the kitchen counter one morning.

It is a replica of the moment in the movie where the toys trap Buzz Lightyear under a see-through rubbermaid bucket.  Awe! 

This makes me happy!

What little joy makes you happy?

Great Backyard Bird Count

Mirror, mirror on the wall

Our bedroom is on the main level of the house and has these horrible, awful, no good, very bad mirrors on the door.  Picture awful 70s... uh... uh... yuck.  It's just a total eye sore.

Just as I had come to the conclusion that I had to rip them off...

I saw this little wonder...

And I thought that maybe the mirrors aren't so bad right now.

p.s.  but I am going to take them down... and paint the door... and hang something really cute on it.

Great Backyard Bird Count

We interrupt our regularly sceduled programming to remind you...

that the Great Backyard Bird Count is coming soon
- February 18-21 to be exact.

Participation in the bird count is easy:

Step 1.  Watch birds for 15 minutes.   (You can do this at home with your jammies on - it's that simple.)
Step 2.  Write down which birds and how many of each bird you see.
Step 3.  Enter your data on the GBBC website.
Step 4.  Repeat.  This part is optional.

Printable instructions from the GBBC website are here.

You can read all about my Great Backyard Bird Adventures too.  Gee.. I think this will be our third year participating.  Right?

Also, I discovered this great bird book:  it is Lois Ehlert's Feather's for Lunch.

Feather's for Lunch is for toddler to age 8 group. 

It is about a cat who is looking for lunch.  Don't worry, you never really get the feeling that any of the birds are in danger. During his quest for lunch he encounters 12 of the most familiar backyard birds of North America:  Northern Cardinal, Northern Oriole, Red-winged blackbird, Blue Jay, American Robin, Morning Dove, Ruby-throated Humingbird, American Goldfinch, House Sparrow, House Wren, Northern Flicker and Red-headed Woodpecker.  The illustrations are gorgeous as the illustrator hits each and ever major identification point on each bird she depicts.  Bonus: it is available in Spanish as well.  {{wink, wink - this is for you Mrs. Bird.}}.

Also, we spend a fair amount of time chasing away the squirrels.  Thus, I thought I would give them equal status with their own book by the same author. 

I hope you plan to participate in the

Great Backyard Bird Count this year.

It's super easy and super fun!

Great Backyard Bird Count

Lego Backyard

This is what happens when you let Daddy help with the Legos.

You get a backyard complete with a deck, trees for privacy, and your own hockey rink.

Really?  A hockey rink?

Keeping the Legos on the train table is our attempt to keep them away from Bri.  I don't think it's working.

Hahahahaha.  I just noticed that this "dream house" is also a bank (note the sign on the roof). These guys crack me up!

What kind of Lego creations appear in your house

when you aren't looking?

Rumble, Rumble, Monster Max

Are you reading Trucktown books to your kids boys?  If you are not then you need to be. 

I don't even know how I discovered Trucktown books.  I think my nephew asked for one for Christmas... {{many of my AH-HA boy moments come from my sister-in-law}}. 

For example: 

AH-HA --  GEO Trax are way cool {{dare I even suggest that they might be a tad cooler than Thomas}}. 

AH-HA -- Shake-N-Go cars are fast and fun!

And lastly...

AH-HA -- Jon Szieszka's Trucktown books are... well... almost worth their weight in gold. 

I really fell in love with the Trucktown books when Barnes and Noble offered a free storytime video of Smash Crash online. If you search real hard, you can still find it on the Barnes and Noble website. Or, you can watch the youtube video here. 

Moving on.

So, I borrowed Truckery Rhymes from the library {{and returned it on time... thank you very much}}.

Then, I bought Bro a copy for his birthday and it is THE book he asks for every night. I like Truckery Rhymes because the author turned regular nursery rhymes into truck rhymes. So, we sing our way through the book each and every night. It really is quite lovely.

For example... instead of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, we are singing Rumble, Rumble Monster Max.

Sing along, won't you?

{ahem... to the tune of Twinkle, Twinkle}

Rumble Rumble Monster Max

Can you jump those junkyard stacks?

Up above the trash so high.

Like a rocket in the sky.

Rumble Rumble Monster Max.

Yes, he jumped those junkyard stacks!

Do you have any little girls or boys in your home? 

If so, this is a great fun read for mom and kids!

Fastest Read Ever

Have you heard about these Hunger Games books? 

The premise of the book is that a bunch of teens are in a government-sanctioned "game" where they kill each other and the last one standing "WINS."

Ewww... right?

I would normally never be interested in a book like this.  Alas, people keep reading it and saying that it's soooo good.  What is wrong with these people? {{People = facebook acquaintances and random bloggers}}

Finally, I succumb to the pressure... and bought The Hunger Games.  Ahem... and I read it in one weekend.

 Then I flew through Catching Fire. 

And, now I am in Mocking Jay.

The whole back story to how all of this comes to be is fascinating.  I hung on every detail.  You should definitely read the set of books, if you have a chance to... well... at least read Hunger Games.  I'm pretty sure you haven't read anything quite like it before!

Did you read The Lottery by Shirley Jackson?  It was the first short story that I read in my high school Literature class.  The set-up to Hunger Games started like The Lottery; all of the activity about a "game" makes you think you are getting a "game" and the game is something really different.  Read The Lottery (it's free and online) and see if you see the similarities.  WARNING:  The Lottery has a rather unhappy ending which is different than The Hunger Games.  I was so shocked to be reading this in high school.  Who writes that stuff? It made such an impact on me that I never forgot it.