Spring Break

This week at art class, Daphne drew this nice picture of what Spring looks like here in Virginia.  Usually, this doesn't happen for a couple more weeks, but Spring is early this year.  Our pink cherry tree isn't peaking, yet, but it's doing this:

Spring Break starts when the school bell rings this afternoon.  In Texas, it was always in March, but having it now, the same week as Easter, is fine by me.  There will hardly be any school left when the kids go back after break.  Only one more grading period, and POOF!  Summer vacation!  Which is also fine by me.  I am looking forward to a little break from all the school activities.

Spring break should be pretty fun.  I think Daphne and I might go to DC on Monday for the day, since we can.  And I am planning to take her for a sleepover at Scout's house.  Kev will get some time off.  And there will be Easter with her cousins.  I hope the weather is nice for all of that.  It seems like it rained out the Easter Egg Hunt last year.

Tonight I am going to the Hunger Games movie with some grown-ups!  I never do things with grown-ups!  So this will be great.  I hope the movie is as good as the reviews are saying.  When books turn into movies, I never usually like the movies as much as the books.  I didn't like the The Help movie, really.  It's never like I imagine it when I'm reading.  But I'm looking forward to the night out with friends, and also to the music.  This movie has a soundtrack that includes Neko Case, The Decemberists, and The Civil Wars.  You can't go wrong there.

And this weekend, we have NO plans.  NONE.  No birthday parties, no Daisy things.  NOTHING.  I am going to hang out with my family and appreciate every single minute of it.  And if there are grits to be eaten at some point, even better.

Daphne will be getting off the bus any minute, so Spring Break can officially begin.  Woohoo!

PS.  We listened to KISS in the car this morning when we went to Wegman's.  Good times.

The WIP (Weekend In Pictures) - Plus Monday

Tired girls at the end of three hours of games and crafts.

Daphne learned to tie her shoes, so she got some new ones.

It rained on my tulips.

Breakfast at Shoes.

And on Monday morning, we saw this pair of hawks on the way downtown to deliver some donated Girl Scout cookies to the local women's shelter.

This was an extremely good experience for Daphne and I wish the whole troop could have been there.  This makes every moment of Girl Scout Leader Stress totally worth it.

Favorite quote of the weekend: "Can we listen to KISS?"  (Daphne)
Favorite food of the weekend: Friendly's hot fudge sundae with coffee ice cream.  It nearly killed me, but I'd do it again.

Creative Spelling

Daphne's teacher sent this paper home with a note today.  She was supposed to write a sentence with the word "has" in it.  She said, "This is about Daddy! It says 'He has a handsome bow tie!' "

Yep.  This one's going straight into the keepsake box.

Fog

Yesterday, I was in a fog both figuratively and literally.  I had one of those nights where I woke up at 3:00am and couldn't turn off my brain.  I dozed off a couple of times briefly.  Once, I woke up because I had a dream that my next door neighbor built a giant ramp in his back yard which he was using to jump his (3-story) house with a motorcycle.  He botched the landing and I could see him though my window, writhing in pain, doing a silent scream.  Nice, huh? Then, I managed to doze off one more time, minutes before my alarm woke me up again.  So, I wasn't in great shape yesterday.

When I looked outside, I saw a very heavy fog.  Daphne was up early too, so we decided to take a foggy morning walk.  We went down to the Leesburg Restaurant for breakfast.  I had cold biscuits and gravy, which was really disappointing, but I was too hungry to care.  Virginia is supposed to be technically "the South" but it sure doesn't show in the food.  There is no place to go anywhere around here for breakfast where I can get decent biscuits and gravy or nice cheesy grits.  Mmmmm...cheesy grits...

I spent most of the day being a zombie, and then had to go to a girl scout leader meeting last night.  I don't remember much about it.

But today, the sun came out.  And my tulips went from this:

to this:

The hyacinths are so pretty,

and the cherry tree in the back yard is peaking.

I got a lot done today.  I worked out, mailed some packages, and got all my paperwork done for the Girl Scout cookie sale.  Cookies are DONE!  I made some phone calls and returned some emails and basically got caught up on a lot of things that needed catching up on.  It's good when the fog lifts.

Trap

So, this year we had our act together and Friday night we set our leprechaun trap.  Note the tiny bottle of Guinness we used for bait.

It must have worked, because early (VERY early) Saturday morning when Daphne woke us up to check the trap, we found that the beer was gone, and in its place were some gold dollar coins, gold chocolate coins, and a pretty big mess.

And because I was feeling nice, there were Lucky Charms for breakfast. 

We'll get you next year, Mister Leprechaun!

Visitors!

Last weekend, Kev's mom and dad and their good dog Hunter came to visit.  It was an action packed visit.  

We went to Gettysburg and learned a lot of things, most of all that "Gettysburg is not really the best place for 5-year-olds."  But it was still cool and interesting, and I want to go back and do a tour.

We did get a really good lunch in the town.  And you certainly can't beat an Irish pub on St. Patrick's Day. 

 Plus, there was ice cream.  So, the trek to PA wasn't a total disaster.

It's always good spending time with Mimi and Papa.  Thanks for coming down!  Next time, maybe we'll just go to the movies!

The Great Stromboli and Mimso the Assistant

When Mimi and Papa came to visit, they brought Daphne a magic set and she loved it.  She's actually pretty good at the tricks too!  Lots of drama.  Imagine that.

Hot Tuesday

Yesterday, it was hot outside.  Too hot for March, anyway.  Daphne and I went to our friends' house after school for a playdate, and we let the girls go outside to draw with sidewalk chalk while we had a cup of coffee before walking to the playground.  Imagine my horror when we headed outside only to find the word POOP written in giant letters - by GUESS WHO - in the driveway.  And if you look under the word, you will see it was...um... illustrated.  There were even stink waves.  Now, both girls were involved in this, but mine was definitely the evil brains behind the operation.  So embarrassing.  I made Daphne change the O's to smiley faces while I changed the P's into flowers.  Meanwhile, my friend captured it all on film while trying not to let the girls see her cracking up.  Thank goodness she has a good sense of humor.  We MIGHT get invited back.  Someday.  But I bet there won't be chalk.

Sometimes I just don't know about Daphne.  We've got a real Bobby Hill on our hands, I reckon.  It's only a matter of time before she starts trying to play Kev's guitars with slices of cheese.  I wonder what Hank would do if Bobby wrote POOP on Dale's driveway.  I guarantee he wouldn't laugh and blog about it.

POOP.  It's such a funny word.  But you still shouldn't write it on people's property.  My apologies to the D. family.  I am so very very sorry.

After the play date, I did not feel like cooking. Or being inside.  So, since Kev was home early, we all walked down to the Cajun place for dinner out on their patio.

Gumbo.  Aaaaah, yeah.  Just what I needed.  Nothing like a nice bowl of gumbo to help you forget all about an embarrassing poop incident.  And I bet you a million dollars that's a sentence that has never been written before.

One Hundred

Today is the Girl Scouts' 100th birthday, so we dragged ourselves out of bed really early to join the rest of the troop for the leading of the Pledge of Allegiance on the morning announcements.  (If I didn't already appreciate Daphne being in afternoon Kindergarten, I do now.)  In spite of the lost hour of sleep, the girls did a great job and got compliments from the Principal and the A.P.

So, Happy Birthday, Girl Scouts!  It is in your honor that I will now take this nap.

Spending the Weekend Outside

On Saturday, the Daisies had their first Cookie Booth.  At a winery.  It was a really nice day to be outside, and they sold all the cookies they needed to sell. The girls were supposed to be all business and stay at the booth, but there was sunshine and a big open field, so they ran and ran as if it was the first time they'd ever been outside.  I couldn't blame them.  I kinda felt like running, too.  By the time it was over, I was exhausted from all the fresh air and corralling of 5 year olds, so it was good that we had plans to go to the movies with one of Daphne's friends. Sitting in a nice dark theater sounded good to me.  The Lorax is a pretty cute movie with a nice message, and the girls had a good time.  After the movie, there was pizza and chocolate cake and coffee, and even though it was decaf, I woke up at 4:00am and couldn't go back to sleep.  I think that as frustrating as that was, it helped me adjust to Springing Forward, because I had no trouble getting up and hour earlier this morning.

Sunday, we worked in the garden.  Kev got the beds ready, I pulled up last year's herbs, and we planted some new ones as well as some lettuce, carrot, and snap pea seeds.

Everyone pitched in, and it was actually kind of fun.  The bulbs we planted last fall are sprouting and blooming, and they make me happy.  This little corner was such a mess before Kev pulled up all the weeds and fixed it up for me so I could get the bulbs in.  The hard work has paid off.

Our last job was hanging the bird feeder that Daphne made with Girl Scouts at the library.  Bring on the birds!

Then, we had hot dogs and vanilla milk shakes.  The weekend was good.

It is going to be in the 70s all week.  Kev's mom and dad are coming Thursday, so I'm glad we'll have nice weather.  I am going to try to ride my bike at least once this week.  I think the groundhog was wrong.  Oh well.  You win some, you lose some.

Yarn-O-Rama

My friend Anne sent me this book recently.  I love it.  It's all about yarn and knitting and magical boxes and being kind to people. The minute I read it, I knew I wanted to share it with the Daisies.  So, I began a search for yarn-themed activities, and ended up planning a really fun meeting for this week.

First, I asked around town and found a person who hand-spins wool into yarn and was willing to come demonstrate for the girls.  She seemed a little nervous, but she was great!  She brought them each a little ball of roving, straight from a local sheep.  The kids couldn't stop touching it and smelling it (?!) and playing with it.

Then, she showed them her spindle and spun a little yarn while they watched.  The girls were a good audience and asked a lot of good questions.  This was by far our most successful "guest speaker."

We talked about things you can do with yarn, and I showed them some knitting needles and a couple of my projects.  Then, I showed them a couple of things that kids can do with yarn, like these yarn dolls and "embroidered" cards:

Finally, it was time to let them make something on their own.  I gave them each a little cardboard wheel and some yarn, and showed them how to make these fancy braided  friendship bracelets:

I wasn't sure how this would go.  I was worried it would be too hard for them, or that by the end of the meeting they would be bored with all the yarn talk.  But they LOVED it!  They were all really concentrating and working hard, and they did a great job with almost no help from the grown-ups.  It was the quietest I have seen them all year.  They kept coming over to show me their progress, all proud.  It was cool.

I think the moms in the group enjoyed the meeting too.  By the end, a couple of them expressed an interest in learning to knit.  Yay!

So, thank you to my friend Anne, for sending me such an awesome book and inspiring a really fun Daisy meeting.  I think I'll go work on my sweater...