Sand Between My Toes

When I woke up this morning I must admit I was worried about the weather.  I was hoping for this 80 degree day like the meteorologist had said but instead it was 53 degrees (not bad), breezy, foggy, and a bit damp.  The ground was muddy and the grass was wet.  Not to worry...the kids put on old clothes and their rain boots.  We walked over to the park to play for a bit; their bottoms were so wet by the time we got home from going down the slides.  After lunch we headed straight to the bath to clean off.  When the kids woke up the sky was sunny and it was 79 degrees and very warm.  Ava and Isaiah were both excited to put on shorts, T-shirts, and sandals.

Andy started one of our landscaping projects today.  We have so much dirt around the play structure that we decided to mulch around that area.  Andy went to Lowes to buy some landscape timbers.  Tomorrow he's heading back to buy 70 bags of mulch!  The kids were also surprised to hear that we were turning part of the play structure into a sandbox.  Andy bought over 500 pounds of sand to fill this area under one of the towers.  Ava and Isaiah went with me this afternoon to get some new sand toys and then spent most of the evening digging and exploring. 

Ava reading to Isaiah before nap time.  She said, "I'll read to Isaiah because I know how to read."

Pictures in the new sandbox

I love my new sand toys!

Andy starting to lay out some of the timbers

Popsicles after dinner

WHAT A GREAT DAY!

My Three Happy's:

1) Isaiah's goofy character...this morning he attempted to "cut" his hair with a scissors...something Ava has never ever done.  He took out a little chunk but nothing too bad.  Tonight he found an old shoe that was hiding in the back of his closet.  It's a little too small for him and who knows where the other shoe is but he told me that he wanted to wear it to bed.  When we were cuddling and reading stories, he looked at his shoe and said "It says coolest little brother."  When I checked on him he was sound asleep with one shoe on and one shoe off. 

2) Watching our backyard start to transform into something even better.  Andy works so hard to make things look nice outside.  He's the best!

3) Movie night with Andy...the kids went to bed at 9:00...they were having too much fun outside!  Now it's just the two of us relaxing!

An Acrostic Friday

For those of you who don't know what an "acrostic" is...it's simply a poem (doesn't have to rhyme), phrases, or sentences that have to do with each letter of a word.  I'm sure my teacher friends will think I'm corny for doing this...but hey...why not take what I do at school and apply it to my life...right?

FRIDAY

F...Friday Night...what did we do...or in other words, what didn't we do.  When we got home from school (Andy was working at a track meet) we made chocolate chip cookies.  That then led to playing library with credit cards, the cash register, many bags, old receipts, books, and DVDs.  The kids took turns being the library worker and the patron.  After that we plugged in this old thing we have...I think it's made by Fisher Price.  It has a camera and 2 microphones.  The kids can see themselves dancing on the TV and can hear their voices as they sing.  We sang to a nursery rhyme and Dora soundtrack.  They loved this. 

R...relaxing evening at home.  So to continue on with our night, the kids read some books while I got a quick dinner ready.  Andy and I promised the kids that tonight would be "movie night."  We hardly ever let the kids watch TV.  It's usually about 1/2 hour a day (unless we're sick).  They chose to watch PIXAR Short Films.   These are the little 5 minute films that you might see before the featured presentation when you go to a movie.  Ava and Isaiah love them...plus they are filled with Disney characters.  I think you can rent this from Netflix.

I...interestingly enough...when I gave the kids their dinner Ava said, "You make great meals Mom, thanks."  The funny part behind this is that the menu tonight was carrots and ranch, apple slices, and pepperoni/sausage Schwan's pizza.  I love that the kids notice and gobble up meals like this and when I feel that I've slaved in the kitchen...no one says anything and they don't each much.  By the way, if you ever order from the Schwans man you really should try their smoked spinach and mushroom fired pizza.  LOVE IT!

D...determined to learn.  Isaiah and Ava both have a desire to learn new things.  Isaiah has been working very hard on his letters...he doesn't have as long of an attention span as his sister, but he likes playing games and working on his letters.  So far he knows the letters: A, B, C, I, S, O, and H.  Miss Ava is literally a "sponge."  She is now able to read and spell from memory these words: I, a, to, the, then, see, me, he, and, you, and go.  Two days ago she some how decoded the word "doctor" in a story and was very proud of herself.  Almost every night she says, "What new word are we going to learn?"

A...Ava was asked to be a "Little Princess" in the Slater Fourth of July Celebration this summer.  Senior girls are asked to be the queens and each one needs to find a young girl to be their princess.  Our neighbor, Stephanie, asked Ava to participate with  her.  Ava's first comment was, "I'm so excited."  She gets to dress up, ride in a convertible in the parade, and gets to be introduced on stage.  Should be fun!

Y...you know...there's something about tonight that makes me feel so relaxed.  Maybe it's because it is a FRIDAY or maybe it's because we only have 34 more days of school.  Maybe it's because this weekend is supposed to be amazing or maybe it's because I know I have 2 full days with my family.  Whatever it is...I hope this feeling stays.

Happy Friday from The Richardson's!

My Three Happy's:
1) Warm chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven.  You can't beat that!
2) Seeing my kids smile and laugh hysterically when we were playing horse and they were both riding around on my back and Andy's around the house. 
3) Tomorrow is Saturday...hope it's nice out!

The Great Outdoors

The Great Outdoors (click to view new outdoor pictures)

Nature Bunnies

Easter...here we come.  As you know our family loves to craft.  Whether it be a collage of random objects, cut up magazine pictures, or an actual organized project, the kids love anything involving glue and scissors.  When you add fun art supplies into the mix, you've got them busy for hours. 

I found this cute pine cone craft in the April edition of...can you guess...Family Fun Magazine.  I thought it looked so fun and was a must to welcome spring.  On Sunday we collected some pine cones we found at the park.  Some of these we turned into the bunnies...the others we will be using to make a mini bird feeder. 

All you need is white paint (or whatever color of paint you want your bunny to be), paper for the ears, nose (the magazine suggested to use mini pom pom balls...we didn't have pink ones...so we just made paper noses), cut up pipe cleaner for the whiskers, googly eyes, and cotton balls for the tail and feet.  The magazine also added two little paper teeth...the kids didn't want to add the teeth.  Make sure if you do this that you use craft glue...it's much thicker and dries quicker.  They loved putting this together and they turned out to be adorable.

Tuesday night we painted the pine cones and let them dry over night.

Ava carefully painting her

The start of a cute project.  I wish I had some more pictures of the kids actually making the bunnies, but I ended up holding the pine cone as they glued on the different parts.

Ava's bunny

Isaiah's bunny

Two cute little critters

A back view of their little cottontails.

My Three Happy's:

1) The consistent beautiful days!

2) Eating Spring Oreos...I love Oreos...but we NEVER buy them.  The kids picked them out.  We will be crushing them up later to make yet another Family Fun spring snack.

3) Reading stories to my kids...every night Andy and I take turns reading bedtime stories to the kids.  It's just so nice to relax, one on one, with either Ava or Isaiah and read their favorites.  A 15 minute story time typically turns into a 30 minute story time...but we love every minute!

Three Posts in One Day...Lots to Tell!

There is one word to sum up today...AMAZING.  The sun was shining, the grass is starting to get green, cardinals were chirping...I know all this sounds corny, but it really was a great day. 

This morning the kids and I took a wagon ride to school...not to work in my room...but to play on the play structure.  Ava has recess at preschool so she's become more used to playing there.  She loved showing Isaiah all the hiding spots and things she does with her friends.  We were there almost an hour and then headed home for lunch.

Once we got home they ate outside on their picnic table and played for another hour.  They both took a two hour nap and then they headed outdoors again.  Andy's parents found his old He Man castle and action figures.  Ava and Isaiah played with this for a while on the deck.  Isaiah really liked it!  I think it reminded him of Ava's Barbie castle but this time it was a "boy's castle."  I took some pictures but didn't get them loaded onto the computer yet.  I'll post those tomorrow.

After dinner the kids headed back out AGAIN with Andy to play baseball, soccer, and pirates.  They finally came in at 8:00 for a quick bath and then went to bed.  All our babies are fast asleep...including Jackson...he's exhausted when we're home on the weekend.

Another Saturday checked off the calendar.  Today flew by as the weekend always does...but that's okay...it's just another reminder that it's April and after April is May and then it's summer. 

My Three Happy's:
1) Watching Ava teach Isaiah about words and letters.  She was acting like such a real teacher today and he was really trying to learn from her...those moments are priceless
2) Sitting outside this afternoon....I was kind of lazy while the kids were napping.  Andy got home from his coaching clinic and went right to work around the yard picking up sticks, cutting down branches, burning leaves, etc.  What did I do?  I just sat.  Although I had countless loads of laundry to fold, toys to pick up, floors to mop, and furniture to dust, I decided to enjoy the nice weather and relax with my Diet Pepsi.  It was great!
3) Talking to our neighbors...during the winter it's almost as if everyone is in hibernation in their homes.  You never see anyone.  It was nice to visit with two of our neighbors and catch up.

April Fools!

I must admit that this April Fool's Day was actually quite fun.  I didn't plan any crazy tricks of my own to play on my family.  Ava and Isaiah are still a little to young to understand this silly day.  I have been collecting ideas from Family Fun Magazine over the years.  They'll be in for some surprises in the years to come. 

At our school we decided to have "Favorite Character Day."  The teachers and kids were to dress up as their favorite book character.  I was none other than Pinkalicious.  If you've never read this children's story...you should.  It's really cute and anyone that has a little girl needs to own all four stories written about this character.  I raided Ava's dress up box and came out with lots of fun pink things to wear.  I borrowed some of her pink beaded necklaces, dazzled up my normal silver hoop earrings with pink bracelets that I wrapped around the loops, wore a "light up" pink tutu, had pink fairy wings on my back, wore my hair in pigtails, and wore a pink tiara.  Hey...maybe I found my Halloween costume for next year.  Here are some pictures of some of my teaching colleagues and I from Friday.

Meet Lindsey...she was Pippi Longstocking.  This is the "famous Lindsey" that Ava has named her doll after.  I'm sure Lindsey will appreciate this being the first picture I've posted of her.

The other two gals in this picture are Gina (she was Martha) and Wendy (she was George).  I've never heard of "Martha and George" but apparently they are two hippos in a story that the 2nd graders in our school read each year.  The kids at school got a kick out of seeing their teachers dressed up! 

All in all it was a nice April Fool's Day!  Last night my parents came down to hang out with us.  We ate supper and walked up to the park to play.  The kids were outside playing until almost 8:30.  This warmer weather is addicting and it just makes you want to "live" outside.  I had to pretty much drag them into the house but they both slept well!  They had fun and always love seeing Grandpa and Grandma.

Is that Andy working at McDonalds?

At first glance you might think that Andy got a part time job at McDonald's...not to worry...he didn't.  Last Thursday our school had McTeacher's Night at McDonald's.  Teachers from our school signed up to work hour long shifts from 4-8.  A percentage of the sales earned during that four hour time period are donated to our school district.  Some teachers helped run the cash registers, others worked the drive up window, and some, like Andy, were in charge of reading the tickets and putting food on the trays.  This event was publicized and it was packed with children and their families from the two elementary schools.  We went at 5:30 and couldn't believe how crowded it was.  We're still waiting to see the profit that we made.  It was such a fun event and the kids LOVE seeing their teachers hard at work. 

Andy running around behind the counter.

We were waiting for our food and he was smiling at Ava and Isaiah.  They thought it was pretty funny to see Daddy working at McDonald's.