apology to rachel... and more

First of all I want to apologize to Rachel for saying she was making up the fact that the healthy snack they tried last week was "spicy."  In the week in review sheet I got from her teacher on Friday it said that their healthy snack last week was a Radish... "hot, spicy and not very popular!"  Sorry Rachel, I guess what you tried was spicy!  She usually makes that up, so it's funny that it was actually accurate. : )

The weekend was very nice... not a whole lot going on, which is always nice.  Saturday... cleaning and got my 12-mile run in.  The longest of my training runs, so felt good to get that done!  Last I had checked the weather was supposed to be sunny and cool on Saturday... which is good for running.  Right before I started to run I saw some snowflakes!  I thought about not running, but that meant doing it inside, which would have been torture.  So, I still ran... snow and all!  It didn't snow a lot... was actually fun.  I'm feeling ready for April 16th. : )

Sunday we had Nani and Papa and Tim, Sheri, Abby and Ryan over for a cookout.  It was a lot of fun!  I'm so bummed I didn't get any pictures!  I've been trying to keep my camera on the counter, so it's easy to grab and so I actually take pictures.  But, we had it put away for a showing Saturday and I never pulled it back out.  Ahh, so bummed!!  The kids had a blast though... we're so lucky to have kids so close in age and it's awesome that we live so close. : )

[Big Sister and Little Sister]

Kate did some cooking while the kids were at school today!  She had fun making some chicken, potatoes and apples.  It was so funny to see her standing next to that kitchen.  The hat and oven mitt were great touches!  Too funny!!

Today I gave Rachel a challenge... she has to see if she can come home from school tomorrow with no marker on her hands.  She is up for the challenge, but said she'd try as hard as she could, but might still have some on her hands.  I said that's okay... as long as she tries her hardest.  I said if she has marker on tomorrow we'll try again the next day.  I think we need to give her a lesson in how to take off and put on marker caps.  It's amazing how much marker that girl gets on her. : )

The kids and I played some games this evening and one of them was Don't Break the Ice.  It's been awhile since we've played that game!  Eli isn't a fan, because he usually doesn't win.  Rachel said we'd play tonight until he won.  Thankfully, it only took two games.  So, he was pretty happy to finally win!  I was pretty excited to finally teach the kids how to set the game up themselves.  I usually have to do the end pieces, because they're hard to squeeze in... but, they finally tried it tonight and got it!  Such a milestone. : )

[notice some of the marker on Rachel's hand]

We did some shopping in our "back stairs" as the kids would say.  That is the back room in the basement.  Found the walker we had from when Rachel and Eli were little.  Kate had fun in it!  We need to get this girl to walk and are trying everything we can think of.  There's just really no interest!  So, she'll get it when she's ready.  We did put something just out of reach for her when she was sitting on the floor and we saw what seemed to be the start of a "scoot!"  Could we have another "scooter?"  We'll have to wait and see.  I can still picture Eli scooting all over the place... such great memories.  No crawling for him... just scooting! : )

I've been trying to teach Kate the sign for "more."  She's actually getting good at it.  Not sure she really understands what it means yet, but we're working on it.  This is my attempt at trying to get it on video... kind of funny.  She showed me "more carrots" alright!!

As we were trying to get Rachel to finish her supper tonight I explained that we can't always make her her favorites.  I told her that would mean she'd eat the same thing almost every night... since she doesn't have many favorites.  She was saying that she likes a lot... sandwiches, mac n cheese, etc.  Mike asked her what kind of sandwiches she likes, because she said she likes a lot of sandwiches.  She said, "peanut butter."  And, Mike asked what other kinds.  She said, "peanut butter and jelly."  And, Mike asked what other kinds.  She said, "just jelly."  Yeah, that's about it.  Somehow she made three sandwiches out of peanut butter and jelly! : )  Oh, and she likes "her favorite butter," which is Miracle Whip and cheese.  She has peanut better everyday in her lunch.  Oh well... I've heard other kids take the same thing everyday, too... so, I'm no longer worried about it. : )

Keep smiling!