Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Brooke the Builder! Appropriate gear, since she loves to take everything apart.

Olivia and her St. Pats school projects.

The girls were playing so nicely in the sunroom yesterday, allowing me to get started painting in the kitchen. But when I went to check on them, this is what I found. Olivia was quietly coloring. Two feet away from Olivia, Brooke had found THIS as a way to entertain herself. Puzzles and memory games all over the floor. It's one of those times when you just want to close the door and pretend you didn't see it. Brooke had to suffer through clean-up this morning. She was happy to help. Thank heavens I had the forethought to look at the backs of the puzzles pieces. They were each a slightly different shade of beige, so I sorted them by color instead of picture, and it went pretty quickly. I asked Olivia why she didn't alert me that Brooke was up to no-good. She simply said she was "too busy coloring", like that should be obvious to me.

FIRST LOST TOOTH!!!!

It's official!!!!! Olivia Nicole Myers has lost her first tooth!!!!! She is ECSTATIC!!!! I think the Tooth Fairy is going to have to be patient tonight because she's not going to sleep any time soon. Ha! We think she's the first in her pre-k class to lose a tooth, so she's very excited about showing everyone tomorrow at school.

We'd been working outside and came in for dinner. As I got food ready she began talking to me and I realized her tooth had turned sideways in her gum. (Ick!) I touched it and it laid down (90 degree angle) on her gum, so I asked her if I could give it a little tug. It popped right out! It is SO tiny! I remember when she got those teeth as a baby - they looked so big in her mouth! Now it's so tiny we'll have to be careful not to lose it before bedtime.

Sigh... our little girl is growing up!! It's a trip down memory lane to look at her baby pics again.

On a different topic, we forgot about the time change until we were sitting in the parking lot at church. I wondered why so many cars were already there and why there were no people in the parking lot... Duh... Olivia cried over missing Sunday School. I guess it happens to everyone...

Whoo-hoo!!

Turns out we don't need snow to slide down the lawn!! The grass isn't as fast as snow, so Brooke can ride down all by herself. She was so tickled!

I forgot to add to the previous post that both girls have a new favorite word - "myself". It is always said in a frustrated, annoyed, impatient, huffy voice - as in: I can do it myself! Sigh...

Last Week - Snow, This Week - 60's

We made dumplings again. Brooke kept asking for them and I figured I could use the practice. They turned out really well. And we steamed them this time. That worked better than boiling. I rolled out the dough and cut the wrappers, and the kids filled and pinched them. Olivia is actually pretty good at it! Brooke gets so excited about dumplings. I asked her if she did that with China Momma (foster mom in China) and she said yes. It certainly must be a good memory for her! Brooke likes her dumplings plain, while Olivia prefers soy or ginger teriyaki dip. Mark and I love spicy peanut sauce.



Brooke is very maternal. She loves to see the babies at the daycare center Olivia attends for pre-k. She also loves baby dolls. Here she is doing a feeding. She'll feed the babies yogurt and all sorts of foods. She must have seen plenty of this at the orphanage.

Sunday was gorgeous and we went to the park. It's a really great park with fantastic playgrounds. It's split into 2 sections. One is for kids ages 1-5 and the other is for kids 6-12. Of course, the kids play where ever they want, but the little playground is easy for the little kids to navigate. They can go wild without getting scared or hurt. First, we walked on the nature trail next to the playgrounds. But we didn't get very far. Seems the flood waters from all the rains have ruined it for now. Better luck later...

I am convinced that if they made adult playgrounds (and gyms and bounce houses) that the adults would come. Don't these look like fun?? I love the recliner-swings!

Mark had fun swinging with Olivia.

I just thought this was a cute pic. Brooke was pooped and never even woke up.

Monday, this is what Olivia wore to gymnastics. Last Monday? Snow was on the way! (And she had pink-eye.)

Tuesday the neighbor's daffodils were blooming! It felt just like Spring! We got some yard work done, cleaned out the car and took a walk before lunch. Last Tuesday - snow!!!!

The yard work, car cleaning and walk took their toll on Brooke and this is what happened at lunch...

After Olivia got home, we washed the car and truck. My little helpers were very excited and proceeded to drench each other (and mommy).

Mark got into the habit of lying down with Brooke at night. Now that he's on afternoon shift, Smoochy has to take over the job. Brooke doesn't seem to mind. Smoochy is in heaven.

Today, Dr. Myers gave Brooke's baby a check-up. She's a stylish doctor, wearing a flower headband to keep her look snappy. The girls play really well together now. I can leave them alone and they won't even kill each other. Of course, they destroy any room that they've been in, but... that's kids. Olivia's two lower teeth are getting more and more wiggly, especially one. She has put in a request for a Scooby Doo coloring book from the Tooth Fairy. I think the TF can handle that...
The kitchen still isn't painted. Somehow, by the end of the day, I just don't have the desire to patch and sand. Maybe this weekend I can send Mark off with the girls and get some work done during daylight hours...(yeah, right...)

More Snow!

The weathermen said it would snow again, and they were right! It's the afternoon now and it's stopped, but they say another band is on the way. Here are pics of what we got this morning. Olivia is home from school because of a case of Pink Eye. UGH. So far, Brooke hasn't caught it, so we have our fingers crossed... The schools let out early anyway, so Olivia didn't miss much.

It's the wind up....

and the throw!!!!

Starting the snowman...

The snowman was kinda leaning, but the snow was so wet and heavy we couldn't fix him. He didn't last long. He fell over and broke apart like Humptey Dumptey. Thank goodness I took the pic before he fell.

After getting cold and soaked outside, the girls came in to dry out and get warm. They had daddy's famous chicken noodle soup for lunch, with hot cocoa & Girl Scout cookies for dessert.

Time for a nap. I got Brooke up to her bed, but Olivia crashed on the sofa. (She was exhausted after screaming and fighting me about taking her eye drops. She gave in and finally took them after I bribed her with chocolate.)

And the snow has started again!!!!!!!!!

Painting the Kitchen

After we got the granite countertops, the kitchen looked awful with the old wallpaper up. It clashed big-time. So, I steamed it off. We were left with unprimed drywall to look at, but it was better then the old wallpaper/granite combo. That was back at Thanksgiving. Mark finally got tired of looking at the walls and decided he would use his February vacation time to put up the new paint. He figured he'd have 1 day of wall-repair (since wallpaper leaves behind glue and ripped places), and 1 day of painting. I didn't have that same confidence. That's why I'd put off doing it myself. Well, Mark is a perfectionist and found out rather quickly that his 1-day wall repair-job was going to take way more than 1 day. He worked hard all week, tho, and made much progress. He's back at work now and frustrated, so I guess I'll have to pitch in and give it a try after the girls are in bed at night and he's at work. UGH. Here are some pics of Mark in action.

Spackle, spackle, spackle...

The tarps he put up to keep the sanding dust in the kitchen...

Sanding, sanding, sanding...

The girls love to peek into Dad's clubhouse.

Since the kitchen was unfit to eat in while sanding was underway, the girls got the treat of eating on their trays in front of the TV. They loved it.

Rolling on the new color. It's a warm, golden beige. It looks great! But, this is just the first coat and he put it on so we could see where we have to go back and repair more dings and imperfections. Trying to make everything pefect while everything is white (drywall, primer, spackle) is impossible - you just can't see. Adding color makes the imperfections stand out and easier to address. The walls need 2 coats anyway, so it's not paint wasted. Our neighbor informed me he gave up and just painted over his old wallpaper. Mark has done an incredible job!

Brooke LOVES to help, so daddy let her help paint the accent wall under the bar. She was so proud.

So - that's why there's unprimed drywall and blue tarps in back of alot of the pictures on the blog. It'll be done one of these days, but we're not going to rush. We can eat in the kitchen again - until I start sanding. But it makes you realize how much you use the kitchen. We keep bills, keys, coats, shoes, calendar, etc., in there. It's the hub of the house! I think we'll just hire someone for the backsplash and have it done right, in just a day or two. We've served our time just doing the walls.