I know...I know...

I know I desperately need to update my blog...
And there are things you'd like to hear about...
And I probably owe several people emails as well...
I'll get around to it...
Don't take it personally.

Budding Talent

Clara has recently taken up photography.
She's especially into self portraits.
And extreme close-ups.

Wearin' the Green!

We had a long day of celebrating today. We started with some Lucky Charms and green eggs and ham for breakfast. Please note that it's still dark out. I'm having a little trouble adjusting to the time change.
It may be hard to tell, but those eggs are green. The ham is mixed in.
Then they obliged me with posing for a few cute photos.

After work we took our chances and headed to Hackney's. We couldn't find a spot in the lot, so we parked at Staples, a few stores over and hoofed it.
We were told the wait would be 1 1/2 to 2 hours. The kids played in the bushes a bit. I had a couple of books with me that we read and overall they were very patient!
Clara did have a need for some water. At first she was dubious about the big green cup, but she warmed to it.
Here's a little taste of the wait outside. It was even more insane inside.
I guess they called our name after about 45 minutes, but we didn't realize it until Pete went up to inquire about half an hour after that. We got a great seat and enjoyed the wandering musical entertainment.
Well, Clara didn't necessarily enjoy the music. She got very startled when the snare drummer started and then she sobbed into my shirt for the entire first piece of music. For the second one she stopped crying and actually watched, with her ears covered all the while.
(These pictures all taken with Pete's phone, btw.)
Our food came pretty quickly. Here's my corned beef:
And here's Henry with his Green River. Clara tried a bit too. After the first sip (her first taste of soda pop ever) she looked up and said "Wow!" Then after a second sip she made a face and declared it "spicy!" Henry, however, drank his right down.
By the time we got home it was past time for pajamas, brushing teeth and stories. Fortunately the kids went to bed pretty easily. And I'm enjoying my first night in a while without report cards looming over my head.

Holes and other things

Henry's second tooth came out yesterday. He had been working on it for a while and then it popped out while he was watching Sesame Street.
This is just a picture of Clara trying to distract Pete from the Battleship game he was trying to play with Henry.
And this is apropos of nothing. Just a picture of what our coffee table usually looks like these days.
And this is Henry playing with a chair.
This morning we finally hung up the set of glow-in-the-dark planets Henry and Clara had gotten for Christmas. We imagined that the air vent was the sun and spaced them out from there. At first we mixed up Mercury and Mars, but I think we got it all sorted out. We'll be very excited to see them glow tonight.
We also put some holes in the walls in our bedroom to (also finally) hang some pictures. It may look as if I have a stash of tea canisters next to my side of the bed. Actually, Clara was just playing with her grocery cart while I was trying to sleep in a bit and she decided to empty the cart on my bedside table. She also tucked the Gertrude doll in next to me...she's still there in the picture, in case you're looking Eleanor!
Henry received a $2 bill from the tooth fairy for his 2nd tooth. What a clever tooth fairy.
Here's another photo apropos of nothing. Can anyone tell me what is shooting out from my little plant? Or what this plant is called? It's an offshoot of a plant that's been in the family since Court Street days, but I've never seen it do this before!
And finally, Will you may want to avert your eyes. I was starting to make the dough for cinnamon rolls for tomorrow. I thought I'd wing it a little since I didn't have whole milk. Turns out that one should not attempt to scald buttermilk. I made cottage cheese. It was nasty. Fortunately I have a husband who doesn't mind running to the store for me for the 2nd time in one morning. The rolls will now be made properly.

Crazy Times

It's not even a full moon, but the kids have been a little nuts lately. Here are some of our recent shenanigans:
Last weekend we went to meet Henry's friend Jonah at a place called Make A Messterpiece (sponsored by Bounty!) You can well imagine that it felt wrong with almost every fiber of my being. But it also sounded a little fun and we've been a little cooped up, so....
The kids actually found the climbing/play area to be the most interesting part of the place I think.
But the whole concept was that there were supposed to be different places for the kids to experiment with art or other messy things...all to be cleaned up with lots and lots of paper towels! So Henry and Jonah chose to do the drumming station, which was supposed to be sort of a Blue Man Group kind of thing. It was a cool idea, but could have been so much cooler. That's kind of how I felt about the whole place.
It was also overpriced. But, the kids had fun...so it was an okay experience I guess.
Then we had wiggly tooth night! Henry worked and worked on that thing.
And he finally got it out. The tooth fairy brought him a 50-cent piece. The other one on the bottom is getting quite wiggly as well.
Friday night we went to Greenbriar to help out with (and eat at) a pizza dinner fund-raiser that the student council was holding. Proceeds went to Haiti relief. It was very cool, but the pictures are on my other camera.
Last night we drove downtown to have dinner with Russell who was in town for a project with his architecture class. He's in the program at Iowa State and it sounds like they're doing some pretty cool things. We had some beer and burgers at Goose Island. Henry and Russ talked about bridges and plans for lego ships.
I squeezed myself into the back seat so we could give him a lift to the El on the way back. Clara thought it was pretty funny to have me back there. We might need a minivan.

Clara

Here's a cute picture of Clara when she was getting ready for Anna's birthday party a while ago. I thought her outfit was quite adorable. Now, looking back, I realize this was right before she got a fever and was a little sick for a couple of days. So that might explain the expression on her face.
I wanted to post a picture of Clara because I've been meaning to make note of my current favorite thing she says. She has a renewed interest in drinking from her sippy cup. Only, she calls it "Iddy Pup". So she's frequently heard saying "Iddy pup water. I waaanit."
Right now she's at the door trying to let Franklin outside. She's saying "Uh-hel-me Mom." Which means "Help me."
And since I didn't get to her quickly enough she decided to decorate the dog gate with blue crayon. In other news of the day...Henry's taking a shower with his dad in order to get ready for a birthday party today. I'm not sure what Clara and I will do....maybe clean the house a bit. My cousin Russell is in the big city today for a class project, so we might try to meet up with him this evening as well. We'll have to see when he finishes and how much we feel like going into the city.

A Cold and Windy Day?

I'm not sure why I can't get the video to sync up right....I'll keep working with it...