March learning activities

Visiting the fire station....the firemen were awesome and totally gave these kids a hands on tour.

Touring the zoo for J's company party.  Comped tickets, face painting, carousel rides, and entrance to the stingray bay made for a full family day.

Attending the butterfly exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden. Awesome! The brightly colored girls loved attracting as many butterflies to land on them as possible. If you go, wear bright colors and multiple bright hair clips. 

Taking a self-tour of the local university. As I learned from growing up (thanks Dad!), a university is a great place to visit. Free, clean bathrooms, nice grounds and facilities, drinking fountains everywhere, and all kinds of displays and interactive exhibits.

Shamrock Farms dairy farm. It was a drive to get there, but totally worth it. We got to see the cow pens, smell the cow smell, watch them get milked, feed baby calves, get a chocolate milk and ice cream.

It's spring break

Enjoy!

For fun

After I was bragging to some friends about never falling asleep in the passenger seat, J shared with them this little gem. Yeah baby. I'd call that passed out.

Monkey off my back

Our 72 hour kits are done. I've got 5 backpacks, 1 Tupperware, 1 rolling duffel, and 1 bucket full of these supplies that I hope we never have to use.

Brackets

Wednesday night J spent some time filling out NCAA brackets with the big girls.

J explanied the seeding process to Lauren and told her that low numbers were better. She thoughtfully spent 20 minutes making her selections online and is currently tied with both of us in the CBS college bracket standings.

 Lauren's bracket

With Ellie, J read her the name of the two competing teams and she told him the one she thought would win. Her decision making process was quite interesting. She ended up picking teams that sounded familiar to her. For example, 15th seed UC Santa Barbara made it to her sweet 16 (Ellie BARBARA being her name). She loved Temple and advanced them several times. Of course she chose BYU and Utah State, but when it came time for them to compete with each other she had a hard time choosing a winner. She ended up going with BYU. (That's Daddy's girl). She picked Arizona (I wonder why?) to win it all over Georgetown (think Curious George). And for some inexplicable reason she loved Cincinnati and advanced them to the elite 8 as well.

Ellie's Bracket

I think this is a tradition that will definitely have to continue.

 

This little cutie pants picked up a new word this week.

The word that you hope they'll never learn.

The word that lets them stand up for themselves.

 The word that makes them think they are the boss.

Yep.

She can now say NO.

And she says it about 100 times a day.

In fact, here is a picture of her caught in the act.
 

 

In the market

So thanks to Uncle Sam we are in the market for a new kitchen table. It is time to say goodbye to my parents 28 year old kitchen table that has served both of us well.

Here are the requirements:

8 chairs
expandable to 70-80+ inches
hardworking table top
solid wood chairs
preferably pedestal legs

So far we haven't had much luck in our looking. Everything out there is either too small, to fancy, or too impractical for children.

Feel free to share any table shopping suggestions!

Getting to business

After reading this somewhat sobering article in The Economist I decided that it is time to get back to work on our food storage. I  reorganized my storage closet last month and it functions 100 times better. Now I've got to fill the shelves, re-do our 72 hour kits (including making one for Ada), and buy some wheat.  Here is a great site  to help you start the food storage process.  Get your food now while the prices are low!

Yasu sushi bistro

In February our new restaurant choice was Yasu sushi bistro.

 (photo by Mike O.)

Using the scale from 1 to 5 with 1 being low/bad and 5 being high/great Yasu was

5- food quality and taste
n/a- restaurant atmosphere
4- price
5- customer service

So we skipped the restaurant and got take-out for Valentines day, but the server was more than helpful as J ordered over the phone and we came away with some awesome rolls, fresh crab, green beans, and mustard dipping sauce. Overall it was a great place for delicious sushi.

Grow little garden, grow

Playing doctor

My kids + body orifices = trouble

Today Ells stuck a sticker up her nose. Luckily she came to me right away. With tweezers and a head lamp I got the darn thing out. This isn't the first time a girl has stuck something in a body crevice, and I suspect it won't be the last.

T-minus 6 months

The other day I calculated that my first baby will be starting Kindergarten in 5 months. KINDY!

The time has flown by.

There are less than 6 months left where I get to have her completely under my wing.

Then she is gone to the system.

Then other influences come in.

Then I don't have control over her environment.

Then it is time to freak out!

So, until then we are going to fill her cup with wonderful experiences that she can draw on as she starts  school.

Yesterday I sat down with the girls and made a list of the things they want to learn about.

Some of the items include:

weather
bushes & plants
fire stations
ballet
garbage
sports
planets
cactus
rocks
mail

We already have a trip to the fire station lined up, and we plan to visit the dump, a post office, and a spring training facility. I'm excited to learn along with her and help her discover the joy of learning how things work in the world around her.