The Pledge of Allegiance and Spiderman Pancakes

Saturday night I let the kids stay up WAY too late. So when bedtime did come they were both delirious and ready to sleep. Ellie had picked out the bedtime story and we read it quick. Then it was time for prayers which Ellie said she wanted to add something special after "Amen", so said "okay". We did our prayers (Ethan likes to add fun things like "God bless the door, and the light, and Buzz Lightyear, and the Cat, etc...I think it is a way to procrastinate), and then Ellie added her special ending, which happened to be the Pledge of Allegiance. She made us all put our hands on our hearts and do the pledge. It was kinda humorous, but wonderful that she thinks things like that are so important to say and that we should be blessed for our country. I love my kids, and I love that they were out like a light last night :)

Sunday morning we chose to sleep in late, which was fine with me because my back was hurting and I didn't want to mess with getting tired kids up and around early. Of course, late at our house is like 8am if we are lucky. Since we didn't have anywhere to be (we skipped church, sorry!), I decided to make "special pancakes". Ellie requested that I spell her name out and give her a peace sign heart. Sure thing, master chef Tara can do that! I didn't ask Ethan because I wanted to surprise him. I made him Spiderman pancakes! How cool am I?!?! I didn't think they would turn out very good, and there were a few "duds" before the ones on the plate came out, but all in all I was pretty impressed with myself. Both kids were happy and they ate some more regular pancakes later, but the Spiderman/Name pancakes tasted the best :)

Now what does the Pledge of Allegiance and Spiderman Pancakes have in common? Well to our family that is just another weekend, to me personally it is one of the many joys of having my kids.

A day for "wub."

Yes, I said that right. A day for "wub." "Wub" is the word in our house for "love." Ethan has started telling us he "wubs" us, and so we have all began to start saying "I wub you" to each other. So it being Valentine's Day makes it the Day of Wub.

While it was nothing special (no bouquets of roses or gourmet meals), it was a generally nice day. I took the day off to go to Ellie's school party, which means, since I took a day off from work, someone would need to go to the doctor. It is a given that I can NEVER take a day off work without someone getting injured or sick on that day requiring me to give up any "me plans" and turn my attention to them. Today it was Jerime's turn. On Saturday he ran 20 miles at the Psycho WyCo "Run Toto Run". Which, congrats to him because that's more than I would be crazy enough to do. Of course, being the crazy guy he is, he ran with his ankle hurting so he came home with Achilles Tendinitis. Now Jerime's left ankle is about twice the size of the right one, and of course in extreme pain. I'm sure you can guess when he decided to go to the doctor for his ankle...today, on my day off. But oh well, my day turned out better than his though...he starts physical therapy tomorrow morning and is not suppose to run for 4-6 months (she suggested he start biking instead of running)...I highly doubt he will follow through with her advice though.

After the doctor's office I was off to the Lakeside Valentine's Day party, which was fun, but no pictures because of course my battery went dead the second I walked in the door at the school. Story of my life!! Kids had fun, got sugared up and then came home with a big bag of candy.

Ethan's daycare had to unexpectedly have their V-day party today (instead of the planned tomorrow), so he made a visit to daycare on his normal day off. He had fun and also came home all sugared up with a big bag of candy.

We then all exchanged cards and little boxes of candy (the kids got little boxes of cookies too). It was nice. Then as Ellie was doing her homework she stapled her finger. Thankfully it didn't do anything but leave a little spot on her nail (stupid cheap stapler won't even staple paper, let alone a finger). Thank goodness for overpriced Lisa Frank band-aides though (they come with extra stickers to decorate the band-aids), because after picking out stickers for our boo-boo we forgot all about the pain :)

Hope everyone had a great Valentine's Day and you got to spend it with those you "wub!"

Family time

Wednesday night I took the kids to the Pittsburg Public Library's annual Valentine's Day Tea Party. We watched a puppet show (which Ethan actually sat through), played "London Bridges ", and sang/danced to the Chicken Dance (Ethan just stood in the middle of the circle and looked at everyone like they were crazy). Then we went and had "tea" and snacks. Ellie was such a great helper and always made sure Ethan's cup was full.

Here's some pictures :



















In addition to our fun filled Wednesday, I thought I would have a fun filled Thursday, so I took Ellie to her school skate night. Ellie was having trouble skating and she stayed on the side carpeted area, so I decided to skate with her - at least it would get her out on the floor. Granted it has probably been 15 years since I have roller skated and I was a little worried I might fall. But I didn't!! Honestly, I had a blast skating with her. At the end I felt great for our bonding, and Ellie was on Cloud 9 because her mom skated with her and she didn't have to hang on to the wall. Glad she is still at an age where it's "cool" to skate with mom :)

I really love these moments :-)

Welcome 2012!

So 2011 brought us lots of fun stuff. Just in the last few months we have had lots of excitement. Ellie started 1st grade in August and turned 7 in October. I swear, she's 7 going on 17....lots of attitude there. Ethan turned 2 in August and has definitely pushed the limits of the "terrible twos". Recently we had to go to the ER because of his monkey climbing that caused him to fall on an end table and bust his mouth open. Thankfully no stitches and no major dental work needed. In December Jerime graduated from PSU with his BS in Commercial Graphics (he graduated with departmental academic honors too!). I finished up my second BS in Justice Studies through Fort Hays State University in December also. Needless to say we are all glad that the "academics" are done for awhile. Of course Jerime and I have both been looking into Masters programs, so I'm sure that we are not done with school yet :) With such a fun year behind us, 2012 has a lot to live up to, but I'm sure it will be great!

As for the New Years Eve bash....it was invite only, and only 4 were invited (Jerime, Me, and our two little spawns). The night kicked off with some pizza, homemade cheese dip (Jerime did awesome with that), s'mores (made in the oven), and some Sparkling White Grape Juice in some fancy plastic cups. All the food was great, the drinks however looked pretty but no one really cared for them. With all the sugar the kids were pretty wild and started to crash hard, so we kinda fibbed and said that the ball was dropping at 11pm when it was midnight in New York, and "celebrated" then. Ellie unfortunately didn't even make it to 11pm so we had to look on YouTube to see a video of the ball dropping that she missed. Ethan did not really care though. Then Jerime and I waited until the real midnight, but being the tired parents we are, we fell asleep on the couch before midnight.

So our New Years Eve was full of family fun, and was safe and happy (of course with a couple of sugared up kids it got a little tense and crazy at times). Hope everyone else had a great evening and has a Happy New Year. One of my MANY New Years resolutions is to keep up with my blog since I'm not so busy with homework anymore, so hopefully I will keep up with this thing in 2012.

Ethan enjoying his s'more

Ellie sugared up with chocolate all over her face.

Our "Sparkling Grape Juice"

The yummy s'mores we made (delish!)