Flying kites

C5 made some kites the other day. A piece of string, a heart shaped piece of contruction paper. One for her, one for Q3, and one for me.

Q3 tried flying them the other day, but it was not a success. Today, however, was different.

Poem for Daddy

C5 and Q3 were quite sad to see C40 leave this morning. Q3 cried on his (and then my) shoulder. And C5 put her feelings into a poem.

Snowdrops

Snowdrops have come up. The girls were out playing in the back yard (only a few inches of snow remaining! Amazing.) and must have picked all they could see. They brought them in and we put them in a vase next to some flower seeds that Q3 planted after Christmas. Which are next to the peach pit she planted and started sprouting in the refridgerator (but not in the photo).

But anyway, a sure sign of spring.



I love that they both are very interested in growing things. We have also picked out seeds for planting this year. Just waiting until we can see the ground.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Late, I know.
We went to the festival in Chinatown. I saw virtually nothing of the parade (very crowded! A hugely tall group of people downtown!) but the girls got facepaint


A dog


and a cat


C5 suggested that they change the astrological signs around so she could have been born in the year of the dog, instead of me. I guess she can work on that.

New doors

Our new back door and back door screen are installed and in and up and I'm loving it. Less drafty! Hopefully, keyless entry! Also, the kids can open the screen door themselves (so I don't have to let them in and out every 3 minutes. Q3 will especially like this feature.)

We didn't buy a new front door. But we did order a storm door. Because I put a box through the window of the old storm door, and it was so old it was irreplaceable. In a good way. We had the space measured and then we ordered the storm/screen door. But ... it has not been installed. Because ... the measurements were off. And that is why we spent the $35 to have somebody measure it. So if the measurements were off it wouldn't be our fault.

But now we have to wait a few more weeks to get a new door.

New Sofa

Well, new old. Here are the before photos. In a few months we'll get the after!

It is NOT any smaller than the one we have.

Alice in Wonderland Tea

The 13th was the originally scheduled day for the Alice in Wonderland Tea in Hyattsville. But, with the snow, they cancelled it. I was not looking forward to the rescheduled date. But I was SO WRONG. It was so much fun.

I'm just going to include photos and videos. Watch for the boys (and girls) breakdancing in the background.

Tiara time!


Brick House ... Watch C5 shakin' it.


YMCA -- Watch Q's fingers.





Your love is my love ... Q3 would NOT let go of that dog. And after C5's pratfall watch what she does (that I told her not to).


That's the way, uh huh uh huh, that's the way I like it!




The chicken dance. No chicken here.

Sleep pictures

We haven't done one of these for a while. Last night I couldn't get into the room for a photo, because Q3 was blocking the door.

Well, tonight we caught her scrunched up sleeping in front of the heat vent and with one hand under her bureau.

And what you CAN'T see in this photo is
1) The room was clean when I left her in bed. Just outside the frame of this photo is a mountain of books that she pulled out to read.
2) Smell-O-Vision. She the hand cream at her left shoulder? Lavender. She loves that stuff. Her room was ... aromatic.

Whoooops!

First, some blah blah blah: A friend suggested to me that Q3 is "sensory-seeking" ... meaning that she likes a lot of large physical sensory stimulation. She said this after Q3 spent 3 hours at her house doing things like running into walls for pleasure, and sliding down the couch, etc.

Just thinking about Q3's life, this seems entirely plausible. She isn't debilitated by it, but all these little pieces of her fall into place .... from the moment of birth she has liked to have her feet gently squeezed. She can chew gum for hours. She doesn't walk anywhere, she RUNS there. She loves to play with dried noodles (and to eat them). She went through a sliding down the basement stairs phase, where she just slid down the rough-carpeted stairs. She can sit in the sandbox by herself for an hour. She loves the trampoline. And so forth.

Not that any of this matters except in the fact that I'm trying to make sure she has enough hands-on activities to do ... especially in this indoor weather.

So, one of the things she has always loved to do is play in water. She'll take a tubby, she play at the sink, outside in a tub, whatever. In the kitchen this afternoon I suggested she might want to do some water play in the sink. She went "YAY!" and dragged her chair over to the sink, and pushed her sleeves up. I turned away for a moment, and turned back ... she'd jumped INTO the sink and stipped naked and was singing a little sink song.

Here, actually, is her end of the tubby sink song:



If I don't go ouooo -- get out of this bathtub
Then I will go down the drain
And happiness is fluffy
and I won't be friends with you

Happy Valentine's Day!

What to do when your cashmere sweater shrinks

Give it to a three-year-old!



No, Q3 is not a giant toddler, the sweater came from the notoriously petite MeMe.

Shakey Shakey

Santa Clause brought some snowglobes covered in soap. Strange idea santa, but OK. So we started attempting to USE the soap, but finally yesterday I just gave up on that, and soaked them in the sink for 4 hours. I did the same this morning. And finally, the soap all came off.

And now ... the snowglobes are free! And they are actually GLOBES. They are just plastic balls filled with water, snow, and a snowman. You and roll them and ... SHAKE them.



Good shaking!

And more work on Valentines ... but will we get to give them?

Q3 was supposed to have a Valentine's party on Friday. Nope. C5, probably would have given Valentine's at school on Thursday. Nope.

However, all week we've been working on Valentines. We've glittered and put tags on ... all that is left is to write a note.

Using glitter glue on the hearts. I thought less was more, but in the end it turned out I was wrong. More was more. And better.


A close-up of the hearts.


And with tags ...


If you haven't received one, don't despair. We haven't gotten mail for a week, so theyy wouldn't have gotten them there on time even if we had sent them.

Just wanted to share with you ...

... that February is NOT a good time to go looking for bigger snowpants and boots.

No. February is the time to go looking for flipflops and swimsuits, apparently. Not a single shop in the mall had winter clothes for sale. Yes, our mall is a lost cause in general, but I thought somewhere at the mall there might be SOMETHING.

C5 is wearing size 4 snowpants, and Q3 is wearing size 2. I mean, snowpants run big, and my children are average to small, so they FIT, but not so well.

So, a big thank you to my friend G. who just gave us some HOT PINK snowpants and some PINK boots for C5. Now Q3 can wear the whole size 4 snow outfit. And C5 will have slightly warmer feet. And she will wear the pink. Remember last year? I had to embroider a dog on the purple snowpants before she'd wear them ...

And even more snow photos

In the snowchair


Goofy C5 ... She can C40 are in the path from the side door to the front.


Snow up to her neck!


Had to rescue Q3 three times from the deep snow ... coming back from the rescue. Look down at the fence by the street ... the snow is to the top of the fence.

More snow photos

Snow. Snow. Snow. Off work again. Probably liberal leave tomorrow, but I've already taken the day off since C5 had a teacher work day. Ha ha, that isn't happening.

Anyway, here is me shovelling in the latest storm. I'm kind of in a valley of snow, above my head on each side.

Notice the hill of snow over my head. That is due to the fact that there is a driveway behind me. That plus 3 feet of snow that needed to be moved.

GO SAINTS!



C40 turned the game on, and the second he did that, Q3 jumped tummy down on the ottoman, and yelled WHO DAT! and proceeded to stare at the TV.

From another angle

See the camillia? and the cars? and the "tree" next the the cars?

The backyard ... table and chairs and play kitchen. There is as much snow above the table as it is high.


You can see a hint of the sunrise here:

Getting ready for Valentine's Day

Working on some Valentine's "cards" ... anything for these girls to do that is crafty is fun. They worked on these salt-dough hearts for at least 30 minutes without interruption. Wow.







Next step: Glitter. Ah! Have mercy on me, glitter.

Snowmageddon? Snowpocolypse?

Whatever you call it, we got a lot of snow. Over two feet. Tons and tons moved by these arms. Mountains to slip slide down. But worst of all ... it is taking down trees and bushes.

I was shoveling the stairs and thought to myself, oh, this is great, on the East side of the house there is room to put the snow without throwing it on plants. Wait?!!? Where is the camillia bush????

It was bent more than double. Our 10 foot tall tree was only about 4 feet high. I shook the snow off, and it rebounded about a foot. I don't know how well a camillia can manage after such trauma, but we may be researching new plants for next year.



Lots of snow. We played, shoveled, watched, threw. Had fun. No pictures, maybe tomorrow.

Happy Birthday wishes!

Did you think we forgot you???
Naw.

What, more snow?

A few inches, maybe 4? 5? on Wednesday. So the kids had no school.

Well, we got outside and played snow baseball (I hit the balls, they buried them).

Then the neighbors came over (ages 12, 12, and 13) and played with us for an hour and a half.









C5 Does a snow angel


C5 atruistically pulls her sister


And Q3 kicks the snow tube

Just pictures

Left over from the trip to the National Harbor. But I like them both.

snow again

It snowed last Saturday, causing a school delay Monday. It is snowing again today, which I anticipate will cause a delay at the very least in the morning. And it is set to snow again on Saturday.

SNOW!

As of last night, this would have delighted both children, as C5 was looking forward to the groundhog seeing its shadow so it would be scared and there would be 6 more weeks of winter. Q3 wanted the groundhog to see its shadow and go back to hibernation so the tiger wouldn't eat it (what?? I don't know! but we just roll with it). However, at school pick up today C5 had some different ideas ... she was upset because she didn't like the snow and cold and the legging and the days not being "choice" days (to wear leggings or not). Oh well.

So we let them wander around by themselves in the backyard, and here they are: