I'm an Etsy girl...in an Etsy worrrrrld. It's fantastic!

I'm going to try to sell some hand crafted items on Etsy. For those of you who are interested (ehem, that should be all of you), go to


http://www.sunshineandbluebirds.etsy.com/


Don't know what Etsy is? Go there and check it out--it's fun!

Vantage Point

Sitting in our chair watching the world go by in her striped tights.
She caught Luke in his underwear wrestling his Pup Pup on our living room floor.

Self portrait wtih the pesky little brother

Pup Pup after being thoroughly defeated by Luke.

Lately, Ella has started taking my camera and snapping a few pix of things she finds interesting. I find it interesting to see what she finds interesting. Hope you will, too...

Can you see me now? Good.

This may not be interesting to people but the purpose of this blog (for the most part) is to serve as a journal about our lives for the kids when they get older. I'm a dork, I know. This is more of an informative post for them in the future than entertainment for the blog faithful.

I have pretty bad astigmatism that causes really, really crappy vision. When I look at the Snellen eye chart at the doctors office, I can see the giant E at the top with my left eye but can't see it with my right. The doctor has to come and physically do a finger count for that eye (i.e. he stand in front of me at a certain number of feet away and asks me how many fingers he's holding up. For the record, he usually chooses 2 fingers but I'm not going to tell him that I'm on to him. He's my fave doctor EVER). It has gotten so bad at this point that I can't wear contacts anymore (booo!). I also have a weird condition (and I forget the name for it right now) that makes me see different colors when I'm in bright sunlight (think seeing green tones in one eye and red tones in another. I think it's cool but Aron gets mad when I say that so shhhhhhh! don't tell him). In addition to that, I also have what the eye doctor terms cataracts but they're not the typical age-related ones that you hear about. Instead of these being at the front of my eye, they're at the back and just appear as a cloudy portion of my eye. They don't bother my visual acuity at all--they're just kinda there.

Fun, huh? Well, the good news is that the good doc is able to correct my vision to 20/20 (yay!).

We decided early on that the kids would routinely be checked by the eye doctor to catch any eye conditions quickly. I took the kids the other day to my eye doctor (if any of you are in my local area and need an eye doctor just let me know and I'll hook you up with him). Turns out that Ella might (just might) be developing some astigmatism but it's nothing to be concerned about right now. He wants to see her back in a year. Luke has the same cloudy things in the back of his eyes but no astigmatism. He also wants to see Luke in a year.

Nope. That's not embarrassing at all

As a fun side note, I made the quilt that he's under when he was born (and the one he's laying on with the red in it is Ella's).

The kids and I went to McDonald's over the weekend while Aron and my Dad were on a little man date (aka they went to a woodworking show--a hobby for both--, dinner, a little shopping, and a basketball game). E and L have been after me for weeks to go to McD's because all their friends have the current toy that you get in the Happy Meals which is from the new Chipmunks movie.

Luke's selection was an Alvin figurine that says "Hello Gorgeous" every time you press his hair. Cute, right? WRONG. Luke quickly figured out that when you repeatedly press his hair, Alvin says "HELL, HELL, HELL, HELL, HELL, HELL , HELL, HELL, HELL, (yes this many times) Hello, Gorgeous" which he thinks is just awesome. He usually feels the need to shout along with Alvin "HELL, HELL, HELL, HELL, HELL, HELL, HELL, HELL, HELL-O Gorgeous!

Yes, it's as awesome as you think it is. And by "awesome" I mean it makes me want to cover his mouth with duct tape.

Disclaimer: No, I have never taped his mouth shut...yet.

You gotta fight...for your right...to Parrrrrrrrrr-tay!

This party's by invitation only : )

Photo of my mantle decoration courtesy of Ella

Yup another Ella pic (oh, and zip it about the candy cane hanging on the lamp beside it. Luke asked if it could stay out for decoration for a while)

A sampling of favors, tea cups, rings, doilies, gifts, etc.


I don't want to jinx it but I think I might be mostly ready for Ella's big tea party. Invitations are going to be handed out today. The party's not until the 6th but somebody couldn't wait to hand them out.



On the menu will be lemonade (less staining possibilities and I don't have to worry about controlling the temperature of a hot liquid like hot chocolate), PB&J finger sandwiches cut out with tiny cookie cutters, fresh fruit and heart-shaped sugar cookies. I bought real tea cups at Goodwill for the kids (not that I don't trust the kids and all but I don't want them to break mine and a paper cup just isn't the same). Note to my readers: You can find some awesome deals at Goodwill. I got each cup for 50 cents and found a bunch of still in the original package trinkets in their clearance bin for 25 cents to hand out as door prizes. The invitation requested that the girls dress in their girliest attire (dresses, dress up shoes, etc) but we'll supply some accessories like bead necklaces, fancy rings, and tiaras.



We're planning on having 4 different craft stations where the girls can make their own headbands with assorted ribbons, tissue paper flowers, handmade Valentine cards for your Mom/Dad/Grammie/etc, and make-your-own candy bracelets. Hopefully, quite a few of the girls will be able to make it because Ella is so excited she can hardly stand it. I might have to make this a yearly event--gotta justify buying 12 teacups somehow, right?

Hellooooooooo Kitty!

This is what Ella's bed looks like. YES, that's a Disney Princess bed tent on it and YES, that's a sleeping bag in there and YES, that's her little "camping" buddy featured below sleeping on her sleeping bag. She's one happy camper.

***All pix courtesy of Ella, photographer extraordinaire

My kids are so deprived

See this girl? Deprived!!
Yup, this guy, too. The picture of deprivation

I went to a doctor's appointment last week. I joked with my doctor that it was a shame she didn't have a snow day like her kids. She said that her youngest child who is 8 was disappointed there was no school because every Friday is Mad River Mountain day. The entire school goes skiing from 12-5 every Friday.

Seriously? Your school curriculum includes 5 hours of skiing every Friday?!?!

We are in the wrong school system.

Lords and Lordesses of the Rings

I help out in Ella's classroom on Wednesdays. I like to talk to the kids while things are getting set up to 1.) Be a snoop 2.) Gauge common interests of Ella's peers 3.) To make sure I approve of the kids she hangs out with (Oops...did I say that out loud?).

I asked the one kid what he did the night before. He told me he had McDonald's for dinner and then watched a movie before bed. Then I asked him what he watched. He told me it was the Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. I followed up with some movie specific questions so I would know if he actually did watch the movies. He most definitely had watched it.

Maybe my kids are sheltered but there's no way I would let them watch any parts of any of those movies. They're way too intense and violent for a 5 or 6 year old.

Am I the only one that thinks it's a little crazy to let such a young child watch that violent of a movie? Vote.

Post pool party pix

Luke had a triple serving of ice cream and a double serving of cake.
Here's the birthday boy in the brown shirt.

Here's the birthday boy's brother

All the kids decided to play pool...kinda...(Ella's in the pink shirt, jeans, and brown boots)

Swim said the Mommy fishie, swim if you can, and they swimmed and they swam all over the dam

(Does anyone else remember singing that song when they were young or is it just me?)

Luke loved tossing beach balls around...
Ella was ready to jump on in...

"So, uh, what're you doing after the party?" (Luke was trying to pick up Mason's Mom)

We went to our friend, Mason's, birthday party this weekend. The kids had been looking forward to it ever since we got the invitation. Everyone had an AWESOME time. Thanks, Tracy and Missy!

As a follow up,

I'm planning a tea party for Ella and her classmates in February. If you have any suggestions or thoughts, feel free to let me know in person on in the comments. Plans so far include the following:

Either hot chocolate or lemonade in tea cups
little Pb & J sandwiches cut out with cookies cutters to look uber cute
little sugar cookies for them to decorate
craft stations: tissue paper flowers, Valentine card making, bracelet making

I know this much is true

I've been thinking about doing this post for a while now but couldn't decide if it was blog appropriate. I hope you'll indulge me a little cathartic blogging.

Recently, I think I've hit the point in my life that my friends are no longer dating, getting engaged, or getting married. It seems I've entered a new phase in life in my friends relationships: Divorce.

The D word. It's ugly. No one wants to be a part of it or admit to being a party to it but it happens. Each time one of our friends tells us it's happening to them, it feels like a part of your past is dying. Things aren't going to be the same as the happy times you remember. There will continue to be experiences with the people as singular components but it's not the same. You hate to see what it puts them through with anguish, depression, and the feelings of failure. No matter how you explain it to the children they won't understand.

I have no idea what has made my marriage work thus far.

That being said, I can honestly say I love Aron. He's awesome in so many ways I can't even begin to tell you. Do I feel that way every day? No. There are days he makes me want to pluck his eyebrows out one hair at a time. There are days he makes me want to make his favorite meal then pour so much salt in it that it would be inedible. There are days I want to grab his ears and yank outward. There are days...well, let's just say there are days.

I'm not sure what happens in other relationships. I don't think that there is one exact formula for everyone to follow to have a successful relationship. Who knows and who cares what makes it work but what's important is that it does work. Relationships are hard and they don't get any easier as you go through life. Anyone who tells you otherwise is lying or insane or a little of both.

I know this much is true: I would rather be with Aron than anyone in the entire world. We've had good times and we've had bad times but we've had times.

It's a good thing

I've decided to follow through with something that I always say I'm going to get around to.
*
I donate blood fairly regularly, am an organ and tissue donor, and always told myself I would donate bone marrow if anyone ever needed it. I decided to get off my b-hind and get on the national bone marrow registration list (cause how am I ever going to know who needs it unless you put yourself out there, silly girl!). It took about 5 minutes online. They'll be sending me a kit in the next week or two and I'll swab the inside of my cheeks (CSI style) then send it back. It's as easy as that.
*
What's stopping you? Get on that list!

Be the Match! (click the link)

Marrrrrrrian...Madame Librarrrrrrrian

(only Music Man geeks will get that title reference)

Ella the Librarian
The customer making herselection (how could you not pick that cute little kitten???)

The placement of the "perk" of being a patron of Ella's library


Handing it to her customer (for the record, I had a choice of gold, green, or blue).

Thank you very much.

Grammie is a librarian for those of you who don't know. She mostly does the processing of the books (you know, she puts in the bar code to scan for check out and logs it in their computer database) along with assistant director duties as needed (aka hob-nobbing with other area libarary directors during brunches and such). Very rarely does she actually sit at the desk and check out the materials but she tries to make a point to do it when the kids go to her library to get books. The kids think that this is an awesome job and sometimes, they play library at our house. Recently, Grammie gave the kids a bunch of extra books she had. Ella and Luke both got a stack of books to call theirs.
*


Ella, of course, had to put her own little spin to the process. Why wouldn't the books be subject to the Ella beautification process just like the rest of us?
*
I guess.

It's real...and it's fantastic

Stacks and stacks of snow
L to R: Luke, Sam, Ella

The kids had their friend, Sam, over the other day. Aron took them outside and had them work off some energy by making a snowman.

Tommy Boy

We had a little visit from our cutie pie friend, Tommy, of Illinois (don't worry, folks, he's still a Buckeye on the inside). The kids had a blast playing with toys and just hanging out. I couldn't get a pic of all three of them looking at the camera and smiling so I'll just post all I have : )