Spring Break

Spring break was interesting this year because I had two weeks of it. The first week Emma had school off and the second week Mike had school off. Let's just say it took me a while to catch up on the cleaning. The first week I actually babysat most of the week so Emma and I didn't get a lot of quality time together, but she loved having her friend, Blake, over all week and we did a few fun things. We went to a few different parks. One of the parks was really cool, Emma calls it the Spiderman park because it has a huge web-climbing apparatus. It was built on a landfill and it is huge. It has a dog park, Frisbee golf, archery, trails, kids' parks, etc. We had a picnic and played for a while, it was a lot of fun.
My little spider monkey.


Peek - a - . . . . .
. . .Boo!


That Friday Emma and Anya got baby sat at their cousin's house while the grown-ups went to see a Mariners spring training game. It was fun, but Mike didn't get to see Griffy play and we lost. Well, Mike was sad about the loss, but I wasn't because I'm an A's fan. The next week Mike and I did stuff around town most of the week. We watched a movie at home, played games, and played a little softball at the park. One day we went into town and went shopping and went to a movie. That was probably my favorite day. It was fun and relaxing and so nice to have so much time to spend together.

One Proud Mommy

All of my "kids" have been doing some pretty awesome things lately so I thought I would update.

Every day, Emma puts her shoes and socks on in the car on the way to school. When we get to school, I tie her laces and she is on her way. The other day when we got to school she came up and said, "Mommy look!" She had tied her own laces! I asked her how she did it and she explained and I was very impressed. I tried teaching her how to do it a couple of months ago, but she just wasn't interested in trying. I have a feeling that this is how Emma is going to learn most new things: decide that she wants to learn it, then succeed. It is how it happened for learning how to ride her bike and tying her shoe laces. I think I am going to have to learn how to let Emma learn to do things in her own time. Way to go Emma!

Here's another funny sleeping picture. I don't know why, but I just love these!
Miss Anya has hit her vocabulary explosion and she has been talking up a storm. She repeats words that we say all the time and she has started using sentences which sometimes use real words. She has been expressing so many things with her words and it is so much fun because she has this tiny, cute little voice. (When she's not yelling, which she does often whether she's happy or sad.) My favorite things that she says are "bauble" for bottle and "appy ju" for apple juice. My really proud moment was a couple of weeks ago. She wanted something from the table and she started to whine. Then, she stopped herself, thought for a moment, looked at me and said, "Peese." What a cutie!!

"I'm getting soooo big." I am in love with this new dress that she has, the picture doesn't do it justice. It has this cute little white collar and real pockets. So cute!

Here's the thing that makes me smile the most because it is so ridiculous! I have been taking my dog to obedience school and she has more or less learned how to listen. (She's kind of a spaz.) Anyway, she had her "Doggy Graduation" the other week and it was so ludicrous funny. They played "Pomp and Circumstance" and everything. Can't you tell Foxy is so excited to be there?
(I would like to clarify that I look the way I do because I had just finished with a game of ultimate Frisbee right before obedience school. On a random tangent, I was just thinking that if my dad were still around and I told him we were going to obedience school, he would have asked if it was for me or the dog. : )
Anyway, back to my Foxy. Whoever said herding cats was impossible has never met my dog. We used to have problems with Saturn (our cat) trying to sneak out of the back door, but we don't have to worry about it any more. Every time she tries to do it, Foxy herds her back in the house. It is so funny to watch. I absolutely love it!
Another thing, (I think there is something wrong with me that the part about the dog is longer than the parts about my kids. I am such a nerd!) Foxy caught a vole outside last night. Mike said she had cornered it, but she was just playing with it, so he had to finish the job. It is very reassuring that the dog will keep out the rodents and the cat will keep out the spiders. Hopefully we don't have any encounters with scorpions any time soon.

I Need a Potato Master

So, I don't know if anyone else has this problem: I am a decent cook and I can make most dishes turn out alright, but I cannot bake a potato to save my life. I would say my baked potatoes turn out really well about 5 % of the time. I can do great mashed potatoes, potato salad, roasted potatoes, but the baked potato continues to allude me. The great tragedy of this inadequacy is that twice baked potatoes are one of my very favorite foods.

I NEED you potato master. I know there is someone out there who can help me with my plight. Come to me (or I'll come to you) show me the way of the potato. Let me watch your masterful hand. Help me achieve one of my life's goals of being able to bake a potato right 100% of the time. (Okay, I'll settle for 95% of the time. )

I'm not joking, if you make good baked potatoes, please help me. How do you do it? Tell me in detail.

BTW what do you guys put in your twice baked potatoes?

Pick Me!

Hi All! So good news, I found my camera cord. YEAH!
For the actual reason that I am blogging today: I follow this amazing blog called Not So Idle Hands that has so many fun projects that I do all the time. Anyway, they are doing an awesome giveaway for a cute clothing complany called Mikarose and if I blog about it, I get my name entered in the contest. So here I am, blogging about it. Cross your fingers for me so that I can win something fun. Cause everyone knows that you never have enough clothes. (Hey that rhymed!)

Crazy Hair Day

This week was spirit week at Emma's school and we had a little fun on Friday which was crazy hair day. When one of her classmates heard about crazy hair day she said, "Mom, that's great! I just don't have to comb my hair that morning."
Emma wanted to do something a little more simple, but I persuaded her to be a little more wild. For those of you who knew me in high school, I tried to instill in her the idea that we held firm to: when you do spirit week, you do it all out. I had fun telling her some of the fun things that my friends and I did for our spirit weeks. Emma was converted to an 80's Cindy Lou Who and we both had a lot of fun in the process.


After school, we went to the park and hung out with a bunch of the moms and kids from Emma's class and it was so nice and relaxing. I thank my friend Diane so much for taking the pictures for me because sadly, tragedy has struck the Chipman household and we cannot find our camera battery charger. I am at a loss what to do and am fearful for my blogging outlet as it is temporarily stinted significantly. Alas, we will eventually prevail and either find said charger or pay an arm and a leg for a new one. C'est la vie!