Sunday Songs on April Fool's

Today is Palm Sunday.

We had a wonderful service.  I always enjoy listening to our Pastors' sermon on Palm Sunday.  He does a wonderful overview of what Holy Week was like for Jesus and his disciples.

It's a good reminder of what Easter is really all about.

Here are the songs we sang today:
In The Name of The Lord
Hosanna, Loud Hosanna
Agnus Dei
All is Well

My favorite from today is All is Well.

Enjoy.

Today is also April 1st.  April Fool's Day.

The girls concocted a great idea yesterday on how they were going to get Hubby. Lipstick was to be involved.

So, they were up bright and early.  Emphasis on the early.

I shooed them away and told them to come back in a few more minutes.

Barely a few more minutes went by and they were back at my bedside.  I told them where they would find my lipstick.

Now, I will say that Hubby should win the Oscar for being able to lay still while lipstick was applied to his lips.  Applied by 2 very shaky, giggly 8 year old girls.

And off they went back to bed.  For a few more minutes.  Thinking they were letting Daddy sleep a little more.  Ha.

Hubby was most definitely awake and let's just say bright red lipstick is not really his color.

The girls came back in after a bit and Hubby was great at playing dumb.  D&E were so giggly.  They really couldn't contain themselves.  After not much convincing, Hubby was coaxed out of bed to go look in the mirror.

And the shriek he gave only let loose even more giggles by D&E.  They were so funny thinking that they had really "fooled" Hubby.

All day they waited for Hubby to pull his own April Fool's trick.   And Hubby let them sweat it out.  He thought that was much better than any trick he could pull on them.

Finally late this afternoon he switched up most of their stuffed animals they have on their beds.  This was done while they were at a birthday party for their friend, T.

All the way home I was peppered with questions about what I knew about the trick Hubby was planning.  Luckily, I knew nothing.

Once they figured out what Hubby had done to trick them, they were not very impressed.

Something tells me a more elaborate trick will be planned by both Hubby and the girls for next year.

potd #90.  Hubby started painting the trim in the bathroom today.  He read my blog. And he admitted he knew what my plan was as soon as I said I would pick out a new color.  Guess after 16 years of marriage, he really does know me!

Definitely Not a Lamb

So much for March coming in like a lion and out like a lamb.

This year it is in like a lion and out like a lion.

We woke up to a couple inches of snow today.  Boo snow.

We were supposed to have lacrosse practice from 10-12 this morning.  That did not happen.  Kind of hard to practice a spring sport when there is snow on the ground.

Isn't it great that I say "we" were supposed to have lacrosse.  Yeah, no "we" about it. Only D&E were to be playing.  I was definitely not going to be playing lacrosse.

Though their coach(my friend K) has threatened to put the goalie gear on me.  Good luck with that K, I may just become a runner after all!

I digress.

At least it is March.  The couple inches that had fallen overnight was completely gone by this afternoon.

Hopefully that was winters' last gasp.

It has been tough to go from the high of summer-like weather a mere 10 days ago to a wintry landscape this morning.  It also capped off an extremely windy week.

Here's hoping April brings us some nice spring weather.  But of course, there is always the saying "April showers bring May flowers"........

Time will tell.

potd #89.  Lucy prints on the deck this morning.  

Mini Eggs aka My Easter Candy Downfall

We are enjoying a family night of watching Gilligan's Island.

It really is a classic.  The girls just love it.

And we are watching episodes from the 2nd season, which is now in color.  And the Professor and Mary Ann have made it into the theme song.

The episode we are watching has Zsa Zsa Gabor in it.  The dialogue is so funny. And it is just so funny that people constantly show up on the island and leave.  All without helping them get off the island.


Let me introduce you to my Easter Candy downfall:

Cadbury Mini Eggs.  Oh how yummy you are with your crisp sugar shell and milk chocolate inside.

I have been so good this Easter candy season to not buy any to have to eat at the house.  Because once I do, I can't help myself from eating one every time I walk by the candy dish.

So, I was back at school today to help close and pack up the book fair.  As I was leaving this afternoon, I stopped into the office to sign out.

I was chatting with the secretaries(one of them is a neighbor) and noticed that my neighbor had a bowl of Cadbury Mini Eggs on her desk.

Ruh-roh.

I ate one.  And then I ate a couple more.

At that point I told all of them that they were now watching my spiral down into my Easter candy addiction.

I left before I ate any more.

Isn't that interesting that there seem to be some Cadbury Mini Eggs in a candy dish at the house.

Ruh-roh.

I stopped at the grocery store before picking up the girls at school.  And lo and behold, the Mini Eggs were on sale.

Whatever is a girl supposed to do?  Well, buy the Mini Eggs of course!

And don't they look pretty in my white milk glass candy dish?!?!

Hubby came home and saw them in the dish.  And he said something to the effect of, oh why did you bring those into the house!?!

Hubby has lost 18 lbs. since the beginning of January.  Cadbury Mini Eggs are his downfall too.

I am sure his willpower will be better than mine.

And D&E love them too.  Their willpower is nil.

It's a good thing I waited until a week before Easter to buy our 1st bag.  That's all I am going to say about that.

potd #88.  Ahhh, Cadbury Mini Eggs how do I love thee?  Let me count the ways......blue, white, yellow, pink.  I love all of those colors.

A Day at the Book Fair

I volunteered at the girls' school today and helped at the book fair.

I love the book fair.  Mainly because I just love books.

There's nothing like the promise of some new books.  The girls love the book fair too.

We stopped on Tuesday after school.  They each picked out a couple new books. And I let them get the super secret UV light pen.  It is pretty cool.  It writes in "invisible" ink and then you shine the mini UV light that is on the cover onto the writing and it "magically" appears.

They have been having a lot of fun playing "spies".  There are a lot of secret notes being written.  And I am constantly being stalked in the house.  They are very funny. They are not very good at being covert.

So, today I helped during the whole afternoon at the book fair.  

I was lucky to be volunteering with a couple other moms who I know very well.  They were great to work with and I am so glad that my friend C knew how to work the cash register.  

I attempted to use it unsuccessfully.  After watching me mess up a couple transactions, you would never believe that in my past life I worked at a bank and managed a drawer with thousands of dollars.  Oh well.  

I blame the cash register.  It couldn't be me.  Nope, definitely couldn't be me.  Ha.

We had 3 classes come to visit and have the opportunity to make purchases or even make a list to bring home to their parents.  With the hopes of being able to come back tomorrow before the book fair closes at 11:30.

The classes that came were 4th & 5th grade.  The 4th graders were pretty good.  For the most part they walked around and looked at books.  They even made lists to bring home.  When it was time, purchases were made and they went back to their classroom.

Then there were the two 5th grade classes.  They weren't horrible.  But they definitely made me wish I really could freeze D&E at 8.

The boys were show-offs.  To each other and to the girls.  They were loud.  And they didn't really look at the books.  Some did, but many did not.  

Ack.  Bleck.  I am not looking forward to 5th grade.

The girls weren't much better.  They weren't quite as showy as the boys, but there was definite attitude.  Ack. Bleck.

Yup, definitely going to work on the freezing machine for D&E.  No turning 9 for them.

If only.

The purchasing was almost comical.  Lots of piggy banks were tapped into.  And we got a lot of sweaty, rolled up $1's/5's/10's.  Most would bring up their books, etc and just hand you the money. 

Not having a clue as to how much they spent.  Most had enough, a few we had to tell they didn't have enough money.  They would decide what they weren't buying and come back to buy what they were keeping.

Then there was the end of the day when anyone could come to buy books.  I can't even tell you how many kids we just pulled out of line, saw what they were buying, took the right amount of money and then said, "quick, go before you miss the bus!"

It was a bit nerve wracking.  I did not want to be responsible for anyone missing their bus because the line was so long.

Something tells me tomorrow is going to be very busy.  Which means the book fair will make lots of money.  Which is always a good thing for out PTO.

I am heading back in the morning to help them close up the fair.  I am sure I will be buying a couple more books.  

I just can't help myself.

potd #87.  Double stuff Oreos.  A downfall.  The girls & I had them for dessert tonight.  D takes hers apart and stacks all the creams into one cookie and dunks the rest of the chocolate cookies.  E takes hers apart, dunks the chocolate cookie parts and then eats all the creams last.  Me?  I just dunk the cookies.  Yum.  How do you eat your Oreos?

The Knit Wits

Every Wednesday night from 6-8:30 for the last 4 years Sissy & I have had knitting class.

It.is.so.much.fun.

We both had been wanting to learn how to knit for awhile when Sissy found a knitting shop not too far from her house.  About 5 minutes.  Perfect.

Even more perfect was that our soon to be knitting teacher is a leftie.  Sissy & I are lefties.  Even more perfect.

So, we asked her if she had a class we could take.

P gave us the once over and basically said we would probably be able to handle the Wednesday night class.  As we later learned, after giving us the once over P decided that we'd be able to hold our own with the Wednesday night group.

It was a bit overwhelming to walk into an already established knitting group/class.

When T aka The Queen walked into the shop that night(as Sissy & I were studiously trying to learn how to cast on) she looked at us and said, "Who the h-e-double hockey sticks are you?!"

T is so lucky we stayed.  And stay we did.  And we held our own and have even learned to give it.

Four years later and these women are some of the funniest, sweetest, kindest ladies I know.  We spend most of the night laughing, many times uncontrollably.

And it's really not just about the knitting.  It is the social aspect that means so much more than the knitting.  Over the years there has been sickness, a loss of spouse, kids heading off to college, kids graduating college, my kids starting school, getting back into the dating world and grandkids born.

The knitting shop itself has even moved.  Thankfully only 2 minutes farther from Sissy's house.

And we have all been known at some point or another to go to knitting and not do any knitting at all.

One of the best parts is that we all take turns bringing a snack.  I never really eat dinner on Wednesday night because snack is always delicious and fulfills dinner.

Tonight was one of those nights where we just laughed and laughed and laughed.  We are very funny.

It was a great night at knitting.  And I even got some knitting done.

I let Lucy out to take care of business this afternoon.  When I called & whistled for her, she came running and then put on the brakes as she got close to the deck.  And then she slunk up onto the deck.  And stopped.  She looked very guilty.

She didn't really want to look at me.  She cracks me up.  She was clean, so I knew she hadn't really got herself into too much trouble.  But apparently she thought different since she had slunk onto the deck.

There is nothing like looking right into your dogs' eyes.  She got lots of pets when she came in the house.  Silly Lucy.  Love that she acts guilty even when she doesn't do anything.

The girls had a 1/2 day today so we were able to head out and get their much needed cleats for lacrosse.  We now have our game schedule for the Spring.  We've had a few practices and they are really loving it.

D playing piano.  She is working on a song called "March Militaire" by Franz Schubert.  D takes great delight in telling me that he lived a "really long time ago".

She is really loving this song.  She likes that her fingers are always moving around on the keys.  No problem getting her to practice this song.

potd #86.  Semi-guilty Lucy.  Ahhh, those eyes.

Tickling the Ivories

Both girls take piano lessons.

I always wanted to take piano lessons when I was a kid.  We didn't have a piano. That kind of puts a damper on taking lessons.

So, I knew that my kids would take lessons when they were old enough.  No question.

D&E started lessons when they were 5.  They started with one teacher and we have since changed to another teacher.

Their 1st teacher was nice enough, but we just didn't click.

So, I got the name of the piano teacher that taught 2 teens that attend the same church as us.  They play piano beautifully, so I knew their piano teacher was a good one.

We started with the new piano teacher in the fall of 2010.  And the difference was night and day.  She is absolutely fabulous.  She is just wonderful with the girls and really knows how to get them excited about playing piano.

D is like my Hubby and can play by ear.  She is always just sitting down to play and ends up plunking out all sorts of songs.  She has figured out church songs, pop songs, and even commercials.

Playing the piano comes naturally to D.  Practicing her piano songs does not come naturally.  She would much rather just sit at the piano and play whatever she feels like as opposed to having to sit down and practice what Mrs. R has assigned for the week.

E does not play by ear.

She is always wondering why/how playing piano comes easier for D.  We spend a lot of time talking about how God gives us all different gifts.  And one of D's gifts is music.

It is hard for E to understand.  Especially when she is struggling with a song.  But, she always perseveres and works hard on the song that is troubling her.  I must remember to remind her that is one of her gifts--the gift of perseverance.

While E can't play by ear, she plays extremely well.  She works hard.  She is an excellent piano student in that she is more than happy to sit at the piano and play what has been assigned to her.

Every now and then she will try to plunk out a song or just play freestyle.

E practicing one of her songs today.  She is loving this particular song.  It is called Rockin' On.

It is definitely a song that is stretching her playing abilities.  And like she always does, she is rising to the occasion.  It is a very busy song and keeps her hands moving.

Serious E.  Concentrating on her piano playing.

Because I have never played an instrument and can't read music, it never ceases to amaze me that D&E can watch both lines of music at the same time and move their hands where they're supposed to go at the same time.  My brain hurts just thinking about having to do all that.

Sometimes E grumbles about taking piano.  Even though she really enjoys playing.  I have told her that she needs to take lessons through 6th grade.  I am hoping once she gets that far she will continue on for a bit longer.

I was so proud of her today.  Both girls are practicing songs from "The Sound of Music" for their piano recital in June.  E is playing "My Favorite Things" and D is playing "Do-Re-Mi".

E was practicing first today and all of a sudden I heard her plunking out "Do-Re-Mi". She wasn't looking at the music for that song, but had just hit a couple notes and then continued on with the notes until she had a good chunk of the "do-re-mi-fa-so" part played.

At first she didn't have it completely right, but she kept messing with the notes until she had it figured out.  That was one of the first times she's ever done that.  So proud of her.

This is E playing her song "Rockin' On".  I happened to video her on my phone last week.

potd #85.  E playing piano.  I am so proud of how hard she works at piano.  She is an excellent student and plays really well.

Old Towel Bar + New Towel Bar = Paint The Bathroom

Hubby and I bought a new towel bar on Saturday.  We also bought the matching toilet paper roll holder.

The towel bar in our main bathroom upstairs has needed to be replaced for awhile.  I can't even count how many times the bar has fallen when pulling a bath towel off of it.

It was great to finally pick out a new one.

Then Hubby went to install both the towel bar and the toilet paper holder yesterday afternoon.

But, the towel bar is longer than the one we had.  So is the toilet paper holder.

So, Hubby needed to fill  the old holes before putting up the new fixtures.  Out came the plaster.

Hubby filled the holes.  Then the holes needed to dry overnight.

Tonight the holes needed to be sanded smooth.

Now the walls need to be touched up with paint where the old holes have been covered.

So off to the basement Hubby went to see if any paint was left behind by the previous homeowners.

He found some.  He brought it upstairs.  And then he gave me an option.

I love options.

Hubby showed me the gallon can of paint and said, "This is the paint color for the bathroom.  You can either bring this to the paint store and get them to mix a quart of paint to match or you can pick a new color to paint the whole bathroom."

Hmmmmm.  Let me think.  Get a quart of boring, blah white/cream paint to touch up a couple of spots OR pick a fabulous new color that will liven up the whole bathroom??

Gosh, which should I do?

I answered pretty quickly to Hubby, because this was a no brainer, "Oh, I am definitely picking a new color!  Really?  You're ok with painting the bathroom yourself?"  Remember, Hubby is not a fan of painting.

His response was something to the effect of "yes, I will paint it.  Bathrooms are pretty easy to paint."

Of course, I am thinking that perhaps we can get a new light fixture too.  We have been talking about that for awhile as well.

And I am thinking some new knobs for the vanity might look good too.

Never mind that I may mention to Hubby that painting the vanity might help give the bathroom a whole new look.  Or maybe he will get the idea himself when he reads this blog??

And there is the project of framing our giant wall mirror that I have been talking to him about.

Little does poor hubby know that these new bathroom fixtures are turning into our very own version of "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie".

Ours is more like,  if you buy new towel/toilet paper roll fixtures for the bathroom you will have to fill the holes of the old fixtures.  And after filling the holes, you'll have to paint the walls. But when you look for paint you realize it's old.  So you'll pick a new paint color for the whole bathroom.  And when you pick a new color you will need to replace the light fixture.  And after replacing the light fixture, you'll want to paint the vanity.  After painting the vanity, you will realize you need new knobs for the vanity. After buying new knobs for the vanity, you will want to add pretty moulding around the giant wall mirror.  And never mind the artwork for the walls that will be needed after all is said and done.

Phew!

I can't wait to go to the paint store tomorrow.

potd #84.  Three bananas that are perfect for making banana bread.  And 3 bananas is just what my Banana Bread recipe calls for.  Perfect.  My job for tomorrow morning--baking banana bread.  Yum.