Back In Business

I.am.tired.

Today was a full day.

9am softball game.

D played great at catcher.  

From there we headed to the annual Spring Fling Fair at the girls' school.

Lots of fun.

Raffle baskets, games, crafts, food, cotton candy, a cake contest, dunk tanks, bounce houses, penny candy, crafts, and face painting.

So many fun things to fit into a short period of time.  Wish we had more time to spend at the fair, but that was not in the plan for today.

From the school, we headed to a lacrosse tournament that the girls were playing in with their team today.  

The girls headed over with Peter.  I jumped in the car with my friend K and her son.  I figured with Hubby just back from a 3 day trip, it was a good time for some daddy/daughter bonding time.

And I got some adult conversation with K.  It was a win/win for everyone.  Well, at least I think everyone.  I never did hear from Hubby what he and the girls chatted about on the way.

And what a day at the tournament.  Phew.

Four games were played.  At 2pm, 3pm, 5pm, and 7pm.  In a tournament, the games are 25 minutes long.

In the first game, we had to wear pinneys since both teams were wearing red.  Here is D getting ready to play.

All the girls played great today.  And it was hot.  Very hot.

By the last game, you could tell all the girls were quite tired.  Neither team was running very fast. 

It was lots of fun.  And we were joined by my father-in-law and his wife, T.  It was great to see them and they got to see the girls play 3 of the games.

They even got to see E play goalie.  She did great.  Made a few saves.  One with her head.  It was quite a thunk when the ball hit the helmet.

It was a long, fun day.

And we were all happy to get home.  

I think the girls were fast asleep within moments of their heads hitting their pillows. Nice, clean heads after a nice, warm shower.  

Hubby was sweet enough to fix my computer troubles when we got home tonight.

Apparently I had too many pictures on the laptop.  Go figure.

So I got yelled at about too many pictures.  Ok, Hubby didn't really yell at me.  More like I was spoken to about too many pictures.

Hubby moved all my pictures onto our external hard drive.  And freed up somewhere around 80 gigs of space.

Apparently 80 gigs is too many pictures.  I disagree.  I just need more space.  

Either way, my computer is happy now.  Thanks Hubby.  Even when you're being cranky with me about too many pictures, you're still pretty sweet.

Guess I'll keep him.

potd #138.  E playing goalie today.  She loves playing goalie and I am a nervous wreck when she plays goalie.  Perfect.

Pardon This Interruption

Double grrrrrr.

Still having computer troubles.

And I have to say I don't like how loud the fan on the laptop seems to be running.

Making me a wee bit nervous.

Going to have to bring in the big guns to help me with this one.

That means Hubby is going to have to get involved.

Good things he lands from a trip to Dallas in 30 minutes.

At some point tomorrow, I will need his help.

This will have to happen after the girls' softball game at 9am.

And a quick visit to the school fair.

Oh, and then after we head to our lacrosse tournament from 12:30-8pm.

Bringing my camera with me tomorrow.

Hoping I am able to actually download those pictures onto the computer tomorrow night.

We'll see what the big guns can do for me tomorrow.

Only picture I took today was with my camera.

Felt a bit odd.

After so many months of taking a picture, or many pictures, on a daily basis it felt very strange to not take any with my actual camera today.

Looking forward to a good day tomorrow.  Filled with lots of picture taking.

potd #137.  Chocolate Peanut Butter bars.  These are so yummy.  Made them for Bunco tonight, a special request from our hosts' daughter.  And I made a batch for our lacrosse tournament tomorrow.  Yum.

Grrrrrrrr

The title pretty much sums up how I am feeling about my computer right now.

I believe I am running out of disc space.

I keep getting lots of bad warning boxes.  And I keep trying to delete files to no avail.

And my computer is S-L-O-W.

So, this is going to be a quick post.

Which is such a bummer.

The girls had a field trip today.

Up to our towns' Green.

It's a day for the 3rd graders to experience life in our town in the 1800's.

Dressing up like a child in the 1800's is expected.

All the kids looked great.

They visit the old Jail and a local museum that was the house of a prominent family in town.

They also go to the Congregational church on the Green for a mini school lesson like the children of the 1800's would have experienced.

And on our town Green itself, they do an art lesson drawing any one of the old buildings/houses. They also have a music lesson which includes singing songs from the 1800's as well as learn a dance from that time period as well.

It truly is a great way for the kids to learn about what our town was like in the 1800's. Our town was founded in 1715, so there is quite a bit of history all around us.

It was such a fun day.

And now I am tired.

And my computer is not making me happy.

Boo.

Hopefully I will get it figured out.  And can post all the fun pictures I took today, tomorrow.

potd #136.  D&E dressed up like children in the 1800's for school today.  Looking pretty good.  They had a great day.

Here Comes The Sun

Well, after a couple of rainy days the sun finally returned this afternoon.

It wasn't looking so good this morning.

But, by mid-late afternoon the sun finally made an appearance.

And from the looks of the 5 day forecast, the sun is here to stay.

Looking forward to some nice sunny days.

We've been pretty cloudy and rainy lately.  Which really can make me cranky.

Gotta say I really need the sunshine.  Changes my mood tremendously.

With the sun shining, the girls & I headed over to see my dad tonight.

He just returned from being in Florida for the winter.

He's a snowbird.

It's good to have him back.

After a nice, but quick visit, the girls and I headed over to their lacrosse game.

D played goalie in the 1st half of the game.  I have to say I get very nervous when my kids play goalie.

D spying me on the sidelines taking pictures.

This was during the pre-game practice.  She's got a bit of attitude in this picture.

I think something along the lines of, "really mom, more pictures" was being said to me.

I ignored her.



 E is #4.  She got the opportunity to play a few face-offs tonight.

She loved it.

And she scored her first goal ever tonight.

She was very excited.

And I was excited for her.

potd #135.  E fighting for the ball after a face-off.  She got it.  And it wasn't long after this that she scored her goal.

Rainout

It was raining again this afternoon.  And still is raining even as I type.

Which means the girls' lacrosse game for this afternoon was cancelled.

Boo.

Which now meant that I needed to cook dinner tonight.

Not that I wasn't going to feed my family if it wasn't raining.  But, now I really had to cook something for dinner.  And not just throw something together.

I do like to cook.  When I have the time.  And with lacrosse being rained out, I had the time.

So, I decided to make a couple recipes that I have found from a website I came across on Pinterest in the last week.

One is for Peperonata.  It is a wonderful tomato sauce made with the addition of roasted red peppers.  So, so good.

Freshly roasted red peppers.  So good.

The sauce called for San Marzano tomatoes.  Never heard of them.  Didn't think I was going to find them in the grocery store.

And lo and behold, there they were in the the canned tomato section.  Score.

This sauce was delicious.  I served it with Parmigiano Panko Herb Encrusted Chicken Breasts.  Wow.  So good.

I made some penne to go with the chicken and sauce.  So we served dinner with penne, a chicken cutlet on top and then the Peperonata over everything.  A salad on the side and dinner was complete.

Delicious.

I really think I should have been Italian.

I really love Italian food.  And I really enjoy cooking Italian dishes.

Have decided dinner tomorrow night will be the leftover chicken cutlets and sauce made into sandwiches.  Super yum.

So, all in all it turned out to be a good night.  And we have a scrimmage tomorrow and game on Thursday.  We won't be completely lacking lacrosse this week.

Now if we could just get the sun to return.

potd #134.  The Magic 8 Ball.  My friend, K, and I somehow got to talking/joking about the Magic 8 Ball yesterday when we were picking our kids up at school in the afternoon.  Look what I found today in Target?  Had to buy one & with a quick text to K, I got one for her too.  The girls & I had lots of fun playing with it this afternoon and evening.  Could become an excellent parenting tool.

Cinna-Yum!

Let me start this by saying I love cinnamon.

Cinnamon Toast.  Cinnamon Rolls.  Applesauce with cinnamon.  Cinnamon sugar donuts.

Anything with cinnamon.

So today I went grocery shopping.  Just to pick up a few things.

And I strolled down the cereal aisle.  Looking for a cereal for D&E.

They get bored with the same old, same old.  I wanted to find something new.

I saw that the various varieties of Cheerios were on sale.

Chocolate Cheerios.  Just bought those a couple weeks ago.

Fruity Cheerios.  Bought those last week.  D likes them, E doesn't.  Still have some left.

Looking down the line of Cheerios, the Cinnamon Burst jumped to my attention.

Hmmmm.  Those sound yummy, I thought.

So, I grabbed a box and tossed it into the carriage.

Not thinking too much more about them until we were home tonight.

After dinner, I decided to open the box and have a taste.

Oh boy!  Yummy.  And that was only after I tossed a couple of them into my mouth.

The girls tried them too and both agreed they were delicious.

After tasting a few more, I decided that they reminded me of a churro.  And I love churros.

If you like cinnamon, try them.  If you like cereal, try them.  If you like Cheerios, try them.

Really, just try them no matter what.  They are quite yummy.  And I haven't even had them with milk yet.

potd #133.  My new favorite cereal.  Cinnamon Burst Cheerios.  Is it breakfast time yet?

Sunday Songs on Mother's Day

After a relaxing morning at home, we headed to church for our morning service.

Here are the songs we sang:

Fortress

My Life Is In You, Lord

Ancient Words

Just a Closer Walk With Thee

Ancient Words is one of my very favorite songs.  Love the lyrics.  They are just beautiful.

Mother's Day is always a nice day to be at church.  There is a wonderful tradition of recognizing all the mothers, grandmothers, and sometimes(when there is one at the service) even great-grandmothers during the 1st part of the service.

The church buys many, many carnations.  And all of the children & grandchildren are encouraged to go up to the altar and get a carnation for their mom or grandmother(or perhaps great-grandmother).

This goes for young and old.  It's sweet to see the grown children getting carnations for their moms and it is always sweet to see the young dads carrying their babies up to get flowers for the new moms.

Even now, my 2 carnations are in one of my small coffee pots on my kitchen windowsill.  Love them.

This morning I was treated to breakfast in bed.  Oatmeal with blueberries, strawberries & pecans and coffee.

And my sweet girls gave me the sweetest "card".

D&E started working on this Friday after school down in the basement.  I wasn't allowed to see it until today.

They wrote the sweetest phrases to me.

They each have such loving, kind hearts.  Guess Hubby & are doing something right.

I love that they worked together to make this for me.

I also love that E made sure to do the petals on the flower like a heart.  

It's a sure keeper.  May have to bring it out in the teenage years.

I told them both this morning that the best Mother's Day gift they could give me would be if they didn't fight all day.

They didn't.  And that made me very happy.  

I joked with them at bedtime tonight that tomorrow might be Mother's Day Part 2. Just for the no fighting!

D picked this rose bush out for me at the local garden center.

After going out for Indian for lunch, we headed to the garden center to get some flowers.

E picked out this white peony.  

I picked this miniature lilac.  It is called a "Bloomerang" lilic bush.  It is supposed to bloom 2 times.  Once in the spring and then again during the summer.  All you have to do to get it to re-bloom is cut off the flowers from the spring when they are done flowering.

Pretty D.  Love those blue eyes.

Pretty E.  Love this natural smile.

D&E at just over 8 weeks old.  My goodness, where have the years gone?

Sometimes motherhood is hard.  Sometimes it's easy.  Sometimes it's fun. Sometimes it's frustrating.  Sometimes it's sad.  Sometimes it's comical.

But, through it all there is the love.  

And there really is nothing like the love a mother has for her child/children.  

I lost my own mom a long time ago.  Now being a mom myself, I wish I could tell her how much I love and miss her and appreciate all the things she did for me. And I am sorry for driving her nuts.  

Love my girls.  So much.  

Even when they are driving me batty.  

And I just love the random hugs I get.  Sure hope they don't outgrow those.

potd #132.  I just love my Mother's Day banner.  D&E were just too cute giving it to me this morning.  Happy and proud.  Simply adorable.