Yum

On Tuesday I decided to make a nice dinner because Chad was leaving to Richmond the next day. I made a roast chicken using a recipe I found on allrecipes.com. Skidilie-dumptious-scrumptious. I whole-heartedly endorse this recipe.

He's in!

Colin checked the mail on Tuesday and came running into the house yelling, "I got my letter!" He recognized the logo in the corner and knew it was the letter telling us whether or not he got into a magnet school.

He did! He got into our first choice - the Chinese Immersion program. We are so excited!

Finished reading Eclipse

I made a long comment about it under my earlier post. If you want to talk about it, check it out.

Where Have I Been?

Seriously, why did I have NO idea it was the end of Daylight Savings this morning?

At what I thought was 8:10, I was printing something out and getting ready to head out the door with the family for church (we live about 35 minutes away and it starts at 9 am. Woohoo, we were actually going to be on time!) and when I looked at the time on the computer, it said 9:10. WHA?! I had to go turn on the TV to verify that all of the clocks in my house where wrong and then it finally hit me why! I still had to google it though to make sure that it was actually the end of Daylight Savings today, on MARCH 9th. So early!

We knew at that point that we had completely missed sacrament meeting and just focused on getting there in time for classes.

When I got there, one of the other nursery leaders was just setting up some stuff and it turns out that she had no idea either. We only had 11 kids in nursery when we normally have around 18, so I am guessing that there were a lot of confused people this morning.

I swear they did not announce it in church last Sunday. What is up with that?

New Moon

Thursday 10:30 am: My friend Shannon, who is helping me with preschool, tells me that I can borrow her copy of "New Moon."

3:00 pm: I pick it up at her house

7:00-11 pm: I read the book, with a few breaks to deal with kids and watch Throwdown with Bobby Flay (crepes) with Chad.

Friday 8:30 am: pick it back up

12 noon : finish it

I think it is safe to say that I am officially hooked. This book was a lot more satisying to me than "Twilight" and I can't tell you how many tears were shed over it. Yeah, I am a dork, but that's okay :o) I am used to it.

I also have Shannon's copy of "Eclipse" in my posession. I am not allowing myself to touch it today.

Crowns

We did Preschool at my house on Tuesday and made crowns. The kids really loved it. I thought this was cute picture of Colin. Not the greatest picture of Gabe, but I wanted to show the train he drew on his crown(you can kinda tell what it is on the right there towards the top).

Mud Pies!

Why is Gabe standing in the middle of the backyard, soaking and screaming?

Well, these are the "before" pictures......

Mean mommy had to hose them off after they made mud pies!

FHE

Last night's FHE....well, the lesson just turned into a wrestling match.

Then we had Candyland, where Colin fell apart because he got sent back to Mr. Mint when he was almost about to win. Here he is after pulling it together again, but you can see that his cheeks are still wet.

Gabe's way of playing Candyland is putting his man into the train and pulling him around. After Candyland we got to make Jiffy Pop (warning: the package specifically says not to use it on a flat-top stove but we chose to risk it) By the way, is Jiffy Pop always pretty chewy, or did we just get a stale pack?

Didn't spiritually get much out of the evening, but it is always good to try anyway, and to spend time having fun together!

How well do you know your candy bars?

Take this quiz and see if you are a candy bar expert! Chad and I tied with a score of 13 correct. I really want a candy bar now.

Adventures in Babysitting

Oh. My. Goodness.

I babysat three brothers all day on Thursday (for free for once). Their mom had some really important things to get done and I didn't mind. I knew they were handfuls because of previous experiences in preschool and nursery, but I have never watched them before. I kept a close eye on them for the first hour or so, but I saw that all the boys were playing surprisingly well together so I went downstairs and went about my usual business while they played upstairs. Well, quite awhile later, the youngest boy, who recently turned two, came downstairs with no pants or a diaper on and he was completely soaked. His older brother informed me that he had been playing in my bathroom. I ran up there to see what had happened, and found this......

Wet balls of toilet paper stuck to the wall, along with the dismantled roll itself.

The rest of the roll in my toilet. I dug it all out with a plastic hanger and at the very bottom was another roll of toilet paper. Thank goodness he didn't try to flush it. The toilet wads were also all over the floor and even on the mirror.

The toilet roll holder torn out of the wall.

I felt very mixed emotions about all of this. I mean, on one hand, it is just plain frustrating and angering. That was not an easy thing to clean up while watching 5 kids. On the other hand, I felt bad that I hadn't kept an eye on him better. I honestly did not realize he was capable of causing so much mischief. If he were my own kid I probably have known him well enough to know to keep an eye on him. And trust me, after that incident, he did not leave my sight. I made all the kids stay in the playroom and I planted myself right outside the open door with a book.

I felt guilty telling the mom why he was wearing different clothes when she came to get him, but she was just really relieved he hadn't flooded the house. His oldest brother informed me that he has done stuff like this before.

Does this fall into the"lot in life" category?

Playing Peek-A-Boo

Chronicles of Narnia

Being the book-lover that I am, I hate to admit that I first read the Chronicles of Narnia just last year! I loved them and wish that I had read them as a child. I loved The Lion Witch and The Wardrobe movie too. Well, Prince Caspian comes out in May and I am excited! This was one of my favorite books in the series. Here is an article about it.

I love the sight of.....

Daffodils popping through the soil! Spring in on the way!

I am just afraid they are going to bloom while we are in Blythe for vacation. We might have to catch them next year.

Copperhead Island

Gabe loves posing for pictures now as long as he can show Thomas.


I like the picture of Colin and Chad because of the faces they are making.

My birthday Part II

Well, I woke up to quite the surprise this morning! Chad had previously told me that he had a bunch of calls at work today that he couldn't get out of, but that he would try and be home somewhat early. However, this was a huge lie, and though I expected him to be long gone before I got up, I woke up to the smell of him cooking breakfast for me. He made Eggs Benedict from scratch and had fresh fruit with whipped cream on top! I think it was the tastiest breakfast I have ever had. I got to watch Bridge To Terebithia (which was a gift from my Mom and Dad) with Colin while I ate it. It was a lovely, lovely morning.

Then Chad presented a top secret folder to me. In it was the plans for my b-day. He made reservations for me at Maggiano's and then had a hair appointment set up for me after that at the hair salon that I have really been waiting to go to. What a sweetie! I decided that I would save the Maggiano's certificate for sometime that Chad and I could go together, andinstead we all went for a nice jaunt at Copperhead Island. The weather was gorgeous. Then I went for my haircut, and I really liked the salon. I haven't gotten a good picture of the cut yet- I will post one when I do.

After that we all went to Red Robin for dinner - which is a Coleman family tradition. If you didn't know, you can get a free burger there on your birthday, so now it is a fun thing always do. It helps that we all love burgers and their's are soooo tasty. Whew! What a day - now Chad is putting the boys down.

I am going to post pictures seperately because I forgot to load them on here before I started typing and I don't feel like re-writing all of it.