Butterflies

GEMS went to the beautiful Franklin Park Conservatory for a tour of the gardens and a lesson about butterflies.

The conservatory has some amazing Chihuly glass sculptures on permanent loan and the tour ends with a butterfly release in the garden.

Even the moms got in on the action.  Everyone commended me for not freaking out when butterflies landed on me.

Bad Dreams I Have

These are the recurring nightmares I have been having most of my life.  They are listed in no particular order.  Feel free to leave a comment telling me yours.

1. I am back in college and it is finals week.  I realize I am signed up for a class that I have not attended all semester.  When I explain the situation to "the office" they tell me there is nothing that can be done and that I should take the final and see what happens.

2. I am running and a giant ball of dried glue is chasing me and bowling me over.

3.  I am at my childhood home.  I start to walk around the neighborhood and realize there are wild and rabid dogs and hyenas prowling around.

4. My teeth itch and hurt and then I taste blood and reach up and realize my teeth are falling out.  I have googled this one and it is a classic dream to have if you are a control freak and feel out of control.  Well, that explains it.

Easter

Dyeing Easter eggs.  So easy and stress free now that my girls are almost 7 and 9.  Although I messed up and didn't so much hard boil my eggs as poach them.  @#easterfail  That didn't ruin the dyeing, just the breakfast the next morning.

We celebrated Easter at our house with our good friends from church this year. Look how cute these kids are.

The girls set the table pretty:

And we made this cross cake.  This actually took me longer than the whole rest of the meal put together. My sister's mother in law makes this with red velvet cake but i just made mine white.  The blood red just seems a little too "Eucharist" to me.

The food.  I just learned how to roast carrots and now I make them a lot.  I don't even usually like cooked carrots.

Pretty girls in last year's dresses.

Getting ready for the egg hunt:

My friend and her little one:

And even though we had to miss the family festivities this year, Gram and Cousin Karen both got the girls an Easter basket.  Thank You!

Gigi and Grandad Get the Tour

Gigi and Grandad came for a visit and we took them on some sight seeing expeditions. Here we are feeding the ducks at Schiller Park. 

They really liked The Book Loft.

And our favorite Jeni's Ice Cream.

They wanted to see where PD works so we went down town to the Statehouse.

We also just hung out at home a bit.  What a fun visit!  Come back soon guys!

Reasons I Currently Loathe Myself

1. I never stay current with my blog. I make myself feel better by back dating posts and reminding myself that only 8 people read my blog.

2. I am cleaning out my basement and have decided that I am a hoarder.  It is like sorting though a sea of regret.

3. In cleaning out the basement I found an old video camera in a grocery sack with 3 tapes in it.  That is the sum total of the video I have of my children.

4. At any given time there is a half of a bagel in a plastic bag in my purse.  I pack it to eat at church and usually only have time to eat half of it.  There is often also a half a bagel in the "ash tray" of my mini van. PD calls it the "toast hole."  I think because I used to eat toast, not bagels.  But always with peanut butter.

5. My hand hurt really bad and I couldn't figure out why.  I realized it was because I found a new blog I really like and I read 5 years of the archives in one night while simultaneously playing Words with Friends with PD.

6. I always stay up until midnight and then I always don't want to get up in the morning.  This is mostly PD's fault.  (see #5 ie Words with Friends)

Let Them Eat Cake...yet again

I had to include a few more pictures from the our Valentine's Celebration. Very similar to the previous years, but the girls are bigger!

Caught in the act...

That's better:

Funny faces...PK2 makes that face so PD was copying it.

Pretty girls:

To see our past family Valentine's Day celebrations put "cake' into the search at the top of the blog.

This stuff happened in February...

PD took me away for the weekend for my birthday.  Last time we went out of town overnight without the kids was five years ago.  We went to the romance capital of the world: Cleveland!  PD insisted that we eat at Lola, even though I said it was too expensive.  I ate pork belly and it was just insane.  I am my father's daughter...I absolutely loved looking out at the view of Lake Erie from our hotel room. It was like a bath for the eyes. Now that I think of it, my dad would love the pork belly too.

I have been married for 13 birthdays and many of them have been marked by vomiting, car trouble, and dangerous ice storms, so imagine my surprise when nothing went terribly wrong this time..unless you count my panic attacks about leaving the girls.  I guess that proves I am also my mother's daughter!  We also went to Westside Market.  All the food vendors looked so good, but there is a limit to how much a girl can eat in one weekend.  I had to forgo the crepe vendor, but then I promptly went home and made crepes with the girls the next week. Isn't the market super vintagy?

We got back from our weekend away and there was so much still to look forward too.  We had our family Valentine's date at Mozart's.

The girls made really cute valentines for their GEMS valentine exchange:

GEMS also went roller skating in February. Both girls are really good skaters now.

I scored this awesome heart pizza at Papa Murphys.  Then my Papa Murphy's closed...  RIP... sniff.

Gram made my FAVORITE cabbage rolls for my birthday...as if she hadn't done enough already watching my offspring for the weekend.

And the kids had to dress up as a carreer for Awana. PK1 was an animal rescuer.....youthful dreams die hard. And PK2 was a doctor because we had the costume.  When I was checking them in we noticed a few little boys in a Darth Vader costume.  PK2 says, "But mommy, that isn't really something you can be."  The force is not strong in that one.