T-Ball

McIver's first t-ball practice was Saturday morning.  He has been looking forward to this since the fall and was so excited to go.  There are 3 other boys from his class at school on his team.  Will had Tex with him so he wasn't able to take too many pictures.  But, he did manage to get a shot of him at bat and running the bases.

This is going to be a busy Spring.  McIver has started going to the golf clinic on Tuesday afternoons and stays late at school on Thursdays for tennis.  So far, t-ball is only on Saturdays so we can manage it all.  Still waiting to find out when Olivia's soccer practices will be.  Fingers crossed that it will be a day that doesn't conflict with everything else going on.

Valentines Dinner

Will and McIver treated Olivia and me to a delicious Valentines Dinner last week.  We didn't lift a finger while they made nachos and tacos for us. McIver loved being in the kitchen with Will.

Stirring up the brownies.

Olivia snapped a picture of us preparing our plates.

Loving on each other - it WAS Valentines Day, after all.

And, of course, a picture of Tex ... just because.

More Snow

We stopped by Grandma Myrtle's house on our way home from Macon so the children could see her.  It was a quick visit, though, because we wanted to try to get home while there was still snow on the ground at home.

Olivia made a heart in the snow.

We LOVED watching Tex play in the snow.  He was ALL over the place jumping and biting at the snow.

What a sweetie!

Olivia throwing snowballs at Tex.

Snow!!

Olivia and McIver had a blast playing in the snow in Nanoo & Pop's backyard.

He had just thrown a snowball at Olivia.

She didn't seem to mind.

Once the hot tub warmed up, Pop carried McIver out in the snow.

Olivia ended up wimping out so he was in the hottub all by himself.  He didn't mind one bit!

Happy Valentine's Day!

McIver's class was instructed to make some sort of Valentine to be shared with the class last Thursday.  McIver and I decided to make salt-dough ornaments together, then he wrote the names of each child on a little tag that said Happy Valentine's Day.

We started with salt, flour and warm water.  McIver was very meticulous in his measuring.

Rolling out the dough is serious business - he had to take off his sweatshirt.  He rolled them out and we used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to cut them out.  McIver used a straw to poke a hole so we could thread ribbon through them and make an ornament.

We baked them for 2 hours and the next day, we painted them together.

Olivia got in on the painting/glittering.  She cut out red paper hearts and wrote out her own Valentines for her class.  She gave everyone a DumDum lollipop.  (She had to redo several of them b/c she left them out and Tex helped himself to about 5 lollipops!)

The final result - you might notice the extra heart and XXXs and OOOs for Elizabeth.  Apparently, she's the girl who currently has won McIver's heart.

Our house in the snow

Will managed to get a picture of our house in the snow. Wish we had been here to see it for ourselves, but sure appreciate that he knew I'd want a picture.

SNOW in Macon and Columbia!!

The kids and I came to Macon on Thursday afternoon so that I could have my first official weigh-in with Pop's MediWeightLoss Clinic. (Results are good but that's another post.) After my appointment, we picked up Moe's for lunch and took lunch to Grandma Janet. While we were there, it really and truly started to snow! The kids ran around her little garden area and took all sorts of pictures (which didn't really show anything but wet dots on the ground) and came in to report how many MORE flurries there were than when they last reported, about 45 seconds earlier. They just couldn't believe their eyes, especially after we saw so much snow on the ground in Vail, but never saw it fall from the sky.

We made it back to Nanoo and Pop's house before the real stuff started to fall and stick. I went to Grandma Myrtle's for a quick visit and decided I'd better get on back to Nanoo's before the temps dropped and the roads got too icy. By that time, the snow was starting to stick. Olivia and McIver tried to make snow angels and hearts and catch snowflakes on their tongues. I got some pictures, but will have to post them when we get home.

Will sent this movie he took of Tex playing in the snow at our house. I feel like a bad mom for missing his first snow experience! Looks like he had a ball, though, and didn't miss me one bit.

500 piece puzzle

When GranGran and GranDaddy were here last weekend to see Olivia's play and stay with the children while we went to a rehearsal dinner, GranGran and McIver started a 500 piece puzzle that McIver had received as a birthday gift back in October.  Actually, Ginny and I started the puzzle ... McIver pretty much lost interest before we could get all the pieces turned over.  We all ended up working on the puzzle at some point over the next few days and finally finished it last night.  

I guess we should call it a 498 1/2 piece puzzle.  One piece is missing and we found the other half of the other piece on the floor under the table.  We can only assume that the other piece has been ingested by Tex.

American Heroes

Olivia was a Native American in the 2nd grade play last week.  She worked hard to learn her lines and was very concerned most of last week when there were still a few children who had not learned theirs.  All was well, though, and the performance was fantastic.  Every student had a speaking part - some more than others, and of course, there was the one funny kid who sang his little heart out to the amusement of the audience.

Nanoo was supposed to come for the Thursday performance, but couldn't because Cacoo was unlucky enough to catch H1N1 flu.  Yuck - glad she's feeling better, though.

GranGran and GranDaddy were able to make it for the Friday performance.  And, Will was even able to be there. Olivia was so glad to see us all there on the front row.

The Puzzle Master

McIver loves puzzles!  He told me that his teachers and friends at school call him "The Puzzle Master."  So, we spent part of one afternoon last week doing puzzles.  It's one thing (that doesn't involve electronics!) that he'll spend a good amount of time on without being distracted by anything or anyone else.

Later this week, they'll be celebrating the 100th Day of School.  Each child was asked to bring in 100 'things' that can be counted and sorted by the class.  Of course, McIver counted to see if he had 100 Bakugan cards, but he's 7 shy.  So, he spotted the '100' on the puzzle and decided to take that instead.  He thought he could just throw all the pieces into the bag and call it a day, but I made him count out 10 stacks of 10 pieces so he could be sure there were 100 pieces.

Olivia and Kate LOVE to play together.  Here they are sporting their semi-matching jackets.

Tex update

Tex is getting so big!  He no longer sleeps in his crate downstairs.  Now, he sleeps on his 'big boy bed' in our bedroom.  The first few nights were a little rough when we felt like we had a newborn in the house again.  I barely slept because I was so intent on listening for him to go into the bathroom and start digging through the trashcan, or -worse- Charlotte's litter box.  One morning I woke up and stepped on something squishy and wet - thankfully, it was only a camellia blossom which he loves to bring in.

We've had lots of cold weather lately and Tex has figured out that the best place to be (if he can't be snuggled up next to someone on the sofa) is on top of the vent in the kitchen.

McIver does a great job of getting up and dressed to he can play with Tex every morning before school.

On the days that I don't drive carpool, the kids like to put him on a leash and run around the front yard with him. (PS:  Check out Olivia wearing a BOW in her hair for the first time in 2 or 3 YEARS!  I probably shouldn't admit how happy that made me, but it did.  She wanted to look nice to make her Japan presentation at school.)

Tex spent yesterday afternoon playing outside with Skittles.  Actually, he spends most afternoons outside playing with Skittles, but yesterday, he came home smelling more like a dog.  It probably has more to do with the fact that he's growing up than that he was playing outside.  But, we decided to give him a bath in my bathtub anyway.  He really didn't mind it too much.  Olivia took some pictures:

He was happy to be served fresh, cold water while he was in the tub.

He looks a lot like Murphy in this picture.