That kind of day

It was another rainy Saturday, and today Josh complained of a stomach ache and laid around all day. This picture pretty much sums it up.

Muffins for Moms

I attended the very exciting "Muffins for Moms" kindergarten event today, where we spent one minute eating a muffin, 10 minutes painting a flower pot and 45 minutes helping a pack of kindergarten boys build domino towers and supervising a liftoff of a Tinker Toy rocket.

Even more exciting, though, was that on the way out Josh's teacher told me she'd seen a "major shift" in the past 10 days in Josh's ability to work independently. This has been his biggest struggle this year, and I was thrilled to hear such good news. The best part is it corresponds with our recently starting a program of chiropractic care for Josh. Hopefully we're seeing some results.

Indoor Entertainment

With the current forecast at four straight days of rain, we've pulled out the trampoline to burn off excess energy. Chris seemed shocked yesterday when he realized that Molly is as hyper as Josh was--how could he have missed that?!? Molly is a very enthusiastic trampoline jumper--I've posted several pictures just because they are funny.

Here's Josh trying to throw a bent paper airplane. It didn't work out too well.
My one concern with our looming plans to potty train Molly is that without a diaper, there won't be anything to hold her pants up:

Some pictures

Nothing exciting is happening this week (yet), so here are some pictures I took of Josh and Molly outside today. They still haven't gotten the concept of a group photo.

Plugged In

The chances of English majors/writers coming out of this family grow smaller by the minute.

IKEA: Not for the Weak of Heart

Last weekend's beautiful weather seems like a distant memory, as we faced yet another rainy, cold weekend with highs in the 30s. We decided to spend the morning checking out Charlotte's new IKEA, which we've heard is somewhat like an amusement park.

It was anything but. Apparently many people in Charlotte decided to spend their rainy day at IKEA, and soon we were being pushed along in a river of people along the winding path through this gigantic store. The kids were not amused, and it was hard to let them walk because I was afraid I would lose them in the crowd. They did perk up when we traveled through the kids' section, and Josh grabbed these stars and moon light. He rarely asks us to buy him anything, so we treated him to some new lighting. It was hard to separate him from the stars and moon for the rest of the day.

We finally made it to an elevator, only to arrive at the bottom floor "marketplace," another crush of people moving through an overwhelming amount of home decor.
Needless to say, at this point we put the camera away and tried to get out of there as fast as we could. The next time we go to IKEA we'll have a better game plan, and food for the kids.

The kids got another treat tonight when Vivy spent the evening with us. I think Vivy was a little overwhelmed by the energy level here, but we have certainly enjoyed her company!

Vivy and Molly had a bath together, and then we all read Dr. Seuss before putting everyone to bed. Josh now has stars and moon lights hanging over his bed, and I think he went to sleep very happy.

The Return of Warm Weather

It was hard to believe on Sunday that a week before it was cold, grey and about to start snowing. This weekend's weather was sunny and in the 70s and 80s, and we finally got to spend some time outside.

Josh decorated our street with chalk, including writing "STOP" in front of our driveway and pointing to it when cars drove by.

Molly enjoyed sitting in the car while we cleaned it out.

Josh got in some bike riding practice for our summer beach trip, including riding with his "basket" (beach bucket) on the front of the bike.

Corporate Cup

We kicked off the racing season today with the Corporate Cup half marathon relay. We were SO happy that the weather was warm and sunny, and it was a beautiful day for running. Chris and the kids made it out to cheer me on for my leg of the relay, and they were a welcome sight at the top of possibly the longest hill in Charlotte.

Josh made a quick run out on the road to see me, but he was a little too quick for the camera.

Here's Steph coming in for a strong finish to our relay. We unfortunately did not have the camera with us when Emily ran.

The kids were not quite as excited about the finish of the race as we were, but they perked up when I raided the table of free bananas for them.

Snow Day III

We had yet another snow storm last night, so the school system cancelled classes today and is calling it a "holiday"--in return for kids now going to school on Memorial Day. I was hopeful that this batch of snow might be the kind that makes a good snowman, but it wasn't. We packed together a snowman instead and decorated it with Josh's "special" cookies and pretzels (i.e. they have no gluten, casein or eggs). Molly declared that she didn't like hats and gloves, so we used hers for the snowman.

The front page of the newspaper today had a guide to how to shovel snow.

Time to go in: