Jump Rope for Heart

Today was the much-anticipated Jump Rope for Heart celebration at Josh's elementary school, where kids who have raised money for the American Heart Association were recognized. Josh has been talking about this event for weeks, mostly because the PE teacher apparently made quite an impression on him when she told the class they could throw a pie in a teacher's face or get some kind of super-duper splash rocket if they raised a lot of money.

I have worked hard to help Josh understand that raising money for charity is not about getting a prize, although he really has to restrain himself when explaining that Jump Rope for Heart is about raising money for people with "sick hearts." I know he just wants to yell out, "If I raise a lot of money I can get a big splash rocket!"

The PE teacher told me today that Josh is only $25 short of raising enough for the pie, so our fundraising efforts continue.

Molly and I attended Josh's PE jump rope party today, which was fun until it became apparent that Molly was well into her nap time and she started getting into tug-of-wars with kindergartners over jump ropes and running around with her shirt pulled up.

R.I.P. Honda

My 12-year-old Honda Accord, which I've had for all 12 years, finally kicked the bucket on Friday, and we decided this weekend that it was time to retire it. I sadly sold it this morning, trying not to cry as I handed over the key. I was very attached to the car!

We brought home this new-to-us Ford Escape last night, which will hopefully give us as many years as the Honda did. The kids are thrilled with the new car, and we drove it to the bus stop this morning so they could climb all around the inside while we waited.

Molly is not a morning person

The Really Great Snow of 2010

We woke up to about 4 inches of snow this morning and warming weather, which made for great conditions to play outside. We met up with some neighbors for sledding, but the snow was melting so quickly that we ended up just playing in their yard instead.

Molly outlasted all of the kids, who eventually all headed inside to look at one of the kids' hamster.

Valentine's Day

Here are Josh and Molly on their way out the door to school this morning, ready for their Valentine's Day parties. Since Molly is in a Tues/Thurs and a Mon/Wed/Fri class, today was actually her second party (the Tues/Thurs class had one yesterday), and she was thrilled with all of the loot she got. She carried it around in her backpack all afternoon.

Only in the South

I usually don't buy Molly the matchy-matchy, cutesy clothes that are so popular for children around here, one reason because they are very expensive. Today, however, I threw out my personal taste and went to a "tent sale" in Raleigh that specializes in prissy clothes. The fliers, and past sales--at least according to my friend who I went to the sale with--promised 75 percent off. Unfortunately that was not the case for most of the items once we got inside.

However, the giant bows were only $4. Big bows are a staple of little girls' outfits in the South, but we've stuck to moderately sized ones. We're taking the leap, and here's Molly modeling one of her new bows. It covers about 1/4 of her head.