The Cutest I've Seen

Yesterday C's class celebrated the 100th day of school. They had a little class party and the children were instructed to make something with 100 items to wear. C came up with the idea that a centipede had 100 legs. This was our finished product!

We got a note from C's teacher yesterday afternoon that said it was the cutest one she's seen :)

Surprise Visit

Wednesday morning my sister called and told me they were making a last minute visit. Unfortunately, the reason for the visit was that she had sick relatives in the hospital here. But, we still enjoyed all the cousin playtime.AP and I stayed home from school Thursday to love on the cousins so my sister could stay at the hospital.

Thursday night my aunt, uncle, and cousins came over for dinner so they could love on the cousins, too. After dinner C asked me if he could wash all the dishes. There were a lot of dirty dishes with 11 people eating, but he did it!

They went home early Friday morning and we all went back to school. Well, for a little while, at least. AP's teacher called at about 9:30 and said she had a temp of 101.5! I picked her up and we went straight to the doctor b/c there have been 8 cases of strep in her class just since the beginning of the year. Her strep swab came back positive immediately. After the doctor visit, she slept for about 3 hours, then woke up completely fine! It's so weird. You would never even know she was sick. She has been running and playing fever free all day. We'll take this strain of strep any day.

Ten Years

Ten years ago today we became Mr and Mrs! (I know, not only did I take pictures of pictures, but I did so with my cellphone.)

We celebrated Friday night with a night spent downtown sans children in a hotel more luxurious than those we frequent. We ate great food at an excellent restaurant followed by a musical. Good times! Here's to ten more years!

The only picture I managed to take was this really bad self portrait before we left the hotel for dinner.
We contemplated taking our first grown up cruise or vacation without the kiddos since this is sort of a milestone anniversary. But, for some reason, I still can't quite stomach 5 nights away, especially really far away, like in the middle of an ocean far away. So, we enjoyed our little night away and bought ourselves a new microwave and new running shoes :) We did decide to save any money that we would have spent on an anniversary trip and put it towards our very first Disney trip with the kiddos in October!

That Was Easy

We just started recycling at our house. Last week. I'm embarrassed that we hadn't done it sooner, especially since it was so super easy! I was prepared to have to separate everything out when we got there. For that reason, we only gathered our cardboard and plastic. We stopped drinking out of cans a while back, so we don't really ever have any metal/aluminum. When we got to the recycling area I was surprised by the new "streamlined" recycling. You just dump it all in together! No separating the cardboard from the plastic.

The kiddos loved it and I could tell they really felt like they were helping out.

We were super productive today. In addition to recycling, we took three bags to Goodwill and another bag to a friend for her little girl. I also got some sewing done.

I fell in love with this little front loader. I put it on a hamper, a onesie, and a burp cloth :)

I think, but I'm not holding my breath, that we may actually go to school tomorrow!

9 and 10

I feel like all I have written about has been snow days. Well, guess what? We were out of school again today! And....tomorrow, too. Today has been the laziest snow day we've had thus far. At least it has been for the kiddos and the dogs.

This is how our dog Frank sits on the end of the couch. He would sit like that all day if we let him.

I have not been lazy, though. I have been in closet-cleaning mode. At first it seemed I was making more of a mess than anything else.

But slowly, organization and simplified closet spaces emerged.

AND I organized my new craft closet. This weekend we bought a free standing closet to put in our office just for craft stuff. I can never put my hands on things when I or the kids need it for something.
Now it's all in one spot, everything from my HandyStitch
(yes, I own one and have even made curtains with it)
to my candy making supplies
(that I used twice but have every intention of using again)
to an entire jewelry making kit that I never even opened
(at one point I thought I might make my own jewelry, I don't know why).

I would still like to add baskets to better organize this closet. It's a work in progress.
The best part of my cleaning day is that I now have 2 big bags of stuff to donate and 1 big bag to throw away. We still have way too much stuff, but one of my favorite things to do is get rid of it!
Anyone want a jewelry making kit?