Mamma's Proud Shopping Post

Mamma is the very first person to admit her faults, . . . and here is one of the many: I am not a good parent when going on a large shopping trip with children. Period. Seeing that, because I dislike shopping altogether, I only GO shopping when I need lots of stuff, . . . that means that I am ALWAYS going on a large shopping trip. My poor children. They are often being dragged around the store with me trying to concentrate.

BUT NOT TODAY!

Today I made a real effort to do the activity that I have read about so many times in parenting magazines, and I was SO proud of myself for doing this. (At least I can say I did it ONCE, eh?) I let Annie be in charge of the coupons, . . . and I only went to the store today to buy things I had coupons for. Annie's job was to take each coupon and match the picture to the item on the shelf. What made me even happier was that Annie was much more content matching the LETTERS of the coupon to the item on the shelf! Yay!

This was the first time in my life that shopping was a joy, . . . all because of my sweet little Annie and her coupons. : ) We may have to make this a tradition . . .

Quentin's Ice Cream Birthday Party

Leia's "Kitty Cafe"

Strawberry Snow Cake

Today the girls were committed to having us be a Snow Kitty / Snow Love Bug / Snow Bunny who would make a Strawberry Snow Cake! We all had to wear sunglasses due to the brightness of the snow today with the bright sun melting it quickly away. (Snow, I hear, reflects 80% of the suns rays!) Anywho, here we are with our half-chocolate, half-strawberry, heart-shaped snow cake! Lots of sprinkles, lots of syrup, . . . and if you look closely on the left side, a bunny and a kitty drawn in strawberry as well. But the most fun: EATING IT! I totally underestimated how long the girls would eat on this thing. We were out there for a WHOLE HOUR with the girls leaning over the syrup-filled slushy heart, shoveling it in their mouths. : ) And snow does a great job cleaning up afterwards, too. : ) No yucky mittens for us! ; )

The Last Big Snow 2010 (Hopefully)

Frolicking out into the very FLUFFY snow today, the girls wanted first to find a "stick just right for smacking a snow-covered tree," always astounded when the mounds of fluffy snow would "fwop" on top of them! : ) Then, as the heavy snow came down, we went searching for a good sledding hill. I'll admit, I have never seen snow this fluffy. We got 8.5 inches of snow if you measured it with a ruler, but if you stepped on it the total became only 2 inches! That's fluff! Note to self: fluffy snow is SLOW!!! Fluffy snow? Sled in pasture. Slick snow? Sled on road. Our first attempt was to sled on the road, . . . and that made for the slowest sledding in the history of man. LOL. Still, on the way over to the pasture, I had to take the girls picture in front of this snow-covered tree, . . . it looked just like it was in bloom with white flowers due to all the snowflakes resting on it. When we got to the pasture, I was VERY proud of the girls for not being scared (considering this is the place where Annie got her black eye). The girls and I always went down together, . . . and it was so safe! Today we went so very slow, we never got past the barn! This sledding was more fun, though, and Annie was a real trooper, . . . it was the first time she trudged back up the hill time after time to go sledding again and again, . . . always with Mamma. (And due to the "mitten grabbers" I bought, Annie's mittens never slipped off her hands! I'm SO glad I bought a bunch of those things: great for holding pants down and mittens on!) And yet, there was still a time when Annie convinced me to pull her back home. ; )

An Easter Party (As It Snowed)

All morning, Leia Rose said she was making a "surprise" for me. Here it is: what she called "An Easter Scene," complete with a drawn easter basket and eggs along with all of her Easter themed animals. : ) Here she became excited about us having an "Easter Party" today as she stayed home from school yet again because of the snow. We created all sorts of drawn Easter decorations to put around (in addition to our usual Easter decorations that I also retrieved today). Annie even drew her very first bunny herself. We're still not sure why, but she HATED the thing. I had to make her finish it in order to try another one. All she wants to do these days is have someone else draw one that she can color. Go figure. Well, I'm saving this one anyway. Well, then it was time for the party with Beefaroni in their new Easter bowls I got from Cracker Barrel that just couldn't wait for Easter proper, and the special bunny tea set that Grandma gave to Leia when she was first born. (I keep that in my curio most of the time, just in case.) The girls even made an Easter Egg Cake in the Easy Bake Oven with purple-cherry frosting in the shape of an egg on top. : ) And, of course, we topped off the party with a rousing search for the "Resurrection Eggs" that remains my absolute favorite Lenten activity for children.

The Snow Moon

What a beautiful photo of the moon tonight through Leia's bedroom window, in the glorious shape of Jesus' cross, no less! Here is what the Native Americans call "The Snow Moon": the first full moon of March. It was named as such because often the biggest snows fall during that time. Well, looks like all of that Native American lore is correct, for here is all the 8.5 inches of evidence the next morning: