Happy Mothers Day

For mother's day, I thought I'd share a couple of memories about my Mom from my childhood.

Here is a photo of my 5th b-day party, with a Hello Kitty cake, made by Mom.

When I was 6 years old, I broke my arm and had to have surgery. It happened on the last week of 1st grade, and I missed a whole week's worth of fun "end-of-the-year" field trips and events. To make me feel better, my Mom rented movies and bought me treats and gave me lots of TLC.

Thanks, Mom. Love you!

5 on Friday

1. Mischief: no amount of supervision can keep this girl out of trouble. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed by her zest for life, these days.
2. Trail Half Marathon: Greg did a great job on this race... running the entire distance on some harrowing trails. Way to go, hon! Clara helped me make these signs and was a super-race-supporter.(We wrote, "Don't Stop Dad" on the stop sign. Clara asked if we could hold the "stop" side up to the other racers, so they would have to stop and Daddy would win. HA!)

3. Celebrated my birthday, this week: someone asked me how old I was turning and I said, 31... no, wait! I mean 32. It's getting hard to keep track. Had a concert that night... a wonderful friend from church watched the girls so Greg could come to the concert and then take me out to dinner at my favorite Greensboro restaurant- Green Valley Grill. Had lamb chops and chocolate cake and LOVED them.

4. Spinach smoothie: I have heard about these for a long time, but always just assumed they were yucky and only for super health nuts. I was wrong! Had some extra spinach in the fridge and threw it in to a smoothie and it was GOOD! I am especially excited because the girls loved it... Clara had 3 cups and I think that is more Vitamin A than she has eaten in her entire life.
5. I love hearing Clara learn new vocabulary. Recently, she called bacon "bakon soda" (because she had heard the word "baking soda" and didn't know what it was). Also, she called marinara sauce "sausage," when meaning just "sauce."

5 on Friday

1. Clara's preschool graduation... her last class with Ms. Shelley. After two wonderful years we were both feeling sad... Clara was even too sad to wear her cap. She cheered up for the super fun "after-party," though.

SJ didn't have a bad time, either.

2. Went to book club; this month we read The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. I really enjoyed it and especially fell in love with the character Huck, although I am glad I am a mother of girls and not rascally boys. This book also explains my questionable grammar, lately. (i.e.- I sent an email last week that said "What with all the pollen around.") I done liked the book!

3. Back to my regular work-outs after almost 2 weeks without being able to go to the gym because of sickness. It feels great to be sore!

4. Watched some of the royal wedding with the girls. Surprised myself by wanting to watch it and by getting a little (or a lot!) emotional. Love is a beautiful thing, and marriage IS ordained of God.


5. Greg turns in his last paper for his crazy semester, TONIGHT. Hallelujah! I have a dress rehearsal, tonight, and concerts this weekend. After this weekend, we'll never be busy again. HA!

Easter Dresses

Clara and Sarah-Jane modeling their new Easter dresses

and one more of SJ because she is just so darn cute

Easter Egg Hunt

2nd annual Easter Egg Hunt/Brunch at our house

Enjoying the spoils

Shakori Hills Music Festival

Took the whole family and met up with my brother, Sean. Heard the group Spirit Family Reunion (guitar, banjo, bass, drums, and washboard... yes, that's right... their 5th band member played the washboard with two forks... very skillfully, I might add). Loved it!!! Bought their CD but lost it on my way to the parking lot. Sometimes it is sad to be so absent-minded!

Greg and the girls square dancing in the children's tent

face painting

5 on Friday

1. Friday night family picnic and frozen yogurt treat

2. "Bunny Day" at the Science Center.

3. Preschool Easter Party at our house. Clara and her friends (along with SJ) dressed up like bunnies, did some Easter crafts and games, and made Easter cookies(you can see Clara's swollen/red eyes from her allergies)

4. Sickness tally this week (since it is a running theme, lately):
Clara: bronchitis (caused by some terrible seasonal allergies) and a UTI
Nicolle: migraine

5. One of my favorite things: Clara will stand on a bed or a sofa and say "Now I am just the perfect size to hug!" She is just at the right height to wrap her arms tightly around my neck... it is the best.

5 on Friday

1. Hosted/taught Clara's preschool class on Tuesday. We learned about the Food Groups and the Food Guide Pyramid, then read Gregory, the Terrible Eater, and fed "Gregory the goat" meals which included something from all of the food groups. She and her friends had a blast in the backyard treehouse.
2. Sarah-Jane got sick (AGAIN!). She had a fever of 105 degrees and I was quite worried. Dr. said it was just a virus, and she is now feeling better. This poor girl has had a rough winter full of viruses. I thought they were supposed to go away once the weather got warm?!? So far, no such luck.
3. Took Sarah-Jane to the ER, but just the waiting room. :) She hurt her wrist at home on Sunday night, and was in a LOT of pain, so I immediately put her in the car and headed to the hospital. As soon as I got there, she was back to normal... happy, smiling, and putting weight on her arm. I sat in the waiting room and hemmed and hawed for a few minutes, trying to decide if she needed to be seen. I called her Pediatrician on the phone, and he assured me she was ok and did not need to be seen at the ER, so I high-tailed it out of there before they could bill me for hundreds of dollars. (I'm sure there were some people there who thought I was c.r.a.z.y!)

4. Our Azaleas are in bloom... always makes me happy.

5. Accomplishments this week: I stained our swingset and painted the railing on our front porch. Both jobs took longer than I thought they would (of course!) and neither turned out as nice as I wanted (notice how I am not including photos of either project).

5 on Friday

1. Greg and I got the stomach flu.
2. Huge storm on Monday night which left us without power until Tuesday afternoon.
3. Had out of town guests. (#1 + #2 = bad combination with #3)
4. Got our deck stained (love how it looks and especially love that we didn't have to spend every Saturday for several weeks working on it).
5. Loved General Conference. Especially this message, with practical parenting advice. Can I get it imprinted on my right forearm, please?

Urban Race-Winston Salem

Our costume was a tribute to Jet and Cord, our favorite contestants on the Amazing Race.

GO COWBOYS!!!

Team name: Giddyup (Greg chooses a Seinfeld reference each time he does this race... previous team names include "These pretzels are making me thirsty" and "The very pants I was about to return.)"

We placed 7th out of 77 teams and had a fantastic time!

5 on Fridays

Stole this idea from my sister-in-laws. They do "ten on Tuesday," but I'm not quite that ambitious. :)

1. Survived week 2 of Greg's busiest semester, yet. (He usually takes one class for his MBA at a time, but right now -for 7 weeks- he has 3 classes at once). TGIF

2. Hosted book club on Tuesday. The book I chose was A Girl Named Zippy by Havel Kimmel . (Thanks for the recommendation, Mom!) For our discussion, we all brought old childhood photos and/or a funny story from our childhood.

3. Clara got a haircut. Her long curls were adorable, but very difficult to keep tidy-looking. I love the result! She calls it her "Hannah hair" bc she has a friend named Hannah with a similar haircut.
4. Clara calls Sarah-Jane "babe." It is her own little nickname that she made up all by herself. SJ answers to it and I think it is adorable. "C'mon babe, let's go play!"

5. Started a new "semester" of preschool music classes at my gym, with some cute new toddlers. I'm to 3 piano students, also at the gym. I love teaching!

March Madness 2011

Greg got tickets from his company to the ACC tournament last week. Thanks to a good friend who watched our kids, we had an afternoon date and got to see Carolina play Miami.

It was a fantastic game, complete with a huge comeback and a last second winning shot.

We had great seats... we could see Roy Williams yelling at his players and everything.

See how good our seats, were? The very back row...only the wall behind us, so no one could shout in our ears. :)

If any of you want to fill out a bracket with Greg for the NCAA tournament, here is the information: Click the link below (or cut and paste the link into your browser's address bar).

http://sherwoodbracekts.mayhem.sportsline.com/e

Our Group password is: ASUrules

You must fill out your bracket by tomorrow (Thursday) at noon.

a fun Friday afternoon

The weather was beautiful.
Sarah-Jane took an early nap.
We decided it would be a great day to visit the science center.

Clara loved petting and feeding and brushing the animals. She was a cute little mother to them.

The goats couldn't quite reach the food SJ was offering... since she wouldn't get closer than about 5 feet away. She still tried her best. Cute, cute.