Z's

So I just realized that it is 3 in the afternoon on memorial weekend and everyone is sleeping including Mike and Scooter.  Does this seem right?  Shouldn't I be taking advantage of this peaceful moment and catch a few z's myself?  No, I think not.  I take this peaceful moment and get some work done.  While there is a basket of clean kids clothes overflowing in the living room and the washer and dryer are running downstairs.  Didn't I just do laundry yesterday??

I should take the camcorder and go around and secretly record everyone's own personal snore.  Yes, even Scooter has a snore.

And to think that 7 years ago this weekend family, friends and I were camping up in the mountains probably lounging in some chairs by the lake, drinking beers or carlo rossi blush wine and unbeknownst to us we wake up tomorrow morning covered in a blanket of snow.  

The only one not pictured is Ian and he is in his room.  Scooter is in the bottom left corner.



Roller skating

So the two older girls and I went to a roller skating party yesterday.  I swear I haven't been roller skating in about 20 years.  Kara was absolutely terrified (which she is about almost everything from learning to swim to learning how to ride a bike).  She screamed bloody murder before I even got her on the skating floor.  Anna was sooooo excited (which she is about almost everything - she is ready to take on anything).  I finally got Kara on the floor after about 5 minutes.  So with me in the middle and each girl holding one of my hands we carefully entered the skate floor.  To be honest I was a little scared that I had forgotten how to skate and the fact that I am taking the two girls and if they fell, they were gonna take me down with them.  I totally didn't want to fall on my butt in front of my friends! (so middle school of me, right?)  At the same time, I was sooooooo excited to do this with my girls!

So the 3 of us creep slowly across the floor - while listening to some jammin Pink song.  Within one lap, I think Anna fell about 10 times but all 3 of us were laughing uncontrollably and having the best time.  After the first lap - Kara went off on her own and left Anna and I in her dust.  Kara wasn't by any means speed skating by the time we were done but at least she had conquered her fear.  And as Kara's mother - I was so proud of her and can only hope she continues to do that throughout her life.

Anna and I continued to skate together and occassionally Anna wanted to let go and she'd fall a few more times and then want to hold my hand for a few minutes and then want to skate by herself for another minute and then hold my hand some more.  For as many times as she fell, she picked herself right back up and perservered.  And as a Anna's mother - I was so proud of her and can only hope she continues that attitude throughout her life as well.

At one point in our skating adventure, the DJ played a New Kids on the Block song.  Now my skating adventure had been complete!  I never fell in front of my friends, I got a trip down memory lane and I created a memory with my two girls for their first roller skating adventure.

Grass

So Mike was in the backyard with the girls.  He noticed the girls got quiet - which usually means they are doing something they are not supposed to.  So he finds them and they are pulling out a lot of the grass.  Mike says "why are you pulling out grass",  Anna says "I don't know".  Mike says "please don't pull out any more" and Anna says "but dad you have so much" as she is pointing to our entire backyard.  Gotta love kids!