Long Time.

When I opened up this blog this morning, I realized how long it's been since I last posted anything.  It used to be that I would love to look back through here as a kind of an "online journal".  It's been so easy to use Facebook to show off my cute kids and random things they say or things we are doing.  But I'm missing keeping up here as well.

So, here we go!

It's Spring Break this week and I'm loving it.  

Not making lunch at breakfast time is awesome!

I've really enjoying having the kids home.  

We are keeping our days easy, without too much planned.  

This allows for us to have lazy mornings and plenty of play time.  

Frank has been able to work from home this week.  

It's always wonderful to have him around with us.  

  Grace in the sunshine.

The weather has been typical for March, super random.  

It was warm (40-ish degrees) and sunny and lovely at the beginning, 

then it snowed seven inches.

Then the sun came out the next day to help melt things off.  

This morning it was TEN DEGREES.

BRRRRRRR!

The kid's Grandpa came in yesterday and delivered early birthday presents: Big Kid Bikes!

Thank you, Grandpa!!

Here's Frankie with his.

We found a patch of dry concrete and he took off!

Even though I am ready to say goodbye to the snow for now, I still think it's so beautiful when the sky is blue and all the trees are piled with thick, white snow.  

I love Alaska.

Back to School and New Chapters.

Here we are again. Back at a new year.

Here is my BIG seconder grader!

She was so excited to go to school.

This year, she is taking the bus to school every morning.  

If I would have known how peaceful taking the darn BUS would have made our mornings, I would have started a long time ago.  She is completely motivated to get up and do all her morning "things" with hardly any prompting from me.  AND we have left over time.  Everyday.  Now, I'm not completely deluding myself into thinking this is how it will be all year long, but for now, it is great!!

This is my Frankie boy.

But he is also my Frankie, who goes to kindergarten.  

All.  Day. Long.

He loves it, so happy to go.

I love it too.

But that first day, I was a basket case.

I mean, I had to actually get in my car and DRIVE AWAY, without him.  

For five years, he's been my constant sidekick, train whistles and all.

Driving in the car was SO quiet.  Me: crying.

Lunch at home, quiet.  Me: crying.

Checking his room and seeing Hot Wheels lying around the empty room.  Me: crying.

Talking to Frank (who was on the other side of the country): SOBBING.  slightly ridiculous at that point...

Finally, finally, finally.... it was 3:30pm and I could go pick them up.

Frankie said his favorite part of the day was when I picked him up.

Me: one last tear and a big squeeze hug.  My sweet, sweet boy.

It's been three days with both of them in school.

The second day, I was fine.  Feeling as though things, life, was how it should be.

Friday, they both took the bus home and LOVED it.

Tuesday they will both take the bus to school.

Our family has had a big change this year. 

We now have two kids who go to school.

These kind of big changes are always bittersweet.

I am proud to have two people who make every one of my days better.

Vacation.

We are at the beach.

With shovels and buckets.

So happy.

April Happenings.

April has been been a rough month for us.

Everyone but Grace has been battling a cold,

which turned into the flu for Frankie 

and pneumonia for Frank.

Here's Frank and Oscar, holding down the couch.

But we are all on the upswing now, so that's good.

The snow has be melting, slowly but surely.  

Our driveway is all clear and we are just waiting for the lawn to show itself.

I got the kids these great mud bibs this year.

They are as close to them wearing a Ziplock bag as I can get.

They've always had rain pants, but these are really durable.  

They have reinforced knees and booties and even though they get wet, they don't feel wet.

I have literally hosed Frankie off in these things!

I love them.

We had a warm-ish day where the sunshine hit perfectly.

He was having such a great time outside, I suggested a picnic.

Happy.

We also got all the windows washed.

Frank bought me this great telescoping squeegee/mop head and matching bucket because I REALLY, REALLY don't like getting on the HUGE ladder to wash the big windows.

My man may not do the flowers and jewelry bit, but he is very thoughtful!

We've been walking to pick up Grace from school.

I really love this.

It's about a 20 minute walk each way, but feels so nice to get outside.

Frankie can almost make it the whole way without complaining...

He splashed in every mud puddle on the way.

Here he is having a water break.

Another weekend picnic.

The kids dragged all this stuff out and set this up their "table".

One morning, the kids got up for school early so they had extra time to play.

Frankie has this HUGE Thomas tent.  

They set it up in the living room and filled it with all his Thomas engines.  

Is there a support group for too much Thomas?  

We may need one...

This was taken just a few days ago.

I can see the lawn!

I am raking the little bits as they show themselves.

Makes me feel like I am helping spring come faster.

Tomorrow marks our last two and a half weeks of school

and kindergarten open house for Frankie.

Wow.

Bits of Frankie Boy.

My time with Frankie being home all day is quickly coming to an end.

Soon, he will be in school for the majority of his day.

I try to snap for photos of him everyday.

The Hot Chocolate Twins.

These kids are crazy about routine.

Here's one of them:

1. they go outside to play.

2. when they get cold (anywhere from five minutes to three hours) they come inside, declare their level of coldness

and

3. inform me that they are now ready for hot chocolate.

It's pretty cute, actually.

This day, they sat together, quietly sipping, watching the sunset.

Love these kids.

DIY thank you jars.

For the past six weeks, Grace's school has been doing what they call Recreational Reading.

It's a six week long extra program that the kids can voluntarily participate in. We make it fun for them with "prize weeks" and an ice cream party at the end. I helped last year and LOVED it. I was amazed at how excited and motivated ALL the kids were about reading. So much so, that this year I volunteered to head this program.

We had a great group of volunteers helping with this.

They've had to give a couple hours of their Friday afternoons every week and brave snow AND ice storms to get to the school!

I love Alaskan women!!

I wanted to give them something,

to say a little thank you for their time

and commitment to this program!!

I made "thank you" jars.

I used jars that I already had,

spray painted the lids, added a chalkboard label

and filled it with Swedish Fish (our theme is PIRATES!; it sort of went together...).

After I had the jars filled and labeled, I felt like they were missing something.

I wanted to ensure everyone knew the label was actual chalkboard

and meant to be reused, so I tied a piece of chalk onto the jars with some jute string.

I love all these colors together!

I am so pleased with how this came out.

The kids loved them too.

They keep asking me where their thank you jar is!