Weekending...

Well, winter is never going to end apparently!!  We survived the epic snow storm late last week, and endured through the terrible road conditions all weekend long!  Now, we're dealing with another of these polar vortexes.  Unbelievable!!  

Ella didn't have Kinder Kollege on Friday because all the schools were closed (again).  So, we braved the local roads and headed to the bakery for a morning treat to make up for the terrible weather! :)  The bakery is less than a mile from our house (I think) so it wasn't too bad driving there.  We used "fun" plates too...we had to make it interesting!  Ella LOVES chocolate donuts with sprinkles.

That afternoon I slowly but surely made it to Eagan for my anti-aging photofacial treatment (an IPL for those in the know).  All of a sudden my skin appears to be showing major signs of aging, so I'm on an anti-aging kick.  I bought this treatment as my birthday present to myself way back in November and finally got a chance to use it, so despite the road conditions, I ventured out.  No before and after pictures to share right now.  We'll see how the end result looks.  Right now I have really dark (like peppery looking) spots where my face had age spots either already developed, or hidden under the surface that the laser brought to the surface.  Anyway, I'm hoping for some major improvements.  I am on day 4 of the 5-7 days that it will take the skin to return to semi-normal and the entire rejuvenation takes 4 weeks.  

In other weekend news, Ella has started to take her afternoon snooze on the floor....this is so odd to me, but is her new preferred spot.    Whatever works I guess!

And, they are celebrating Dr. Seuss at Kinder Kollege this week!

Ella's fish lips - HA!

Tonight we have kindergarten registration, which is still so strange to me! 

So many questions and things to learn!

Random...Weekending...President's Day

So, just as I was going to start this post, I "put two and two together" about why Bing's photo of the day is of Mount Rushmore.  I. am. an. idiot.  When I opened (is that the right word) the internet this morning, I noticed the picture of Mount Rushmore at bing.com and I was wondering to myself why? and more importantly....why wasn't there any snow at Mount Rushmore, and my mind continued on that path... wondering if the Black Hills have any snow (they should)...and maybe I should look up their weather conditions, etc....on and on. And then it dawned on me.  DUH!  For President's Day! So, it looks like I might have an interesting day if this is how my brain is going to process things today!

So, I'm enjoying a long weekend because our daycare and Kinder Kollege are both closed today and we're in the middle of another winter storm warning, with decent snow coming down right now.  Ella has already destroyed the house - almost every portion of the living room & her bedroom are covered with stuff, which I'm told I can not move because she's using it.  Playing "family" and "going to Florida"  I'm pretty sure that's a hint....

Yesterday after church we took a Sunday drive (because we're old) and drove around stalking the neighborhood where we want to move.  :)  Half the neighborhood was out blowing snow, so I figure we should just start waving, stopping by for chats, etc.  Make ourselves friendly.  Except, maybe we should warn Ella that it's not likely we are going to find any pink houses to live in.  This might be devastating for her.  And did you know there are builders in our area building single family homes without basements - like none. Slab.  What is the world?  I think that's annoying.

Did you know Bode Miller is 36? (He's the alpine skier if you haven't been watching the Olympics).  When they said that, I thought to myself, jeez, he's old!  Then I realized, wait...I'm 35.  Shit.

Ella had a great time at the Valentine's party on Friday.  She got loads of valentines from her classmates & teachers.  We went out for heart shaped (delicious) pizza at Green Mill on Friday night.  :)

 I mustache you to be my Valentine...

 The Queen of Hearts!

 We enjoyed heart shaped strawberry pies!

(we also made some for some special valentines)

And Ella opened her Valentine from us

She's pretty pumped that we're going to Disney on Ice in a few weeks!

 Sunday afternoon, Ella and Jay added some more fun to her snow slide.  A little cave!

  

Happy President's Day!

Valentines!!

Hello!  We are thankful to finally (fingers crossed) be over the latest bout of stomach virus at our house.  This has been quite the season for us!  To celebrate feeling better, we worked on some fun Valentine's Day things on Sunday.  I snapped a few pictures along the way.  Ella's bringing butterfly valentines to Kinder Kollege this year.  No boring M&M candies for this little lady!

 See - BO-RING....

But, add a foam heart sticker and some pipe cleaner antennae....and

TA DA!

 Beautiful butterflies

 We both had a good time making these.  

I handled the pipe cleaners and Ella put on the hearts!

I found a cute tag "You make my heart flutter Valentine!" 

which I'm going to add to each and then Ella can sign her name!

Later, we made some delicious mini heart shaped cakes.  YUM!  I used a box mix, but made homemade chocolate frosting.  I tried a new recipe because I couldn't find any others at home and I will totally use it again!  It was really delicious and spread on the cakes wonderfully!  Link to the recipe here.  Ella worked on her fine motor skills frosting those little cakes!  She did a great job.  :)

YUM! 

(and if you look closely, you'll see that she is eating just the top of the cake first -

a mouthful of chocolately frosting goodness!)

In other news, we have Kindergarten Round-Up in a few weeks.  WHAT?!  I can't believe it!!

Late Weekend Recap and the Olympics!

Last Friday, Kinder Kollege kids wore football apparel to celebrate Superbowl weekend (clearly this is a holiday! - HA!)  So, our household was cheering for the Broncos (what the heck happened there?!!) but we didn't have those colors, so Ella just stayed true to the MN Vikings instead.  :)

Saturday, it sort of warmed up....sort of.  So, Jay built Ella her own snow slide....but since the Olympics are starting, I'm calling it our own LUGE!  :)  I'm obviously jealous that I won't get to go down it....

So the weekend went great!  But randomly Ella caught a bug or maybe ate something that went bad?  Not sure, but she was sick Tuesday....started to finally eat something Tuesday night and then was home yesterday too with Jay.  Thankfully, she is feeling better and we're back to the normal routine today.  But, thank goodness for lots of comfy blankets & naps on sick days.  

We need a break! A warm one (without snow)!

It's been a long stretch of time since I've last posted anything.  Why?  Well, I've had nothing notable to post about unless you wanted to hear about the weather and those shenanigans.  No thanks, right?  So, I'm back (not from outer space) and have just a few random pictures because I am feeling sad for having nothing cool (no pun intended) to post about. 

 Ms Ella posing before preschool one day a week or so ago....

 Friday night movie & pizza night with "just the girls!"  

We watched The Little Mermaid and had a pizza picnic in the living room.  :)

 Yesterday they celebrated 100 days of school at Kinder Kollege.  The kiddos made necklaces which were supposed to have 100 pieces of the cereal on it.  Well, Ella told me this was "tricky" and her friend Maddy had to help her - they got to 74 pieces of cereal on the necklace....when Ella realized this last night after we counted, she was NOT pleased with Maddy.  HA!  She also was sporting a 100 days crown, which she even let me try on!  :)

I wanted to get a better picture than the first above, but she was over it.  So I told her I was going to take a picture of her butt - and then the giggles started and she wouldn't (couldn't!) stand still so this one, with the better smile, is blurry.  Still makes me laugh thinking of her giggle fit.

Stay warm people!

Wanna laugh?

Jay was home with Ella yesterday because our daycare was closed and so was Kinder Kollege. Ella was supposed to be laying down for a nap (a "snooze" in our house). When Jay went up to check on her, he found....

Clearly it is time we get back to our normal routine!!

Christmas (New Years)

Happy New Year!  Our New Years Eve was VERY low key, kind of like how this past week has been.  It's so cold here!!  I am just tired of going out to freeze!  We did brave the weather and go out to an (early) dinner at Buca on New Years Eve.  Note to self:  NEVER bring Ella there EVER again.  From the moment we walked into the restaurant, she was whining and complaining because it "smelled stinky Mommy"  OMG. I thought we were headed for a disaster, so we headed to the bathroom.  No issues there.  But I was worried she was going to be sick or something!?  Not the best NYE that's for sure.  She was totally fine, but clearly does NOT like the smell of garlic at an Italian restaurant.  :) 

 

She was all smiles and ate a good amount of the kid's mac and cheese, so I guess they left out any garlic!

We had our final Christmas celebration of the year with Jay's family on New Years Day.  We all brought appetizer dishes to share, and of course yummy treats!  It was a fun day!  We forgot to charge the camera, so we only got a few shots of Ms. Ella during the gift opening!  She had a good time and got lots of new fun things!

Hee hee - all the kids got coal from Santa.  Ella didn't have a clue what was happening.  

She was excited about it!!

All the Christmas decorations are officially put away (well, except for the stuff outside - too cold to remove it right now!) Wondering what else we've been doing?  Well, not much.  :)  But, Ella and I have been playing with her Lite Brite...

 love it!  I had one as a kid, and I think it's still fun to do!  The new design is VERY modern.  :)

Otherwise, we've been hanging out at home in our PJs

Oh, and here's my 2013 Christmas ornament from Santa (Jay).  We get each other one every year.  

This one is AWESOME!

To a happy and healthy 2014!! 

(and one in which we find ourselves a new home!!)