SLUSH

Sunday the boys played outside all afternoon. They were fascinated by the melting snow, and the puddles and rivers that formed. Along with some help from the neighbor kids, they made a "river" down the hill between the houses. Imagine my surprise to pull out of the driveway this morning to take Will to school to discover we'd been "raqueted!" When I asked Will what was going on with our yard I discovered no, it was not a practical joke, the raquets are lighthouses and water towers along the river. They are now firmly frozen in place this morning, but I'm sure by this afternoon they'll be able to be pulled up. Not sure what the neighbors think of this since the boys are pretty much encrouching on their property.
The kids also made "Arthur":

The neighbors made a tiny sweet snowbaby because they have a sweet bundle due any day now. He's just wittle:

On Saturday the big storm came through and we braved the elements to go to the Go Fish concert that evening at our church. The kids had a great time! When we got home we discovered we'd lost power like most of the area. As soon as we got settled in with some candles and flashlights the power came back on! We continued to have problems with our Mediacom throughout the weekend - losing phone, cable and internet off and on. We thought we might have some overnight guests as both Damon's and my parents did not gain power until Sunday morning, but they braved it out. My mom still doesn't have any hot water, and they are checking out their hot water heater this morning. It's very strange because the pilot is lit, but there's no hot water. Times like this make you realize how much we take for granted and how spoiled we really are. What would happen if we really had to do without our basic "necessities" for any length of time?

Basketball

Will is playing basketball once a week at the local rec center. The kids are all 1st and 2nd graders. As you can see, they are pretty lax on any rules, and just let the kids have fun and work on some basic skills. You can't steal the ball or foul and they don't have to dribble down court, but start at the half court line instead. Kids have been known to double (and triple) dribble! The reason that Will waits so long the second time he has the ball is because he only likes to throw the ball to his good friend Jack, who does manage to eventually get open and catch the ball, after some elaborate hand signals on the part of Will. In fact after I taped this, Jack had to leave early and Will didn't know he was gone and he stood there with the ball looking all over for Jack before he'd pass it, and we were all yelling at him, "Jack's gone! You'll have to throw it to somebody else!" Which the other parents got a kick out of. As you can see he's got a lot of energy, and was usually the first one to run down the court! What a good way to wear a guy out! I think he's probably a better guard than a forward! That's Audrey, Jack's little sister with the blond pigtails, who is adorable! Sam likes to play with her.

Telephone

Did you ever play "telephone" with 2 paper cups and some string? It really works, (if you hold the string tight.) Cheap entertainment.

Here is Will's first grade self portrait. Remember last year's? (See previous post.) I hope that they do one every school year!

Check Your Peanut Butter!

Look at this news story here. We have 2 jars at our house of GV peanut butter that have these lot numbers on it! One is almost empty! Nobody's had any problems here, but why risk it?! Guess I'll see if Wal-Mart will refund me.

Hangy Thingies

Last week was Lemme School's annual Carlos O' Kelly's night - a fundraiser for the Lemme PTA. This year they did something new and added a little craft fair to it. About 10 families participated including us! We had a very small amount of space to work with, so we brought an abreviated version of our set-up. Because I hadn't really been feeling too up to it, I pulled everything together at the last minute, which meant the night before Will was finally filled in on what we going to do. He was instantly excited and came up with the awesome idea to sell some of the wire and bead creations that he is so fond of making. He already had a stockpile made from previous crafting sessions (basically me just trying to keep him busy while I'm doing my artwork.) In the past he'd always commented that I could sell them at my shows if I wanted and I was always like, yeah right, and then would proceed to take apart the work he'd done as I needed the beads. But I thought this was the perfect opportunity to actually make good on his dreams! So the day of the sale, after school I set him to work making more wire and beads, we made a sign and came up with a price and a name. Will suggested several names for his creations including "Short Stuff" and the name we finally ended up choosing, "Hangy Thingies." He suggested we sell them for $2 a piece, but my vote of 25 cents won out. We made a sign that said, "Hangie Thingies! Hang on your backpack, coat, or in a window. Made by 1st grader Will Brown. Only 25 cents!" I made sure to prominantly display his bowl of "Hangie Thingies" right on my money cart where everyone who walked by would be sure to see our sign. He was such a good salesman! He'd explain to all of his classmates who came along what he was selling. They were all pretty excited and the moms thought he was cute and he ended up selling 24 of his Hangy Thingies! Half of his sales went to Lemme and he got to keep the other half! I'm a little concerned that I've created a monster. I'm betting that he's going to want to sell them at all my shows, but I'm not sure he's going to have quite the enthusiastic response from the general public as he did from his classmates and their parents. And I'm not sure I need the competition! (jk!) As you can see from the picture, they are so random, it's hilarious! Some are really long, some are tiny. No two are alike, that's for sure!

Brown Family

Look here at this handsome bunch!

Baby News!

Those of you who I regularly talk to already know our good news: We are having a baby! Those same people have been wondering why I have yet to blog about it, or about anything at all. Mostly it's because I haven't been feeling all that great, have no creative energy, and honestly, I'm having a hard time finding the cuteness in my kids that I know of course is still there, but I'm not in a very "funny" mood these days! So since we're having a snow day today and I'm looking for an excuse to escape my kids, I'm down on the computer! I am 10 weeks along as of yesterday. Hopefully I'll be through the yucky first trimester stuff soon! From this ultrasound done at week 7, we could see the heartbeat! There are two tiny white crosses within the black jellybean that measure the baby "head to tail" at 11 mm! That's a grain of rice! (The black "jellybean" is the sac.) Of course 3 weeks later, the baby has grown quite a bit, but is still tiny!
The boys seem excited but it's hard to maintain that level until October when we are due. They are excited about getting bunkbeds. Sam always asks me, "Mom, you have a baby in your heart?" Because that's how we talk about Jesus. Then he'll say, "I have Jesus in my heart and you have a baby in your heart!" Will has taken full credit for naming Sam, (which he did not) and has offered to name this baby because he's so good at it. He has not however come up with any candidates yet. Will is also excited about the possibility of spending the night at his cousins' house. I just told him we'll have to wait and see. He hopes that it is a girl, but Sam doesn't really seem to care.