Those tricky leprechauns

I can't possibly let another day go by without blogging in regards to those tricky, sneaky leprechauns the girls got to encounter last Wednesday, St. Patrick's Day. I must admit, it's not a holiday I've ever even considered celebrating. I don't drink green beer or dec the house in green. I do wear green (a least a tiny bit) so no one has rights to pinch me, but that for 30 years has been the extent to my St. Patrick Day traditions. This year, I got a book from the library about St. Patrick to read to the girls. However, the education system totally outed me...

Breanne came home excited from preschool. Apparently, there were some leprechauns who snuck into their room and messed it all up. They did hide some gold for the kids to find and like magic, inside each piece of gold was a green bead necklace. She got to see the green milk and eggs the leprechauns had made in one of the girls' homes and she also got a shamrock painted on her face.

Madison's excitement after school was beyond words. She couldn't hardly spit the story out fast enough. Those tricky little leprechauns had snuck into her classroom during last recess, messed it all up and apparently raced down the hall into their 6th grade buddy's classroom. When the Kindergartners returned from recess, they followed the trail of gold to their buddy's room where they found gold coins and green bead necklaces. Their buddies saw the leprechauns and those Kindergartners were all determined to catch one. Oh, yes. She's determined that she'll find their gold at the end of the rainbow and all.

By the time we made the 3-minute drive home, my head was spinning as Madison and Breanne each kept re-living their leprechaun experiences. And then it hit them. Maybe we had leprechauns in our house. I assured them that I hadn't let any leprechauns in. "But, mom. The front door wasn't even locked. They are very sneaky. They could easily get in our house." I gave in. Yes, we might have leprechauns in our house. Suddenly both girls were terrified to go downstairs to see if the leprechauns had messed up their room. (Seriously, I'm not sure they would have noticed if a leprechaun had "messed" it up...it looked like a tornado went through there before they left for school.) Finally, they worked up the courage and were relieved to find out that the leprechauns had not visited our home.

Finally, by six o'clock, the girls had settled down. Derrick no more than walks in the door and again, they both become volcanoes of information, all about the leprechauns. Derrick looks at me with question. I nod. Yes, they've been like that all afternoon. And I thought they'd be excited about green jell-o for dessert. Good thing I decided against it. I don't like lime jell-o.

Don't leave out little Aliya just because she doesn't know what a leprechaun is. This morning, she started digging through our drawers and decided to try on Derrick's boxers. Oh, well. Madi and Breanne wore my underwear around their necks. Yes, they were all clean!

She knows where we live!

On Thursday, March 4th, Madison lost her first tooth! She left for school in the morning with it hanging by a thread. Derrick was sure she was going to swallow it. She was sitting "at carpet" in class when she had to tell her teacher, "Mrs. Watson, I lost my tooth!" She was given the famous "tooth necklace" that holds her tooth and she wore it around her neck all day. She was pretty excited. When I picked her up that afternoon, I knew something was up because she ran up to me covering her mouth. We didn't even know if the tooth fairy knew where we lived, but she found us and left Madison a dollar in exchange for her tooth.

The very next day at dinner, we had just sat down to eat pizza when she said, "Oh, I lost my other tooth!" She's talking a little funny now and loves to stick her tongue in the hole in her bottom teeth. She carried that tooth everywhere that evening. She and Breanne were messing around downstairs when SHE LOST HER TOOTH! We weren't sure what the tooth fairy would do this time. So, before going to bed, she got out a pencil and paper and wrote, "Dear TF," (short for Tooth Fairy), "I lost my tooth. Madison." Much to our surprise, the tooth fairy does give money for lost teeth in exchange for notes, in case you too were wondering.

A quick rewind....to Valentine's Day. All three girls woke up to having their doors decorated with valentines and treats. They also got a killer package in the mail from Grandma Barb...PURSES! Those purses were so full at one point that Derrick told them mom needed to give a lesson on what to carry and what NOT to carry in your purse.

Play dates are a big deal to the big girls lately. Breanne got to have preschool friends over one Tuesday. These three (Breanne, Kelcey and Grace) have been coined the 3-for-1 by their preschool teachers. Madison is also having girls over that go to the day care down the street and we've even struck up a friendship with Birkley, her mom and siblings. Birkley even got to join us for Fusion last week!

Not to leave Miss Aliya out, she is quite the baby. Silly, sassy and going on 7! She is surely a smart little thing and can follow any directions you give her...IF it's on her agenda. She's determined too. We had taken the girls bowling with friends and she got it in her head that she could bowl too. (To steal my sister's phrase..."Anything they can do, I can do better!") I didn't see any harm in it. I understood why Derrick said no after I let her roll my ball. I was terrified that the ball would stop in the middle of the lane. Thankfully, the ball made it to the pins...eventually. She didn't bowl anymore after that.

Let me describe our mornings to you...It could be cool, calm, under control. Or it could be rush, rush, rush, get a "crack-a-lackin'." Or it could be one of those days where they three girls just want to play and yuck around...preferably on my bed. If time allows, I try to remember to be the fun mom and jump on the bed with them.

Breanne is my side-kick for sure on Tuesday and Thursdays. Mostly, that drives me nuts (to have a living, breathing shadow.) She is definitely bored at home now and wishes she could go to school every day! She also has a new fear of being alone. So, where ever I am, she is. This morning, she told me she'd lick anything I was baking. Lick she did... No wonder her face is always dirty!

100!

YIKES! We can hardly believe that our Madison celebrated her 100th day of school last week! She came home with some groovy 100 glasses and 100 treats. What a day.

We also had a super time with our Sechler cousins last weekend. We did some sledding, swimming at the Reef, cousins read together, decorated Valentine cookies, played school, barbies and Wii (below Daniel, Madi & Bre all jump in celebration while they play M&M Beach Party on the Wii) and we got to take the cousins to church with us too.

And the highlight of Madi's day at school on Friday was that cousin Rebekah came to eat lunch with her!

Watching Madsion, Breanne & Rebekah interact was priceless! So many mental pictures in my head. My favorites? The three of them talking in the van on the way to dinner about camping together this past summer. When we got to the restaurant, Breanne says, "Guys, we can finish talking about this later." My other favorite "picture" was watching them walk all three hand-in-hand to the bathroom together at the restaurant. We referred to them as the 3 peas in a pod.

It was sweet to spend time with all five cousins. Abigail is quite the sweet little girl and she got along with Aliya very well. The only minor mischief was the markers they found and used to decorate the basement...oops!

I also enjoyed sledding with the three boys and playing Cadoo with Micah and Daniel.

Today, we are recovering from acute depression due to the Saints victory last night....There's always next year...

"When is it ever gong to snow again?"

On nice days, when time allows, I like to walk to school, picking up Madison and then we walk home. Madison especially has enjoyed this the last two weeks and has been trying as best she can to walk on the snow, jump in the mud puddles, trudge through the slush...you name it! As the temperatures continued to be warm and the snow began to disappear, she asked, "When is it ever going to snow again?" Yesterday, the snow storm began and left her a little ill-prepared for school. By the time I picked her up from school, it had snowed 3-4". She didn't have her hat, lost a mitten (I think we might buy stock in the mitten industry) and didn't bring her snow pants. As we walked through the snow to the truck, I said, "Who ordered this snow?" Madison answered, "I don't know." Apparently, she forgot her wish only a couple days prior. I suppose God didn't. It's pretty to see the snow everywhere piled up everywhere and it should afford us some terrific sledding weather when the Sechler cousins visit next weekend.

Isn't this cute? Rub-a-dub-dub. Three girls in the tub!

Fun in the snow

We have had quite a bit of snow this winter. In the past week, most of it has melted. But we have been out to use the sled, build snowmen and snow angels. Aliya is surprisingly very fond of the snow. She loves to be pulled in the sled and tries to walk in the snow.
Our first week back to school this year, we had quite a dumping of snow. It left me a little frazzled. First, we got stuck backing out of our driveway. Thankfully, my neighbor's suburban gave me a tug to get me out of the drift. Then, dropping kids off at school is a disaster when the district doesn't do any snow removal around the school. Apparently, by the time I got Breanne to preschool, I must have been a mess. At circle that day, Breanne shared, "This morning was a disaster!" Next time, Daddy's gonna leave us the 4-wheel drive!

Santa made it!

It's about time I get on with the blog! Christmas was nearly 2 weeks ago and I'm finally posting pictures. What in the world will I use as my excuse when the girls are all grown? Well, I suppose then there might not be much to talk about. I digress...

Santa made it Billings this year and we had 2 very excited little girls in our home. "Mom, when I woke up Christmas morning, I thought Santa was sitting in our chair reading a book, then I looked again, and it was just grandma," Madison explained to me.

We started our Christmas with Derrick's family coming in to stay with us. We attended our Christmas Eve service at Harvest and then took some warm drinks to go look at a few different Christmas light displays in town. We got home to have cinnamon rolls and even stuck a candle in one and sang "Happy Birthday Jesus!" Our girls got to open their presents from Derrick & I early on Christmas Eve.

Aliya totally got into opening the gifts, but when the wrapping paper was off the box (if there was no toy in sight) she was finished and ready to rip open something else, whether it was hers to open or not.

Here the girls are excited about their new presents and the excitement is about all I can handle!

We enjoyed a new game with Derrick's family: 6-handed triple-deck pinochle. I don't think we'll ever be able to play single deck again..it won't feel like we're holding any cards! We also played some RockBand. As you can see, grandma even helped Breanne with the guitar...all while holding a coffee cup. She's got skills!

The icing on the cake for Derrick and I was the opportunity to go skiing at Red Lodge with grandma and grandpa stayed with the girls. We had a beautiful day to be out and we didn't have any injuries.

Now, it back to the real world of school, work, Fusion, and all that good stuff. The break was fun while it lasted! Speaking of which, I better get to my Kindergartner!

Songs and gingerbread

Today was Breanne's turn to shine in her preschool Christmas program. She did an excellent job singing Jingle Bells, two snowmen song, We Wish You a Merry Christmas and saying their Bible verse together. We got to enjoy treats afterwards. Yummy!!
Today was also Madison's gingerbread house making day. She choose to have dad help her. (Apparently, he was the only dad there...what a dad, huh?) And she came home in typical Madison fashion, that house stuffed full of candy. "See? There's the mailbox."