a funny thing happened on the way to the consignment shop...

Or I should say, while at the consignment shop.  My parents had some bulky items they wanted to take to the consignment shop.  So rather than them bring the stuff to my house, and then I lug it with Amelia in tow to the shop, I made special arrangements for them to drop it off last Friday.  Or so I thought.  We drove there in a monsoon, only to find that the info had not been passed on to the staff working that day.  The owner begrudgingly accepted my parents' two oak book shelves and a large wooden wine rack. I turn around, and my parents are looking at a chair.  Next thing I know, they are buying said chair and I am helping Dad get it into the back of their car.  I think the owner was eating a little bit of humble pie after they made such a big purchase.

And to top it off, the book shelves had both sold by the time I went in Tuesday morning!  I should get some sort of bonus...I made that store a lot of money in the past week!

first (and hopefully last)

...snow, of this school year.  Sunday we got a little bit of snow, just enough to coat the grass, not enough to stick on the road (at least at our house).  Monday Seth had a vacation day, but Amelia didn't.  She ended up with a snow day, and around 4:30, we went for a family walk, because it was in the low 50s.  The kids played outside for about 30 minutes.  After having the school year extended by over a week last year, I'll be more than happy to have no snow days this year!

went to the lodge

We got a little stir-crazy last week, and decided at last minute to go to Great Wolf Lodge Friday night.  We even splurged on one of the "kid camp" rooms that came with bunk beds.

We ate a quick dinner at the buffet, took a quick picture:

and then got on our bathing suits and rode water slides until it was time for story time in the lobby:

The kids were in their beds at 9 and complained that we were keeping them up, ha!  We were all up pretty early on Saturday, so we hit the Dunkin Donuts in the lodge and were ready to hit the water again as soon as the park opened at 9.  (Amelia is in the background of this picture)

You're allowed to play all day when you check out.  We stayed until 2pm, and that was the longest one-hour drive home ever.  Nathan and I got more sore and tired the closer we got to home.  The kids loved the wave pool, and we took a beating trying to keep the kids above water after each wave (because heaven forbid you wear a "baby" life preserver!).

class party

Amelia and her classmates had a great time celebrating Valentine's Day one day late.  Here they are noshing on cupcakes and Valentine's trail mix made by another mommy:

While the other mommies cleaned up snack and started setting up our craft, I led a game of Love Bingo.  It went a little like this:  "If you have a red heart, put a candy on it.  If you have a purple heart, put a candy on it..."

Then the kids decorated their valentine's boxes.  It was a little chaotic and we almost ran out of time.  They turned out really cute though!

The poor boys went home with a LOT of princess cards!  :)

valentines

Monday night, a couple mommy friends called and asked if we could prep for Amelia's class party (which was on the 15th) on Tueday, instead of the day of the party.  I quickly cleaned up the main level of the house, and we were ready for an impromptu playdate.  But not before the kids opened their special deliveries from their grandparents:

After school, Nathan took the kids on a "top secret" trip.  Imagine my surprise when they came home with a dozen roses!  Nathan and the kids have been "sneaking" out to get flowers on my birthday and Valentine's Day for years now...the kids don't know I'm on to them.  Never have they come home with anything this extravagant before.  Note to my future children-in-law:  Amelia has expensive tastes, and Seth picks out awesome presents.

Seth finally outgrew his "heart breaker" shirt that he's worn since his first year of preschool.  (And to think I almost didn't want to spend $7 on it three years ago, ha!)  For the next couple of years, he's "Mr. Irresistible"!

Look, Ma! No hands!

Monday night Seth and I had our standing skate date.  He had a breakthrough, and is now able to skate independently around the rink:

Actually, we made it a double date.  Nathan and Amelia joined us.  Nathan for his first time since college; Amelia's first time ever!  She was not scared, but quickly learned she couldn't jump, twirl, etc like some of the big girls.  It wasn't long before I wasn't allowed to skate anywhere near her:

Good job, kids!  Thanks for not breaking any bones!  We'll try it again next month!

winter weekend

We are having a mild winter, and I'm not complaining.  I like not having to get bundled up to go outside, I like the power bill, and I like not having to worry about the not-always-necessary snow days (with that I am in the minority with my mommy friends).  Saturday tried to give us just a tiny taste of winter...it was windy and downright frigid.  We went the Y for rpm (spin class), which has become our usual, and then listened to the wind whip against the house as we waited for the cousins to arrive.  The kids wanted to play outside.  Willie and Millie lasted less than 10 minutes, coming in with bright pink cheeks and noses.  

The big boys didn't last much longer, and I had just enough coffee cups to make hot chocolate for all the kids.   I had bought cheap tickets to the Wake Forest-Clemson basketball game.  We were in the upper level, and Wake lost by a lot, but we had a great time at the game.  We even let the kids sit together and they behaved!  The tickets came with popcorn and a drink, which we bought right before half-time, so their hands and mouths were too busy with their snack to get in trouble during the second half!

Sunday we went to church and then wiled the afternoon away until it was time for Seth to go to yet another birthday party for a classmate.  This one was at Bounce U, and it was the first time he's let me leave a party before.  I put my cell phone number in his pocket and made a nice solo trip to the grocery store.  Amelia loved staying home and having her daddy all to herself!

Welcome to Mitford

Last year I fell in love with a series of books by Jan Karon, best known as the Mitford series.  It takes place in a fictitious small town in NC and follows a decade or so in life of an Episcopalian priest.  I finished the ninth book towards the end of the year.  I knew the play was coming into town, and I wanted to finish the books if before I saw it.  (Okay, I really didn't think I'd get to see it, but a girl can dream, right?)  In mid-January, I jokingly asked Nathan if he wanted to see it with me, thinking he'd say no, and then I'd see if someone from church wanted to go with me.  Heck, I would have gone by myself.  But much to my surprise, he said yes.  Our neighbor was going to be home from college that weekend, and was willing to watch the kids on the afternoon of the Super Bowl.  I went online to browse for tickets.  It's not a huge venue, so all the seats are the same price.  I was offered dead center, fourth row tickets.  A couple clicks, and they were mine!  The week before the play, I read a promotional article in the Sunday paper.  I was pleased to find out the play was written by Robert Inman, another excellent NC writer.  The play promised to not disappoint the Mitford fan, but be enjoyable for someone who had never read the books.  I was soooo excited.  Flash forward one week.  We got to the theater and found out we were in a definite minority.  I think the average age of the patrons for that matinee was about 75.  I'm not kidding.  We sat back and enjoyed the show.  The play did exactly what it promised to do, hitting the high points of all nine books in under two hours.  I was misty-eyed throughout most of it.  It was fantastic.  Nathan really liked it, too.  During the Super Bowl, I was looking through the morning paper and saw the show's review.  The stage was described as a watercolor pop-up book that moved, and I really wish I had taken a picture of it before the show.  It was beautiful.  We both like live theatre; I'm not sure why we don't go more often.  We should!  If "Welcome to Mitford" comes to your town, GO SEE IT!!!

rough week

Last week was a rough one for Amelia.  She was excessively clumsy, got her finger caught in a door at school (which led to an ouchy boo-boo), scraped the tip of her nose when I plastic bucket tipped over on her, and ended up in urgent care Saturday night with acute sinusitis.  She was screaming her ear hurt;  I wasn't taking any chances.  

For the rest of us, the last week has been same ol', same ol'.  Last Saturday Seth did go to a birthday party for one of his classmates.  It was a Mario theme and the boys had fun playing Wii and other games together.  They lived within walking distance of our house.  Who knew?  Seth wanted me to stay, so I had a chance to visit with the mom while the boys played.  It was our first school party of the year, and now he has another one this weekend.  There's few things Seth likes better than a good party, especially when you get to eat a cupcake that looks like a Super Mario mushroom!

somebody has a birthday this month...

....not that anyone is counting the days or anything.

Other than that, not much new around here.  School, work, reading, YMCA.  Rinse and repeat.