Music for the Heart {Sanford}

Today was another one of our favorite field trips- to Sanford Hospital for a noontime concert.
The girls always bring their American Dolls with their dolls violin and cello. :) 

Then they often go meet the musicians afterward and show them the tiny instruments.
The musicians seem to get a kick out of it.

 

And just so you can get a feel for what it was like outside today.
Someone please explain why we live here.

buried in snow

 

 

 

 

 

Mickey:  "what?  they gave me a breathing hole!"

random {& i love Costco}

Mickey made himself a "fancy lunch" today.... linens, frill pick, gourmet peanut butter and fresh blueberry sandwich, a goblet of milk, and a garnish of spinach and mandarin oranges. 

a typical Costco run- I love it there!

10 lbs of carrots!!!  don't worry, we'll eat them all!

I decided since we never use the dining room, I would turn it into our homeschool room instead.  Not that we would sit in there to do all our work but it would be a place to store all of our stuff and if they wanted to do their work in there they could.

here's phase one...

 

oh and Boo says hi

pasta, a playdate, & Temple Grandin

I made this for supper tonight- it was YUMMY!  I just used a big can of diced tomatoes, cut up a bunch of kalmata olives, red pepper flakes, basil, onions, oregano, garlic, and put it on some ziti.  

Saw this today... ha!  That's me.
just kidding.
no I'm not.

Emma came over for a play date and her and MB spent most of the time looking through their old Kindergarten and 1st grade projects and papers. :)

Then in the evening Jenny came over to watch the kids so John and I could go see Temple Grandin speak at the CEC convention that was in town.

The line was long afterwards to meet her and get her autograph(& they had sold out of the book I wanted anyway) so I just snuck up really close to her and took her picture.  I don't think she noticed but I'm sure I looked like a weird-o to everyone else!

She was SOOO good- I'm glad I went.  Lots of great information.

If you haven't watched the movie Temple Grandin based on her life- you HAVE to!
I believe it's on Netflix.



 You can hear her speak here and read more here.

it's cold, sandwich love, and ballet

seriously????

best sandwich ever... panini with tapanade, zucchini, artichoke hearts, & cherry tomatoes 

 

bring a friend day at ballet

Martin Luther King Jr. Day {clay hearts at Plains Art Museum}

Today we headed to the Plains Art Museum to celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
There are a fantastic opera singer(pictured above)- he made me cry it was so moving, and there was some recitations from a couple of actors.

 Our friends showed up, met us for some lunch and then we all headed over to the creativity center for a special project we had signed up for.

 

 

 

 

We made clay tiles with hearts that will be donated for a large project for Giving Hearts Day and then we got to make another clay heart project for us to keep.  It was really fun!  I love how there are so many free art opportunities for kids that are offered by the museum...
and adults get to join in the fun too!

Winter Showcase & Potluck {ballet}

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight Mary Beth's ballet studio held their annual Winter Showcase and Potluck dinner.  Each class performed a dance and then families could enjoy some yummy food and watch as many dances as they wanted.  It was pretty crowded but so fun!  We stayed a really long time because Mary Beth never wanted to stop watching the dancing.  They could wear whatever they wanted so she chose her pretty pink costume from last year's Spring Gala.  She danced beautifully- as always!

recovering a vintage footstool

I found this vintage footstool at The Studio a while back(cheap).  I forgot to take the before picture but it was uncovered on the top(just the old batting was showing) and around the sides was retro orange vinyl.  It would have been so cool if the whole thing was still covered in orange vinyl but alas, it wasn't.

So I bought some really cute fabric from Modern Textiles and finally sat down today to recover it.

I've never done that before but I figured it couldn't be too hard, right?
I mean, I had a staple gun and everything.
I started with a couple of layers of batting I had laying around and then started stapling the fabric on.
I did all four sides first, pulling tight.

Then came the corners... ugh.  I couldn't figure out which way I wanted to do it- or how to make it look good.  I decided on the one below.  I didn't want a gift wrap corner so I tucked it under so the triangle was hiding... does that make sense?  Like the picture above but in reverse.
This decision was made after staring at it for about an hour.
John and the kids were ice skating with their friends at the school
so I had all the time I wanted to do it right.

 

 

It turned out great!  I know this picture is really dark- I used my phone.  I will take a better picture and add it soon.  I think it's adorable- I love it!!!

Norah's Sledding Party {Edgewood Chalet}

 

 

Norah had her birthday party at a Edgewood- it was a sledding party!
It could not have been any colder and MB had to miss half of it because of ballet but it turned out just fine for her because a lot of people stayed late and kept sledding.

This is one of the gifts we have her because is was her name and a craft(which she loves)- it's from Unglued- there's 2 more patterns there also.  So cute!

 

I just had to try and take a picture of this sunset on the way home(even though I was just using my phone)- it didn't turn out very good but it was great in person! Ha.

Inflatable Fun {Fight the Frost}, Mango's, and the Packers

Today Fight the Frost was at the Fargodome(it's a billion inflatables set up in one place) so the kids invited their friends and off we went for a day of bouncy fun.

 

They're showing us their "owies" :)

this one was hilarious... Emma and MB were pulling as hard and as fast as they could against eachother

 

afterwards we went to try a Mexican restaurant we've never heard of until yesterday- Mango's
not bad!  plus kids (all 3 of them!) eat free on the weekends- love that!

then we ran home to turn on the Packer's game

look at this kid's hair!!

even though we all got our outfits on, they still lost. boo.

then it was baths and bed!
they better sleep good tonight!