Princess Audrey

My little Audrey really is a princess and she is quite certain she must behave like one as well. She was so excited a couple weeks ago when I told her that she could pick out a couple bottles of nail polish at CVS. After purchasing her nail polish she has proceeded to paint her doll's fingernails, and toenails, her own fingernails and toenails, and Chelsea's toenails and fingernails. It was all quite cute except for the fact that she was not supposed to be getting into the nail polish without permission. I had been gone for an evening and was greeted at the door by Audrey who looked like she had a black eye. Come to find out, she had decided it was also time for her to start wearing make-up. As I walked in to find Chelsea, I noticed her toenails (and a lot of her toes!), and fingernails were painted pink. Audrey was very proud of her accomplishments and I'm sure had a blast but she was firmly infomed that she is only allowed to get nail polish out with permission and as of this date at age 3 she is not allowed in mommy's make-up. She also decided Sunday morning that she wanted her hair curled. Since I happened to be up pretty early sunday morning I told her I'm curl it for church. She was thrilled with her curls. Only sad part is that her hair has really no curl and about 2 hours left after church she was in church because "all the curls are gone mommy!" We did however capture a picture that we refer to as "Curly Sue" that she likes to look at to remind her of her curly morning.

Kindergarten Registration

This morning is Casey's official kindergarten registration. He will be able to go in and see his school and also be "tested" on several things. I guess what they do is rotate through some stations while teachers ask them some questions. While the kids are doing that the parents are in another room going over procedures. I think he is excited but one of his first questions when he found out we were going was if he would get to ride the bus there. I'm not sure what the attraction is with the bus because I remember hating riding the bus! He doesn't know yet to hate bus rides so I'll let him find out on his own that bus rides take forever and you have to stop at least 50 times! To him it just looks like a more exciting way to travel than getting in a car. I'm kind of interested to find out more information about his school day as I feel like I know very little about Marlington school district and that's where he will be attending. I'm not sure I feel like he is totally ready for kindergarten. Some of his letters still look a little more like Chinese characters than they do actual letters. Yesterday we were working on letters and making them sit on the line. Many of them were still floating. Maybe I'm just too picky or he's just extra stubborn for me because I'm him mom! Oh well....we'll see how things go today!

Motorcycle Rides with Grandpa

Audrey didn't get a ride because it got too late but she wanted to pose for a picture anyway.

The other night Casey called grandpa to see when he could get his first motorcycle ride. Later that night grandpa drove in the driveway ready to take Casey. My camera was acting up so I didn't get any pictures with the helmet on but never fear...he did wear one for the ride!

My Kitchen Helpers

Very intense on their tasks!

Two were dippers and two were sprinklers. It worked out pretty good except I did have some chocolate to scrape off the floor and cupboards. Jake and Casey were more than willing to scrape it off the counter so they could eat it though!

My little chef in the making!

As I have mentioned previously in my blog, Casey and Audrey really enjoy helping me do things in the kitchen. On Tuesday, I had planned to go exercise at the YMCA but Chelsea had other plans. After trying to get her to stay in the childwatch for half an hour I gave up and came home. Rather than just waste my morning the kids and I went at making several meals for the freezer. We made hamburgers, meatballs, and pizza meatloaf. They had fun and it only took us about an hour and a half. The other day we also made some chocolate covered pretzels with sprinkles. Can anyone tell my why I would have swept my floor before that project?

Easter

Easter morning pose

We had breakfast at church Easter morning. It was a little crazy as Chelsea is not used to waiting until 9:00 to eat. She was very hungry and couldn't quite understand why she wasn't getting any food while we were waiting in line. Thinking since she was so hungry that she would eat anything I tried to feed her some eggs but of course she had eyes only for the coffee cake! How does she know so young what tastes that cake is better than eggs! In order that everyone else could enjoy their breakfast (without listening to a screaming child) I pretty much just let her eat whatever she wanted. Well, that and that fact that she was just way too cute to disagree with. (This has been one of our battles lately. She doesn't want to eat stuff that is good for you and she's a little young to understand my reasoning! For instance last night at supper I think she ate 4 french fries but wouldn't touch her green beans or egg salad!)

On one of our nice sunny days that we had last week we took our egg decorating outside. Casey and Audrey decoated eggs while I spent most of my time adding the tatoos. They aren't quite old enough to make eggs that are very detailed. Casey's favorite thing to do is to dump all the colors together and see how ugly of a color he can make! After dumping about 4 together he made a beautiful shade of gray! Chelsea was thrilled with the egg that the kids made for her as it had a puppy and kitty on it. After playing with it for about 2 minutes though it was broken and she had food coloring all over her hands. This was my confirmation that projects like this are best done when she is sleeping!

The Shrine Circus

I think they had about 12 tigers and 1 lion in a cage. I don't think you would ever catch me in that close of quarters with such ferocious animals!

A couple weeks ago, Casey, Audrey and I and a couple of their friends went to the Shrine Circus. I hadn't been to a circus in a long time so I was rather excited to go as well. It's always fun to watch people do things that most "normal" people cannot do. Audrey did not particularly care for the 8ft. clown when we first walked in but other than that it was an enjoyable experience. The kids had a lot of fun but were most amazed with the flying trapeze and the lions and tigers. They put a lot of other filler stuff in between these two events to make the circus rather long. After being there for over 2 hours we did decide to sneak out a little early. The events we really wanted to see were over and we figured we could dodge the big crowd of people this way as well. Pictures did not turn out too well as the lighting was kind of bad for picture taking but I did manage to get a few.

Cleveland Zoo

Our very chilly lunch break.

Audrey showing off her photography skills.


The whole gang!

A highlight in March was when Brad, Steph and the boys came for a visit. Casey and Audrey were counting down the days. Finally the day did arrive. We had planned to go to the Cleveland Zoo since the boys are all really into animals. The last time we were there we didn't get time to go through the rain forest so we had decided that even if it wasn't a nice day we could still go see some animals in there. We woke up and thought it was a beautiful day but after driving up to Cleveland we realized that it was much colder up by the lake than it was at home. We ended up pulling hats, gloves, and whatever winter wear we could find out of our vans. We went to the rainforest first waiting for it to warm up. We ate lunch about 1 and were shivering as we did so. After eating the sun was out but still very chilly. Since we were already there we thought we might as well do some of the zoo. As long as we stayed moving it wasn't too bad. We even walked all the way up to the primate building which seems like walking about 2 miles uphill. The kids did surprisingly well...even Chelsea. Seeing how she didnt' take a nap she was really very happy running around until we left the zoo at about 4:30. Needless to say, all the fresh air and walking had really worn her out. She was asleep before we were even out of the parking lot!

Ryan and Heidi Update

Since all of my catch up writing has been about the kids, I thought I'd give you a little recap of Mommy and Daddy for this blog.

Heidi - Of course I have been staying busy at home keeping up daily household chores. I also have found some time to do some other things. One thing I have started doing is couponing. Ryan's cousin introduced me to it and it's kind of like a game now to see how cheap I can get stuff. There are so many things you can do with couponing and rebating that I have to tell myself that I can't possibly do every single deal. I try to stick to a couple stores and leave it at that. In March I was able to get away for a weekend and go out to Indiana for the annual women's conferece at Mom and Dad's church. It was at Camp Amigo and Mary Jane Bevan (my mom's cousin) was the featured speaker. It was a good weekend and just a nice break from the normal routine. It was also the weekend of Ryan's 30th birthday. We were able to celebrate before we went by going to Texas Roadhouse (a place we haven't been to in a long time!). I had forgotten how good their bread with cinnamon butter is! Then we went to Wal-mart for Ryan to buy his own birthday present which of course would include something for turkey season as that would be just around the corner. While he was shopping I was purchasing his birthday cake since the kids think that for every birthday there must be cake. We took the cake to his mom and dads and had a small celebration with the kids and his parents. I have also started running more this winter and spring. I am planning to run in more races this spring and summer. I ran in my first one the beginning of March and have several planned for April.

Ryan - He has been home his fair share this winter. Some days it is nice and other days I think we just get in each others space a little too much. Last week he did wash all my windows though so that was really helpful. He did some ice fishing but didn't catch a whole lot this year. I always think that ice is a little scary. It's hard to really ever know if ice is safe. After going with him once this winter and him happening to break through the ice in the first 5 minutes soaked up to his hip, I lost a little confidence in the ice. He went several times after that but I'm always a little nervous. A couple weeks ago he found a place to catch some walleye. Too bad we were a little late for lots of walleye but we did manage to make a few sandwiches out of it. He has his boat in getting serviced and says that he plans to do lots of fishing this year. He's also gearing up for turkey season and as a matter of fact right now is in the woods somewhere listening for turkeys. He is optimistic that work will pick up here soon so that is a good thing too.

Our Last Snow Fun for 2010

As the snow piled high, I thought we should take advantage of the huge piles. We set out to make a snow fort. Although I did most of the shoveling while they did jumps off of the banks and threw snowballs at me, they did enjoy the fort when it was done. We had our snack out there and brought Chelsea out after she woke up from her nap. She was not particularly fond of the fort and didn't last long. (I am realizing that I have very few pictures of her this winter mostly due to the fact that we do all the fun stuff when she is asleep!)

Other Winter Fun

My little helpers chopping cucumbers for our salad!

Casey and Audrey have also found some other things to be interesting this winter. They both enjoy helping in the kitchen on occasion. Often they are responsible for setting the table, which is both a chore and also gives them a little power. They love deciding who will sit where and especially who gets to sit by Chelsea. Sometimes they will also help in the preparing of food. They think they are really getting big when they are able to use a sharp knife. We have only had one small cut so far. Both of them really do very good. They love to help cut up salad, make pizza, spank my bread dough, smash eggs for egg salad, and pretty much anything else I'll let them do.

Valentines Day

February also of course brings Valentines Day. Casey and Audrey were very excited to make valentines for all their friends. Casey made them for the kids in his class while Audrey made them for her friends at the YMCA. They got in some good letter practicing by writing all the names! They were also thrilled to get a valentine package from Grandma and Grandpa Kauffman and some others that arrived in the mail from Caleb and Kadin. They love to get things in the mail, especially packages. The other day the Fed Ex truck brought a box that contained a new faucet and they argued about who would get to carry it in to the house! Now come on...how exciting is a faucet? The packing peanuts proved to be much more interesting than the actual product!

Blog Vacation

I guess you can say I took a blog vacation. After 2 months of no blogging I think it needs some updating! The last time I blogged it was a huge snowstorm and now we are wearing shorts and playing outside thanks to what seems to be an early arrival of summer. It is supposed to be close to 80 degrees today! I heard the extended forcast though and I'm pretty sure we still have some colder weather ahead. Oh so where to begin in the life of the Millers for the last 2 months! A cup of coffee will help to jog the brain. Well after a short glimpse of our calendar for the month of February maybe I have discovered why I stopped blogging! It looks pretty empty indicating I had nothing to blog about. One of the highlights for Audrey was the beginning of one of her classes at the YMCA. She decided to take Tumbling Tots this time around and she absolutely loves it often asking me every day how many days until she can go again. She has been learning somersaults, handstands, playing parachute, and a variety of other things. Casey started swimming as well and really enjoys this activity as well. He did better with his class than I thought he would considering he has not been terribly relaxed when it comes to water activities. He was proud of himself that he will now be an eel for the next swimming session which means that he passed his first class.