What a day!!

I'm already exhausted. Tomas had school in the morning, so Makayla, Gabriella and I ran some errands so that we'd have enough food in the house for the weekend. Gabriella and Makayla tramped throught the grocery store holding hands and grabbing for kid-height, interesting foods and toys. TIRING!!! Luckily they were overall well-behaved and we had a good time.

When we got home from school, Everyone was falling asleep in the car and I KNEW I was in trouble! As usual, Makayla didn't want to eat lunch; I at least got her to eat some turkey. Gabriella has been a sneezing snotty mess all day. Nap time was a DISASTER. Makayla was crying, but eventually just fell asleep. Gabriella was just all out screaming. She can't breathe through her nose and she was just lying there pointing to her nose and saying Mommy in a whiny voice. (She was also very interested in seeing our neighbor Jenniene, who was downstairs with her nephew and Tomas. So far, Makayla is the only one that has napped. She is here until after 8 tonight and then again tomorrow morning with her brother. I just want to SLEEP!

Toddler Fun Times!

Today was a busy and fun-filled day. I watched Makayla (as I will be tomorrow and Saturday too)! Then Caren needed to me watch Jacob for just a little while so for snack and morning play, I had four toddlers running around the house. WOW! After snack and playroom cleanup we had some Playdoh time. As you can see, music and Playdoh are a BLAST!
After all that play, it was time to wind down a little before lunch and naps so everyone snuggled up under the Tinkerbell blanket. They were adorable, although the quiet was very shortlived!
This afternoon, after naps were done, Makayla, Tomas, Gabriella, and I made banana bread together. As Makayla said, "Yummy in my tummy!" We're all excited to try that special treat tomorrow. I'm exhausted after such a busy day. On to another fn-filled day tomorrow.

Paint!!

Yesterday was a day of traditional Dutch dinner.  Endive with mashed potatoes and bacon (everything is better with bacon right?).  Peeling potatoes is a process with toddlers under foot, so I decided to let the kids have some painting time...interesting choice.  They love to paint, but it's messy and Tomas is a perfectioninst (he didn't want to draw a sun because he couldn't make a perfect circle...hmmmm).  It was a lot of fun, but not at all productive for me.  HA!

Gabriella's hands were both covered in paint, and her smock/bib was as much of a work of art as her paper was...Tomas only had about five little splotches on his shirt, and his hands were spotless.  Typical!

How Buried We Really Got...

 

I hadn't gotten around to posting this earlier, but this is a picture Pete took of our car after the storm last week. This was first thing in the morning on Friday, when the lights were already out. When we went to bed Thursday, our driveway was shoveled. Pete worked together with other neighbors to clear our driveway and others. Needless to say, this was a LOT of snow! Right now, it has been a few days of well above freezing temperatures and there is not a hint of grass to be seen anywhere. The weight of the snow wreaked havoc on trees in the area. The routes to gymnastics and to Tomas' school are littered with downed limbs and even whole trees that just gave up under the weight. Unfortunately with all this thaw-worthy weather, the snow is now just wet slushy nastiness, so far from great for playing in. Now I'm ready for spring and real playground time!

Cooking Fun

For a long time, Tomas has not wanted to cook with me anymore. A while ago, when Bada and Oma were visiting, Tomas was helping make pancakes and he burned his finger. This has been very tough on Tomas. He is scared of doing that again and has therefore backed away from cooking. So today, I decided to try to get him interested in making pizza. I told him he could help me mix the dough and knead it, like he does wth play-doh, and he was ready to be a big helper. He got to wear Mommy's apron and weild his own spoon. The real selling point was that he could use Mommy's measuring cups.

We had a good time kneading the dough, although Tomas was most in love with flouring the counter top. This was very unlike him, as he is often averse to any mess! The flour was lots of fun to sprinkle and spread around. Finally, we started talking about toppings and Tomas was interested only in cheese, so I told him he had to pick a veggie. What did he pick?...broccoli!! Broccoli, cheese, sauce, and pepperoni became the toppings. Even Gabriella enthusiastically ate the broccoli. The only note for next time: leave the salt out of the dough recipe. The dough was, I would venture to say, disgustingly salty.

A Bad Start!!

Last night when I came in from the wives' coffee in our neighborhood (where I learned how to crochet), I opened the other garage door instead of closing the one that was already open. This resulted in an animal coming into the garage to snack on the pizza that was in our "cold storage..."that means in the garage since it's like a refrigerator in there anyway. Man, what a discovery to wake up to. DIG DUMBY ME!

On another note I actually completed a scarf for Gabriella's dolls. I realize that is a small tiny little thing, but for anyone who has ever attmepted crocheting, hopefully you understand that I am proud of this. I am now going to move on to a scarf for myself and hope that it does not look as funny in spots as the baby scarf does. HA!

After the storm...getting back to it.

Today is just one of those days in the Pedraza house. First, I was wide awake at 7 (plenty of time to shower and get the kids up and fed before school), but my smartness decided to doze: just for a little bit. At 8: 10 I woke up. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH (We have to be out the door by 8:45). Both kids were still asleep, and boy was I ever little miss groggy face. A quick dunk in the shower and then I quickly dressed Gabi, who thankfully decided to cooperate today. Then we went into Tomas' room together. He was soaking wet. He hasn't had an accident at night since August. This had come out of nowhere. A quick bath, getting dressed, and we ate leftover pancakes in the car on the way to school. What a way to start the day. I hate being rushed!

On the way to school, we discussed what we saw outside, and boy was there a lot to see! Tree limbs werre downed all over the place from all of the wind and snow, and the piles of snow were enormous. Just by Tomas' school, whole trees had even fallen! We were, inevitably, late for school. Tomas sat down and started work on the letter "O." As I went to leave, Gabriella very plainly told me, "Don't want to." (Mind you, I understand what she says quite clearly, but as Selene attested to last weekend, I am often alone in understanding her).

Quick side note, right now Tomas and Allie are playing together. Tomas just informed me that he is Bo, Allie is Carla, and they are playing with Max, who has "twitty" legs (Allie said pretty, but it sounded like "twitty" so Tomas has added this to his vocabulary). They just ran into the playroom to hide from Max. I haven't a clue where Tomas got those names, but he is committed to them. Even as he was running, he called Allie Carla.

Back to my day: Gabriella is quite an independent little lady but does not quite understand the dangers of parking lots. This is leading to some fun and frustrating times. She insists on walking, but it always takes some time to get her to hold my hand. Her favorite phrase lately is, "Leave me alone!" (This sounds something like "LEELONE!"

All in all, it was a quick morning. It is already 2:30, and as I look around, I feel like I haven't gotten anything done. Laundry is multiplying exponentially. Everything that was folded is now in "neat" little Gabriella mounds, and somehow I have to hope the kids sleep so I can call USAA at some point.