Happy Spring

Happy Spring!
I don't think I've longed for Spring as much in past years as I have this year. I've been anxious to get outdoors again. So in celebration of the first day of Spring I made special pancakes - pink and green flowers. Yes, they could have been mistaken for turtles, but they were intended to be flowers. They are whole wheat and they have chocolate chips in them in case you're still confused about their appearance.

Noelle and Sadie were pretty excited about them.

In other news:
Noelle and Sadie were on the deck when Noelle came running in yelling "bug, bug, bug." This usually means the bug is of the stinging variety. I bravely stepped outside, armed with a fly swatter to save my daughters certain peril. Fortunately 2 of the wasp/hornet things were lazily hanging out on the flat surface of the deck and I was able to beat them to death with my fly swatter - I like to make sure they're dead, dead.
Sadie looks at me and asks "Spanking?"

Warm Weather = Deck Time

Hello warm weather and hello outdoor living room/play area (a.k.a. the deck). In the last week we've enjoyed a fire in the fire pit, eating ice cream and having a picnic on our deck. Here are a few pictures of the girls enjoying the fresh air.

Cheesecake and a Massage

Mmmm I love cheesecake, so I decided to make one for my weekly dessert. I've never made a true cheesecake using a spring form pan and therefore do not own one. Jen Richardson graciously lent me hers and I proceeded to make a scrumptious, gooey cheesecake that included a brownie layer, a carmel layer and a cheesecake layer. I'm hoping all that richness will last me for another week.

When I returned the pan to the Richardson's this morning I included 2 peices of the cheesecake. Jen was not home when I dropped off the pan so I hope it was safe to assume Tom would share one of the peices with her. Jen was enjoying a morning at the spa getting a pedicure.

Noelle was very curious to know what a pedicure was. I told her Jen was probably getting a foot massage and having her toenails painted (I've never had one, but I'm pretty sure that's what happens). Noelle stored this information away.

At lunch Noelle looks at me and says "I would like to give you a special priveledge for working so hard at cleaning the house and making cheesecake to give away. I will give you a pedicure." First I had to pick my jaw off the floor since this is not the typical mindset of most 5-year olds, including Noelle. Then I very ethusiastically accepted her offer.

My pedicure was amazingly good considering her, and my, limited knowledge about what we were doing. She drug one of the armed dining-room chairs back the bathroom and had me sit on it. She also brought a blanket to lay across my lap to stay warm and a stool to prop my feet on.

The full treatment included soaking my feet in warm water, washing my feet with a foot scrub sample I had, massaging my feet with lotion (this was more like she was petting the top of my feet, but I'm not complaining) and painting my toenails (it's probably good I won't be wearing sandals too much in the next month).

My favorite part was Noelle's special treatment of gently blowing between my toes after she applied the lotion. It sounds odd, but it's really refreshing - I have no idea where she got the idea. Here are some pictures to capture my beauty treatment.



I guess I shouldn't have been surprised that she wanted the same treatment done to her when she was finished with me. Hmmm...I didn't know there was a catch to my gift.

Imagination

Noelle has a very vivid imagination. She's had 2 imaginary friends for almost 2 years, T and Michael. They are based on 2 teenage boys from our church. I'm so used to her talking and playing with T and Michael that I don't think much of it anymore.

Now that we've been reading chapter books she has even more imaginary friends - Henry, Jessie, Violet and Benny from The Boxcar Children, and all the girls from The American Girl Series.

Just yesterday Noelle came running over to me and said "Mom, can I go to the movies with Molly? Please!?" Since she has never been to the movies and I don't think she has any idea what that means, I had to think for a moment about her request. It dawned on me that Molly is Molly MacIntire from the American Girls and she wanted to pretend to go to the movies with her.
I asked all the right questions - What movie will you be seeing? and When will you be home?. Since she had good answers I decided it was okay for her to go with her imaginary friend.

Today she asked if she could ride her bike to Molly's house. I decided that was okay too.
Then she wanted to know if she could go with the hospital with Kit (another American Girl) since Kit got hurt. I wasn't sure if the hospital was a safe place for 2 young girls so I told her so. She said T would be going with them to watch out for them. Oh, good, I felt better about that:)

I like this imagination stuff!

Sadie

Here's a few recent pictures of Sadie. She's hard to resist.