"Bowling???....."

Little Miss Mae almost couldn't sleep for two nights straight because she was so excited she got invited to go bowling with her best friend! And of course K-Rae tagged along in full force!

The event was called "Bowling for Babies" and was a fundraiser for the March of Dimes. Little Miss Mae has a little teddy bear that was given to her by the March of Dimes when she was a baby at the Children's Hospital. As we were driving to the bowling alley, we had to turn around and go back home to retrieve the March of Dimes bear, when Little Miss Mae realized she had forgotten it for the big event.

Will it make it????(to the end of the lane that is...)

Maybe not!

Best friends (& the March of Dimes bear being well cared for)

Not sure how much bowling actually got accomplished, but they all had fun and managed not to get kicked out of the bowling alley!

Hugging good-night....sleepy Little Miss Mae never ready to say good-bye.  On the way home she used her talker to tell us, "I ham happy, I ham sad, I ham excited, I ham mad, I ham hungry, I ham tired!"  The "ham" = am, sounds close enough in her mind, and obviously very emotional about the whole evening's special event. 

What has K-Rae been up to?

Current project: Getting bird house ready to hang

Daddy's Little Helper

 
Don't you think Home Depot should hire her???

 

 

Awwwww.....

(this snapshot is my favorite)

Just a little
tuckered out!

 

 

Welcome Spring!!!!!

Is there anything softer, fluffier and cuter than baby chicks?  Please RyDaddy, can we just take two home??? (That's me begging, the girls were content to just pet them.)

 We're fortunate to be able to take advantage of 3 growing seasons here...we got our cool weather crops in the ground...lettuce, spinach, kale, carrots, and sweet peas....can't wait for fresh salads in a couple of months!

Sharing a Little Green............

 It's Spring Break Week for us....

Even though we didn't travel, spring "break" is sure wearing me out!  
But then again, it seems like about every week wears me out at this stage of life.....

We've all enjoyed having RyDaddy home for the week though....
 school vacations, the perk of being a teacher (maybe the only perk)!

Yes, we made it up to the CO Nat'l. Monument for a picnic. 

These cute little green jackets the girls are wearing are from Auntie S.

So pretty up there! 

Do we seriously only live a 15 min. drive from here???

Little Miss Mae has deemed this "her" trail. 
She was the first one to find it last fall...and it's actually somewhat accessible...she loves to "hike" here. 

Yes, this is a dinosaur tooth fossil....how in the world did you guess?  It must have been quite the lucky day, as the girls found several "dinosaur teeth!"

 And a little more green...

 

The St. Patty's Day cookies were a hit this week.....

and we even managed to have a few left for today!  

Being St. Patrick's Day, 
K-Rae thought we should buy this

green whatever it is from Home Depot...she almost looked cute enough sitting in it to convince us! We settled on the Home Depot hat and seed packets for the garden!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Our family has grown by three girls.......

OK, so actually, we just added a few girls for an evening....sweet little munchkins.....Our girls thought they were in heaven with their friends AND a baby over for the evening!  Plus as an added bonus, they got to stay up late.  Friends and staying up late, it doesn't get much better than that!  RyDaddy commented that we really increased the estrogen level that night.....I reminded him if it were 5 boys hanging out instead of 5 girlies, it would be one wild mayhem of an evening, as opposed to intently reading books!

Of course, the next few days, the new game for K-Rae was pretending like she is a baby.....baby Lori to be exact.  Yes, the laundry basket is her crib. 

Little Miss Mae decided to be the official Mama...and had to have her apron on and do laundry!

 

 

I kind of liked this baby in the crib game actually.........when I asked K-Rae a question, she said, "Babies can't talk!"  Sweet!  So I milked that part of the game for all it was worth by responding with "Babies can't talk," every time I got asked a question.

  Plus the laundry basket made a great little nap spot! 

Photo journal of K-Rae prepping dinner tonight....

Scrubbing the yams...

Drying and wrapping the yams

Washing and sampling the kale....LOVES kale...raw, cooked, however!

Helping Mama use the big knife...scary!

Taking a cooking break to blog.....or to do reading games......have your preschooler/kdg./first/second grader check out http://www.starfall.com/ for some interactive reading games, stories, and activities.  Oh---and does someone want to buy me a new laptop?....I'm having a hard time getting access to mine anymore!!!!

Little Miss Mae helping too

Measuring and mixing....making marinade

Basting the salmon

Mashing the yams

Final product, and proud little chef...this meal was DELICIOUS....Baked salmon with bourbon brown sugar glaze, yams topped with marshmallows of course (the only way to eat yams in our opinion), and kale sauted with garlic.  Yum!!!  K-Rae only liked the kale; the salmon and yams weren't her favorite. Little Miss Mae however, ate more salmon and yams than all the rest of us put together. 

The secret ingredient for the salmon....McCormick Brown Sugar Bourbon Marinade Grill Mates from City Market....we followed the recipe on the back of the package for the citrus marinade, marinated for 30 minutes and then baked for 30 min. on 450.  Very tasty! 

Musings from K-Rae

K-Rae is grounded.  I'll spare you the details of why, but the punishment for the behavior is 3 days with no movies or Wii--a pretty big punishment for our little tech savvy girl.  This morning at breakfast K-Rae asked me, "Am I still destroyed of movies?"  When I told her to finish her breakfast, she piped up, "But my tummy is as full as a giant!"  Later on she was playing with her doll, and had it "caged" in by placing the laundry basket upside down over the top of it.  She was saying, "Now you are captured and in time out from the evil mother...." This is in reference to the wicked mother on their current favorite movie Tangled, right?????  I decided not to ask!

So, on day two of this punishment, I'm wondering if I punished myself as much as her! So, out of desperation for needing something to occupy her for at least 5 minutes straight, and not wanting to give in and let her watch a movie, I remembered a free educational website Little Miss Mae's kindergarten teacher shared with us:  http://www.storylineonline.net/ ....not a movie, but still catchy enough to capture the girls' attention awhile.  Basically famous people read stories and show the pictures of the book as they read it....the girls love it.  We haven't watched all of the stories yet, and I'm not sure they're all age appropriate for preschoolers, but the Polar Express is a hit, as is Stellaluna.  Later K-Rae decided to occupy herself by dressing up as a princess, and having Kozy be her prince....I liked this game better than the evil mother game. 

  

And Little Miss Mae will announce the winner of this month's prize drawings for official Ready, Set, Wait 4 Me Blog Followers.

 

Congrats...and tough competition, as there are nine official blog followers at this time, and two were eliminated for being myself and RyDaddy!  (K-Rae was not happy about me eliminating myself and RyDaddy and wondered why her name wasn't in the drawing!)

Your prize will be coming in the mail soon!  :)  Enjoy!  Send us a pic of you with the prize, and maybe we'll blog you!  Those of you who aren't official followers yet, sign up at the top of the blog....next prize drawing beginning of April!