Tball

Ok so we're going to give Tball a try! Who wants to buy a $5 raffle ticket so we can play?!?!? Your ticket will go into 40 drawings for $250. You know how to get ahold of me :)

It's a zoo in there

On the way home from church today Schmoo was talking about primary and commented about all the trouble that I and many other adults had with a small child's behavior today. My dear husband and I started brainstorming possible solutions when Schmoo pipes up "mom, maybe you could call animal control?" Oh good grief. Where does this come from?

The Statue of Liberty

My Dear Husband had an unexpected day off last week so we figured we should go do something touristy vacationy fun. Liberty Park is a 2 hr drive for us, so off we went to see the Statue of Liberty for the first time! It was sooooo stinkin awesome! It was a gorgeous day in early Spring. It was not crowded and there were no lines. Plenty of photo opps and no rude people. As a matter of fact I think the only English we heard that day was from the Ferry employees...but their Jersey accent was so heavy that saying it was English may be up for debate :)

The New Jersey departure point is from an old train station:


We had been told that you can take the ferry to Ellis Island and Liberty Island from either New York or New Jersey, and that New Jersey would be infinitely less crowded and easier. See the photo below:


My husband took this photo from our New Jersey ferry. See all the empty benches on our ferry...see alllll the people on the New York ferry!?!?!?! Holy Moly!

The guys enjoying our leisurely ferry ride over to Ellis Island.


Outside of main building at Ellis Island


Here's schmoo with his cousins' Flat Stanley.


Inside the main bldg at Ellis Island. There were many displays, exhibits and artifacts to peruse. You could also stop and do genealogy there!


Waiting on the next ferry heading over to Liberty Island. Schmoo the photographer.


On the approach. The insides of the monument are being restored this year, so you can't go inside, but all the grounds are still open.


Flat Stanley was here!


I love the photo below. It looks like we were the only ones there looking up to Lady Liberty :)


Our only whole family photo. Wind was whipping my hair around and it's hard to get the whole statue plus people!
We were so close to NYC I could taste it. I can't believe we still haven't gone up there. AAAAAAHH!


It was seriously a perfectly awesome day and we keep talking to each other about it. Wonderful memories created!

Veggies

So I actually had a good idea :) I was supposed to bring veggies and dip to Schmoo's valentine's day party and I didn't really like the thought of two things: 1) 22 sets of kinder hands digging through the veggies and 2) Ranch flavored cupcakes, cookies, etc.

I'm sure someone has done this before, but it was an original thought for me. I poured a little ranch into the bottom of of a foil/paper cupcake liner and then put the veggies in on top. The kids, teachers and parents loved the idea and it was super convenient for serving. Enjoy :)

Random photos

This is from when Schmoo was the student of the week in his class.


This is Schmoo's first personal pan pizza that he earned doing the pizza hut "Book it" program that they offer at school. Daddy did this while he was growing up too. What other 5 year old do you know whose first choice of pizza is Mushroom? (actually he was like, "do I want green pepper? Or sausage? Or olive? Do they make shrimp pizza?" He finally settled on mushroom.)


This was the day of the primary program. This kid is getting soooo tall!

We went down to the Cape May zoo on President's Day. It was a great day because it was cool, not cold, not many people were there, and the animals were out and about! We didn't do a lot of photos, but I had to include the tiger because the big cats are my favorites. While we were at the zoo, one of the lions started ROARING! I've never heard that before and it was amazing loud and deep. It echoed throughout the zoo and I LOVED it!

We found this super duper simple recipe from Good Houskeeping or somewhere and if I were responsible I would link it here but it was from an actual paper magazine and I don't want to go find it online right now. Anyway. Chocolate lava/pudding cakes and they were divine. And so very easy. And anything I can make in those dishes is automatically awesome. (Except don't you dare suggest that I make something horrific like tuna casserole in them.)

I love Valentine's Day!

I love the whole month of February! Groundhogs, birthday, and especially Valentine's day! I love pink and red and hearts and cards and dates and chocolates, and LOVE! This year I am surprising Schmoo and Honey with a little gift or treat each day from Feb 1-14th. It's too much fun!

Happy 100th Day of School!

It's a tradition to celebrate the 100th day of school in kindergarten. The kids make shirts with 100 of something on them. We came across this idea online and thought it would be awesome. It was :)