scooter races + marbles

The kids didn't have school the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. Day which was good since I woke up feeling really sick. Amelia pretty much took over and got everyone breakfast and then kept Simon happy in the playroom until his morning nap so I could go back to bed for a bit. Amelia made me a sweet "get well" card and slipped it under my door. She said she hoped I felt better soon so we could do something fun. I had promised the kids a trip to the children's museum. I felt a bit better by the afternoon so I loaded everyone up and we headed downtown. We are loving our annual pass at Marbles. It's a fantastic children's museum and the kids have a blast each time we go. I started to feel sick again after a bit so we didn't stay too long but thankfully the kids were sympathetic and didn't put up a fuss about leaving. Ben arrived home soon after which was good since I was pretty much passed out the rest of the night. Whatever hit me was luckily gone in 24 hours.

We have a super long driveway that's perfect for riding bikes and scooters. We live on a dead end street which means we no longer have to worry about traffic and crazy speedsters. Hooray! The kids spent a few minutes on their scooters before we headed to the museum.

Oliver was having fun pushing Simon in the stroller. Simon was amused by his crazy driving.

The girls were hard at work for a long time in this kitchen.

Always determined to get his socks off.

Yates Mill

Our first of probably many visits to Historic Yates Mill. We enjoyed the walk around the water but it was starting to get dark when we reached the mill so we didn't have much time to explore. Beautiful little spot not far from our home.

four crazy kids on a warm january day.

I didn't realize how much I would love having a trampoline. The kids love it and Simon loves being bounced around. It basically acts as a giant playpen for him which is great since he only wants to eat pine needles when he's on the ground. We're already looking forward to adding some water elements to the trampoline on hot summer days and star gazing on warm summer nights (so fun to actually see so many stars here!).

The Scrap Exchange

I read about The Scrap Exchange online somewhere and immediately knew we needed to check it out. It's a creative reuse center in Durham. Basically a giant warehouse full of old stuff. All kinds of stuff. The idea is to promote creativity and environmental awareness through reuse. They also have a design center, art gallery, and a room for making crafts onsite or having parties.

Plus they had crazy tunnels right through the aisles that the kids could walk through, almost like a maze through the store. We picked up a few random things like some petri dishes (you know, in case we need to grow some bacteria), test tubes, and rubber stamps. I bought 56 small glass bottles. Just because they were pretty and only $5 for the whole flat. There were old doors and windows, fabric bolts, spools of stuff, old photographs, egg cartons, just barrels full of random items. Perfect place for craft project supplies. I'm sure we'll be back.

Bonus! We found a place nearby that had hot, fresh tortillas for only 90 cents/pound. Yum.

How magic cleaned my house.

One of the things I miss most about our old house is how quickly it could be cleaned. Fewer bathrooms, no stairs, no carpet, smaller kitchen, fewer rooms. Just keeping windows clean in our new house could be a full time job. We had a family discussion one night to figure out how to better work together to keep our new house clean (and make me feel less like a maid). We set up some small daily chores for the kids (which we had done in the past but it was time to better enforce) and then brainstormed ideas for Saturday morning chores. In the past we had used a jar full of ping pong balls. Each ball had one small chore and we would each pull balls out every Saturday until they were all completed. This was starting to get old and we needed to rewrite the chores anyway. Amelia, always full of interesting and thorough ideas, suggested that it would be more fun if we pulled the chores from a giant cauldron. And we should call them spells instead of chores. And the spells should be written on fake bugs.

Done. We found a cauldron, got some giant bugs and lizards, and came up with a list of weekly chores/spells. We added in a few fun things (like 5 minute dance party, cast an animal spell on everyone, lead the group in stretches, pick your own chore, etc). This keeps things exciting.

The cauldron was a huge success. The girls showed up Saturday morning in their full Harry Potter garb and packed suitcases (they typically have to pack up something whenever we do anything).

The chores only take about an hour and we have changed and added a few things each week to keep things interesting. Unfortunately our inflatable cauldron has since lost its air. Perhaps we need to add "inflate cauldron" as a weekly chore. I mean spell.

A big first for Elsa.

Elsa lost her first tooth in January. January 10th to be exact. She pulled it out during lunch at school. She couldn't wait to get off the bus after school and run to me with the news. Luckily the tooth fairy remembered to come that night (she probably finally learned to set reminders on her phone) and Elsa was thrilled with her dollar bill.

During this same time, Simon was teething like crazy and got his top 4 teeth at once. He was pretty miserable and always soaking wet from drool. So much pain to get them, and so much excitement when they finally fall out.