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My good friend Abbi is moving today. :( It makes me sad because part of Ann Arbor is leaving for us. Ryan and Abbi were the first people we knew in AA and went out of their way to make us feel welcome. We are going to miss them tons, but are happy they will be back to visit and we will still get to see them once in a while. I went over to say good-bye and she had these beautiful peonies blooming in her yard. She said I should take them and enjoy them because she wouldn't be here to enjoy them. I was more than happy to oblige! Aren't they amazing--I love peonies.

They make my house so cheery! Thanks Abbi, I am going to miss you tons!

Jake was in the Science Olympiad last Saturday, which is a big competition where many of the schools in the area compete in science events. Jake was lucky enough to be picked as one of the two 2nd graders from his school to compete in the barge building competition. His coach (who was great) told me Jake is so good at loading up the barge, he is so patient, methodical and precise. Here he is with his friend and barge building partner, Zack. This is them right after they competed in the event.

We found out a couple hours later that Jake and Zack had won first place! Jake was so excited and we were so happy for him. He is taking after his big sister, Abby, who won first place two years ago in Mystery Architecture. They had an assembly at school this week to honor the Science Olympiad competitors and made a big deal out of these two. Here is Jake with his gold medal!


Abby was in Alice in Wonderland at her school last week. She was the Cheshire cat, and the knave of hearts. She did a great job and loved it. I forgot my camera, but did make a meat pie honoring her performance. Abby got a picture of it--in case you can't tell it says "Alice in Wonderland".

This picture of Andy makes me laugh. He is always so willing to play with Estee, they were "riding bikes" here and we were laughing at our almost 14 year old, Andy, on the pink and purple princess bike! Andy is such a good sport all the time and I love that about him. Estee does too, whenever he gets home she yells "Andy, I missed you!!".

Ann Arbor is beautiful!

WARNING--probably kind of boring

A few days ago, early in the morning I walked through my neighborhood looking dorkish with my camera around my neck taking pictures of everything. I didn't care that much I guess because I knew I looked like a dork and still did it. It was SOOO beautiful, and I know my time in AA is coming slowly to an end, so I wanted pictures of the pretty springtime here. Everything is blooming and is so green--I love it!

This little guy is only cute when he's not in my yard.

These are my favorite all time trees, Magnolia Tree. They are all over the neighborhood and get these giant flower blossoms every spring. Who would not love these?

Ok, I drive past this house mulitple times everyday with these rock tower things all over their yard. I am pretty curious about how they stay up all the time and never fall over. Well, one morning Dan and I went for a walk really early (5:30) and no one was around and it was kind of dark. We walked by this house and they have a little rock tower right by the road. Dan kept saying it was fake, so I went and touched it. It totally felt real, so I pushed it a little, and it FELL OVER! Yep, it's real and I just ruined probably hours of tower building! Sorry neighbor! Hope you never read this!

I love age eight

I found 65 cents in my jacket pocket tonight. I thought "which one of my kids has been nice?" Jake walked by.

Me: Here Jake I have something for you.

I hand him the 65 cents.

Jake: WOW!!! Is this my allowance!!

Mom: Yeah, and it's all the allowance you will get until 6th grade (he is in 2nd grade).

Jake: Wow! Thanks, mom!!

I totally love how easy to please eight year-olds are. It's such a nice calm, non-emotional age.

I also love how Jake in particular is super easy to please. Here he is playing soccer recently with his bright green shirt on. Go Comets!

I loved his Mothers Day cards for me. One of them had questions he answered about me. This is what it said.

MY MOM IS SPECIAL
My mom is special because: She is so nise to me.

I like it when my Mom: read's to me. (This one brought tears to my eyes, because it is such a chore to read to him at night--I just want to relax after I get Estee in bed because--well, she's two. We often are rushing to bed after a night of activities, but we try to find time for reading. These three little words make it worth it!)

My mom can do many things! I think she's best at: Cooking yumey things and doing cool trikks on the trampolen. (What can I say I have some trampoline skills :)

My mom has a pretty smile! I like to make her smile by: Doing somthing nise to her. (he "does something nice to me" everyday! What a great kid)

My mom is as pretty as a: Flower and a prinsess.

My mom is smart! She even knows: what I like the best.

I wish this age lasted longer! It's so much fun, and Jake is so much fun!

I must first apologize to my faithful readers for my long hiatus. Jill, are you there? I hope your still checking in on my blog :) Ok, all kidding aside I don't know where all the time goes, but I really want to get back into blogging so what better way to start back than with a post about a fabulous kid-free (love ya kids, but love to get away from ya too :)) get-away!
Thanks to Elizabeth for the three way swap of babysitting! I know you got the short-end of the stick on that deal, so I owe you one. Thanks!
Dan and I snuck out early in the AM on a Tuesday (5am to be exact) and took off for some fun in the sun in Florida! We had a hotel right on the beach and didn't even rent a car. We had pure relaxation in mind, and it totally panned out!

It's nice to know after almost 15 years(!!!!) together we still really like just hanging out together, I didn't even get sick of him the whole 3 days (hard to believe huh?) I think that's the most time we have spent together in the last 10 years!

I have to admit these pictures are kind of lame, we never really felt like getting the camera out and we didn't really care about taking pictures of ourselves (pictures seem way less important without kids around, or my sisters). Anyway, here are the pics!

This first one is the view from our hotel balcony at 6 am I woke up and couldn't get back to sleep, thank you children for years of getting me up at the crack of dawn, now I can't sleep in if I want to. So, I was enjoying the nice view and reading my book until I was forced inside by the neighboring balcony's smoke fest.

We stayed at Hollywood beach and our hotel had this broadwalk between it and the beach. It was really great because you walk up and down all three miles of it and there were little shops and restaurants all along it on one side and the beautiful ocean and beach on the other side. This picture is the broadwalk and our hotel taken from the beach.

Does it get any better? This is my idea of heaven. I sure hope there are beach chairs and sand and a big ocean in heaven.

Like I said the photo's are lame. This is me, pre-tan, you should see now!

Look at that water, I love that color.

This is Dan's idea of getting a tan, baking under a towel??

Highlights of the trip:

Swimming in the ocean and riding the waves

laying in the sun and being warm

not having any responsibilities for 3 days

seafood

getting home to the kids

We had so much fun and promised the kids to take them soon! They were pretty jealous :)

New pictures of Jake--8 year old/baptism pictures, and Estee 2 and 1/2 year old/stinker pictures.

It's much, much, much easier to get a picture of an 8 year old, than a two year old.

Thanks to Jess for taking the pictures, she did a great job. I love them!

Abby's facial, Estee body paint

Abby is going to kill me for posting this, but I just want to anyway. Dan (with my assistance) gave Abby a facial. We had the whole spa treatment going with candles, music--we even banished Estee, Jake, and Andy so she could really relax. She was very resistant to this at first, but I think she secretly really liked it. She will never admit this, however. You should ask her about it next time you see her.

I love this one of Dan massaging her temples. He regularly threatens her to quit scowling or he will botox her scowl away! Ha! I hope he does it one day!!

Estee has become fascinated with painting herself. I think she must have been a warrior in her previous life because she seems to know just what to do and wants to do it all the time. She is ready for battle whenever she has ice cream, or pudding. This time in particular I was having a conversation with the rest of the family and ignored her for a few minutes--big mistake. Silly me for thinking I could have a conversation! I love the detail on the arms. I think someday she might be a painter--I am so glad I am not squashing that dream by keeping her clean.
If no body paint (ice cream) is available she finds other sources, she can be creative, pretty much anything on Abby's desk she can make good use of, she used stickers this time. Jake was her partner in crime here.

Andy scored 12 points at a basketball game yesterday and Jake did some great rock climbing! Someday when I actually attend one of Andy's games and Jake's rock climbing (besides drop off/pick up) I will take pictures and post about them! But for now, way to go boys!!

Dan seems to think my post about Abby's cello performance is inaccurate. He doesn't think I was "literally" bursting with pride. I guess I am still in one piece and haven't burst open yet so maybe he is right. I stand corrected. I am just figuratively bursting with pride.

Estee's hat

Estee loves her fur hat. She especially loves her "earrings" which are the fur balls on the side of the hat. We get lots of laughs and comments everywhere we go, someone asked if she was an animal. No, she's human, with a fur hat. A friend came to my house yesterday and the hat was sitting on the ground, she asked if we had a cat. No, just Estee's fur hat.

I really wish they had one in my size--that I could afford. Wouldn't that be cute matching fur hats! For you animals lovers, it's not real, no worries.

Orchestra Concert--Abby on Cello

I am literally bursting with pride for my little cellist. Abby is a girl with many, many talents and I am so proud of her. Last week she had a orchestra/choir concert. She played the cello and even had a solo part. She is in the middle on the right, I try to zoom in on her at one point.

Then she sang in the choir concert.

It was especially nice to have Dan join me at the concert. I am really pretty use to going to these wonderful events alone. However, it is always really fun to have Dan join me and know he is enjoying our kids as much as I do. Another added bonus--Andy volunteered to stay home and watch Estee so we could listen to the concert with out any outburst or interruptions. Dreamy.

Abby is playing basketball right now as well, and I took a bunch of pictures at her first game last week and I don't know what happened to them. Estee was nearby so I think she may have had something to do with it. Hmmmm. All I have left is a video of Estee cheering Abby on before the game started. It was really cute, Estee LOVED cheering for Abby. She kept saying "go Abby" in this really angry voice. They won the game by one point!! Pretty exciting stuff. It's getting a tiny, tiny bit easier to take Estee to sporting events for the bigger kids (knock on wood, knock hard on wood).

Jake was also very fun take to the game, he is so nice to Estee and is always willing to help her (or help me with her).

Andy in Montreal, Quebec

Andy had a great time in Quebec. I just have to say the teachers who took this big crew of 8th graders are awesome! I really think teaching in general is way undervalued in our society. Shouldn't the people who are teaching the future leaders, workers and parents of America be paid very well for this valuable, important task?? I also think that teaching should be a really hard job to get (not just because of hard economic times) but similar to getting into medical, dental, business, or law school. Only the top, most well rounded person gets to teach our kids. Not to say that the teachers we have now, aren't really good, but I just think they should be more respected by society--and the bad ones should be weeded out :)

Back to Quebec. Here is the whole crew that went with on the trip.




Andy is getting off the bus that took him all over town and kept him out the the frigid -40 weather! BRRRRR!





Aren't they cute? Their eyes, I mean. This is how they looked outside most of the time. Where's Andy?








Um, this was Andy's favorite part. Yes, they slid down that thing. In the summer it's a water park, in the winter it's a sled ride! I think it looks kind of scary and steep! On the right is the tube pull thing that pulls you back up the hill. Well, Andy was sitting on his sled riding up and his friend came and sat on him. Andy's arm started rubbing against the frozen ground and rubbed off a pretty good amount of skin before his friend realized he was hurting him and got off. He came home with a big old wound. He said it didn't really hurt. It looked like it hurt. A lot.



This is Old Quebec. It's a 400 year old city and from the pictures and the teachers description of it I can't wait to take my family there this summer! She said it's the closest thing to Europe without being in Europe. Including the chocolate pastries!
They got to see some really cool stuff including this cathedral with stained glass windows, very beautiful.
This was some sort of maple party (sorry Andy's description). The maple is hot and they pour it into the snow and wrap it around the stick, it cools a little and makes a delicious chewy maple treat. Sounds fun, and good.
I think this one is at Hard Rock Cafe. They reserved the whole place for the kids and had breakfast there.
This sounds really fun, they went dog sledding! Here they are getting their instruction--can you imagine trying to get a large group of 8th graders to do this!! Wow!

Go Andy, go! He said it was so cold that day they only sledded for about 20 minutes. Still it looks like a blast! Go Balto, mush.
This one makes me cold! They walked across the suspended bridge spanning the Montmorency Falls. Montmorency falls are the highest in Quebec, higher than Niagara Falls. I want to take the family here this summer too.

Here is Andy with one of his friends from the trip. Staying warm inside.
The kids also went curling, snowshoeing, visited Ste-Anne shrine, went to a play, a 17th century meal with dancing and taffy pull, went to the top of Mont-Royal to view the city from above, ate at many delicious, french restaurants, and hopefully improved their french a little!
I am so glad Andy got to go on this fun, learning trip. That his teachers were good enough and nice enough to do this with the kids. Taking time out of there life to take the kids on a trip. Thank you for helping Andy buy new boots when he lost one, and easing his mom's mind. For being a good enough teacher to know how important things like this are in an education. I am in awe of good teachers everywhere!