The Backyard...

Our backyard consist of.... a little patch of grass with a driveway in it, followed by an alley way and then a very nice park! So, today when the weather was wonderful... we just walked outside and over to the park!

Sooo grateful for spring weather!

Some updates...

Nathan has been taking swim lessons the past few weeks, and is really enjoying them. At his first lesson the instructor told the parents to buy goggles that covered both the eyes and nose (they have some at the pool, but they aren't in very great shape). So, Nathan got his goggles and loves them..... but, the other parents just got their kids normal goggles, so Nathan looks like he's wearing safety goggles compared to the other kids... oh well, he doesn't care!

Gracie's favorite movie: Sleeping Beauty. And her favorite song: the song from Sleeping Beauty... "I know you, I danced with you once upon a dream...". She is always going to Nathan or Bryant and asking them to dance while she sings the song.... AND holds her shirt or dress out just like Aurora did in the movie.

And finally today, we learned a little lesson here at the Treacle house. It was one that we've always known, but never thought really mattered. Well, it does! I was out of real butter and we were getting ready to make rice crispy treats. I tried to convince the kids that we needed to go to the store to buy some, but they said "no mommy, we have butter it's right here". Well, good ol' Country Crock is NO substitute for real butter other than spreading on your toast! Trust me. Take a look at these treats (as you can tell the kids really didn't care that I messed them up)..... luckily after dinner they were thrown away and this momma made a trip to the grocery store for some real butter and more marshmallows and now we have white rice crispy treats.... that taste soooo much better!

Parent- Teacher Confrences...

Today was Parent- Teacher Conferences. And I have to admit that I was slightly nervous.... BUT, Nathan's preschool teacher couldn't have said anything nicer about him. We are just pleased as peaches to hear that our little boy is one of the smartest and brightest kids in his class. He pays attention and listens well, gets along with all the other kids and is not right on target intellectually... he is beyond where a four year old should be, she told me he is right up there with the five and six year olds! So, pleased to hear all of the good stuff! In fact there wasn't anything that she could tell us to work on with him.... we are so thankful. Nathan has always been a very adventurous, spunky, determined child, one that usually has to be told several times to do something (at home). So, to find out that he is wide eyed and mesmerized when learning things at preschool is well, just awesome! Mrs. Light said that he is VERY ready for Kindergarten.... I said, "yah, well I'm not sure if momma is!".

This does explain his choice of literature that he brings home on library days: encyclopedias. Literally, Children encyclopedias about dinosaurs, reptiles, space.... you name it, it has been in his school bag! I have yet to see any type of fictional story book in there.

A Few Thoughts...

• Gracie told me yesterday that she can't wait for baby Eli to come out of Mommy's tummy so that baby Sarah can go in!

• Nathan whispered a secret in my ear last night before bed, "I love video games!"

• I told Bryant last night while playing Gracie's new Barbie game for the Wii, "I actually kinda like this..."

• And thank you Bath and Body Works for being my children's cure to not wanting to wash their hands.... they love the soap! Nathan comes out of the bathroom and tells me to smell his hands... reluctantly I do, and they smell good!

• Oh, and we've discovered that baths on a lazy morning make the evening so much easier!

• And March on average for our area is supposed to start in the high 40's and end in the low 60's... today it is 39* and rainy.

Washington Wizards vs. New York Knicks...

For Valentine's Day I got Bryant a book titled, "Loving the Love of Your Life" (no author given), it's a book that you pass back and forth between the two of you and it's really kinda fun. So, last week I read my section called, Being a Good Sport, and it was about supporting your husbands love of sports.... so, I surprised him with 3 tickets to the Wizards vs. Knicks game. I told him he could take whoever he wanted to.... it was completely his choice. Well, he really wanted to take Nathan and none of his friends from work were really into basketball. So, we went as a family last night.... Here's some photos.

First, I have to tell you that Nathan was SUPER excited because, "mommy I've never been to a basketball game before!". And since Nathan was excited Gracie automatically became very excited also.

And they actually watched the game! Gracie would start dancing every time music came on, and they both clapped and hooped and hollered every time anyone else did. It was so cute! Nathan also cheered for the Knicks.... because he liked their blue jerseys better than the Wizards white ones!

Daddy bought a big ol' bag of popcorn and they devoured it!

It's a little hard to tell, since the flash was off... but, Gracie would make Bryant hold his hands in a cup shape so that she could use them as a bowl for her popcorn.

And now she's feeding him...

A Wizards fan sitting in front of us caught a ball that they were throwing into the stands and gave it to our kids.... they were so pleased!

The kids would have stayed all night and watched the whole game, but we had to call it quits or we knew we would be regretting it when those super cranky and sleepy kids decided to show up later... not to mention it would have been a nightmare getting out of the parking garage after the game. So, we watched the half time show... Air Elite, a stunt team.... and then hit the road.

But, we did make one more stop before the van.... ice cream!

Oh, and the kids laughed and giggled the whole way home... we got home around 10! And this morning Gracie didn't get up until almost 9!

We've decided that we should have a family night out, once a month... it was so fun!

Random Photos From This Weekend...

Gracie is at a milestone in her little life. She dresses herself! When she wakes up in the morning she always comes downstairs fully dressed... in some crazy outfit! This was her get-up from Friday.

Saturday morning, I handed Gracie a pair of pants to put on since she showed up downstairs in her PJ's... which actually allowed momma to help dress her after breakfast. Only, the pants that I gave her were some well worn hand-me-downs, and had a whole in the knee.... and she refused to put them on. So, we dug out our little sewing box and got the patches out and the iron and created a whole new fun masterpiece... now they're her favorite pair of pants! But, they will most likely only be worn around the house still.

Then, Nathan was off to swim lessons.... which he LOVED! Especially, because he got to sit on the bottom of the pool and got to wear some special goggles that covered his eyes and nose. While he was at swim lessons Gracie helped mommy bake some muffins. She always says, "You a good cooker mommy, I be a good cooker too.". And even now she is sitting on the floor putting on her apron and trying to hand me mine....

And finally, last night before bed I was looking at the pictures on my camera. I highly recommend that every mom of a preschooler do this. Because you might find some pictures on there that you did not take... and if you look closely you can discover who the culprit is every time!

Those little feet give her away! The scary thing was that she was taking pictures as she was walking down the stairs!! Oh my!

Today...

• Today I realized that Gracie is a big girl. It wasn't her big girl attitude or all things princess that convinced me. It was while watching her and Nathan play a computer game. She just loves it.... and she is doing so good recognizing all of her letters and singing the songs with each one. If you haven't been to http://www.starfall.com/ before, then it is a must especially for preschool aged children. Some of our favorite letters are Z and T, and the kids love doing the snowman game too!

• Today, while Nathan was at preschool Gracie and I ran some errands. And of course you can bet your bottom dollar that while at Target, Eli got some new onesies, hats and mittens! They're just so cute!

• And Nathan finally, got to have his Valentine's party at preschool. After being snowed in at home all of last week, he was very excited to go to school today. I even sent along some cookies for him to share with his class, and afterwards when I picked him up he said, "Mommy the cookies were delicious, I had two of them! Thanks mommy for making them.".... so sweet.