stupid human tricks??

some family bonding time with straws! (sorry video quality is not better)

spring concert

here are some pictures from tyler's spring concert/open house last night. he got to play the xylophone for one of the songs. some of the other pictures are of his classroom after the show.

on a side note, we had thunderstorms off and on all day though it looked like it cleared by the time we were getting ready to leave for tyler's show. we all decided to walk over to the school since it had stopped raining for a while (and parking would be horrendous). of course, when we left the rain started back up again. i left earlier than aaron & tyler so i could put emma to bed, and i ended up sprinting the whole way home so emma wouldn't get too wet...i ran so hard i thought i was going to throw up, blech. my clothes were totally drenched. aaron & tyler looked like they just got out of the shower when they got home. crazy!

ack! i was almost done w/ my post and the the dumb computer died on me...grrr.

anyway, lately i've been really frustrated at all the spiderman related advertisements. i've been especially annoyed at the spiderman toy and kids' clothing ads. why? the movie is rated PG-13, and yet the majority of the ads are marketed towards kids under the age of 13. all the spiderman movies (and the hulk, and superman) were all marketed that way. kind of messed up in my opinion. not that we won't allow tyler to see it, but he's a bit older. but what about parents of younger kids? would you let your 5 year old see it? or your 4 year old? i know there are many parents here in the u.s. that allow their young children to watch TV. kids 6 and under spend an avg. of 2 hrs./day using screen media, and the avg. american watches about 4 hours of TV/day (go here for more alarming facts). especially w/ cable, there are more channel options for kids to choose from, which keeps them hooked on the TV. ugh, i think i'm just really frustrated at how the media chooses to take advantage of kids who they know are VERY impressionable! makes it tough on us parents. *sigh*.

i found the TV Turnoff Network. what do you know, TV Turnoff week is this week! tyler is already not watching TV during the week so i don't think it would be fair to "deprive" him of TV over the weekend. today, our TV substitute activity was playing twister and LIFE after dinner and homework. it felt great to interact w/each other and we didn't miss the TV at all. i'm so glad we don't have cable (makes things easier)!

shrubless

this past sunday we finally pulled out the shrubs in our front yard. the first photo is the "before photo"f rom when we hired roofers to re-do our roof (2005). they tore off all the shingles (including the original slate) and just let them fall around the house. that's what pretty much killed our shrubs (we didn't really care for them anyway) and after 2 years we have finally gotten rid of them! the next step is to find some nice plants to put in the empty space.

225 years old!

beautiful weather, breakfast made in the morning, sushi for dinner and having aaron home for the evening with the rest of the family made for a perfect birthday!

congratulations nick and heather vinje on the birth of their twin boys, jack and owen. they were born this morning at 8:30 a.m. jack weighed in at 6 lbs 1 oz. while owen weighed in at 4 lbs. 11 oz. i'll post a picture if one is sent to me. yay...new cousins! time for some embroidery projects :).

watching abc primetime right now...though a little sensationalized, in my opinion, still *very* sad news about the virginia tech shooting.

jump rope for heart success!

thanks again to all friends and family who sponsored tyler for his jump rope for heart. turns out he was the top money raiser for his school for the american heart association (see the close up letter-you can also click on the picture for a closer view). today, filled with excitement, he came home bearing prizes from the jump rope for heart fundraiser.

jump rope for heart success!

thanks again to all friends and family who sponsored tyler for his jump rope for heart. turns out he was the top money raiser for his school for the american heart association (see the close up letter-you can also click on the picture for a closer view). today, filled with excitement, he came home bearing prizes from the jump rope for heart fundraiser.

yumm...puffed apple pancake

courtesy of marth stewart...

the first try was okay, but the second attempt turned out better. instead of 6 eggs (tasted to eggy), i changed it to 4 on my second attempt. almost there...third attempt i'm going to try 5 eggs. i found with 4 eggs, it didn't puff up as much.