3 Goggles

This same space-loving sweet boy is also a basketball-loving kid. He will sit down with Todd and watch an entire basketball game. He loves to talk about the score and which team has more or less than the other team. He cheers for the team - learning all of his antics from his daddy. He even says the players' names the same way - like "Jiiiiimmmmy BUT-LA" instead of "Jimmy Butler." It really is cute to watch him get so excited about something like a basketball game on tv. One of the things that the Marquette players have been doing more this season is the "3 Gogggles" - you know, after one of the players makes a 3-point shot. Brett, of course, has picked up on this and thinks that it's just great. Marquette Athletics even went so far as to make these "3 Goggles" to hold up during the Sweet 16 game. Too bad that they scored only TWO 3-point baskets the ENTIRE game against the Heels, one of which was by their Senior walk-on. Go figure!

MU Rah Rah Carolina-lina

So, as I mentioned below, Carolina and Marquette were in the same region of the NCAA bracket this year - Carolina as the 2 seed and Marquette as the 11 seed. Somewhat amazingly, both teams won their first two games and met up in the Sweet 16 game in Newark, NJ. They haven't played each other in the tournament since 1977. One of us wasn't even born yet :) This was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to see our teams play each other in the tournament, so we took full advantage and made a last minute road trip up to Newark, NJ, courtesy of the Marquette Alumni Club and some very nice, helpful people in Milwaukee! We got into town on Friday, around lunch time. They had a huge send-off planned at the team hotel. The banner had been in the student union and they brought it down... kinda cool.

The infamous 3 goggles... look carefully at my attire. While I do have on a Marquette shirt (a "must" for getting my ticket), I also have on obnoxious Carolina beads :)

Better... get those 3 goggles away from me!

View from the seats... amazingly enough, our seats were fairly low. I'd hate to be in the top section!

I change shirts after I had my ticket in hand :) And yes, I sat in the middle of an entire section of MU alumni! GO HEELS!

The kids watched some of the game before they went to bed. They hang out with Grandma for the weekend... we're so lucky to have such helpful grandparents living close by!

Leaving NY bright and early Monday morning

Commander Brett

Brett's class is talking about space this week, so this kid is in HEAVEN. He knows way more about space than I ever did at that age. He was asking me questions the other day that I had to go look up because I truly did not know the answers! Part of me thinks that I learned them at one point and those facts got replaced by random celebrity gossip drug information. The other part of me thinks that I just never learned it to begin with. Either way, this little boy LOVES all things space, as you can see by the big grin on his face!

C A R O L I N A

If this doesn't scream Carolina with the old well and the BEAUTIFUL NC spring day, I don't know what does!

Go, heels, go!!

My future tarheels at the arboretum at UNC... We spent the afternoon walking around campus and showing off cool places like Kenan stadium, Boshamer, and, of course, THE Dean Dome!!

Bummin' it

We got to enjoy a beautiful afternoon outside, soaking up the sunshine after school today. We were meeting up with our neighbors to play after they got home from school. Our poor kids couldn't understand why the neighbors didn't get home at the same time we get home. It was a LONG two hours to wait. No matter how many times I told them, all they wanted to do was sit on the swing and pout and wait until our friends could come over. I don't know about them, but I enjoyed our two hours of just bummin' it :)

Fly by

Aunt Renee (Todd's sister) is a college soccer coach, so her schedule is C-ra-zy, with a capital "C". Every now and then, we get a "fly by" through Raleigh, which is what happened on this particular day. She was able to drive through on her way either to or from a recruiting trip. The kids love to visit with her, as you can tell. They almost always play soccere, although I think they prefer Aunt Renee's ginormous, carefully maintained plush grass compared to our "field" in the back yard!

Tourney Time

Weekend one of March Madness... Todd decided to have the boys over on Friday night to watch some basketball and play some poker. He took one TV out of the man cave and his buddy brought one tv over. They had quite the set up. Marquette and Carolina had games simultaneously - hince the goofy picture with the flags. We were in the same region on the bracket this year, so it was sort of a big deal. Carolina was the 2 seed and Marquette was the 11 seed. After winning their first two games, we met up in the Sweet 16. More on that another day!

Out with the old and in with the new

I just took a good look at the kids' bulletin boards of art work in the toy room and realized that they hadn't been updated since Christmas. Yikes. I have a huge monster stack of artwork to be sorted and hung. I usually take pictures of my favorites and keep a few of my true favorites and the rest get "filed" by the City of Raleigh trash collectors. Thanks for the help, guys! Usually I do all of this while the kids are napping or at school or something, but since I keep spending my days off with sick children and these same children are giving up their naps faster than I'd like, I just went ahead and did it today. Amazingly, there weren't many tears shed and I was not at all secretive about what I was doing with the old art work. I'll post pictures of the newly updated boards at some point, hopefully soon :)

Batter up

We keep taking turns "at bat" with strep. First was Kate, then Todd and I together. Fast forward a few weeks to last week and it was Brett. Now we're back to Kate. Are you kidding me?!?!?! I'm losing my mind!! And running out of lysol... we have had enough!!!

In other news, Kate finally (at 3 years and 8 months old) hit 30 pounds on the scale yesterday. She was fully clothed and had shoes on, so it only sort of counts, but I saw it with my own two eyes! Yay!!

Loves

This sweet boy LOVES playing with his Transformers. He watches the 1980's TV show for a special treat; he knows their names; he knows how they transform. He knows WAY more than I'll ever possibly know about transformers. I know which one is Optimus Prime, and I can distinguish the Autobot logo from the Decepticon logo, and I know which are the good guys and the bad guys. Good enough for me! On really special days, he gets to play with Todd's old Transformers, grinning ear to ear, of course!

Birthdays

Birthdays are a big deal, and I like to make them a big deal. There. I said it. Last time I had Brett's birthday party at our house, he was turning 2 and I ended up in the ER with suspected appendicitis. Thankfully, the doctors were wrong and my parents and sister-in-law pulled it together for us and the party went on as planned, with Todd and I making it home just in time to have a quick shower before the party started. When he turned 3 we just went low-key and did a family trip to the zoo, which was fun. Last year we went to the park with a LOT of friends. The weather was questionable at best, but it was like God looked down on us and make the weather perfect for 2 hours. Awesome. This year, I want to do something fun that he will really enjoy, so I've decided on a Lego Party. What does that mean? I need ideas, which I have found a plethora of online. I mean TONS and TONS and TONS of ideas online. I needed a place to store these ideas, so I started a different blog, just for my birthday party ideas. Maybe it will help someone else too, who knows. Right now, it's all about Legos. After May 24, it will probably be all about mermaids. Throw my birthday and my brother-in-law's birthday and father's day and mother's day in the mix and I think we will be all partied out by July 15, which is what happens every year. But this year I'm really trying hard to make Kate's birthday a big deal too. Maybe by writing it on the blog that will hold me accountable! We did a big ladybug party when she turned 1 and have been slack and gone with the family party the last 2 years, partly because everyone goes on vacation around her birthday, including us, but not this year. By mid-July we'll be in the midst of summer camps and days at the pool with vacation already behind us!

What's the favorite kid party that you've thrown? Any great ideas?

Facebook-Free

It all started after I had Kate and my sister-in-law invited me to join Facebook. I decided, eh, why not, right?! I can share pictures of my sweet new baby and her big brother. Sure, sounded like a good idea. And it let me re-connect with some people that I probably would not have re-connected with. Another plus. And then more and more of my friends joined. And I got more hooked. And now I'm addicted. Seriously. Addicted. Like I check it waaaaayyy too many times a day, and it needs to stop. Now. So, I've used Lent as my excuse to back away from the Facebook. I'm even taking the app off my phone. Seriously. My hope is that I realize that I don't need to be so addicted and then went Lent is over I'll use it in a less neurotic way. That's my thought. We'll see. Wish me luck.

In the mean time, since I can't post little one-liners on my status about how kids are driving me crazy or the funny little thing that someone said today, you can expect more updates here :) I think that's a win-win, don't you?!

So, what did you give up (or take on) for Lent?

Carolina Princess

Courtesy of the face painter from The Melody Maker at the Mardi Gras festival at Saint Francis Preschool this weekend. Super cute!

Playtime with Daddy

The kids LOVE to have daddy come home from work, drop his things, and immediately start playing with them. Some days, daddy is just too tired to do that. I see one big kid that's genuinely trying to rest. The other two kiddos seem to have the giggles. Which is which? Can you tell?