That's So Random

As January comes to a close I am reminded that I haven't updated my blog in a while.  Maybe that's because January has been pretty easy going and comfortable.  While our life has been rather ordinary, the weather has been anything but.  Other than one cold blast, it has not felt like Winter at all.  If it weren't for the naked trees and brown grass, one might think it was Spring.  I am okay with it, but the girls are aching for a big snow storm so they can sled.  While they haven't been able to sled and make snow angels lately, they have still enjoyed the outdoors.  Last week we took a long walk around a lake.

A lake that is not completely frozen.  If you look closely you can see geese that have found no need to fly south this winter.

Everyone needs a good walking stick.

We were all fascinated by the formation the snow created after melting and refreezing over and over again.

Run, Audrey, Run!

I submitted this picture to our news station via Facebook and they showed it on the air.  Poor Madeleine was disturbed because "there is a strand of hair in my face and my ears are red".  I must admit that I was taken aback by how critical she was of herself.  I happen to love her wind tousled hair and rosy ears.  

 

 

 

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Now for some random facts and pictures.  Madeleine is researching sea otters for school so I am being inundated with facts about them; from the number of hairs on their body, to what they eat.  She loves to do research and share with others what she has learned.  Recently she checked out some otter books from our local library and jotted down 4 pages worth of notes. 

In dance class she is busy learning 3 recital dances, all of which have me gasping over how cute they are.  Speaking of dance, after lamenting to some fellow dance moms that I cannot master a bun, one of them shared a secret with me.  Behold the donut bun:

 When you are done marveling over the perfection of that bun, check out this link for the secret.  Pretty cool, huh?

And to make this post truly random:

It never ceases to amaze me how much Sunny adores Madeleine.  Every night she waits outside Madeleine's bedroom door until Steven & I have tucked her in.  Then she darts in & hops up on the bed to settle in as close to Madeleine as possible. 

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Audrey.  While I could write an entire book about her tenacity and the things she says that stop me dead in my tracks, I will just write about one for now.  The other day she came home from school with a toothbrush that she received from a dentist that visited the school.  Any how, she was very excited about this toothbrush and was ready to throw out her old one.  I told her that wasn't necessary because her "old" one wasn't that old and we could hold on to it for a bit longer.  A little while later she came to me with a guilty look on her face.  She stammered over her words and said "um . . . I accidentally . . ."  

I stopped her there and said, "you "accidentally threw your toothbrush away?"

She looked at me and said, "uh, well . . . "

I didn't need her to finish the sentence.  I knew where this was going and walked straight to the bathroom where she had dropped her toothbrush in the toilet.  After I made her reach in there to retrieve it and throw it away she said, "well, it worked".    Heaven help me!!  If I am not already there, I think I will need therapy to get through her teen years!

Here's my ornery little girl with the "All About Me Tee" she made for school.

If you enlarge the picture you will be able to see what she had me write about her.

 As I conclude this post I am thinking about how rarely I am very honest on this blog.  By that I mean I have a tendency to highlight all of the charming things my kids say and do and embellish it with cute pictures.  While our life is pretty good it is by no means perfect and I am incredibly flawed.  I want to strive to be more forthright on this blog.  Instead of being so eager to share only "picture perfect" days on my blog, I think I should make a point to share some of the not-so-perfect ones as well.  After all, this blog is mostly for my kids to look back on when they are older and I owe it to them to be honest.  Some day they will have kids of their own and will feel like they are floundering.  When that happens I want them to know they are not the only ones and that no one expects them to be perfect. 

Now that this post has lived up to its name by being really random, I will wrap it up. :)