The Ides of March

What is an ide anyway? I heard someone talking about the "Ides of March" the other day so I looked it up. Turns out it's the day on the Roman calendar that corresponds to March 15. Fancy. It's been the warmest March we've had in a long time. We got a peek at spring last weekend when the temps reached 70 degrees! Everyone was out soaking it up. We cleaned out the car and found enough snacks to feed a small village in all the crevices (no more food in the car, I swear!), scrubbed down all the strollers, hosed out the garage, rode bikes until both kids had a major crash and chatted with the neighbors. We were out all afternoon and it was fabulous.

Dayven was gone this week so we busied ourselves with all the usual stuff and the week flew by.

We built a box fort in the basement out of the last of the moving boxes I had saved for this very purpose. It took a while since I have the dullest box cutter known to man and I almost lost a finger in the process, but it's all good now. It's one half "clubhouse" and one half "vampire castle" to please all involved parties. It looks like a vagabond city to me but the kids are happy. It will hang around a few more days I'm sure before the whole thing makes it's way to the recycle bin.

The latest game the kids have come up with is pretending they're going to Florida. They put on their bathing suits, pull all the pillows off the couch in the playroom (I suppress my urge to scream) and pretend their jumping off the diving board into the pool. Whomever is unlucky enough to be happening by gets pummelled. Poor Tate.

Speaking of Tate, his first official word is "yeah". It is pretty much his standard response for everything you ask, which makes him quite agreeable. He even says it with a really happy enthusiastic voice, but that's just his general demeanor. I just love it.

For a special treat, I took the kids to Chuck E Cheese one day for lunch. I am always a little apprehensive taking three kids there on my own, but it was surprisingly uncrowded and I was able to keep track of everyone...mostly. At one point, I couldn't find Wyatt and I started lapping the place calling his name, becoming increasingly frantic when I couldn't find him. By the time I was shouting hysterically, some woman said, "Are you looking for your son? He's over there..." just as I saw Wyatt emerging from the tunnel/slide system they have at every Chuck E Cheese. I always forget about this and I think I have a panic attack each time we go because someone is "lost" (i.e. out of eye sight) in there. All in all, the kids had fun. Tate was mesmerized by all the lights and sounds and wandered from game to game. We stayed almost two hours and everyone was beat, including me.

Dayven is back now and we're so glad to see him home. I had my first shift last night at the giant kids consignment sale I'm doing and I was beat. It was hard work but I got to shop the presale before it opened to the public. I was like a kid waiting for Christmas. I filled four bags full of goodies for the kids and I think we're set for summer. We'll see how my stuff sells now that the sale is officially open. My goal is to break even!

What else, what else?

My aunt did these beautiful pastel portraits of the kids. Isn't the likeness amazing? I just love them and they make me smile every time I walk past them in the hallway. 

The other day the kids told me they were sad they couldn't share a room anymore. We have found this scene in Wyatt's bed the past three nights in a row when we checked on them before bed. 

Wyatt got to bring home "Butterfingers", the class pet, again so we took him out to dinner.

Not one to be left out, Hadley brought "Rajah" too. 

Just to make this post a little more random, I'll leave you with the latest masterpiece.  It's titled "Snowman juggling snowballs while sipping hot cocoa".