Easter's Coming

I got a funny card in the mail today.

It made me laugh.

I love that I have funny friends.

I love getting mail.

I love Easter.
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And while we're on the topic of things I love,
I love that my parents stopped by this afternoon.
Spontaneously.
They brought pussy willows, freshly cut from their yard.
And dinner.
Ready-to-eat.
They said they were making a Relief Society visit.
(to me!)
They asked why our yard had the most snow in town.
I ask myself the same question.
I come from goodly parents, and I love them.
I love that my day just kept getting better.

off Broadway travels

We drove past a favorite spot over the weekend

 to see cousin Emma as the Foxy Wolf

in the musical Into The Woods.

She was super foxy.

These girls have fun together!

The search is over

A prom dress has been found!

We drove it right to our favorite seamstress for alterations.

Palm Sunday

It's a beautiful Sunday!

In a week it will be Easter.

We might be hunting for eggs in the snow.

all night long

Guess who pulled her first official all-nighter?

Lock-in at the High School included music, movies, games and food.

...and guess who has some sleep to catch up on?

Kid Table

We like having company for Sunday dinner.

It had been a while since we hosted one, so we got busy.

A little while ago we had three families over.

There were 13 at the Kid Table.

this little town

In this little town where winter drags on 

In the Springtime (SPRING time) 

Call me Houston

I got a text from a friend yesterday morning.
"Houston, we have a problem" is what it said.
Ends up it had to do with a (lack of) toilet paper problem.
Those kind of messages make me laugh.

Later that day I got an email from someone else, and the heading was the same:
"HOUSTON. We have a problem"
It had to do with cake.
I understand those kinds of emergencies.
I was happy to offer my assistance.

I'm looking out my window at the foot (plus) of snow that is covering the ground and then in the window sill at my little seedlings waiting and waiting... 
and then I turn around to find THIS.

HOUSTON.  We have a problem.

If the two felines living at my house make it through the weekend without being FedEx'd to Houston, it will involve some long-suffering and charity.

Then today I saw THIS.  Of my nephew.

I didn't know it was actually National Uproot-Your-Plants Day.

NOW I get it.

Big NEWS(ies) in the Big Apple

Extra! Extra!

After Loooooong wait third daughter finally has her day in the Big City!

For Christmas, Leeli got tickets to see Mary Poppins on Broadway.  A few weeks after the New Year, I received an email telling us the show was being canceled in early March.  It was heartbreaking.  We decided to see the show Newsies instead.  What a GREAT substitute! I think we're both really glad it ended up being Newsies.

I rekindled my love affair with the theatre.

She fell in love with Broadway.

(She might want to sing and dance there when she gets older.)

Unlike the experience with Mesquite, we stayed on the 22nd floor of a fine hotel on Sixth Avenue with a view of Bryant Park.

Speaking of views; like Rooney, we were enchanted by Times Square.

Of course there was shopping. Window shopping in the city is the best. Fifth Avenue.  Are you kidding me? There's something there for EVERYONE.

It also happened to be

St. Patrick's Day weekend.

O'Malley!! There were a lot of green

(and rowdy)

people roaming the streets.

Just past Rockefeller Plaza at Fifth Avenue, we stumbled upon the big New York City St. Patrick's Day Parade; right there at the world famous St. Patrick's Cathedral (which was under construction). Bagpipes, Irish Music, Men in Kilts... just so festive and fun.

When in New York, you must eat cheesecake.

 If it's not a law,

it should be.

 It was an EXCELLENT weekend with a most excellent daughter.

 We're already wondering when we'll go back...

let's not talk about snow...

...the 15+ inches of snow we've received so far today, and the fact that it's still snowing...

Thank you, purple circle.

Instead, let's talk about Spring.

Spring officially arrives tomorrow.

It will arrive here under a blanket of white.

When the Spring blossoms finally emerge, it will be GLORIOUS.

Enrique is here on his Spring Break.

He comes home mostly to catch up on his sleep, I think.

And to strum his ukulele.

Sunday night it fell to him to lead us in a family activity.

He chose yoga.

Picture the seven of us in tree pose (vrksasana), becoming (maybe uncomfortably) aware of group mind and body functions.

It's good to have him home.

Also hanging out at home are my vegetable seedlings.

I was hoping to have them transplanted outside this week, sheltered in a temporary greenhouse.

The greenhouse isn't made to stand up under two feet of wet, heavy snow, so we've postponed the transition until we can see bare ground again.

Patience, little sprouts.

DIY wall-sized bulletin board

My kids like to hang things on the wall.

I have been painting a lot of walls this year, and have noticed what a pain it is to spackle, sand and repaint the areas that are punctured with pin holes and peeled off by tape.

When we decided to paint our youngest son's room, I knew immediately that I wanted to give him a large wall space where he could hang and re-hang whatever he wanted, without poking holes in the freshly painted walls.  We opted for an area of his wall that was about four feet high by four feet wide.

I found 12-inch square cork tiles on Amazon, and decided the darker color would provide a nice contrast.

I've tried to mount cork on walls in the past, and remembered that the little adhesive strips that come with the tiles do NOT do a very good job of adhering the tiles to the wall.  Do not be fooled by thinking that since the adhesive strips come with the packaging, they are the best method.  Cork has moisture in it.  The cork tiles eventually fall, break off the wall in ugly chunks, and leave you frustrated with a crumbly mess.  I did some research and found a better way.

You know those foam-core poster boards that kids use for school projects and displays?  You can find them for a fairly inexpensive price (we paid $1.29 each for three) at craft supply stores and Target or WalMart.  We cut the foam into pieces to fit in the four-by-four area, and used the little double-stick adhesives that come with the cork boards to adhere the foam-core to the wall.

Super easy.

Once the foam-core was in place, it took a little more than a tube of liquid nails to adhere the cork tiles to the foam boards.

With an extra set of hands,

 this process goes very quickly.

While the adhesive was still wet, I pressed the cork tiles onto the foam board just below where I wanted them to sit, and then slid them up and firmly pressed them into position.

Tah-Dah!

A wall-sized bulletin board.

Everyone loves it.

 If you have a handyman like mine around, you can even request that he make a piece of molding to frame it.

I have sweet memories of my kids wearing rain boots and tutus, carrying jars of bugs and waving princess wands; the pirate hat that didn't come off even for church and the ratty red sweatshirt that was worn for weeks on end, only managing to stay clean because I would sneak it into the wash at night. When my youngest flew happily onto the school bus Friday morning wearing an Indian headdress, it reminded me how great it is to live in moments of unabashed joy.

"The best things in life aren't things."

-Art Buchwald

DIY reversible tote bags

 Last week we had two days off from school because of the snow.

While some of us were outside:

Mesquite and Rooney got to work on some unfinished projects they started a few years ago with their young women group.

Using an easy-to-follow pattern.

they made two really cute reversible scripture totes.

nifty treats

 I wore this ensemble to church a couple of weeks ago, and received some very nice compliments. It's my mom's suit and coat from the 1960s. I love that I have it, and I love that I can wear it.

While we're on the subject of things I love, I'm trying to decide if I want to keep my bangs.  It's been more than a month of love-hate.  I'm going to see my magical hair friend next week. She has all the answers.

Spring Diet

Our snowman is losing weight.

Stuff-of-the-morning

This morning I drove my high school bus rider out to the mailbox.  It's pitch black outside again when the bus comes.  Thank you Daylight Savings. (I don't mind--I love that we now have daylight until almost 7:00 pm.)  She told me she had a dream last night that she was dodging stuffed animals being thrown at her in the family room by the Beatles.  In black and white.  In the next dream she was confronting a wall-eyed Zombie-Paul McCartney at the tree fort in the back yard.  He was oozing and melting in true Zombie form, the tree fort was disintegrating and falling off the tree and her younger sister was filming it all on Dub's new high-tech clock, spouting off with snappy phrases like "Now that's how it's done".
What?!?
When I woke up the eight-year old he moaned "Ooooohhhh not yet Mom... I was fishing!"
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Today the Cardinals sequester themselves at the Vatican to vote on the new Pope.
This morning's Wall Street Journal (which I perused while the middle school student was waiting for her bus) had a front page story that made me laugh.  It's title: "March Madness, Vatican Style: Who'll Come Out of the Sweet Sistine?"
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Scrambled Eggs and Melon for breakfast.  With a cookie dough chaser.
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Happy Tuesday!

Cake (and grout)

 Guess who's having a birthday this week?

The Relief Society.

We were supposed to party last Thursday night; instead we celebrated at home under twenty-one inches of new snow. The cake had already been made, so yesterday after church we partook.

Today?

I'm cleaning grout.

A scout is helpful