First Game of the Season

Today Amy has her first game of the season and her first game since moving up to a travel team. We're excited and nervous all at the same time. I really think the girls are good enough however we know nothing about the competition which is something we're not used to at all. The game is in Baltimore so it's a bit of a hike - hopefully it'll be well worth the trip. I'll be sure to update when we get back.

Other than that we have nothing planned for today. I'm cooking dinner right now so we can just reheat once we get back from the game. I know I will not feel like cooking from scratch once we get home. I'm making spaghetti and meatballs so that's an easy one to warm up.

It is sunny today but chilly. I think the high is only 50F and no doubt it will feel 20 degrees colder on the soccer field as it always does. I'm going to pack a blanket just incase. If the parking lot is close enough to the field Joe can even just sit in the back of my car and play his DS and keep nice and toasty:)

There's not a lot else to tell for today really. We're just hanging out at home knowing we have to head out right after lunch. The kids are just playing and relaxing and haven't even gotten dressed yet - just the way they like their Sunday's to be (me too!)

I'll leave it there before this gets any more boring! Hopefully I can report a win later today.

Super Saturday!

I'm so glad it's the weekend. Even though it's still fairly busy just not having the runs back and forth to school make for a much calmer and relaxed day. Today I'm just doing catch up with laundry and such and then later on after lunch I may take a run up to Target as I need a few things. The kids will enjoy that as they both have money left from Easter so I know they'll want to check out the toy selection. Shaun is outside doing more yard work. This weekend he's digging the trenches ready for the cement foundations to the retaining walls. We're thinking of just bringing the ready mixed cement in and having the foundations poured rather than having to mix all of the sand and cement with our mixer and then barrow it in. Even having a cement mixer it's still back breaking work.

Yesterday turned out to be another crazy busy day. Joe and I did a little shopping and then met his friend at McDonald's and we were there for an hour and a half while Ian's Mom interviewed at a nearby school. The boys had a lot of fun. The playground at this McDonald's is outdoors and it was a beautiful day so it worked out well.

After lunch we had to hurry home so I could put the finishing touches on the cookie bouquet I made for Melissa's birthday. It turned out ok for a first attempt but there are definitely some changes I'd make if I do another. Shrink wrapping the whole thing was actually the biggest nightmare of all!

Well I guess if I'm going to achieve what I want to achieve today I had better make a move and get on with it. First off is a breakfast smoothie as I'm starving! Hope you have a good day whatever you are doing.

Lost Momentum

The momentum for blogging every day didn't last long! I'm tired and have been really busy the last few days. I want it to be Spring break again!!!!!

The kids went back to school on Tuesday and with that came soccer practices that night. Joe's practice runs from 5-6pm and then we have to zoom to another location for Amy's practice which is supposed to run from 6-7.30pm. This week hers hasn't started until 6.10pm as Shaun's assistant was out of state on business all week. Hopefully he can get things started next week. Thursdays are pretty much a re-run of Tuesdays and the hardest part is getting home from school and trying to get everyone fed before heading out around 4.30pm. If we don't eat then we don't get home until after 7.30pm and that's too late for the kids to eat dinner when they have to go to bed for school the next morning. Last night we ate chicken burgers with a selection of veggies and watermelon - yumm!

Today is a little more relaxed. I have a few things to get done around here and then we are heading to McDonald's to meet Joe's friend. His Mom has an interview at the school right next to McD's and I'm just watching him for her until she's done. Originally she was going to bring him here but I thought it would be easier just to meet them out there and it's less driving around plus I need to go to Walmart or Kmart anyway. There are no practices tonight, no meetings to go or anything and I'm very glad about that. Amy is excited for tomorrow morning when she can be lazy. She had a really hard time waking up today after playing soccer for 2.5hrs last night. She was exhausted and grumpy by the time we got home. Hopefully she can stay awake for her spelling test this morning!

Speaking of Amy she has her first game this weekend up in Baltimore. I'm a little nervous but I think we'll do ok. It's just not knowing what the standard of play is going to be like after playing in the rec league down here for so long. Now we're a travel team it should be a lot more competitive. I'm sure the girls will do well - they are looking really good in practices and they are all very keen!

That's about all of my "news" for now I think. My friend Cindy tagged me and you can read all of that below.

Here's what you have to do:
1. Each player answers the questions about themselves.
2. At the end of the post, the player then tags five people and posts their names, then goes to their blogs and leaves a comment letting them know they've been tagged and to ask them to play along and to read your blog.

What I was doing 10 years ago - 1998
1. Living in England!
2. Planning a holiday to the Maldives
3. Working at Eaga
4. Going to the gym regularly
5. Can't remember anything else!

Five things on my to-do list today
1. Get Amy off to school
2. Laundry
3. Watch a friends child for an hour while she's at an interview
4. Go to Kmart/Walmart
5. Finish a cookie bouquet for Melissa's birthday (hope she's not reading this yet!)

Snacks I enjoy
1. Chips
2. Nuts
3. Strawberries
4. Chocolate!
5. Celery and cream cheese

Things I would do if I were a billionaire
1. Pay off mortgage and all bills
2. Put money away for both kids
3. Travel to all the places I've always wanted to go and take a private tutor with us
4. Pay off parents loans/bills
5. Hire John Travolta to fly me back to England any time I wanted to go!

Five of my bad habits
1. Procrastination
2. Putting other peoples needs before my own
3. Not doing enough around the house
4. Not exercising regularly
5. Staying up too late even when I'm really tired

Five places I have lived
1. Cramlington, England
2. Hull, England
3. Silver Spring MD
4. Bowie MD
5. Owings MD

Five jobs I've had
1. Mommy
2. Researcher
3. Housing Officer
4. Research & Development Manager
5, Bar tender

Five Bloggers I tag

Only one actually and that's Denise! I only check a few blogs regularly and everyone else I know has already participated in this. Lame I know but oh well :)

Last Day of Spring Break

Today is our last day before the schools open again. The week has gone by so fast! We have not done a great deal today but it's been a nice day all the same. I actually managed to get the kids dressed while it was still officially a.m and we were out shopping by 10am. They both received gift cards and money for Easter and it was already burning a hole so off to Walmart and Kmart we went. Joe was after some more Lego Star Wars or Lego Indiana Jones and Amy had no clue as to what she wanted. Walmart was fairly disappointing as far as toys went although Amy was happy with her purchase of a Tooth Tunes toothbrush which plays a High School Musical song while she's brushing her teeth. Kmart wasn't up to much either for toys and Joe couldn't find what he wanted. He was just going to get "anything he could find" but I persuaded him to hang on until we found what he really wanted. Amy decided she didn't need toys as she already had "everything." She then decided looking at the clothes would be a good idea. Bingo - she found 2 shirts and they were buy one get one free. What a good shopper she is!! This is what she got.

After leaving Kmart we headed to McDonald's to meet some friends. The kids hadn't seen each other since the last day of school so they had some catching up to do. They ate great and they had a lot of fun playing while Teresa and I caught up on what we'd both been up to. After that we headed home for a while to wait in for the tractor guy coming as Shaun had to go out for a Drs appt. Shaun got back and we then headed to a different Walmart and Joe was very happy to find his dream toy :)

So it was eventually a successful shopping day and they even came home with change! No doubt they will have a hard time hanging on to it although we try and get them to save a little too and then use if for things they really want rather than just little bits and bobs of cheap toys.

Tractor guy never turned up after all of that waiting. Grrrrr! They reckon he will be here tomorrow. This is how the ground ended up looking once Shaun dug out what he could. There's obviously still a lot of levelling and raking to be done as well as retaining walls but this is a good start.

Right now the kids are just chilling out before bedtime and Shaun has just left to go and play soccer. The kids will be in bed at 8pm and I will have some time by myself before Shaun gets home. Tomorrow the regular routine will hit and I'll be volunteering in Amy's class before heading out to do some errands and then going to pick up Joe. Roll on Summer!

I think that's quite enough news and pictures from our house for one day don't you? Have a good night!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to you all! Are you having a good one so far? We are although the excitement has died down a little now that Amy and Joe have all of their goodies to look at. They were in to wake us up at 7am as we predicted and then it was straight downstairs to see if the Easter Bunny had in fact been And yes he had!

Who knew the Easter Bunny could be so generous? There were goodies galore from chocolate eggs and gift cards from Grandma Ann and Grandad Tom, to a stash of cash from Grandad Ian and Grandma June, books from Auntie Dawn and a selection of Easter candy and toys from Mom and Dad:)

Books are always a hit at our house especially if they are Star Wars ones for Joe. He's really into Star Wars these days so the books were a treat. Amy on the other hand loves her chapter books and she was extremely excited to receive 3 Tiara Club books. She has been wanting some of these and has even finished the first one already!

It was soon time to get dressed and head outside to see if the Bunny had left any eggs for the kids to hunt for. Where oh where could they be? Amy was off like a rocket to see if she could find any.

Joe took a more relaxed approach and was bummed when he couldn't find any. Oh man!

"Oh, maybe we should check by the pool and see if he maybe left them there!" Wouldn't you believe that is exactly where the Bunny had left them. Phew!

Amy was "eggstatic" to find her first egg!

Hooray for Joe, he found one too!

Altogether two very happy (and cute!) kids with baskets full of eggs.

Landscapers Challenge!

Well Shaun has been working hard today trying to make the most of our yard. He rented a bobcat for the weekend to try and flatten out some areas of land to the side and front of our house and make them more usable - especially for the kids to play on. Our land is very hilly and not that great for the kids playing. So, he's been out there since around 8am this morning cutting into the banks and levelling everything out. It looks messy in the sense that it's all dirt and not grass but it's a big improvement and he's not even done yet. Here's the progress so far.

This is the land to the side and front of our house. It's not really useful for much other than climbing trees - some of which were wiped out today - and running the dog. Shaun's hope is that this will flatten out nicely and be a good area for the kids to play soccer once the grass re-grows.

This piece is right outside of our front door and as I sit here typing this he's still digging away out there. We would like to flatten out a bigger area directly in front of the house and then have a few levelled areas up the bank so it's more of a stepped effect if that makes sense? This is the hardest part of the grass to mow because of the angle and it would be nice if it was levelled out in stages.

So while this has been going on outside the kids and I have been playing, cleaning, making dinner etc. We went out to Home Depot this afternoon to pick up a large landscapers rake and a diesel can and then got some diesel on the way home. Once we brought that home we headed to the library - remember how it was closed yesterday? Both kids were happy with their stash of books and Joe was especially happy as the nice lady helped to find him a ton of Star Wars books!!!!! Who knew books could be so much fun. I think Joe got a total of around 10 books and Amy got maybe 6. I on the other hand know my limits and borrowed 1! I got another Jodi Picoult book and I'm hoping it turns out to be as good as "My Sister's Keeper." I will let you know.

I'm sure we will have an early start in the morning with it being Easter Sunday. The kids will be eager to get downstairs and see if the Easter Bunny left anything for them. I'm sure he will - he seems to be a pretty generous bunny ;-) We aren't doing anything particularly special for tomorrow. We will have an egg hunt if the bunny can find some clean areas of grass to leave some and I will make a nice dinner but that will be as ambitious as it will get. Shaun will be playing on his new toy again no doubt.

Well, Joe is waiting for me to go and read another Star Wars book to him so I better get a move on. Oh, remember we made our own pizzas last night? - this is how mine turned out and it was delicious!

A Good Friday

So far we've had a "Good Friday!" The kids and I went to play mini golf at a place not far from here. The sun is shining and it's fairly warm so it was nice to get outside. They had fun and they seemed to zoom around the 18 holes in no time at all. I took my camera to snap some pics to post here but lo and behold when I went to take the first photo the camera battery was dead. Bummer! I'll just have to keep the pictures in my head instead. It ended in tears at leaving time because they both wanted to try the batting cages but Joe isn't old enough as you have to be 6. So, I told them we'll have to come back and try those when he has his birthday. He soon got over it.

After leaving there we headed to Panera Bread for a bite to eat and a drink. Amy and I had lemon poppyseed bundt cakes and Joe had a plain bagel. Yumm. We then headed to the store to buy pizza dough for making our own pizzas tonight. Our next disappointment was when we went to the library - it was closed! So Joe was in tears again :( It's so hard being 5.

When we got home Shaun had set up the play station and "Rock Band" as a surprise. The kids didn't even know we had bought it until they suddenly heard the roar of drums coming from the basement. I took a peek down there to see how it was going and this is what I found. They all look so serious!!!!! They are playing/singing Mississippi Queen just incase you are wondering.

Not a lot else to post about today really. The bobcat arrived this morning and Shaun will start levelling off the land tomorrow morning. We have it for the whole weekend so hopefully that will be enough time to get everything done that he needs. Have a good rest of the day!

A Windy Thursday!

The weather turned wild last night and the noise during the early hours was quite scary at times. I hate lying in bed in the darkness and being able to hear things blowing around outside. The winds continued throughout the day and even though the temps aren't too bad, the wind is making it feel chilly.

Shaun headed out to work this morning and the kids and I were happy to enjoy a fairly lazy morning. I made some phone calls and did some computer stuff and finally made it to the shower! The kids showered too and we all got ready to head out for a playdate with my friend Gina and her kids. We were originally going to go to the park but due to the winds and the fact that everything was still wet from the rain last night we decided to head for McDonalds where the kids could play inside. Talk about a change of climate - it was so hot in there!! The kids all had fun playing and Gina and I got to hang out which is always good. They are heading off on a family cruise this weekend and I am not jealous at all that they'll be baking in the sun and playing on the beach - not jealous, not jealous at all (or am I?).

Once we left there we headed to the grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner and then we made it back home where Shaun had just returned from the office. Good timing! I prepared dinner in advance as tonight was Joe's first soccer practice of the season and it started at 5pm. Shaun is coaching his team this year as well as Amy's travel team so we have a pretty busy schedule. Of course I get to do all of the admin and chasing around and that is keeping me very busy already and the games haven't even started yet. I must say that I do enjoy it though and I like being involved with a team. We don't know the kids or parents with Joe's team yet so that will take time but Amy's team has been together a few seasons already and we have a great group of parents and kids. I really enjoy their company so it's usually a pleasure to go to practices.

So what do you all have planned for Easter? We don't have anything eggstravagant planned. We always do an egg hunt on Easter morning but that's about as eggciting as it gets (are you sick of the egg jokes yet?) Shaun has in fact rented a bobcat for the weekend to level off some of our land and I'm guessing he'll be doing some of that on Sunday if he doesn't get all finished on Saturday. Hopefully he knows what he's doing and we don't have any trips to the ER. You just never know in our house!!!!

So that's about all the news for today. I've posted a couple of the pics from the kids' Easter egg hunts last week. Joe's class didn't do one at school so we had our own in the park right after school finished. Amy's whole 2nd grade had an egg hunt out on the school fields. They had to find matching eggs. For instance one egg may have "I Have" written on it and they had to go and find "I've" another might have "two hundred and twelve" and they have to find "212." There were over 200 eggs to scatter around the field and myself and 3 other moms did it and it was fun watching the kids race to them once the teacher blew the whistle. It took them a long time to find their pairs and there was a lot of swapping going on.

Spring Break

This week the kids are off school for Spring Break. It's nice to not have to get up and run out to school every morning, go back for Joe at lunchtime and then back for Amy in the afternoon.

We started our week with a trip to Baltimore very early on Monday morning. Shaun was being sworn in as an American citizen and we all went along to the ceremony. There was quite a bit of waiting around and the kids were a little antsy but the promise of a trip to ESPN Zone afterwards did the trick. Once the ceremony was over we headed for the Inner Harbor. It was really cold and when we discovered that ESPN Zone wasn't yet open we went into the bookstore for coffee and warmth! Every few minutes the kids asked if ESPN was open yet and we had the big 40 minute countdown. When we finished our drinks the kids eagerly went to look at the children's books and soon forgot about the time!

So, we eventually made it to ESPN Zone and it was funny that the kids were so excited as they've never even been there before and had no idea what to expect. As soon as they walked in they were saying how awesome it was and off they went in search of the perfect video game to play. We had fun trying all of the different games although I spent most of my time holding all of the coats! After playing for a while it was time to eat in the restaurant below. The food was excellent and certainly hit the spot. The kids both had chicken tenders, I had a black and blue burger which was really good and Shaun had a philly cheesesteak. Yum! Back to the games we went and finished off our pre paid game card before heading out back tot he car. All in all it was a fun day out and I even remembered to take some photos.

Yesterday we did NOTHING! We were all tired from our adventure the day before. Amy even went to lie down in the afternoon and then asked if she could go to bed at 7pm! When Amy is tired something is definitely up as she normally hates settling down to sleep. We all found it hard to get motivated yesterday and I even found Shaun nodding off in his office! lol

Amy had soccer practice last night as usual on a Tuesday although attendance was a bit low due to school vacations. We had a quick bite to eat before heading out and instead of making a full meal as usual I decided just to do appetizers and it went down really well. Joe asked if we could have this again as he really liked it. Surprisingly the veggies were the first thing to go. We had blue cheese and ranch dips too which didn't make it into the picture.

Soccer was freezing! Some parents and Joe sat in the cars while 3 of us braved the cold and wind. Only 5 girls turned up so practice started early and finished early but that was fine with us. I still had not warmed up by bedtime.

Today has been another lazy one by all accounts. My car is in the shop being serviced and getting the A/C and heat blower fixed. I'm just waiting for them to call to say it's ready. We've been housebound but maybe that's just as well as it's now raining and Amy has a really bad migraine. I sent her upstairs a little while ago to lie down and after a few minutes she threw up and brought up the medicine I had just given her. Hopefully it won't last too long. I feel bad for her as I know how awful migraines are. Hopefully she'll feel fine by the time I have to go and pick up my car or I'm pretty much stuck!

Oh, here is a picture of the Easter cookies I made for the kids at Amy and Joe's school. I think I ended up making around 40 of them. They are pretty labor intensive but I like how the finished product looks, don't you?

Well that's quite enough for one day. I need to check on Amy and finish dinner. I have my car back (Shaun made it home in time to watch the kids so I didn't have to have sicko ride in the car!) so we're all set. Have a good one!