Happy Valentine's Day!

There was a time when Valentine's Day meant getting all dressed up and going to a fancy restaurant, just me and Abe. But that was before baby # 1 and baby #2 came along! Now, Valentine's Day means exchanging cute cards, and maybe getting some take-out to eat AT HOME! We don't dare take a 2 year old and a 1 year old to a restuarant where there may even be the remote possibility of having to wait for our food. Alex is at the age where he'll usually wait pretty patiently as long as he has some coloring or a car to play with,but Amaya is at the crazy stage! The stage where she drops utensils, crayons, cups, menus, etc. to experiment with the laws of gravity (more possibly to experiment with the law of who will pick it up for me this time???) She also doesn't like to wait for food, and can't keep herself entertained for long and can't sit still for long either. Therefore, we picked up some Mexican food, cooked spaghetti for the kids and dined together at our kitchen table for V-day! Then we gave the kids their Valentine's treats- a pez dispenser for both kids, a teddy bear for Amaya and a pretty messy cupcake for Alex. We had a cookie for Maya, but she didn't want it after knawing on her pez candy I broke up for her! We had a fun Valentine's Day at home this year, and hope you did too! Amaya with her V-day gifts--a pez and a teddy bear! Alex showing off his pink heart-covered pez dispenser! They came home with balloons from daycare--oh joy!

Amaya eating some oranges for dessert
Too cute in this outfit--rocking some skinny jeans! But on Amaya of course, they are baggy! lol

Our new deck was our V-day present to each other and it was completed just in time--on Valentine's Day!

President Obama visits Parkville!

I have been teaching for 5 years now, but this is my first year at Parkville having previously been at General John Stricker Middle. And what a year it has been! Last week, we all noticed something strange was happening aorund our building when teams of "suits" began walking around our building--not just for a little while either, all day, every day! They were really checking things out, measuring areas of the school and one guy even came into my classroom and set up a seperate phone line. It was certainly very interesting. Then on Friday, our principal called us into the library as a faculty and told us about our very special guest--President Obama! He came and visited with our faculty and students on February 14th! What an amazing experience it has been to be able to say I had the President of the United States in MY classroom, in MY school. And the best part is he CHOSE our school for it's valuable and cutting edge programs--what an honor--to be chosen by the President. It makes me feel really good as a teacher to see our school and our job be taken seriously and to be given some credit for what we do every single day. It's a very tough job, often you work yourself ragged and only hear negativity in the media, from the parents, from the communities. Seems like there's a whole lot of people who have never taught a single child, never been in a classroom, and they want to share their wonderful opinion about teachers, schools and "today's" students with you. It gets frustrating to be an insider in this career. But President Obama's definitely lifted a lot of spirits in the public education world, and especially in our school!

Abe, Matthew and Dylan's Birthday!

So, my wonderful nephew and my awesome husband share a birthday--February 3rd. I know a thing or two about sharing birthdays and it's a pretty rare and cool thing to share one with a close family member. Our nephew Dylan follows the birthday with his own very close--February 6. Abe hit the big 2-9 this year, so I am sure he will be enjoying the last year of his twenties and Matthew turned 5 years old! Dylan turned 11 this year. Since Abe's actual birthday was a Thursday night, we celebrated by skipping Alex's sports class, and going out to the dinner of Abe's choice--Golden Corral. What..did you think Abe would choose anything other than a buffet??? After our delicious dinner, we drove over to Sears and Lowe's to look for sheds, since we are having a deck built onto our house as we speak. Then, we ventured back home and lit candles, sang to Daddy,ate cake, and presented him with his present--a Halo Lego set for him and Alex to put together and store in his curio cabinet of awesomeness located in his office downstairs. Of course, I had to spring for the music card, because not only did I know it would make my husband cry (he's a sensitive aquarius) but I also knew it would provide hours of endless entertainment for both children(and it has). Then, to celebrate Matthew's big day, we went to his birthday party at Ultimate Playzone. Everyone had a great time running around the facility,playing in the bouncy houses and eating lots and lots of food! After the UPZ, we retreated to the Dove residence to watch Matthew open his presents, eat some more food,and let the kids dance away their energy. Then on Sunday, we celebrated Dylan and Abe's birthday at Lola's house with leftover cake, presents, and a fun game of Apples to Apples. All in all, it was a really fun celebration of 3 really cool men and little men!

Abe showing off his new present!

Miss Amaya all dressed up and ready to go to Matthew's birthday party! Alex and Dylan in one of the bouncy houses Matthew's cool Star Wars birthday cake!

Charlye, Rebekah, and Julia enjoying some pizza

Matthew blowing out his candles

We all know Amaya likes to climb!

Fun at Nana and Pap's House!

Last weekend, we took a trip back to the mountains of Allegany County to visit my parents! Since they have way more snow out there, due to the higher elevation/colder temps, Alex got to try his hand at sled riding for the first time! My Dad bought him a nice size sled, with a rope of course, and pulled him around in the snow first, then pulled him to the woods a little ways to a small little hill. The hill was perfect for a 2 year old's first sled experience! Of course, since we are in the Appalachians, there are plenty of hill to choose from:) My Dad about killed himself pulling the sled up the hill and holding it in place, but once Alex got in and went down the hil, he wanted to try again and again. We went down a couple of times, and then all decided it was time to warm up inside.We always have a lot of fun visiting my side of the family, and we look forward to our February trip to Nana and Pap's house! Enjoy some pics of Alex and Pappy playing with the sled! My Dad about to roll down the hill!

Whoa! I am going so fast!

Being pulled around by Pappy McCutcheon

Our snowy half-week together!

Just when I was starting to whine about the lack of snow days we teachers have had this year, mother nature decided to send a pretty sizable snow storm our way! We ended up out of school from Wed. Jan 26- Fri. Jan 28th,and we loved every minute of it! I kept the kids home with me so we could have fun playing together in the snow and indoors, and we did have a blast. The kids got to sleep in (and Mommy too!) and we ot to enjoy long breakfasts together of our usual cereal and oatmeal, staying in our pj's a little longer than normal, playing in the snow of course, and cuddling on the couch together watching movies. The favorite movie of course was Thomas than Tank Engine, which was watched more than once. I have to say my personal favorite part of our 3 days together was letting Amaya stay in with Abe while he worked in his office, and taking Alex on a journey around the neighborhood in search of the perfect stick arms for our snowman. We pretended we were on an expedition in Anarctica and we had a mission to collect sticks. He had a blast pretending with me and felt like such a big boy because he got to go somewhere Amaya couldn't go! I also loved cuddling next to both kids in our bed while we all took long afternoon naps together. Days liek those 3 recent snow days together remind me of one of the realy wonderful perks of my job--not just the time off of work, but the time just being a Mom full-time, and that's what I love the most on lazy winter snow days! It was Amaya's first time really playing in snow!

My big boy Alex smiling right before our snowball fight!

ornery girl taking off her gloves!
Me and Alex's footprints in the snow on our journey around the neighborhood Alex on our journey

What?? I don't know why there's yellow snow there!