Author: Erica (Page 29 of 269)

I dug up the pictures of me… lo and behold, I did give myself a self-hair cut at that age too.  Bwhaha!  And mine was so much worse.

Oh, and also a picture of my amazing style too… tee hee!

I knew this day was coming.

Although I’ve taken great measures to try and stop it from coming… I had the sneaking suspicion that it still would.

Maddie cut her own hair.  (gulp)

There you have it folks.  A nice mullet.  I know, I know, it could be MUCH worse.  She could have snipped it right down to the scalp.  So, I’m thankful.  But I still had to try and fix it…

It’s not terrible, but it’s cut pretty far back.  The one saving grace is that when I get her hair wet it becomes curly.  And when it’s curly it’s really hard to tell–in fact it’s downright adorable.  So, I’ll just have to keep her hair curly for a while.

So, I guess she continues to follow in my footsteps… haha!  I really should dig up the photo of myself after my own self-hair cut around her age.  Oh, and then you might see what an amazing sense of style I also had at that age.  😉

Madison has entered the phase of loving to pick and put on her own clothes.  It’s pretty amusing the things she decides to put together. Like the other morning I looked at her at breakfast and I said,

“Maddie, do you know you’re wearing TWO jammie shirts?”

“Yeah!” (Beaming at me) “I was cold.  So I put on two. I’m also wearing two jammie pants!”

I looked at her in disbelief, which she must have sensed because she promptly showed me her second layer of pants.  She was telling the truth!

When we went to the dentist (I’m kicking myself for not getting a picture) she decided to wear:  brown wide leg pants, a grey striped tutu, red t-shirt and a bright pink cropped cardigan compete with giant gem buttons. And she was so proud.  So proud that I didn’t have the heart to make her change… so off we went.  😉

We took the Littles to the dentist this week for the very first time.  Maddie was SO excited to go it was all she talked about all morning.  (I was thankful I hadn’t told her until the morning of the appointment that we were going…)

She practically bounded back to the room with the dental hygienist and was eager to hop in the chair when we got there.  Then as the lady was explaining every tool and what she was going to do, Maddie listened with eager expectation–all with her mouth wide open, ready for them to see her fabulous teeth.  It was so hilarious.  At one point, I did tell her she could close her mouth until it was time.

Levi watched with much less interest.  Although he was curious about the chair.  When it was his turn he was actually on the chair, he was not so sure how he felt about it… it was quite amusing.  He did end up doing better than Tim or I expected.  There were no tears, no screaming and they were able to clean all of his front teeth.  He wasn’t loving the vibration of the brush tool, so he wouldn’t let them do the back, but overall (for a 2.5 year old) I thought that was a success.

Whew!  Another item off my list!

Here are 3 random details about everyone living in the Friesen household right now:

Tim:

1. Had a smashing success with his amazingly designed food stadium.
2. Currently helping Jen work on replacing some carpet/trim at her house
3. Fixed a toilet this past week and had Josiah help him.  It was adorable–and Josiah was over the moon excited to help.

Erica:

1. Helped volunteer at the Piano Contest Preliminaries this past weekend (one of my students passed! I only had 3 participate this year…)
2.  Helped volunteer in the kids area in BSF today.  I am reminded how thankful I am for those teachers after I help.  😉
3. I’m trying to play a new piano song every day (even just a very short one).  It’s been fun to try new songs for my students.

Chloe:

1. Had her “Well-Rounded Reader” Lunch yesterday in honor of finishing enough Maude Heart Lovelace books.  There were about 12 kids from her class that were able to participate.
2. Suuuuuuper into origami lately.
3. We’re done putting the purple clenditioner in her hair, and amazingly after 4 washes it’s STILL purple!  I was sure it would just wash right out.

Josiah:

1. Suuuuuuuper into Mario still.
2. Has advanced to the next set of piano books.  He’s excited to be gaining on Chloe….
3. Was distraught the other day when he came home with his very FIRST wrong answer on a worksheet at school.  It was the first answer he got wrong… the whole year.  Ha!

Madison:

1. Is becoming so articulate lately.  She’ll turn and say stuff to you that blows your mind.
2.  Her favorite thing to say these days is, “When I grow up, ___________ (fill in the blank)” Apparently she is going to do a LOT when she grows up.  Like: wear a belt, be tall and exercise.
3. Lately she likes to “Roar” at everyone she meets.

Levi:

1. Is fighting off a little cold right now, so he’s been a little more clingy (to Tim).
2. He and Madison weigh the same weight.  I just find this amusing.
3. Likes sleeping with a train or dragon toy right now.  In addition to his Raccoon, of course.

We had a great Superbowl party yesterday–TONS of food and so many people crammed in so few rooms.  Ha!   There was a delicious assortment of foods to keep us eating until we were beyond stuffed.  Here were the foods this year:

• Enchiladas
• Taquitos
• Buffalo Dip
• Meatballs
• Veggies
• Bacon Cheddar Cheesball
• Chocolate Cheesecake
• Rice Crispy treats (that was the massive field)
• Greek Salad
• Fruits
• Jalapeno Popper Dip
• Chips and crackers (of many assortments to with the dips)
• Brownies
• Jello cups
• Monster cookies
• Raspberry Fluff
• Heart Sugar Cookies
• Mini corn dogs
• Chicken nuggets
• Cotton Candy
• Peanut Thai Cream Cheese dip

See?  Quite the assortment!  I like seeing what everyone chooses to bring.  My favorites this year were the Peanut Thai Dip, Rasperry Fluff and Monster Cookies.  Not quite a well-balance meal, but soooooo yummy.

One more year and all of our kids will be able to be (more or less) unsupervised for these events.  Levi is still in need of being watched quite a bit, but I can feel the change of season for us is right around the corner.  We did have a new family this year who has a little baby, so I was reminded how big Levi actually is.

It warmed up enough this weekend that the kids were able to play outside for quite a while, which was amazing.  They even started to build a snow fort… until it got TOO warm and most of the snow melted again. Now we’re just dealing with the temps dropping today and basically everything being an ice rink!  😀

7 batches of Rice Crispy bars!!!

This cold snap is being called a Polar Vortex.  I know it’s a technical term to explain the temps, and wind and flow, etc.  It has definitely been chilly.  It frosted over the screws on the inside of our door on the dead bold.  We had ice in the inside of most of the windows–and a really thick layer on those with the shades closed.  And it closed down the schools for 4 days. Yup.  No school again today.  That means my kids have had 6 days off of school (if you include the weekend).  They will go back tomorrow for one day and then have another weekend.  Ha!

We are all feeling the effects of being home too many days.  Stir Crazy is in the air.  Poor Tim is feeling more of the brunt of it since I’ve been just teaching as normal.  I did move a few lesson to earlier in the day, since there was no school, in order to let them drive when it was still light out rather than dark.  Somehow the cold doesn’t seem as oppressive in the gorgeous sunny day.  I mean, look how lovely it was!  A bright, clear, sunny day–you would have had no idea it was as cold as it was!

So, we’ve been getting creative…

Tim made a big fort with the couches yesterday.  That was a big hit.  Today Chloe and I made special nutella cinnamon sugar cupcakes.  They were fun.

And I gave myself a haircut/trim. Obviously, I’m more excited about that then anyone else.  Ha!

Despite the frigid temps this morning, and school being cancelled, Tim braved the cold to take the big kids to the dentist.  Life must go on, right?

So, they were up and out the door early.  Our dentist retired, but a new dental company has actually taken over the space, so they got to go to the very same building.  The people were different, but we go so seldom that I’m not sure we would remember the other people much anyway.  They had a very pleasant visit and came home with smiles on their faces.  I’m very aware of trying to not pass along my fear and dislike of the dentist to them… Chloe does have a couple small cavities starting in her baby teeth, and Josiah was cavity free.

Currently I’m watching the wind pick up and snow billow outside.  Brrrrr… It feels like -34 right now in case you were wondering.  😉

Want a random picture before I go?  Ok!

Josiah has discovered he loves “ants on a log!”