Our Presidential Evening

For some reason the children got two days off for Presidents day. Robert got none- commy school! LOL. Anyway, I decided they needed at least a little brain stimulation for their long weekend, so I put together a Presidential dinner. It was suppose to be steak and potatoes with brownies for dessert, but Rob said he really just wanted waffles. I went through our presidents book and took some fun facts about each president and put them on a silhouette. We read them during dinner. After dinner we played Wits and Wagers with a Presidential twist. I made up the cards that we used. It was fun to learn that Virginia is called the Mother of Presidents because 8 presidents have been born there. Ohio is second with 7. We learned that President Nixon came back from World War 2 with over $10,000 in poker winnings, that there have been 2 father/sons as president and 2 people who have been impeached. Theodore Roosevelt was the youngest President ever at 42, but Kennedy was the youngest elected at 43. Taft was so large they had to put a special tub in the White house for him. He weighed over 300 pounds. James Madison was the shortest president at 5'4 and only 100 pounds. It was a fun, informative evening!

Typical Joe

Joseph decided to make Rob breakfast in bed the other day- I think he was trying to earn his playstation back by doing something nice. I told him that Dad really doesn't like to eat in bed, because that causes crumbs in your bed. Instead he poured him a nice bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal (it was Saturday after all!) and Mom helped with the milk. When he went up to get Rob, though, Rob said he was just too tired and wanted to go back to sleep. Well, we weren't going to waste all that precious sugar cereal goodness, so Joseph had two bowls- alternating between the two in order to maximize crunchiness!

Update

Emma went to her first dance on Saturday. I took her and a friend up there and then the friend's sister was suppose to drive them home, but locked her keys in her car. Emma didn't get home until 11 pm when the mother went up to rescue them. She said the dance was just Ok. Her friend ditched her most of the time in favor of a boy, whom she ended up kissing at the end of the dance- Oh the humanity!
Emma did; however, dance with a couple of guys and hung out and danced with some other girls. I think it just takes time to get to know the other people in the wards around the area to feel more comfortable at these dances.
I was lucky with my first dance. My big brother Karl had a friend that he must have convinced to ask me to dance right away. So I got all the nerves out and just ended up having lots of fun. Those dances were the best. In Ramstein (Kaiserslautern second ward!) the dances were relaxed and fun! Everyone got out and danced and was silly!! When we moved they were never the same! I stopped wanting to go, because I didn't know anyone anymore, I was nervous and felt alone. I was really hoping that wouldn't be Emma's first experience. It seemed like it was right in between.
On a more positive note, Emma's indoor soccer team won on Saturday!

We have been doing Valentine's around here. I found these cute valentines on Meck Mommy. Don't you love how Max put his in neat little rows? Joseph's 100 days of school is on Valentine's day also, so he was suppose to bring 100 M & M's. I made him this little topper, because wouldn't you as a teacher want to know this!! (It says, 100 M & M's counted and inspected by Joseph Kress after thoroughly washing his hands.)

Sam Shoots for the Moon

Here is Sam's latest venture. (He did a really good job on the flyer. Don't you love how he put at the bottom, "Don't Call"!) Last week it was making a blacksmith shop. He found all the things he needed on Ebay and asked if he could bid on them. He also watched videos on Youtube about it. Each time Rob has had to stop him. This time, he asked Rob, "Why do you always squash my dreams?" Rob tried to explain that he wasn't trying to squash his dreams, but that his dreams needed to start a little smaller than the moon!

8-2-11

My latest creation- Ta-Da! I copied the idea off of Kerri Bradford. She does these every season. I just am too cheap and don't really have the right equipment to buy them from her, so I came up with my own.

Rant 1: I am so done with snow! February should always be the start of spring in my opinion. This also leads us to...
Rant 2: Why, if there is so much snow and moisture in
Ohio is my water bill $400 in the summer and $100 in the winter? Never have I paid this much for water and I have lived in places with drought conditions!
Rant 3: I am starting to really dislike Ohio! I had to do a million and one things to get my nursing license, including having my original transcripts from Nursing school sent here. Then I realize, it is still taking an unusually long time for my nursing license to go through. Guess what- the fingerprints never went through! Now I have to go and do them all over again. Luckily, I used my brain and the computer and the phone to figure that whole mess out or my nursing license would have been pending forever!
Rant 4: Why can't someone come up with a phone that is amazing like the android phones, has a great camera in it and is thin and light so that I can run with it. Is that too much to ask, people!

Ok, so that's done. Now in other news, Emma is going to her first dance on Saturday and signing up for her high school classes. When did all this happen and where was I? Oh my goodness time is flying. The first day she started Mia maids I got a little depressed. I have never been in any classes with her, ever, at church! We actually get along just fine and I don't think she would have any problem with me being there, but in 4 years she'll be gone. How depressing is that! On a positive note, she tried out for the high school choir and made it.
Right now she is doing indoor soccer. It is co-ed. Can you imagine- co-ed at this age. I am sure she will be smashed by one of those big boys soon. I hope it doesn't hurt too bad! She was so close to getting a goal last game, but that darn boy was too tall! If it had been a girl goalie, she would have gotten it for sure!
I just signed Rob and I up for the Air Force Marathon. Crazy? Just might be!

Iced

This week the kids got a couple snow days, except it wasn't for snow- it was for ice! We had an ice storm that was crazy. It knocked out power to lots of homes, including our own. We were without power for about 8 hours. Luckily it was when we went to bed, so we just piled on the blankets and ended up sleeping pretty well. We woke up to the power coming back on. Thank you Mr. Power Company Man!
This is what the kids do when they have a snow day.
This is what we had to do. It was back breaking work to split up all that ice on our death defying driveway. We are absolutely forbidden to put ice on the driveway, so instead we put the sledge hammer on it over and over and over and over. Do you like Rob's purple gloves? We switched until I got heated up and then I took off my gloves and my coat. Man I was sweating! I totally know what it must have felt like being in prison and splitting rocks! Look how thick that ice was!
It was beautiful looking all over the trees, but we were afraid for our pine tree. Lots of branches broke all around our home, but our trees were saved! They made it through to the defrost a couple days later! So glad we weren't iced out completely!