Can I make a little confession? I was going to skip Presidents Day… truthfully, it’s a holiday that I’ve only really given a nod to in the past, no real hoopla. And this year it falls right before Fat Tuesday and the end of Mardi Gras… Mardi Gras is another holiday I’ve skipped in the past but for some reason this year I decided to educate the kids on New Orleans food and culture as well as jazz music… (I think it’s b/c of these Family Fun magazine recipes)…

In the midst of all the birthday party and Valentine’s day preparations and excitement, someone suffered from some severe neglect. Excuse me while I attempt to make up with my overlooked and neglected washing machine. If you don’t hear from me in awhile, look under the pile of clothes… I may have surrendered in defeat!

I love holidays… all holidays… as in Chinese New Year… Ground Hog Day… Mardi Gras…St Patty’s Day… Cinco De Mayo… give me a reason to make a themed meal and I’m in. I love celebrating life with my family. So, yes… I go a little crazy for Valentine’s Day… even if it is a holiday created by Hallmark…. I’ll still serve heart shaped food for every meal and dress my kids in red.

My oldest daughter turns 6 this week. 6 years old. It just sound so old… so, not a baby, not a toddler, not a preschooler, but a… girl. I spent some time looking back at pictures and videos this past year and I realized that 5 is a significant year. She grew up A LOT this past year. She started school. She learned to read. She learned to add and subtract.

At the end of last year Scott and I went out for a big fun day date. As we thought back over the year and looked ahead at the new year we talked about things we wanted to do differently in the coming year. Scott had a few suggestions on the food front. One was that we eat more meatless dinners. He was not advocating we go vegetarian…(good thing too b/c this meat and potato loving gal would have surely lasted all of 2 days at best) the other was that we starting eating more fish.

More times than not, when I peek in on my girls before heading to bed, I find them sleeping together. Sometimes this means they are both down on the bottom bunk. Sometimes, it means they are side by side in their drawers (truthfully I find them like this almost as often as I find them in the bottom bunk).  Sometimes they are both on the floor. (haven’t found them like that in the last 2 weeks)

One day my 4 year old came to me with about 8 pony tail holders and asked me to put them all in her hair. I was surprised with how cute it turned out and she was excited when she received compliments on it from her friend at church. After realizing how well it stayed in, I decided it might be worth trying this for gymnastics. (this is it after a night of sleep)

As if the sight of one boy playing the piano, didn’t melt my heart enough… 2 boys just turns me to mush

My kids love to draw and color and cut and create. And they are always, always, always asking me for paper. When my 4 year old doodled all over my check book, I knew I had to come up with something better. One day I stared at our empty popcorn tin and an idea hit me. For some reason the tin seemed perfect for storing crayons. Wouldn’t it be great, I thought, if we could have a roll of paper on our table like at Macaroni Grill?

I’ve had a few shows over the past 10 years, that I’ve really loved. You know the ones where you connect personally with the characters in a manner some might find unhealthy? But, if I had to pick one, as my favorite (I’d probably kick and scream begging you to not make me limit it to just one) But, if I had to pick one, than I’d probably say it was Alias.