Today warmed up enough that most of the snow melted. The kidlets were very disappointed. They were quite looking forward to another romp in the snow this afternoon. Especially since I used that as a bribe to get them inside yesterday. Both of the boys had fun playing outside with two other home school boys. They had snow fights, and also attempted to build a snow man that promptly fell apart. :D

I had taken the girls out as well but by about 20 minutes, Deedee was complaining of the cold and poor Kitty was just soaked. I'm not sure why, but every couple of steps Kitty was falling on her face. At first I thought it was the little leather boots that she had on. I had bought them when Deedee was small, intending them for last winter. I just rand across them in a box and thought they'd be perfect for her but they're huge although, they're marked 18-24 months. :( So I switched them out for her new Elefanten's but she still kept falling. Sigh... She had fun though and I caught her giggling several times. I tried to get a closeup of her looking up at me, but she moved just as it went (I hate the time delay on digitals) so it's not as cute. :(

I went crazy last night and cleaned my kitchen. And I mean deep clean. I even had the drip pans pulled out soaking in the sink, and cleaned the spaces underneath. I finally figured out why my kitchen has been smelling like sour apples. Well over a month ago, the kids spilled a full pitcher of apple juice on the stove. I cleaned it up, but I never thought to look under the burners, especially since most of it fell on the floor. It was a sticky gooey mess under there and I had to let it soak for quite a while before it would come up with any ease.

I also decided to to try out the S.H.E cleaning system, the mother of Flylady. I love Flylady, don't get me wrong. I like the way she has everything set up in zones and teaches you the baby steps to contend with everything. But most of the time, I can't be bothered to check my email to see what zone we're working in for any given week. :( Some time ago I borrowed the S.H.E. book from my friend Patti. I liked how it read, and I understood exactly what they were talking about, especially the need to get out of it. So I bought a bunch of index cards, and set to it. While I'm nowhere near done, I've started my baby steps to getting back into control again. It's not fun being too embarrassed to open a door or curtain for fear of what people will say. :(

Charles went shopping with me. I have learned that I must stay with him (as in I'm walking too fast) because the sensors on the automatic doors in most grocery stores don't "see" him! The poor little guy's too short. Twice he got caught right outside the doors and both time I was several feet away before I realized I didn't have my little shadow. I felt horrible.

The kids have learned that it's not a good idea to dump buckets of water in the towel chest to make a lake for their pirates. While it was an interesting idea, they were left with a very irate mother. I had a ton of towels and bath mats to wash. At first I had planned on just throwing the lot in the dryer, but James said Deedee got water from the toilet. She said she didn't but I didn't dare risk it so three loads of laundry it was. While at times my children act like they hate each other, they're very good at cooperating when they feel like it. For instance, in this case they were being quiet and it was thought that they were asleep. Instead I got up to check on something and catch all three of the little buggers grouped around the chest shushing each other and playing with pirates. Sigh... After the chest was emptied, they got the job of blow drying it. All I need is to have a bunch of mildew everywhere or a rotten chest. They thought it was a lot of fun at first, but after a while it was quite boring and they were no longer fighting over who got to hold the dryer.

Today Carey started his vacation from work. Since he was staying home and lazing around all day, I took advantage of it and worked on a bunch of stuff for Charles party. I got his birthday banner done. I did mess it up once and had to square it back up when it got really stretched out of shape, but after that it was simple. It will be a work in progress probably for the next 16 years. So far, it has four candles, Charles' full name and birth date, and a salamander to represent him. I'm still trying to think of things that represent the last four years. For instance, if this was James' I was doing, I would add something about his road trip such as a road sign, or perhaps a Canadian flag. He's also gaga over Peter Pan/pirates so I would add something along those lines. Charles really likes his and stated that "it was for his birthday" to anyone who stood still long enough to listen. Carey drew a dragon on a chunk of poster board for me. It will be "guarding" the door into party area. I have painted it and it's looking pretty cool.

I put the second coat of paint on the wands and have gotten the decorations painted on. I happened to find my silver paint while looking for my cabochons and I thought that it would be perfect. The first few wands I did are so so but I really like the last few that I did. They're hanging up waiting for their coat of clear acrylic and then they'll get the ribbons on the end and the "crystal ball". I have found a couple of fun activities that would be suitable for little wizards and have gotten together the items needed for those. Now all I need to do is finish making the little goody bags, get my hands on some construction paper to make hats for them to decorate, and make the cake. Oh, and label the jars for the "work table" such as goblin eyes, poisoned dragons liver, dragons blood, etc.

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