monday miscellany

1) Our weekend was pretty good. It was a little snowy on Saturday morning and snowed more overnight, but it wasn't enough to make the roads bad.

On Saturday the kids were both cranky, Henry was tired but skipped his nap, and we needed a new vacuum. You see, Chris set our vacuum on fire on Thursday and it hasn't been quite right since. Never a dull moment here, you know. Anyway, long story short, we needed to get out of the house. We went to a kids' consignment store first. Henry had fallen asleep in the car and Celia was busy watching a dvd, so Chris just drove them around while I went in the store. I got quite a few things for Celia, but I swear every boys' item in there was either brown or navy blue. And they all have stupid sayings like "tough guy" and "rock star". Does anyone seriously want her one year old to be a tough guy or a rock star? It's not cute. At all. Anyhoo, after that we went to get a Roomba vacuum! My husband, who has never in ten years shown an ounce of interest in vacuums, has in the last three days become obsessed with vacuuming. I just hope it doesn't wear off. We weren't sure if the Roomba would really be able to replace a regular vacuum, but after trying it out we're pretty impressed. It's amazing how it works, and actually quite entertaining to watch. We have such exciting lives.

No, really. We've been watching Roger work for entertainment. The kids love him, and Chris and I are fascinated by how he works and figuring out the best way to use him.

Oh yeah. We named him Roger.

We also went to "Old McDonalds", as Celia calls it, for her to play in their indoor play area. She loves it. I'm not sure she even knows it's primarily a place to eat because we don't eat fast food. She thinks it's called Old McDonalds and that it's an indoor playground. I love her...

2) The kids are really into roughhousing lately. Celia will get on the floor and then Henry pretty much attacks her, climbing over her again and again, rolling around, making noise. I'm shocked that no one usually gets hurt but I just let them go to town unless it really gets dangerous looking. They have a great time together, and it's neat that although Henry's only 14 months they already play together and have their own games.

Some action shots:

3) Celia and I were looking through Better Homes and Gardens the other day (she likes to sit with me and look at the pictures, and we each tear out pages with pictures we want to save), and I came across a picture of a house that looks just like ours on the outside, with the most perfect colors for the door and shutters. I'm saving this for when we paint. Still traditional enough for a colonial, but very pretty and unique. If you look closely, the shutters are actually a dark plum color, not just black.

And look at this play house!

We have so many projects to do, but someday I want to build a neat play house for the kids.

4) Henry's hair is getting a little longer, and it's now long enough to get a little messy in the back. See how it sticks out on the back of his head? I love that.

5) I never showed the cookies Celia and I made for Valentine's Day. I have finally found a great vegan sugar cookie recipe.

6) That reminds me that I never posted about Celia's birthday party. Maybe I can do that this week.

7) It's school vacation week this week. I've always had school vacations off, and I don't mind missing out on it this week but it does remind me that I'm going to miss summers off. Especially when Celia has no school and I have to figure out what to do with her. If we could just win the lotto within the next couple of years so I could stay home with the kids...

8) I actually have a couple of posts planned for this week! Let's see if I can make them happen.