Purple Day

Well, last Friday (March 26) was Purple Day!  This was a VERY important day to me because Purple Day is also known as Epilepsy Awareness Day!  People are supposed to wear purple to raise awareness and show support of those with epilepsy.  So, of course, everyone in our house wore purple, and I know that many of my family and friends did, as well, and I am DEEPLY appreciative of that!  Also, for that whole week, two bakeries in Madison sold purple cupcakes!  When you bought them, proceeds went to an epilepsy research foundation!  Of course we bought some!  They were pretty tasty!  We got a really good picture of me with the kids which I sent in to Lily's Fund, which is the epilepsy foundation here in Madison, and they posted it on their website!  Check out the link here:  http://www.lilysfund.org/get-your-purple-on/

March: Warm Days

Yep--here I am--still trying to catch up!!  Well, in mid-March, we had a couple days that were very warm!  It was such a welcome change from those cold winter Wisconsin days!  So Hannah and Eli enjoyed playing outside on those days, of course!  On the first day, Eli got to learn to draw with chalk on the driveway (and the garage...and the walls of the house...)  :)  He had a ball, and he and Hannah loved drawing together!  On the second day, we took a walk (well, ride) over to the purple park!  Hannah got to ride her bike, and Eli got to have a nice ride in the wagon!  Hannah was so excited because her friend, Daphne, was there.  Eli had so much fun swinging, climbing on the small structure, and sliding down the smaller slides!  When we got back home, they played in the play house on the back porch.  Unfortunately, the weather turned cold again, but we're looking forward to VERY warm temperatures this week (up to the upper 70s!), so it's back to the park for us!  Again, I've posted a couple pictures here, and here's a link to the rest of our pictures from March.  :)  http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2696231&id=8621722&l=d31fb1503d

California 2010

Oh my!  I am so far behind!  I realized that I haven't posted in a month and a half, so it's going to take more than one post to catch us up here!  (and then be better about posting!!!)  So, anyway, this post is about our trip in February to California.  We went for a week to see my Grandma (also known as GG to the kids) get a lifetime achievement award at her church!  We also got to spend two days at Disneyland!  It was a wonderful trip--we got some great family time with GG, Aunt Roly, and Uncle Andy (and a day with Emily, Mel, Aleta, Bob, Joan, and Sonny!)  We were super proud of GG for getting her award!  And at Disneyland, we were very fortunate to get to see LOTS of characters!  The park opened early and all the main (and even some not-so-main) characters were by the main entrance!  And Eli LOVED the characters!!  He thought they were giant teddy bears, and he ran up and gave them big hugs!  He got his first set of mouse ears with his name on them (and, of course, Hannah got some too!)  Hannah got her autograph book signed by all the characters, and got to have lunch with the princesses.  Eli was a little skeptical of the rides, though.  It was a little scary and intimidating--but he's pretty young, I guess.  In a couple years, he'll be ready to REALLY have fun!  But Hannah had a ball on the rides!!  So, I've posted a couple pictures here, and here's a link to an album that has all our pictures.  Enjoy!  :)   http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2688448&id=8621722&l=bf8e846cb5

Some New Videos

I have posted a few new videos on YouTube for you to enjoy!  Last weekend, Hannah played the piano in the "Key Up for Kids Playathon" at Hilldale Mall in Madison.  This Playathon raised money for the Children's Hospital and featured piano students from all over Madison.  She did a WONDERFUL job, and we were all so proud of her!  She played two songs--"Whole Note Cheer" and "Old MacDonald."  Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/teachermom29#p/a/u/2/cyDG-wRLizk  The second two links are from last night.  Eli was staying home with Grammie while I took Hannah to her ballet class, and she taught him to roar like a tiger!  I think it's probably one of the cutest things he's done yet!  The first link is from when Hannah asked him to roar like a tiger--it's not the best roar, but it's the cutest face.  Here's the link:  http://www.youtube.com/user/teachermom29#p/a/u/1/O3q7mxYC19k  The second has the best roar and him saying the word "tiger."  Here's the link: http://www.youtube.com/user/teachermom29#p/a/u/0/JGOA1SWSr2E   Hope you've enjoyed the videos!  There will be more to come soon because next week we're traveling to California!  We'll be seeing GG get a lifetime service award at her church and will also spend 2 days at Disneyland!!  We can't wait!

A New Update! (It's been awhile!)

Well, I realize it's been a LONG time since I've posted!  Nearly a month!  Wow--I'm a slacker this month!  Actually, not much has been going on, so there hasn't really been much to tell.  But I'll catch you up on recent events anyway!  Eli has been getting more and more stable on his feet--he's been having fun wearing "big people's" (i.e. Hannah's and mine) shoes, and, even better, has learned to go down the stairs!  (Thanks to Gabah's lessons!)

 Last weekend, Hannah had a big job to do for school...she had to count out 100 lids for the 100th day of school!  Her teacher does so many fun activities for the kids--it's just great!  Eli also had fun last weekend brushing Hannah's hair!  (And, surprisingly, she didn't even mind!  Maybe he should do it every day--she sure does complain when I do it!) 

Last night, we had a fun (and exhausting) event at Hannah's school--they had a Winter Carnival.  There, she got to meet and get an autograph from Casey FitzRandolph, 2002 Olympic Speedskating Gold Medalist who still holds the world 500M record!  He lives in Madison and is married to a first grade teacher at the school, so we are very lucky to have that connection!  He was VERY nice, and it was great for the kids to get to meet him and see his gold medal.  In the gym, they also had LOTS of carnival games set up for the kids.  It was VERY chaotic, though, and there were SO many people that it was just exhausting.  So we were all happy to get back home. 

Finally, this morning, Eli and Hannah spent some quality time together reading books, which I got some great pictures of.  It's getting so much easier and more fun for Hannah to interact with him since he'll sit still and listen to her read and point to pictures and say names of them.  So, that's the update for the moment...  there will probably be more in the next couple days since our schedule is getting busier now! 

Driving Cars and Shootin' Hoops

Eli has been having lots of fun as we've been getting out and assembling all his new "big" Christmas toys.  We've got a Cozy Coupe for him to drive around the basement, and a basketball hoop for him to play with upstairs.  He sure got the hang of both really quickly!  Well, he can only drive the car backwards, but at least he can make it go somehow, right?  He LOVES it when Hannah pushes him in it, too.  Unfortunately, he's been a little sick this weekend.  He's been running a fever and has had lots of drainage--I won't go into detail.  :)  It has quite interrupted his sleep patterns, as well as mine, obviously!  So I'm hoping he'll get back to normal very soon! 

Snacks and Slides

Hannah and Eli have discovered that it's really fun to share snacks--especially this kind!  They love these "Pringles Stix" and they share them and play with them (yeah...I know... "don't play with your food...")  Anyway, it's really cute how they play together, and it's fun to watch Eli go up to her and sign "more."  Something else that's happened lately is that Eli has gotten VERY into climbing.  Climbing not just on the couch and chairs, but also onto the kitchen table!  So, we thought that maybe getting him some kind of climbing structure would be helpful.  So, we got one that's got stairs and a slide plus a toddler version of a rock-climbing wall.  Hannah and Eli have both been having a ball on it!  He's been better about not climbing on the kitchen table (he does respond to "no" fairly well.)  But he does still like to climb up onto the couch and get the remotes and the phone.  Well, we're still learning...