So sick of the Meatballs!

I am so sick of the meatballs, but haven't gotten around to uploading any more photos. Plenty to show you when I finally get to it! Samantha started walking. She toddles along adorably and looks kind of like E.T. so its extra-cute when she says : "Ay-Ot" for Elliot. She also graduated from her infant room into the "Toddler" classroom that Elliot just left. Elliot started pre-school (at the same day care). Ben has been traveling, but I unravelled us by going to Germany again for a week. So happy to be home.

Today in the car Elliot told me that she is going to travel. When she gets big, she is going to marry Samantha so they can go on dates, like to the restaurant mommy & daddy went to last night. Then when she is really big, she is going to travel alone. Alone with her backpack. She will send us cards and presents and keep a journal. She told me I cannot come with her. She is going to be traveling alone. She is also going to do some work while she is traveling. Maybe to Germany. And her cousins are going to go with her. When they are big.

April Fools

It's all an illllluuusssion.  That's not lemonade, spaghetti, meatballs & parmesan...

That's not a sunny side up egg starter course.

Since last year on April Fool's Day, you may remember I made Elliot cry, I thought I would see what effect the same tricks had this year.  We upped the ante by inviting Charlie over too. For Spaghetti and Meatball night.  Good thing Charlie knows what "April Fool's" is ("There's a spider on your back...April Fools" really is hilarious over and over again).  This year, nobody cried.  In part because I learned that kids get really sad when they think they get to have lemonade for dinner, but it won't come out of its straw since its tricky lemon Jell-o.  So, after they were tricked, they got real lemonade.  And their "first course" of "sunny side up eggs" was yummier than they thought being peaches & yogurt (note to self, use apricots next year, yolks are not the size of peaches!).  And if you reveal spaghetti and meatballs as cupcakes, they are not likely to eat the real spaghetti and meatballs with the cupcake spaghetti staring them down.  And, I learned that its worth it to melt your own white chocolate to look like a parmesan cheese wedge and grate it over the cupcake meatballs...and is not so bad on the real meatballs.  Well Johnstons, thanks for indulging me.  Good thing you are moving, cuz I am likely to have the same tricks next year!

Video for Emily

Samantha is still not walking by herself, but she will push anything she can catch.  This video is from about a month ago when she and Elliot were playing it up in the one warm spring fake-out day.  It snowed 4 inches the next day.  But, Miss Emily was asking for more video of Samantha, and here you go!

America's Got Talent

Ben is off at the Celtics game.  I am home putting the girls to bed.  Before putting on PJs, Elliot wanted to see her new ballerina box - with the leotard from Charlie and the tutu from Zoe, and the, ahem, hard hat from Touch a Truck day last spring.   They were so wound up from the post dinner cupcake (WHOSE idea was that?!) I was scouring the house for some lavender to try and knock them out.  Then I found "Mozart for Babies - Quiet-time".  I was just so thankful for anything besides Mother Goose - and oh it was soothing.  I had just this week been looking up ballet classes for Elliot - and well, we might not need them after all.  Maybe she will take after her mama and have a natural talent for lots of things - that when faced with lessons gets all botched up.  Like how I used to like to paint, and then took lessons and then could only seem to paint Alien Space Garlic.  But then, maybe my painting was always Alien Space Garlic and only when I took lessons did I realize my inadequacy - either way, lessons may just hold her back.  To my knowledge, she has never seen ballet or danced to anything slower than Gwen Stefani, but she busted out with this.

Oh that's right, dances, sings and plays an instrument.  What I love is poor Samantha up past her bedtime, but also getting her groove on.  As if its not enough to wear a hard hat during ballet, Elliot steps it up to dance again ...