Spring Fever?

It happens every spring!!! Along comes this sunny day with temperatures above freezing and the blood starts pumping. Yep, pumping so hard it floods our lethargic, frozen brains causing us to FORGET how to pace ourselves. The day started VERY early with Mari's first soccer game of the season. Can you say frigid?!?!? I was miserably cold and therefore there is no photographic record of the exciting 1-1 tie (read sarcasm here!). Well into the second half I had a passing thought of sunscreen but what the heck it was only 9am and it's April so nooooo I decided to stay wrapped in the blanket wishing she was still a dancer....where Moms sit INSIDE watching. The game finished early enough for us to race to the complete opposite end of the town to catch the second half of Julia's game. By the time we got home the damage had been done! The sun and wind have left me with a scalded face for Easter services :( After a quick change and some sunscreen we headed off to start clearing the land for our family garden at Grandma's house. Note the baseball cap!!!!!!!!! Decided that I'd better try to stay out of the Emergency Room on a holiday weekend. My helpers here were getting a good lesson on the joys of tree roots :)

The brush pile was almost as tall as them after only an hour of work...by the adults!! There were just too many new things to explore and experience for these concrete dwellers to keep them on task.

One movie too many I'm thinking! Ironically the 'grass' they thought they were chewing was really CHIVES! A remnant from a long ago herb garden that had 'gone native'. Deirdre couldn't spit it out fast enough once the camera went away :)

Mari uncovered a giant mushroom!!!!!!!!! It was actually really old and hard so it now sits on Grandma's porch awaiting the decision on it's future.

An old railroad embankment runs behind the yard and every spring it fills with the rain water and snow melt to make a 'creek'. These two could not get over the ducks who came to swim so close to humans.

A Mallard couple at home in the big city! They stayed for hours and hours even as we worked very near to their pool.

We did get one small square turned over and the girls planted their first 'crops' ever in their lives!!! Well technically they transplanted their first crops. Clumps of chives and Italian onions which had thrived in neglect have been cleared from the tomatoes future plot and tucked neatly into rows and watered in until Mother Nature lets us back out of the house! The first lesson in how to use the bounty of nature comes tomorrow morning when a bunch of the shallot-like Italian onions which we picked today will appear in the marinade for the leg of lamb featured in Easter dinner.

After a wash-up and ANOTHER clothing change we squeezed in another activity!

Yesiree, it's egg dying time!! The 'cool' looking beads and stickers proved to be labor intensive which meant dinner was eaten while eggs soaked up their color. As we ate Julia asked me if they made Daddy's heartburn medicine for kids....ummm why? Oh just because her stomach felt 'sour'.

Took so long for the glue to dry on the beads that they started to doodle on the eggs! Julia who was wearing her North Face fleece then announced that she had 'the shivers'.....no, oh no!!!!

This is how she spent most of the decorating time....holding her head! Then I heard the first wheeze.

After valiantly holding herself together she got through our 'traditional' egg basket picture and then CRASHED! Medicated and with her inhaler on the nightstand she has gone to bed praying that she isn't sick on Easter! I'm thinking I'll be saying a similar prayer tonight.

Just for your viewing pleasure I've put a few photos from "egg dying nights' past!

Note the shorts...because we are usually in FLORIDA on egg dying night!!!!!!!!!!!

We've tried it all, tie-dyed eggs, glitter eggs, and sticker eggs! This picture was the year of paint rollered eggs.

The ONLY bunny picture we ever had! Neither girl really liked the reality of a big furry bunny...just the IDEA of him as he brings his candy.

Mairead came with to Florida that year and ended up at Easter services with a scalded face! I guess it's going to be another one of the family traditions!

The one year we FLEW to Florida! Dyed the eggs in Illinois and then left for the airport after leaving a note for Mr. Easter Bunny telling him where to leave the candy since he might be confused you know!

Mari's first Easter in America! Note the diva was sure even then to strip off the art smock before posing! :)

FFF-A Bit of This & That

Don't know this week's FFF theme so you are getting an eclectic grouping of photos that cover this past CRAZY week! While I would NOT like to relive this week it has been for the better. Some festering problems ruptured which were painful but as in all wound healing...each passing day resulted in progressive healing! Mari made it through her first week at the new school in fine form. The educational aspects are drastically IMPROVED!!!However, the difference in language/behavior at the new public school from the old private school is not to my liking!! Since the new school was just coming back from spring break the day Mari started, they rearranged their desk configurations(pods) and the boy given the honor of choosing the 'theme' for the new pod names chose BODILY FLUIDS!!!! So Mari is now a member of the SNOTS pod...ugh!!! No fifth grade boy at her old school would have dreamed of offering that theme for fear of punishment and no teacher at her old school would have let that fly. Trying to think on the positive side....hmmm.....it allows the freedom for individual expression????? The new school had a Family Night at the local roller rink and it was a great way to meet the new classmates and their families in a casual/social setting. This would be Mari with her new teacher, who can rollerblade like a PRO! Saw him in action and am SOLD as he spent a great deal of his night supporting one of the classmates with Cerebral Palsy as he tried to skate. As expected he was also the 'fun' teacher who played tag with the fifth graders.

The two snow storms were unable to stop spring!! This is our first daffodil which finally bloomed on Wednesday.

We are joining a lot of Americans who are planting a vegetable garden this year. The early cabbage has sprouted and we hope to be frost free soon so they can get into the ground safely. The girls also chose tomatoes, peas, cucumbers, and radishes to join the cabbage. Keeping it limited this year since I am an URBAN girl and my farm boy husband hasn't played in the dirt for 30+years. The gang are joining us in Grandma's backyard to make it a true "family" garden and the location was chosen to allow Grandma an opportunity to sit out on her back porch and watch her grandchildren at work....and there are no swing sets or basketball courts in Grandma's yard to get in the way!!!

The weather is improving slowly. Julia loves the fact that she is getting playground time everyday while waiting for Mari's school to let out....1/2 hour difference between Julia's dismissal and Mari's. Mom loves the fact that our muffin tops from a long winter of couch sitting are going to get a work out!

She's determined to conquer these Monkey Bars and has the blisters to prove it! Soccer has been postponed another week because our fields are still soggy from the melting snow.

I meant for this picture to come after the next but someday I may figure out this virtual machine's quirks. This is Mari with a few of her new classmates at the roller skating party. Relieved to see she's so resilient and that another rerooting holds the promise of being successful.

Meant to post this first! Trying not to be the embarrassing type of Mom I snuck this shot from across the room! Unfortunately I still don't have control of my camera so I did end up walking over and asking them to pose for the one above :)

Traditional picture in our house....First Day of School....in the snow????? Well I guess there's a first for everything! She's LOVING the freedom to wear jeans and gym shoes. Wonder how she's going to feel when I make her start helping with the laundry because of the increase resulting from this new wardrobe change?!?!?

Squeezed out some time to make this little custom order! It had been laying on the machine in pieces for a couple of weeks as we tried to get our life back in the groove but it's now on it's way to the little ladybug who wants her birthday pictures done in her favorite animal.

Here's a shot of the back. I've opened an Etsy shop but after several hours trying to get pictures to load I stopped in frustration!!!!! The site has a size limit for the loaded photos and I have no idea how to make my digital photos have a smaller 'file size'?????? I so wanted to have it up and running this week so I could put a link on the sidebar here to make it easier for those interested in my outfits to see what I had to offer and the prices. It just KILLS me to think I may have to hire another geek to get this as well as my other sewing blog up and running since the whole purpose of this sewing is to raise money for the girls' birth families in Guatemala!! Willing to to a barter for any of my blog readers with tech. skills!!! Anyone like the idea of having some cutified denim in return for their geek skills??

Man, oh man!

Well, Mari's little world is rockin'!!! At her old school, 100% of the teaching staff were women but the chances of her getting a woman at the new school was only 1/3! I had discussed this as a possibility so she wasn't totally stunned with the discovery this morning that her teacher was a Mr. but her post mortem did include the comment, "It's not bad to have a man it's just kind of weird for me." There's not a great deal to disclose as of yet but it's nice to be able to say simply, "Mari had a good day." She's amazed to find that they are studying the exact same phase of the Revolutionary War in Social Studies and pleased as punch to finally be getting a real live Spanish teacher! I'm sure her Spanish teacher is thinking I'm a crazy Mom because in our little pre-registration meeting I had told him that while she had spoken Spanish exclusively until her adoption at 3 years of age it was now gone due to a deliberate rejection on her part. Then today on her first day he had a 'competition' to see who could give the English translation of Spanish words he threw out and she tied for the most words!!! Incredible co-incidence but he picked several that we have incorporated into our daily life like basura but I'm sure he's thinking he's been played because one was the word siento. When she raised her hand and said 'sit' he followed up with "who is sitting"? She swears it was a 'random guess' but she did respond, "me or I"! Phew! I needed her to have that kind of first day!!!!! Oh, another factoid.....the ratio is 2/3 boys to 1/3 girls.....Mari and testosterone, hmmmmm. Guess you'll be seeing posts on that topic in the future.....

"To every thing there is a season..."

Well, as promised here is the post explaining the cryptic comment about the school 'costing' us our spring break. I have just come from tucking in a very nervous and anxious 11yo who will be starting at our local public grammar school tomorrow with only one quarter left to her 5th grade year! As I reflect on this situation I'm choked up remembering her educational road to this year and wonder just how it could have taken such a precipitous turn...... Here she is on her first day of school ever! Just dying to get into the classroom with hardly a wave good bye. My smart as a whip 3.5 yo who could already read after only living in the United States for half a year. The little girl who arrived completely conversational in Spanish and within 6mos was now significantly above age standards for vocabulary in English! When she first came home we lived in the heart of the city of Chicago. It was a great location for a childless couple but as soon as this dynamic bundle of joy arrived it became obvious that we needed to move. We lived 30-45min away from either of the families and the local schools consisted of a mediocre private or abysmal public as our choices! We picked up and moved to suburbia were the cousins all lived within a mile and the school choices were all excellent. Because we had excellence offered either way we opted to send Mari to the private church school which is literally across the street from our home.

Sweet big sister guiding her baby sister to her first day of kindergarten. That is our driveway they are standing on waiting to cross into the school yard! See how close!!!Most mornings they can throw on their coats while the bell is ringing and still make it in the door on time! She blossomed within the strict structure of their rules....until this year. For some inconceivable reason the school decided to replace the 5th grade teacher (who left after maternity leave) with a very timid, brand NEW teacher. HELLO, this is FIFTH grade!!! Hormones pumping at the same time that the curriculum ramps up for Junior High and from the pool of applicants they picked an insecure rooky??? Okay, no problem she'll get better as the year goes on because surely the other teachers will mentor her, right? ...and even if they don't the administration will provide her with back-up and support? NOT!!!!!!!! After conferences regarding specific concerns we waited for action plans which never appeared and after watching three straight quarters of falling grades we put in three separate requests for conferences with the principal. It became clear that they were stalling in a effort to cover their proverbial hind ends as request after request went unanswered. We crossed our line in the sand this past Monday when the teacher willfully, clearly directed Mari to disobey her parents!!!!! This from a "Christian" school where the students are supposedly expected to use the commandments to guide their behavior to be like Jesus'. Of course, this all comes to a head while the public schools are on their spring break and now result in us having children with two different vacation schedules! Mari has been asked too many times in her life to take the hit for decisions made by the adults around her! I ache for this child who must yet again uproot herself and try to find a place to thrive in this world. It's been a rough week emotionally but thanks to Auntie Peggy who swept in and collected her to go with the other 'public' cousins to the Great Wolf Lodge water park in the Dells she got a 'bit' of a vacation. Then today one of our best friends showed the true Christian love and they did an 'intervention'. Their family came over and 'kidnapped' us and took us to the best Palm Sunday services we had ever attended. They wanted to let the girls know how much they were loved and the whole car ride was a Semana Santa theme followed by a 'New(school) Year' celebration in......

CHINATOWN!!! We passed the Olympic committee taking a walking tour of the city and honked & shouted out our support for the city's selection. Then took a quick walking tour ourselves before storming one of the poor restaurants with our crazy bunch of girls!

A sweeter support team was never assembled! BFFs Molly and Mary Kate worked non-stop to cheer up the moping Mahoney's and it WORKED!!!

Nothing like a meal among friends to improve the mood! The chop sticks were never quite mastered but it was fun trying. The drive home was a 'school daze' theme and by the time all of their anecdotes were told there was many a stitch in a side! So what the 'purpose under heaven' is we are not yet enlightened but it's clearly a season of change in this home!

BTW, thought I'd show you our psycho weather....

This morning dressed for the start of Semana Santa. Chilly but the sun made it bearable.

Tonight! Secretly I think she's hoping for a snow day..............................

FFF- Beach

Okay, the powers that be have chosen "beach" as today's FFF so now I'm sure there is a conspiracy to drive me crazy!!! First the economy and then a little matter regarding the school(details to come later) have prevented us from our annual flight south for spring break. Every year since Mari came home we have celebrated Easter on Lido Beach in Sarasota, Florida but alas that tradition appears to be ending :( Sigh.......so anyhow here are a minute sampling of our beach pictures for your viewing pleasure. Okay, technically not at the beach yet in this picture. Do you wonder how the weight psychosis becomes so ingrained when being raised with the anorexic brothers in this picture???? We were headed to Oak Street Beach and as the spoiled first daughter my mother just had to make me a yellow polka dot bikini ...yeah, that's where my love of sewing came from....can you imagine we rode the EL dressed like this???

The pure joy of running into the waves when first arriving at Lido beach!

The first time Julia went to the beach! She has loved it from moment one while Mari (who was three her first time) cried, wouldn't take off her sandals, and sat firmly in the middle of the blanket telling anyone who would listen, "La playa es feo!"

My all time FAVORITE photo of the girls!! Another one of our traditions is on our last night in Sarasota to go to St. Armand's Circle and get ice cream from Kilwins and go watch the sunset as we eat our cones. They decided to get up and go through the dunes to get closer to the water to see the sun go down and I managed to snap this at just the right moment.

This is Mari's second time to the beach. I was a little too busy trying to comfort her the first time to get any pictures:) By this time she would play in the sand but NO CHANCE she was going in that water!! That's why she's in her little bikini...now a more experienced surf swimmer she wears her one-piece...guess why!

Just a close up of Julia's first that I couldn't figure out how to delete once I came across the one with Patrick.

Sigh....possibly our last time on Lido Beach for a long time. Taken this past December when the Robichaux's joined us on the beach. Little Arianna and Mari starting their castle!

What our beaches look like in the mid-west :)!!!

Then again, there is the indoor waterpark mecca in the Wisconsin Dells. Here Mari is celebrating with her 'brother' Benjamin on the occasion of their 10th birthdays. Babies Tatilu and Boris were together for two years in the Salgado's loving care and then within a couple of months were adopted to families living less than two hours apart!

Tutorial

The morning after update. Okay, I just reread that and I better not be saying that for her again for MANY years!!:) Anyhow, after a comedy act trying to unroll (which takes two hands) while trying to take pictures (which works best with two hands!) and trying to edit last night's post by putting this below but not getting Blogger to let me move the uploaded photos down here is the final steps...before the beginning...typical for us!! I would need to have movie mode on for you to see the unwinding motion used to avoid 'snagging' the curler in the hair! Just imagine as you are holding the curler that you are drawing circles on the ceiling as you snap your wrist. In this shot where I was letting Mari unroll so I could work the camera I caught a big NO NO! Don't just pull down hard on the curler!! Besides ending up knotted in the hair it also over stretches the hair.

After all the curlers are out you then go back and slide your finger into the curls and rebrush them around your finger. This gets rid of 'frizzies' and helps them lay as discreet ringlets.

See how neatly it comes back after a quick brush around the finger???

Now if you do not want 'ringlets' but a nice fluffy do you can separate the ringlets by sticking your finger through the curl and sliding it down to isolate out a smaller strand and then brush around your finger!

So she's a tweener! As should be expected she changed her mind and decided to go with a curly pony. This is how much curl we got with NO gel/spray or any other product when rolling a really dirty/oily head. You should use something when rolling to help hold the curl through a toddler's bouncing and dancing. Just remember to keep saying as you wipe it on the strands before rolling "A LITTLE DAB WILL DO YOU" because LESS is better!!!! Too much and the hair won't dry or may dry too 'crunchy' and not bounce well while dancing. Side view of the finished pony which in a couple of hours will be stick straight again because she's off with the gang to go to a Wisconsin Dells waterpark resort.

Part One:

Sorry to my other readers but this post is for my honorary grandbabies in New Orleans who have their first dance recital coming up soon! Since I can't seem to get my e-mail to hold all of these photos as well as the narrative I'm posting it here so their Mommy can get a practice or two in before the big day. So for those of you who have no intention of ever subjecting your daughters to the 'joys' of curlers or who have been there, done that now is the time to duck out and miss the boring tutorial. Now Mommy, here it is..... I know, not the best shot but this shows how to use the 'rat tail' end of the comb to slide down the scalp to section out a 'chunk' of hair. The smaller the chunk of hair and the more tightly you roll the tighter/kinkier the curl! So since Mari, our gracious model, decided that since I was rolling 'a couple' of curlers for the photo shoot she might as well get a full do, hers are BIG chunks which I rolled loosely for a softer less curly final outcome.

To avoid wonky ends I use papers to contain the ends of the hair. These are especially useful around the face where the uneven wisps can make rolling very frustrating!

With the rectangular paper turned so that the length runs parallel to the strands of hair I place it behind the chunk to be rolled about halfway up.

I then fold it over the chunk and SLOWLY slide it down the hair until the bottom edge of the paper just reaches the bottom ends of the hair.

Then holding the curler horizontally....parallel to the floor... I lay the papered end OVER the curler and start rolling away from me which would also be towards their head.

About mid-way up the strand I slowly start turning the curler with every turn until the curler is now vertical...perpendicular to the floor. Honestly, it's like writing right or left handed in that the direction you turn the curler (foam pointing up or foam pointing down) is a matter of natural comfort. The only consideration is do you want the curls to rotate towards the face or away from the face? In this picture the curl will end up facing Mari's face which looks better when wearing a headband as she is planning but when pinning up or placing a topknot it is often neater to have the curl turn away from the face. I don't think it matters that much for a tot recital but just thrown out there FYI.

I usually do a slightly modified perm-roll in that I do not roll the top of the head back because we do not like the extra POUF it gives. I usually end up with two rows going around the head like this but if you are doing it with part pulled up into a bow you might want to pull that part up before rolling and place curlers in the pony separately.

Super clean hair usually does NOT take the best curl! If they resist sleeping in the curlers then you can add a little mouse/gel, roll it with a curling iron and while still warm quickly roll as above. If they will sleep in the curlers then remember to roll while 90-100% DRY!!!! If you roll wet it runs the risk of not drying out all the way into the ends for long hair and a tiny bit of moisture, a HINT of moisture, just slightly moist hair will take a great curl. Call if I've missed anything.

Oh yeah!!! I'll try to take more shots of how to UNROLL without creating frizz and how to split big/fat cirls to get several smaller ones tomorrow when we undo Mari's do.