Life without a kitchen

Big shock to everyone, our kitchen floor is nowhere near being done!  Poor Jamie spent almost his entire break working sunup to sundown demolishing the many layers of flooring in the kitchen.  By the end of the week, everything was out of the kitchen, and they had the cement board installed.  Andy came for a visit, so Jamie and his buddies has a "guys weekend", and he got to unwind a little bit.

My poor kitchen

Maggie designed a floor board that faces
out into the basement ceiling now

Life without a kitchen has been less than fun.  I've been pretty crafty about planning meals for the slow-cooker or electric skillet, but trying to hand-wash everything in the bathtub without getting any solids down the pipe has been time-consuming and obnoxious.  There was a lot of house-cleaning this weekend...

Enough complaining, life is pretty great otherwise!  The girls are so hilarious, I just love them to pieces.

Being witches on our walk

Casting the sweetest spell

Without prompting, Maggie asked to put on "Show-Off Show"... which I think is a fashion show?

Fierce

The girls spent the night at Grandma's on Thursday, and Will was there too!  As always, the kids had an amazing time!

Play-doh creations 

Designer Maggie

So proud of her "Baby Bebop"

Tuckered out cousins

Jamie let Maggie play the claw game, assuming she would never win - but the kid's got talent!  Side note - I could floor my entire kitchen with stuffed animals twice over.  So much plush...

Winner winner chicken dinner

Here's some others from the past couple weeks:

When you let the girls paint while cooking,
and it gets really quiet...

Maggie on the set of "The Princess and
the Pea" for Jamie's school

Braiding Grandma's hair

Lice.

This was one of the worst weekends as a parent… we got an e-mail from Maggie’s school on Friday that one of the students had head lice.  Later found out that it’s one of her best buddies, and got some visual confirmation when she came home from school.  We spent Friday and Saturday treating her hair and then re-checking and re-checking… cleaned every possible thing that could be cleaned – I’m scared to see our water bill this quarter!  

All weekend - "get away from your sister!" and "Don't
touch her head!"

Sunday we decided to visit a “lice boutique” (gross, but really a brilliant business plan) to get all of us checked…  Thank goodness we did because Maggie still had 15 nits and one bug (thankfully the rest of us were clear).  They gave her the lice treatment, and also turned on Moana to occupy the girls.  It was pricey, but I would go back in a heart beat if this ever happens again – finally have some peace of mind!

The only person I know who would smile while
getting treated for lice

 Jamie and his Dad spent the rest of Sunday demolishing our kitchen floor!  I’ve hated the cracked, ugly tile since we moved in – so excited for the change, and so grateful for their hard and dusty work!  I’m hopeful that it will all get done this week, even though everyone I talk to tells me to plan on at least double the schedule. 

The girls and I escaped to Grammer and Pops’ for dinner, and the Rabines came too.  Lots of fun for the kids – just love how they entertain each other!

Playing cards.  They make up the rules.

Pops pelting the kids with snowballs

 Earlier last week we celebrated Uncle Jason’s birthday with dinner and cake!  Poor guy couldn’t get any space from the kids while eating cake and opening presents.

mmm... kid spit...

Adores her godfather

Pooped people in plaid

Valentines Day was kind of a downer this year since it fell on Ash Wednesday.  However, Maggie was thrilled to get her ashes at school, and sobbed hysterically when I washed them off at bath time.  

Our holy little preschooler

Grandma took the girls to Maggie’s preschool on Tuesday for their valentines party.  Apparently Evie was pretty timid and shy during story-time on the carpet, and Maggie held her hand and kept reassuring her – love these girls.

Maggie's class (plus Evie)

Shredding the slopes

We took the girls sledding on Sunday after church, such fun!  My body was definitely sore the next day, but we had a great time!

We started with sledding, then played on a very slippery playground, and then made a huge snowman.  Afterward we got some hot cocoa and then us girls all took a nap (while daddy graciously shoveled the driveway).

You forget how much fun sledding is!

Sledding with Daddy

Biggest snowman I've made in a while,
complete with a creepy mustache?

The construction crew

Loving the great outdoors

Maggie and Evie LOVE singing... like all. the. time.  Here's Maggie's "Months of the Year" song from school... followed by Evie's rendition:

Uncles make the best seats

Girls Night

Jamie had some of his buddies over last Saturday for a snobby beer tasting, so I took the girls on a girl-date!  We went downtown, had some pizza, dessert at Astoria, and then headed home for a bubble bath and movie in Mom and Dad’s bed – such luxury!  We had a great time, the girls were really well behaved and fun to be with!

Lovely conversations, such as, "saying toot is more polite
than saying fart"

These girls devoured a pizza!

Strolling the streets of Royal Oak

Maggie really wanted a picture by the lit-up tree

This is the life... if only they would make room for me!

In other news - Maggie is done with physical therapy – woo hoo!  We are supposed to keep working on some strengthening exercises, but it will be so nice to have our Monday evenings back to normal!  Evie also likes to work on exercises, like jumping!