HOT lunch

Giving HOT lunch a whole, new meaning :)

Lulu: "Mama, can I?"

Mama: "hm ... why not!"

 ... makes washing up after lunch so much easier :)

Ed's eyes following every, single piece of hot dog ...

Dork: "Oh if I only had one, itty, bitty, tiny piece of it. Just one!! I'll just sit here and wait and STARE!!!"

I HEART ...

... Darth reading Wonder Woman. 

One must always keep up with todays Super Hero Competitors!

Kissing Darthy

"Good night my dear evil guy!"

I HEART ...

... SKIPPING SCHOOL

My Lulu has not been wanting to go to school this week.

On Monday we FORGOT???
I am not sure what that happened there.
I was preparing materials for my PTA presentation and had to send a few emails and I kept thinking  "hm ... I am forgetting something???!!"
At 1:45 PM I realized that what I had forgotten was to drop off Lulu at school ... duuuuhhhhh!

Yesterday I told her " ... time to go to school ..." and she just gave me a HUGE hug, kissed me, told me she LOVES me and said "Can I PLEEEAAAASE stay with you today?!"
I totally fell for it :)

So instead of circle time (which she hates :) we skipped together to my Dr's appointment, picked up L from school and had a LONG play-date at the park with ls friends from school.

Pat said:
 "What? Are we just not going to school anymore?"
... and I could hear he was not too pleased ;(

My answer was simple:
"Look. This is my LAST year with Lulu at home. My last year where she will not get a Tardy Card or is required to be present.
My last year of just doing what we want and hanging out.
My last year (really just months) before she too will go to Elementary school and we'll have home work, reading tests, spelling tests .... and no more time for SKIPPING SCHOOL.
So we'll skip school as much as we want to NOW ... because now is the time!"

.... so we SKIPPED school and had SO MUCH FUN doing it!!!!

I LOVE MY Ls!!!

Handmade with Love

Oh my "Judy" (the mechanical one :) has been calling my name for so long I couldn't ignore her any longer!

So this week I worked on a few b-day projects and this is the one I can reveal (since it's completed :)

L is invited to a b-day party by one of her class mates. 

Since we don't know much about the young lady we had to come up with a more neutral gift.

I had just chatted with a friend about the LOST art of letter writing and how much fun it was to receive letters, small packages and how much more fun it was to send something back and then to wait for ... MAIL.

In one of my favorite books I found instructions for this Letter Pouch and was all over it.

L wrote the girls name on some linen and helped embroider it.

We chose some nice fabric out of my HUGE stash and ...

et voila ... 

A Personalized Letter Pouch 

for Mrs. Ashley's 7th B-Day

We made hand-made stationary (potato print hearts), added envelopes and a few stamps. 

We went to Target and got a pink "Heart Pen" (thank you Target for selling V-Day items in the dollar section) and some glitter heart stickers.

L wrote a sweet, little note ...

And for $3 (plus tax) and some laying around material we made a pretty awesome gift (at least I think so).

We love this pouch so much that I was ordered to make more for other friends. 

My order states two matching Star Wars pouches, two pink/purple pouches and one with animals. 

I wish I'd get paid for this stuff :) but I totally love the idea of the kids writing to each other.

So tomorrow I'll be hanging out with Judy (again the mechanical one) to make some more of these little guys ...

{this moment}

I HEART Transformer Bums :)

Lulu's comment of the day

On the way home in the car...

L: Mama, what did the Doctor say? Did he say no more sugar for Lucy?
M: No. But maybe it's good to cut down on it for a little while.
M: Yes Lulu, no more sugar for you, it makes you crazy. NO MORE SNEAKING CANDY!
L: I DID NOT SNEAK CANDY!!! (in a VERY upset tone)
.... anyways, the bowl is way too high up on the microwave. Even when I used the chair I could not reach it and in the fridge is only the chocolate that I don't like. See I could not sneak .... you mean tattle sister girl you!
M: ... smiling silently thinking " this HAS to go on the blog for sure!"

Conversations like this make labor so worth it!!!

Welcome 2012!!!

May the New Year bring you all that you wish for, long for and dream of but mostly may it bring you health, love and joy!

Over the last few months I followed a sweet 30-something year old mom of two via her blog into heaven.

I read the last words she could write herself and then her moms reports of the last days and moments.
She was a wife, a daughter and most of all a mom to two girls, as old as the Ls.

One of my first blogger moms I ever followed lost her baby the same time we did, prior to that she lost her dad very unexpectedly, she then thought she was pregnant again but it turned out to be a huge tumor in her abdomen and today she has tumors throughout her body and is undergoing a severe course of chemo to fight for her life.
She has a 4 year old girl, as old as Lulu.

Following these ladies and reading their daily posts about life AND death had made a huge impact on me.

All I want from this new year is a healthy family, health for all of our families, health for all of our friends and everybody we know.

Riches do not matter, things do not matter, location does not matter - everything can be dealt with as long as we don't have to worry about if we will be still here tomorrow.

If I can be with all who I love and care about in 2012, if we do not have to endure major illness or worse I'll be happy and very grateful!

We have everything we need and more.
We are happy and healthy and that will be our focus for 2012.

We will celebrate!
Celebrate friends and love, health and everything else.

A VERY dear friend will finish a long treatment.
5 years of treatments and worries will END soon and I can not wait to have a HUGE party for YOU :)

In 2012 we will:

Be happy!
Be healthy!

... and maybe finish some unfinished business that has been on our minds, has made our hearts heavy and followed us throughout the nights into sleep and dreams.

In 2012 we will

More about this can be found here.

Wishing you all the best and hoping you will follow us and Choose Joy too!

We started it right ... 

Jumping for Joy :)

Happy New Year!