Rock Chalk-- to the FINAL FOUR!!

We are just back from Omaha water park weekend with my family. The only downer was having to listen to KU hoops on the radio instead of watching TV. 59-57-- Waayyyyyy too close for comfort, especially when you can't see what's going on. But, a happy ending.
More details on the water park to come. I'm going to bed now!

Happy Easter!

Well, it's Good Friday and there's about six inches of heavy wet snow covering everything. I guess that makes for a good day to dye Easter eggs. Arts, crafts, and creative projects in general are NOT my thing, so I was dreading this, but it turned out to be pretty fun. I think Jerod and Elise are getting old enough that projects like this aren't quite as arduous as they used to be :)

We attended Maundy Thursday service at our church last night. They had a service that was designated 'especially for children.' They may reconsider doing that again after enduring our children! Evening is kind of a hard time of day for them, so they were pretty nuts. Thankfully, everyone else's kids seemed to be nuts too. Misery love company.

Elise's new favorite expression is 'You're FIRED!' As in Donald Trump on the apprentice. Uncle Matt and Aunt Donna have a Donald Trump doll that says it and Elise has adopted it as her catch phrase. Earnings must be down, because she's firing people right and left. Any time anyone does anything that she doesn't care for, she belts it out.

Beware of Green Glitter, Not Today, Let the Madness Begin

Some in this house (Jerod and Elise) are gearing up for St. Patrick's Day. Jerod has warned us many times to watch out for green glitter... leprechauns apparently leave it lying around when they've been tricking people. Others in the house (Chris and Anne) are winding down from St. Patrick's Day fun. We ran yesterday in the 'Irish for a Day 5k,' but 5k wasn't enough for my crazy husband. He had us do the 10 mile event. Despite a very cold start (about 24 degrees) and a few icy patches on the route, it was a good event. When Chris talked me into signing up for this, he promised we could take it at a nice leisurely pace, so we had a good run in the Lake Harriet/Lake Calhoun area of the city. Our official time was 1:30:31... so we were more than pleased with our leisurely pace :)

Today we took part in Palm Sunday festivities at church. Jerod sang in the childrens choir. It was super cute. Of course I didn't have the camera. Here's an interesting tidbit about this year's early Lent/Easter (taken from a church email):

The last time Easter was this early was 1913 and the next time will be the year 2228. It sometimes occurs even a day earlier, as it did in 1818 and will again in 2285. So, no one alive today has seen or will ever see Easter any earlier than this year!

Elise's phrase of the day is 'not today.' It goes like this:

Chris: Do you want some ketchup Elise?

Elise: Not today

or

Anne: Elise, it's time to go to your room for quite time

Elise: Not today

It's cute, kind of.

We just finished watching KU win the Big 12 tournament. Despite the fact that KU perennially underachieves in the Big Dance, this is still one of my favorite times of year. Lots of basketball and warmer temperatures... hard to beat in my book. Let the madness begin :)

Here's some video of Jerod's kung fu fighting.

Happy Wednesday

The bottom picture is an image of all that's required to make a transplanted Kansan feel happy in the Minnesota March... a clear driveway. It's been months since we've seen concrete! Other pictures are of our weekend trip to the Mall of America. Jerod's been begging to go for quite some time, and we finally got around to it. And no, we're not much for doing hair around here... we just roll out of bed :)
That has pretty much been the excitement for the week. I'm slowly coming to grips with the fact that Jerod's going to be turning six very soon. For some reason this week I've really been thinking about how much Jerod and Elise's relationship will change when he's in school next year. While they're definitely both ready for some changes, I'm a little sad that their days of spending so much time together are coming to an end. I need to lighten up!
Lastly, here's a video clip of Elise's favorite new activity. Horseback riding on a very small horse. Last night we were watching TV and she came riding into the living room on this thing, waved both hands and said, "So nice to see you!!!!" She is a hoot.

The New 'Helen Bed'

In case you haven't figured it out yet, let me go on record here and say that I am NOT a photographer. At any rate, here's a picture of Elise's new twin bed. It's a hand-me-down from Elise's buddy Helen, thus the name. You don't realize how much bigger a twin mattress is than a crib mattress until you put your kid in one. Little Elise makes the thing seem giant, but she managed to stay in it last night.

Big drama of the week is that Elise is having some aggression issues again. They always seem to be pointed at the same person, the daughter of some friends of ours. They straight up don't get along, and Elise's response to the situation is to hit, push and shove. Needless to say, it's creating a little tension for everyone. If anyone has advice to share on this situation, please do so!!! I don't care if the girls like each other or not, but I really need to find a way to get Elise in control.

On a more fun note: Chris and I were excited to find out yesterday that we get to run Grandma's half marathon in Duluth in June. They let 4500 people run the half marathon and the selection process is a lottery. We ran our first half marathon in Omaha last fall and are pumped to do another one.

Lastly, we have a fresh coat of snow today. Ugh... endless winter. I'm a big fan of daylight savings time, so I guess that will be my saving grace for now. At least it won't get dark so stinking early in the evening!