Another Friday, another blog post. This time is not so fun. Abby's got the " Fro-ups."

Of course it's never fun to have puking in the house, but even less fun is puking with the youngest, most inexperience kid. She has no aim, she's scared of puking, and her coping mechanism is to run around scared while she's puking.

Aren't you glad you're reading this?

But here's a funny story.

The big girls are off at school, and she'd gone more than an hour without incident. So I thought we might be OK. (Spoiler alert - we weren't!) My coffee was kicking in with an energy burst, I have my 3rd load of laundry running, so I thought - hey, why not clean the bathrooms as long as we're stuck at home and I have energy?

Then, I had a second brainstorm. HEY! I got new running shoes yesterday - I should wear them here in the house to make sure they feel good before I take them to the gym tomorrow!

(Insert visual of me excitedly lacing up my new shoes.)

I came downstairs, checked to see that Abby was still fine, and set about gathering my supplies. Abby came over and clung to my leg, whining about wanting food. I explained again that any food would make her have more 'fro-ups' and picked her up to give her a hug and take her back to the couch.

And then she puked. On me. And I'm only slightly ashamed to admit that I tossed her out of my arms, toward her bowl, shouting "IN THE BOWL, ABBY! IN THE BOWL!" while I assessed the damage to my BRAND NEW SHOES!

The shoes miraculously escaped the mess. The rest of my kitchen floor was not so lucky.

As I was cleaning up, she shouted "I NEED TO PEE!"(relieved that she's not so dehydrated that she can't pee) so we ran to the bathroom, where we discovered she had some mess on the legs of her jammies. She was sad to have to switch jammies (for the 4th time today) and I said, "See, Abby, that's why you have to put your throw ups in the bowl, then it's not so messy!" Her eyes lit up, and she said in amazement, "Mommy, that's a GREAT idea!"

So, we'll see what the rest of the day brings. Maybe by the end of today she'll have expert skills. I can only hope!

Nothing like a day at home to jump start the blog again. Certainly I could write every day - but where would the excitement be in that?

Today was a scheduled day off for the big girls - end of the quarter. It also ended up to be a semi-snow day. So we decided to stay home and just enjoy it. The girl got "dressed" in jammies and we spent the day doing fun things at home.

First, they watched TV while I took a shower.

Then we declared it was "CRAZY HAIR DAY" - because Maggie had gone to bed with wet, uncombed hair last night and it was WILD! They asked for multiple pony-tails and I let them do the same to me. Abby resisted.

After all that hair-styling it was time for "CRAZY SNACK!" Who knew it could be so funny to mix teddy grahams, cinnamon toast crunch cereal AND granola bars in one bowl? CRAZY!
Next, they convinced me to open a project - they chose "bake and decorate animal cookies"
So we mixed the dough, cut the cookies, and watched them bake. And then it was a LONG time to wait before we could frost them!
But we weren't bored! The girls unloaded the dishwasher! Kit, Ruthie, and Rapunzel also entertained the girl quite a bit today.
We also ate lunch and then, wait for it, TOOK NAPS! Yes, all 4 of us slept for at least a little while this afternoon. Abby won by sleeping until after 4pm. I knew that the big girls were tired from school and activities, but I was shocked that they actually fell asleep! I did NOT complain though. Once everyone was up, it was time to PAINT!
The cookie project came with edible watercolors. The girls were in heaven! While they did that, I made yummy chocolate chip cookies (the animal cookies were NOT excellent)

While they were painting, I heard Katherine say something about a Cookie War and I jumped right in and said" NO WAR!" I thought they were going to throw cookies! She laughed and said, "No mommy, Cookie wars would be like Cupcake war on TV!" We decided that once Dad got home, he could be the judge of all the cookies.
Late afternoon TV watching and book reading.
After dinner, we had the competition. Chris decided that the girls won for creativity but I won for taste. I'll accept that!
After the competition we played LIFE (I won!) before opening a surprise package from Gram and Pop Pop. Recycled magazines from the Library! WOO-HOO!
After a thank you phone call to Gram and PopPop, and plenty of research from their magazines, it was finally time for bed.

It was a pretty great day, and I'm a pretty lucky mom that I was able to share it with these girls.

At the beginning of October, Katherine's class read the book I LOVE MY HAIR. It was their "book of the week" so they spent a lot of time with it. Ever since then, Katherine has been asking me, "When can I have lots of braids in my hair?"

I've always put it off, made up an excuse, or just said, "Not today."

But for the last week she has asked every day (instead of every 3rd since she first read the book!)

Tonight I told her we could try it.

I wasn't sure if she would be able to sit still long enough.

And I wasn't sure if my braiding skills would be up to the task.

But with a TV show to distract her, she made it 25 minutes with only mild squirming. And my hands managed to twist her slippery, fine hair into something resembling braids.

I had thought it would turn out ridiculous, and we'd have a good laugh at how silly it was.

But it was halfway decent and the beaming smile on her face made it all worth it!

We left it loose for bed tonight. But she did ask,

"Mommy, someday, do you think I could wear my fancy braids to school?"

"We'll see, Katherine, we'll see."

Our next celebration was FESTIVUS in Evanston. Actually, it was just a Christmas gathering that happened on the 23rd......but we decided to call it Festivus and have a little fun. We had the making of casseroles.......

The taking of naps......

The Festivus Pole! (Actually the roof snow-rake from our house)
Feats of strength ( Nora and Chris demonstrate how to control unruly kids at school)
The wearing of funny hats.....
The playing of PIT! ( a game everyone should experience at least once in their lives!)
And finally the reading of bedtime stories.
We had so much fun. It was a much later than usual return home for us (arriving at 10pm!) but absolutely worth it! Abby entertained us for the first 25 minutes of our ride home by singing whatever she could think of - trying to prevent herself from sleeping I think. Maggie and Katherine gave up as soon as the car started moving. It's always fun to spend day with family. Adding a holiday (real or not) made it even better!

It's our last day of Christmas vacation, so I think I still have time to post updates about our let 3 weeks of Christmas celebrations - even though it is technically 2012 already!

Way back on December 14, I helped in Katherine's classroom. The project was that each student would make a gingerbread house. It was amusing and MESSY! I came home with frosting in my hair and on my clothes, but it was a fun time!

That Friday, the girls had their Christmas concert. The pictures from their show didn't turn out - too far away. But Maggie's artwork was chosen for the program cover.......
and the videos worked.

Maggie

Katherine

After the concert, we finally finished decorating our tree. It took a week from the first flood to the final decorations. We've decided to take similar approach to un-decorating the tree. Hoping it will be out to the curb by the end of this week!

I think this picture was taken while I was at work.
On the 19th, I had a double whammy of a day. I spent the first part of the day with Katherine's class on a field trip to theMilwaukee Public Museum. I had a small group - just Katherine, Anja (L) and Lexi (R) but we hung out with 2 other groups so I spent the day counting 10 little girl heads.
Monday is free day at the museum, so it was very crowded. We had fun looking at the dinosaurs, the rain forest, and trying to catch butterflies. After lunch in a disgusting cafeteria (the cleaning crew used the same mop from the floor to wash the tables?) we got back to school just before 2.

I went right over to Maggie's class for "Craft day!" I was given hot glue gun and helped the kids make ornaments for 1 1/2 hours. (my fingers were too sticky for pictures) I do enjoy spending time at school - watching the girls with friends and teachers, but I was exhausted after that day!
The last day before break was Red/Green day. Katherine never needs an excuse for crazy fashion choices - she loved wearing her red striped tights and green shirt.