The McClelland Family

OOO (out of order) but I had to share it…

We’re back from the vacation of a lifetime and I have so many stories and pictures to share that  it’ll keep my blogging through the end of August!  If I were responsible/organized/on top of things/displaying self control, I wouldn’t have already blasted facebook with a trillion and one out-of-order pictures.  If I were wise/mature/possessing an iota of self-restraint, I would blog chronologically about our trip, starting with the flight, then Disneyworld, Easter, the beach, and finally the wedding.

But I’m not all those things.  Instead, I’m the type who’s going to save all of the story telling for later and share a few princess pictures with you now because they make me smile (something that’s desperately needed when you’re suffering from the post-vacation blues).

When two 3 year old girls meet their idols, it’s magic.  I only wish I could capture the true essence of the moment on film, but it’s forever captured in my heart.

That’s what she said. (vol. 1, Feb-March 2012)

2/27/12

Lila:  “I’m all done with my dinner.  My tummy liked it.  She says thank you.  My tummy is a girl and her name is Reddy Lucky.”

3/19/12

Mommy:  “Mary, how was your day at Grandma’s house?”

Mary:  “Well, we didn’t go to Starbucks.”

3/20/12

Mommy:  (trying to crank out 24 report card comments on the couch in one evening) “What should I write on Charlie’s report card comment?  Charlie is good at…”

Mary: “Charlie is good at drawing.  He is good at going potty and washing his hands.  He sits in chairs.  He reads and talks.  He plays with his mommy.”

Lila:  “He says things.  And does things.”

Is it April yet?

I get asked that question… “Is it April yet?”  several times a day.  We’re going to Florida in April for a 2-part trip…first to Disneyworld and then to St. Pete for Jacob and Becca’s wedding.  Mary and Lila know about the trip and they know that it’s happening in April.  But do they understand the concept of a month?  Do they know what month it is right now?  Do they know when April is?  Clearly not.  Just this afternoon as I was helping them get ready for swimming lessons, I was asked, “Is it April and we’re going to Florida in our bathing suits today?”

Haha!  I wish.

But seriously.

Is it April yet?

….

As we countdown the days to our vacation, Belle and Rapunzel (or Tiana and Sleeping Beauty, depends on the mood) are keeping themselves busy.  They’re getting antsy from all this rain and often tell me, “I just want to go play in my backyard!”  (or, as Mary says, “I want to go play in Lila’s backyard…”–I’m not sure when it was decided that the yard belonged to Lila?).  This afternoon they both pointed out, “It’s not raining!  It’s not raining!  Can we go outside?”  Yes, little weather watchers, we can.  We can go outside and vandalize the concrete with sidewalk chalk because the pouring rains are sure to return within a few hours and wash it all away.

When the laundry piles up…

…you could wash it, fold it, and put it away.

Or, you could say screw it and take your 3 year-olds to the grocery store, buy M&Ms and green frosting, and use St. Patrick’s Day as an excuse to make and decorate cookies.

So, essentially, we just contributed to the mess in our house and ate lots of sugar.

Responsible?  Maybe not.  But definitely fun.  And as we approach the end of a crazy-as-usual work week filled with report cards, meetings, and rushing to finish up a math and science unit and a writing assessment before the end of the trimester, a little sugar definitely sweetened my mood.

As I watched the girls painstakingly place M&Ms on the cookies I saw that they were trying to create actual patterns and shapes.  They were so intentional and focused and the cookies actually look like cookies you’d want to eat!  I had a flashback to a Christmas cookie decorating party at a friend’s house in December of 2010…blobs of frosting piled 3 inches high on one cookie, half a jar of red sprinkles on another cookie, and Mary even found some carrot slices at the snack table and used them to decorate a cookie.  Talk about progress!

Can you feel it?

Spring is just…

around…

the corner!

(even though we’re still wearing fleeces and scarves!)

This last picture cracks me up…we were at Target on Sunday and I let each of the girls pick out a new toy.  They both chose these Water Fairies.  Lila’s is a Ballerina Water Fairy, but in this picture she looks more like a Kung Fu Water Fairy!  And Mary’s Water Fairy “needs” to have me do her hair multiple times a day and if I don’t get it “just perfect” a certain someone pitches a fit.

The Nothing Days.

Sometimes the more there is to blog about, the less I blog.  I’m not sure why…I feel overwhelmed by the enormity of the task?  So much is going on that I don’t have time to write about it?  Or (and this is my leading theory)…sometimes, a blog post feels more like a required assignment than something I’m choosing to do just because I enjoy it.  That would explain the Christmas 2011 posts that have yet to be composed, or the Halloween post I threw together in December.

I find that I’m the most inspired to blog when there’s not much of anything to blog about.  Maybe it’s because the less there is to do, the more I relax and live in the moment.  Magic seems to happen in the moment.  Take yesterday.  Yesterday was my last day of vacation (I had a week off for mid-winter break) and we had no plans.  You might call it a “nothing day.”  A segment about ballet on Sesame Street resulted in Mary and Lila getting dressed up in ballerina clothes.  Kevin put on some Chopin and the girls danced around the house.  That evolved into a lively game of “freeze” (I play the piano while Mary and Lila run laps around the family room, and whenever I stop playing they have to freeze).  Something about wearing leotards and tutus turned regular snack time into a ballerina tea party on mommy and daddy’s bed, which then led to jumping on the bed.  Finally the rain/snow flurries stopped and the sun came out so we all walked to our neighborhood cafe for coffee & crepes for the grownups and cookies & milk for the girls.  I like these kinds of days…the days when nothing unfurls into something.  Something small, yet wonderful and authentic.  Magic created in the moment.

Then there’s the Big Things.  Christmas, birthday parties, pumpkin patches, Father’s Day…of course they happen.  We celebrate and participate and decorate and commemorate to the fullest (and then recuperate).  The Big Things are exciting and memorable and special.  We create traditions and I take tons of photos and want to write down all the things to remember forever.  But sometimes the whole “writing it down to remember forever” part becomes too daunting of a task and I procrastinate.  I am a master procrastinator, by the way.

It’s the Nothing Days where I find my inspiration.  The days that lack celebration or grandeur, the days with no schedule or timeline, the days without a gathering of family or friends to witness our adventures, the days that require no planning or foresight…these are the nothing days.  And it’s these real, everyday, insignificant Nothing Days that I think I want to remember the most.

My Valentines

A parent brought 20 helium balloons to my 3rd grade class Valentine’s Day party today and didn’t want to take them back home with her.  Luckily I know a few girls who l.o.v.e balloons!

We played with balloons this afternoon, then made pizza (Mary put on the cheese and “macaroni”…aka pepperoni and Lila did the green peppers and olives).  After dinner we gave the girls their gifts.  They each got a bag with some M&Ms, stickers, a new box of crayons, and a new Disney DVD (Cinderella for Mary, The Little Mermaid for Lila).  Then we went out for ice cream at Baskin Robbins.  Mary and Lila have talked about this plan for two days and all along Mary was going to order strawberry ice cream and Lila wanted vanilla.  That’s what they got, but I guess Lila’s vanilla looked really good to Mary because about 1/4 of the way through her cone she said she was sad and wanted vanilla.  And Lila, being the sweet sister she is, said, “Okay, my stister can have my ice cream and I can have hers.”  And with that, they traded.  And ate.  And then about 5 minutes after that, Lila wanted to trade back but of course Mary didn’t…so Lila let out a loud scream, which convinced Mary she meant business.  So they traded back again.  Talk about learning to share!  When we got home we all snuggled on the couch and watched Cinderella.  Mary and Lila loved the mice and the birds, and they didn’t understand (and were very sad!) when the evil stepsisters ripped apart Cinderella’s dress.  Lila particularly loved the Fairy Godmother and has been saying, “Boppity boopity bip!”  (backwards, but cute).

So, Valentine’s Day has definitely evolved to be a family day for us.  Someday Kevin and I will be able to go out for a romantic dinner, but for now home is where it’s at.  And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

♥

The early bird gets the worm, so they’re asking a few days ahead of time… (since Valentines Day is on a Tuesday and the likelihood of mommy getting a blog post done that day when we’re already planning to make our own pizzas, go out for ice cream, and watch Cinderella is slim to none).

Faux Spring

The past 3 days have been beautifully sunny and warm (high 50s, which is pretty warm for Seattle in early February!).  I was home from work on Friday because Lila was sick on Thursday night and our dishwasher broke down so I needed to be here for the repair man.  For a day with a pretty dubious start, it turned out to be wonderful.  Lila seemed better mid-morning, the repair man arrived on the early end of the estimated 8am-noon time slot assigned to us by Sears, and the long-lost sun made an appearance.  I took the girls for a long walk through the neighborhood and we didn’t even have to wear jackets!  They were mesmerized by their shadows, which I guess they haven’t seen for awhile.  The good weather lasted all weekend and we got out every day to enjoy it.  We also took the girls to a fun birthday party on Saturday at a bouncy house…always a crowd pleaser!

It’s so bizarre that we went from 6 inches of snow in our yard 2 1/2 weeks ago to 60 degrees and dry this Saturday afternoon.  I loved our faux-spring weekend…and now I can’t wait for the real deal.

Yes, I still have a blog.

But I got a Kindle for Christmas and I’ve read 8 books since then.  I thought I was already addicted to reading, but now that I can purchase pretty much any book at the drop of a hat and have it downloaded in about 10 seconds flat?  Now I’m addicted.  It’s really not a bad addiction to have…

Case in point: other than a few episodes of Curious George with Mary and Lila and the new episode of Grey’s Anatomy this week, I haven’t really watched TV since Christmas.  But, I haven’t blogged either.  You win some, you lose some.

I have plenty of pictures and stories to share, and I plan to get to that all eventually, but for now I’ll leave you with a brief run-down of the last month before I go finish my current book:

-Kevin’s parents came the weekend before Christmas and we did lots of fun things with the girls (sledding, gingerbread houses, Christmas movie).  This was definitely the most fun Christmas we’ve had with them yet because they really understood everything this year.

-Mary and Lila love the idea of Santa but are terrified of him in person.

-Mary and Lila have rechristened themselves Rapunzel and Belle.  They also sometimes go by Ariel and Sleeping Beauty.  In other words, Christmas 2011 was sponsored by Disney.

-My parents bought my brother Andrew a new pug for Christmas.  He named him Clyde and that dog is so freakin’ cute!  Lila got particularly attached to Clyde when we stayed at my parents house for Christmas, and about once a day she’ll randomly say, “I miss that cute little doggie named Clyde.”

-I went wild with my hair again and got bangs on New Years Eve!  I love them.  Mary and Lila were a little less thrilled, but one of my students wrote me a note on the first day back from break that said I was the prettiest teacher she had ever had.  So, I say bangs are a win!  And experimenting is a win.  After having had the same hair for years, in the past year I’ve gone straight, then red, and now bangs and I love the change.

-Mary and Lila have been to the doctor a collective 5 times in the past month.  Sinus infection.  What we thought was another sinus infection.  Pneumonia.  Ear infection.  Allergic reaction to penicillin on Christmas Day (that was a fun one!).  Other than Lila’s lingering cough, they are healthy again just in time to go back to preschool and catch the plague.

-I have lots of fun plans for 2012.  I’m not calling them resolutions because that word sounds more like work than fun!  Off the top of my head, here are three of them:  go on a hot air balloon ride (never have!), run a sub-7 minute mile (current average pace 8:30), and buy a pair of red shoes (no explanation needed).

-My children are the cutest, funniest, silliest, most precious things to ever walk this earth.  My husband loves me unconditionally.  I am damn lucky to be living this life!  

Happy New Year!