Palm Sunday :: God You Reign

Today is Palm Sunday and I've always loved Palm Sunday, because growing up in a Catholic Church, we always got palm leaves when we walked in the door and that means we had something to play with during mass!  And sword fight with afterwards!  :)  It was awesome.

Today, the kids got to get up and sign during worship.  They sang God You Reign and waved around palm branches.  Palm branches that symbolized the palms that were waved in the air and lain down on the road in front of Jesus as he made His way into Jerusalem with a crowd all along the road shouting, "Hosanna!  Hosanna in the Highest!"  And then just 5 days later, those same people were in the crowd shouting "Crucify Him!"  Such fickle people we are, but Jesus chose to give up His life to save us, despite us.  Such blessed people we are.

Jayden and Willow were so darn cute.  They both picked out their clothes this morning, and obviously someone forgot to inform me that today was argyle day!  During the first service, because of the snow storm last night, there was hardly anybody there, so I got a front row seat to take their pictures.  :)

During the 2nd service, the kids weren't so excited to have to stay and sing again.  So I bribed them with lunch out, but you can tell by their faces, it just wasn't so fun this time.  :) There were lots more kids on stage this time, because way more people showed up for 2nd service, so I ended up in the back, but they managed to stack Jayden and Willow right in front of each other, so picture-wise it worked out better for me.  :)  So what if I had to stand on a chair in the very back row with my super zoom lens to get a picture, and was blocking the sound tech guys behind me.  I'll do whatever I have to to get a picture.  :)

I know this one's a bit blurry, but it is so cute!

Fairy Tale Creatures

Today we are heading to a birthday party where the kids can come dressed as fairy tale characters if they want.  Willow had no problem deciding what she was going to go as and promptly got dressed up as Cinderella.

Jayden we had a little more trouble with.  He wanted to be a turtle ninja, but I was not willing to go out and buy a costume, I told him we needed to work with what we had at home in our dress up bin.  So, I suggested using his black batman costume and turning it into a ninja costume.  That was great until he discovered it had a batman symbol on the chest and then that was out, and he just didn't have any other ideas.  So, I suggested we make him a king and create a crown and he could wear the metallic cape that we have.  No, he said if he was going to be a king then he wanted to be King Candy.  I said we didn't have the supplies around the house for that.  So, I suggested Captain Hook.  Jayden has an awesome pirate costume and we could create a hook out of foil and cardboard.  At this, Jayden declared he wasn't going to the party and went stomping out of the room.  I told him it was ok to go to the party as himself, and that he was going with or without a costume.  He threw a silent fit and decided he wasn't going to be talking to us.  Then 30 minutes before the party he comes out with this note he had stuck to his door.

His costume idea.  He decided he wanted to be Marahute, the great golden eagle from the Rescuers Down Under (look how happy he is in his costume.  ;) ), and he wanted to make the feathers from foil.  I said we didn't have any golden foil, but if he could settle with silver, then we could attempt it.  So that's what we did.  A little aluminum foil and some packing tape and Jayden is the happiest eagle around.

He has also decided that his feathers are also sharp like ninja knifes, so he's practically a ninja eagle.  Works for me.  :)

March Madness '13!

Well, it's March again, and that means excessive basketball for Royal and me wondering how again my bracket could of done so badly.  Oh right, that's because I don't follow basketball and I choose based off of random variables like mascots, and school location, and funny names.  This year, I had extra help from Jayden who had an opinion about who should and shouldn't win, so let's get to it shall we????  (I am including Royal's bracket because he has decided he wants his immortalized on my blog too!  And who wouldn't????  This is obviously the place to be!)

I shall start in the Mid-west bracket.  Here I have no big surprises or upsets, which is usually how my first corner of the bracket turns out.  I am too persuaded by their seedings to find anything funny about them.  But I do have #3Michigan St losing to #6Memphis, because Memphis' mascot is a tiger, while Michigan is a spartan, and according to Jayden a tiger would rip a spartan to shreds, so there you go - I totally dig his methodology.  And I have #10Cincinnati beating #7Creighton, because I think Creighton is a stupid name and it's in Nebraska and I looked and the best thing to do in Omaha, Nebraska is visit the zoo.  That also happens to be the best thing to do in Wichita.  Puts it right up there on my lame list!  Although, I do love a good zoo.  :)

Moving onto the West bracket!  I have Gonzaga pulling all the way thru and winning the West, obviously because they are a Washington team, there's just no need to have another reason, although Gonzaga's mascot is a bulldog and my first elementary school, Bourdeaux's mascot was also a Bulldog.  Coincidence?  I think not!  I have #5Wisconsin beating #4Kansas St, because Wisconsin makes me think of cheese and I sure do love a good fondue! Mmmm fondue....

Alrighty, then!  The South bracket.  I have my first 12-5 upset pick here.  #12Akron is going to beat #5VCU.  I had never heard of either of those teams before, so I consulted my basketball detail guru, Royal, and he informed me that Akron's mascot is the zips.  The zips!  I didn't even hear the rest of the details because who has a mascot of a zip?  What is that?  A zipper?  A zip code?  So, I consulted wikipedia!  Their mascot is a zipper, which were rubber overshoes in the 20's.  What the???  Well, I just thought that was hilarious, so I not only have them winning their first round game, but their 2nd round as well.  The Zips....hilarious.   I do have Akron being beat by Kansas, who goes on to win the South Region.  I was conflicted about this, because it was Kansas after all, but I guess this state is growing on me, even if their mascot is a silly little bird with tennis shoes and people yell things like "Rock Chalk Jayhawk, KU", which I've never quite figured out what that is suppose to mean.  But after researching wikipedia one more time, I discovered it was basically started by people yelling "Rah, Rah, Jayhawk, KU" and I'm guessing over time the "telephone game" had an effect and people though "Rah, Rah" must of been "Rock Chalk"  I don't know, it's Kansas, people, where magically by crossing over the state lines of Kansas, the Arkansas River is now pronouced, "Arrrrr-Kansas", like people here are part pirate or something....

And now, finally, in the East.  My other 12-5 upset is going to happen.  #12California is going to beat #5UNLV, because well I'd rather go to California than Las Vegas.  #6Butler will also beat #3Marquette, because I'd much rather have a Butler than play croquette (which is what the word Marquette reminds me of)  #4Syracuse is also going to beat #1Indiana, because I'm sure by now, you all know of my love of creamsicles (remember, Syracuse's colors are orange and white, which make me think of creamsicles....I'm not sure why I feel the need to explain this every year, because I'm guessing everybody feels the same way I do, right?!?!)   In the end I have #2Miami beating Syracuse to win the East Region because holy cow are my feet cold, and sticking my feet in some warm sand on a Miami beach sounds so good right now!

Ok, now to sum up.  My Semifinal matchups :
Matchup #1 : #2Miami vs #1Kansas
Matchup #2 : #2Duke vs #1Gonzaga
In Matchup #2, it was a tough decision.  My favorite Duke sweatshirt vs a Washington team.  In the end I decided my sweatshirt would one day be tattered and worn and I'd have to throw it out.  Washington will always be AWESOME!  Matchup #1 I decided it would be funner to have my former home state vs my current home state.  Kansas vs Gonzaga, in which Gonzaga will show Kansas just how awesome Washington really is!

And that leaves Gonzaga as my National Champtions!  Woot Woot!  Another great year of Rad Rachel's Brilliant Bracketology!  If you want to check out previous years 2012 2011 2010 2009 2008

Good luck, Suckas!

Lovely Days

One of the perks of living in Kansas is sometimes the schizophrenic weather is awesome.   You get a random 80 degree day in the middle of what should be a cold winter and for me, it just gives me enough hope that my freezing cold feet might one day be warm again.  Although, it then starts warming up and doesn't stop until it's unbearably hot, but let's not go there yet....

We have had lots of outdoor time, and even managed to get our faces sun-kissed.  :)  I thought one night I might be running a fever since my cheeks were flushed and I felt hot.  Turns out, I was just sunburned....  :)

This is Willow's "take my picture, I have really funny faces!".

On Friday, I decided to do a stadium workout with one of my friends at WSU.  Normally, the kids go stay in Royal's office which is right on the WSU campus, but Royal was busy so I brought the kids with me and packed them water and their DS's and a blanket for them to sit on.  Silly me, they didn't sit down unless they were drinking their water.  Glad I made them put on good shoes in the morning!  They ended up doing 5 or so stadium stairs (Willow normally just went half way up because she'd start getting scared how high she was, but still....) and they both ran 4-6 laps around the track.  It was impressive!

I thought for sure these crazy kids were totally spent, but no, we got in the car to, according to my plan, go home and fix lunch and take naps, but the kids wanted to go to the zoo.  So, off to the zoo we went and we walked around there.  I thought for sure they would be ready to rest, and according to my plan, we were heading home to wash hands, get big drinks of water, and naps, but no, our neighbor kids were out and the kids wanted to play with them, so I said, "ok, 30 minutes, then we rest".  An hour later, I finally drag the kids inside for rest time.  Neither of them rested.  And then they stayed up until almost 10 at night.  They are crazy, these kids of mine...

Don't get to jealous of our nice weather quite yet.  We have all kind of things in store for next week.  50 degrees and sunny, windy, a day of rain, and perhaps a day of snow.  Lucky, we are.

A New Zoo

After an early morning 8 mile run in 17 degree weather, I came home and declared that I was not sitting around in the house all day, with kids who complained about being bored unless they are watching TV or playing video games!  So, I told Royal we were going to go to Kansas City and for him to find something for us to do while I took the hottest shower imaginable to remove my body from the ice cube it had become during my run.  (is it too early to be hoping for an 80 degree day??? or just for the snow to finish melting so I can start working on my garden???)

Royal suggested that we check out the Kansas City Zoo - because if you know us, we love zoos! - they had some animals there that we don't have at ours, like polar bears and Jayden's favorite animal of all time, cheetahs, so after some whining and complaining from the kids, mostly Jayden about not wanting to go and just wanting to stay home and watch TV, I told him that he was coming no matter what, but if he didn't want to go to the zoo that was fine with me, I'd prefer to go shopping anyway, and we could just do that.  I'm pretty sure I saw a look of panic cross Royal's face at the idea of me and our money and a whole day of nothing but shopping, so I'm sure he was quite relieved when Jayden gave up his stance on "going is stupid".

We ended up getting to the zoo just in time for their show Close Encounters with Animals.  We got front row seats (nobody goes to the zoo when there is still feet of snow on the ground) and got to see a Rainbow Boa, an American Alligator, and Walter the Radiated Tortoise.  Walter is special because he came to do the zoo, from a private donor, with an infected tail, and they couldn't get the tail to heal because he kept sitting on his tail, reopening his wound and getting it reinfected.  So, they put Walter on wheels, so he sits high enough off the ground that he didn't crush his tail anymore.  It looked pretty hilarious, but he scoots around just fine.

Willow also got brave and went down front to pet the snake and the alligator.

Then we moved onto the Polar Bears, who were loving all the snow and swimming in their pool.  I'm pretty sure I could of sat there and watched them all day.

Lots of the animals weren't on display because of how cold and snowy it still is here, but there were enough exhibits open to keep us entertained.

This is Jayden's "Oh my gosh!  Did you see that porcupine in there???"

Yes, yes I did.

Willow made "friends" with this bird.  It kind of went crazy when Willow came up to check it out.  It started screeching at her and trying to claw her with one of it's feet.  Willow thought it was hilarious.

We then walked into Africa to check out the cheetahs.  Luckily they were outside!

On our way back out of Africa, Willow got snow down her boots and decided she'd rather be barefoot.  I was freezing, but she insisted she was just fine!

One of the last things we did was watch a sea lion show.

For the most part, it's a pretty awesome zoo, but it is spread out and you have to walk a ton without lots to look at.  At our zoo, there is lots of walking, but all the animals are pretty close together.  We plan on going back in the spring around Jayden's birthday since he wants to do the Great Wolf Lodge for his birthday again (shocking, I know!) so we figure we'll go to the zoo again then.  It should be much warmer and all the animals should be out!

Science :: Making Mixtures

Jayden and I have been talking about matter and how matter can change in his Science lessons.  Today, we did a science experiment with creating mixtures with solids and liquids.

Experiment #1 : Liquid and Solids (water & Emergen-C)
Jayden predicted the solids would sink right to the bottom.

He was quite surprised when they dissolved and became a liquid themselves.  (it's like he hasn't seen me drink Emergen-C all winter!)

Experiment #2 : Liquid and Liquid (water & food coloring)
Jayden predicted the liquids would just mix together.

Correct!

Experiment #3 : Liquid and Liquid (water & oil)Jayden predicted the liquids would mix together.

He discovered oil would not mix into the water, no matter how much you stirred or turned the water different colors!

Still Snowy

The sun is back out!  In fact, my face got sunburned yesterday while I was out shoveling snow off the driveway!  And the wind, too (boooo)  Although it's still super cold outside, a lot of our 20+ inches of snow has melted and the roads are mostly dry. but let's be honest here, I really haven't left the house in days, so I have no idea what the roads look like outside our culdesac.

We have little A with us today and she is an outside kind of girl.  She gets all giggly and pumps her legs at the sight of the door opening, and she spends a lot of her time here holding herself up by a window and looking outside.  So, today I busted out Jayden's old fleece camo onesie, complete with foot and hand coverings (so much easier than fighting gloves, removable hats, and getting this girls feet in shoes!) and we headed outside.  Jayden and Willow both took turns pushing A up and down the street in our car.

But don't worry, there is still lots of snow to play in - granted it's kind of crunchy, icy snow now, but still snow!
Jayden's fort has melted quite a bit.

But there are other piles to go jumping in!