Picture Day at Preschool

What preschool do you know that charges a MINIMUM of $40.00 for school pictures??? I am hoping they turn out for that price!!

Full day of school + homework + a soccer game + dinner =

Yearly Reports

When we adopted Isabella 3 years ago, we promised the Vietnamese government that we would send reports about her development every 6 months. Once she turned 3, we would start sending them every year. We sent our last bi-annual one yesterday. WHOOO HOOOO!!! Here are the pictures I included:)
I guess all the different places in Vietnam want to make sure that 'their' children are being cared for. I think Isabella is pretty darn happy, don't you?? :)

Snow and wedding bells...

How is it possible that we could have a snow day in OCTOBER???!!!! We hardly EVER get snow and we were one of the very few cities to get it this time....a record breaker. We even made it on Good Morning America and in the USA Today!!! It didn't slow anyone down, though, from going to the Penn State football game. Idiots. You would have to pay ME to go and even then, I doubt I would sit there for the whole time.

The girls and I had a very successful week on our own. No major calamities, besides the snow, while Todd was gone. Mom surprised us and came for a visit on Thursday evening. We had a great day off on Friday:) Todd returned late Saturday night... Bella was beyond excited to see him. Elisabeth and I, on the other hand, had fun cuddling at night and watching tv in the bed. It could have stayed away a bit longer!

Isabella, who is always questioning everything, saw a picture of Todd and I on our wedding day. She wanted to know about the dress and why we were on posing on a carousel (he asked me to marry him while we were riding a carousel so we had our wedding pictures taken on one). She then informed me that she would wear my wedding gown when she married Elisabeth....that sounds wrong in so many ways but what do you expect from a 3 year old?! She loves her sister:)

The Squirts.....

Yeah, you read it right. The squirts are going through the house. And it isn't the humans...it is the damn dog!! It started with little piles of puke and just continued with a nice, hot, pile of diarrhea on the CARPET! I heard a bubbly, squirty noise (I know...yum) and looked over to see Thomas squatting on our living room rug. Let's hope Resolve gets out big, brown spots....

First day without THE MAN

Todd made it to GA and more importantly, the girls and I made it to all of our places today. I won't mention that I was 30 minutes late to MY place but we were all dressed, fed, and ready for the day. I thought Elisabeth was going to die getting up earlier than normal this morning but she didn't have time to die because she only had 20 minutes to get ready and eat her breakfast. Apparently she didn't hear me when I told her to wake up at 6:55. On the way out to the bus, she yelled, "This is all daddy's fault for leaving!". At least she wasn't blaming me!

This afternoon, we went to a friend's house who fosters cats. She had 7 two week old kittens that Isabella almost loved/killed with attention.

Our trip to the apple farm...

The trees on the way to Syracuse....


At the apple farm:)








Making her own peanut butter sandwich....

Almost back to normal:)

I promise to be a better blogger now that everyone is on the mend. Although I don't know if I will be blogging alot this week when I am both the mother and father in the house. Todd is off to GA again for a golf convention and will be gone from Sunday to Saturday. I am sure we will have fun with just the girls but running the morning routine all by myself is NOT something I am looking forward to. Elisabeth is extremely depressed about it and already started whining that she doesn't want to go to school. Instead of being driven in at 8 am, she has to get her little butt on the bus at 7:30 am. Poor baby.

I promise to post pictures soon...I have a few laying around!

and goes on and on and on.....

The flu has not yet left the Connors-Kos household :( Why it couldn't have skipped me, I have no clue. I got sick last Wednesday and am still sick! I have sinus-bronchitis. Fun...that is all I can say. I have missed 5 days from school and had Isabella with me all of those days as she is sick as well. UGH. If this is any indication of what winter is going to be like, I am moving to space until it is all over.

Flu season begins.....

Elisabeth went to the doctors today. She has been out of school for 2 days with a cough, fever, runny nose, and sore throat. She had to wear a mask because she had many of the symptoms of Swine Flu. You would have thought they had asked her to put on a full-faced black mask and rob a bank. It only got worse when the doctor wanted to swab her throat for strep. I honestly thought I was going to have to lay her down, sit on her arms, and force her mouth open. Poor baby was sweating like a pig by the time we left. Good news, though-she only has a viral infection:)

We picked up Bella early from school and went home to relax. Then SHE started coughing. We all ended up in my bed and fell asleep for two hours. As awesome as it was, I am now paying for it....I am trying to watch my soaps and this little black haired 3 year old keeps popping up in front of the screen:)

Rough night for dad....

It all started when I "forgot" to put the top back on the apple juice. We aren't talking about your pint of apple juice----it was the BIGGEST container you can buy from Wal-Mart. In our 20 years together, this is the ONE thing Todd nags me about...putting the caps back on containers. I am one that likes to skip that part and just lay it on top and maybe give it a little twist. Because it annoys him so much, I have really tried hard to work on this. Except last night. Around 10 pm I hear him calling me from the bottom of the stairs, "CATHERINE.... Could you PLEASE remember to SCREW the lid back on when you are done with the apple juice??????!!!!!!!" I knew what he had done...grabbed the apple juice from the top (I won't mention that there WAS a handle on the side that he should have used), and WHAM, the juice fell out the fridge and all over the floor. I was too scared to go downstairs and see what happened so I sent Elisabeth. She got the lesson about the tops being securely put back on the top of things before she could return upstairs to tell me how bad it was. He did come up once to get more towels and to growl at me although I couldn't actually see his face from under the covers.

He made his next mistake by not shutting the linen closet door or the laundry doors. On his way to bed, at 2 am in the morning, he ran smack into the linen door. I thought I heard some cursing in the wee hours of the morning but knew more than likely it would be him running into something as it happens quite often. The swearing continued into the bedroom so I knew he hadn't knocked himself out. I wasn't about to actually sit up and ask because I knew I would get the "you left the cap off the container" lecture again AND he would start bitching about Bella being in bed with us.

And that leads us to his 3rd mistake...not returning Bella to her bed. She spent most of the night sleeping between us, ON top of the covers. As soon as we would cover her back up, she would kick the covers off, therefore kicking our covers off. And in the process of kicking the covers off, she usually kicks Todd.

I wish I had taken a picture of him this morning when he got up. He could barely walk, couldn't get his eyes open, AND he was still pissed about the juice, the door, and the Bella:)

I, on the other hand, had a delightful nights sleep and my kitchen floor was all shiny and clean!!!

Oh...how I love shopping!!

Especially when it involves a great friend, lunch, and NO CHILDREN!!! Cindy and I went to Altoona yesterday (pretty pathetic when you get excited about Altoona) and hit Old Navy and The Children's Place. I did some damage at Old Navy for Elisabeth and me and Bella got some pretty cute outfits from The Children's Place. Is it wrong to get a high when buying your 3 year old clothes?? I absolutely soar when I find cute clothes at a great price. I have lost that feeling when it comes to buying clothes for Elisabeth. I actually have to email her pictures of the clothes I want to buy her (she hates shopping) so that I don't waste my money and my time. The kid has adorable taste in clothes but heaven forbid you get the wrong color or shape. Out of the 8 things I brought her, only 1 of them is going back. Yeah!

Cook of the Year

That will be my new title this week. I have cooked 5 days in a row. I know...un-frickin'-believable. AND, they were real home cooked meals like Paula Dean's meatballs (yuck) with mashed potatoes (the real kind), mozzarella and spinach ravioli (from Costco-YUM), chicken and vegetable pot stickers (also from Costco and also YUM), potato soup with vegetables and beer (really Sprite) bread. Oh....and I also made Jonas Brother's milkshakes with a chocolate fondue and pineapple walnut cake. Mind you...this is on top of working full time, being a mother/wife/somewhat good sister and daughter and aunt and cousin and granddaughter and friend and speech therapist.

Here is the recipe for the cake.....ENJOY:)

Pineapple Walnut Cake
About 1 ½ cans crushed pineapple – do not drain
1 box Yellow Cake Mix – dry
2 cups chopped walnuts
2 sticks (1 cup) butter – cut into small slices

Line (in order above) in 9x13 pan
Bake 350 degrees for 35 minutes

Spoon on to a plate. Top with Cool Whip to serve.

Ballerinas and Soccer Players

On our way to church...

I love this face she makes...




At the park, waiting for Elisabeth's soccer practice to be finished.







Todd and Elisabeth....



How we like to pass our time....mommy's iPhone and ducky...


I don't think Isabella is going to cut it as a ballerina...at least not at the age of 3. She can handle the tap dancing class, but looses it during the 30 minutes of ballet. While the other are plie'ing (is that even a word?), she is kissing the mirrors..... while they are figuring out where to put their arms, she spent time seeing how fast she could spin on her butt. They more I glared at her through the glass door, the more she laughed and ignored me. She KNEW she was in trouble when she came out of the class and immediately put her hand over my mouth (which she does when she knows she is in trouble and doesn't want me to say anything to her). I talked to her VERY young teacher and told her to be firmer with her....including putting her in time out if that was necessary. She may be too young for all of this or it may end up not being 'her thing'...who knows when you are only 3?!

Elisabeth , on the other hand, is the picture perfect player. She has gotten quite good at the game. She doesn't really care for the other coach but is dealing with it all. Her first game is on Wednesday:)