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 With her tooth fairy money and some savings, Emma purchased a pair of dress-up shoes and a jumprope from the dollar store (and a wand for Carter, unselfish girl!)  Who knew you could use both at once?
 

 "Dear tooth fairy, I am only 4, but I still lost my tooth.  Love, Emma."

Who knew she had been telling the truth all this time when she said her tooth was loose… I just figured she wanted to be like Zach.  So by the time I first saw it wiggle, it was on it's way out.  She wiggled it nonstop for the next day, ("Hold on, Alexandra, I have to wiggle my tooth!") and with a quick tug from Dad when he got home this afternoon, it was gone!  Don't worry, the tooth fairy still gives $$ to 4 year olds… spent the next day at the dollar store (where else?) on a new jumprope.  Happy lost tooth, Miss Emma!  I still can't believe it!  

Some random happy things from my day today…

Emma has been SO nice to Carter.  Sharing with him, reading to him, playing with him… if you haven't been around us you have no idea what a change of heart this is.  It is wonderful.

I vacuumed today and there was lots of sand (from the roads) in the living room by the door and it makes me so happy to hear the vacuum actually sucking up things – much more satisfying than just vacuuming up dust.   

I picked up the BBC version of Jane Eyre at the library this afternoon and I am going to spend my evening watching it!  

Everywhere I go I find a star wars lego guy.  Or a lego guy's head.  Or a lego light sabre.  Or a star wars lego book.  Or a 7 year old rattling off information about star wars guys.  :)  Love that kid.  

Emma has a loose tooth!  And she is so excited.  She asks me every 5 minutes, "do you want to see my tooth wiggle?"  

And she has started to say her letter "L" instead of pronouncing it as a "w"… mostly when she says "love" – and it is so cute. 

Carter's latest funny phrase is "good morning".  He said it over and over last night (?) to me, to Elmo, to Emma…  

We are going to have breakfast for dinner.  yum.

And the sun is out!  Hooray! 
 

I have made an unfortunate discovery… it is that moderation is not my thing.  (This is something I should have known already.)  I realized it this past week as I finally started Jane Eyre (after checking it out from the library and renewing it without ever reading it in the past) and consequently stopped doing everything else.  The laundry sat unfolded, I made the easiest dinners ever, the kids had the run of the house while I followed them around, reading my book and rationalizing that "the books" all say to let your kids see you reading…  and then it hit me.  I read like I eat chocolate chips.  Not a few pages or a few chips at a time.  If I am going to eat chocolate chips, I will eat them by the handful.  Till they're gone (or until I only have enough left for a batch of cookies I promised to make.)  And if I am going to read a good book, I will read it as much as I can, as often as I can, till it's done.  Which is why I haven't read a "real" book in years, and why it may be years before I read another.  I suppose I could have worse addictions, right?   

 So I believed him when he didn't want to take his nap, but I stopped buying it when he fell asleep at the table during his afternoon snack… 

The tree in our front yard covered with "hoar frost" – isn't it beautiful!  I wish it weren't so cold and I would have gotten a close-up picture – it is like tons and tons of feathery ice crystals all over everything exposed…. turning the world white.  And when the wind blows later in the day, the ice crystals blow off and it looks like a snowstorm for a little while.  One of my favorite things about winter here!

It was a BEAUTIFUL, warmer (by MN standards – 19* when we set out) MLK day, Zach had no school, and we thought it would be fun to hike on some of our favorite winter trails.  It was… for Zach, Emma, me, and our friends.  I'll  let Carter's face speak for his opinion of the whole thing (this was him at his happiest.)  Too bad, because I really might do this every "warm" day.  

 When I was cleaning up the lightsabres after the party (and after I had posted all the other pictures), I couldn't help but laugh at the state they were in.  They sustained a lot of damage (even after the blue-tape repair jobs), good thing Darth Vader is mostly machine.  Oh, and Carter had a tiny one of his own, but insisted on using a big one.  He knows the sounds and everything, and until the "bad guy" showed up, he was as into it as any of the big kids.    

 And all of a sudden we are celebrating the 7th birthday of Jedi Master Zach!  Somehow we ended up having a jedi training birthday party; somehow we ended up with 8 kids (plus Carter); somehow the R2D2 cake looked a little like R2 (I wasn't really that hopeful!); somehow Nate ended up dressing up as Darth Vader and subjecting himself to a vicious attack by cardboard lightsabre-wielding Jedis; and somehow we all survived.  Zach had the time of his life.  And he should – he's seven, his favorite number, for a whole year.  Happy Birthday, Jedi Zach!  May the force be with you always.  

While I was a little nervous, my kids were nothing but excited for the "big sleepover"  with Grandma and Grandpa B while Nate and I went out of town.  And who wouldn't be – they ate pizza, oreos, popcorn, ice cream, and cinnamon crunch bagels; and they played Wii, more games than you can count, read, played legos, and got pushed around in the big red car in the basement for miles and miles (something mom never has time or energy or patience to do!)  They loved every second of it, and when we got home all we got was "hi, mom and dad", and had to beg for hugs.  So thanks from all of us, mom and dad!!!  And don't worry, we miss you when you're gone.  :)