Soccer and a shocking ending

Spencer had his second soccer game on Sunday the 21st.  Unlike his first game that was blazing hot, it was really cold on this day.  

They lost. 

Sunday afternoon Elliott and I made orange marmalade with the oranges we picked from Brenda's house.

Elliott was in charge of operating the food processor. 

Boiling with a lot of sugar and a little bit of water.

Done!

Monday the 22nd was coooooooooold.  It was just a bit above freezing when we walked to the bus.  I know that's nothing for some places, but that's just about as cold as we get ever.  Despite his complaints I forced Spencer to wear pants, a jacket and a hat.  He asked if he could wear shorts and a tank top.

After I got the kids to school I went to brunch and to see The Greatest Showman with my friend Molly. 

In the afternoon I bought a brown sheet at Goodwill to put in Spencer's window to make his room darker.  I found this dark brown one and not the dark blue I was looking for, so I took the dark blue one from Elliott's room and put it in Spencer's room and put the brown one in Elliott's room.  Even though you can't see the sheets I wanted the colors to match. 

The man in front of me in line was buying a statue of a naked pregnant woman with no arms.  I judged him, silently.  He looked at my sheet and silently judged me.  Lest you judge me too, I ran this through a two- hour "sanitary" cycle in the washing machine before hanging it up.  The sanitary cycle literally boils water and dumps it in there multiple times. 

When I got to work on Tuesday the 23rd it was 30 degrees.  That's definitely the coldest morning this winter.  I hope it's not the last. 

I was wearing my ostrich egg shell earrings that Nick bought me in Namibia.  Had to do a selfie for Instagram.

Ginger on Tuesday

It was also National Pie Day (not to be confused with the National Pie Day on March 14th), so I made individual apple pies with leftover pie crust from the pop-tarts.

Mine was a sugar free, grain free pie with a nut topping. 

On Wednesday the 24th I matched my sleeves, 

to my shoes.  I was impressed.  Nobody else was. 

That night I finished this container of tea that I was given when I was pregnant with SPENCER.  Yep.  This tea was almost 11 years old.  I made it into iced tea and used all remaining 16 bags, so it actually tasted fine. 

P.S.  That was the shocking ending.  That I had tea that I kept for almost 11 years. 

Mostly Elliott and then some pop-tarts

I forgot to include these in my last post!

Elliott's 6 year- 1 month photo shoot on Tuesday the 16th.  He picked the location.

I vote for this to be official.

Elliott votes for this.

OK.  With that done we can get back to the chronological blog timeline.

Thursday the 18th was the 100th day of school.  Kindergarten was encouraged to dress up like what they imagine they will look like when they are 100 years old. 

Elliott got dressed and put the glasses on and said he looked like a 50 year old. 

Then we added the tie, the vest and the hat and he was 100!

He brought home a "bird feeder" with 100 fruit loops that day.  It's still hanging in the tree, untouched by birds. 

Daddy got home from work while we were out there.

Twins!

We got a very special delivery that evening.  New bath sheet towels (over sized towels).

The backstory.

Michael and I have been using the same bath sheet towels since the summer of 2006.  My grandmother got them for us as a housewarming present when we bought our first house.  We went shopping together and selected them at Mervyn's!  I checked, and Mervyn's went completely out of business in 2008. 

Anyway, she hated this color.  I believe she referred to it as cat poop. She thought we should get a nice light blue color. I persevered though, because they matched our bathroom perfectly, and made her buy them. 

The old towels. I can't even imagine how many hundreds of times we've washed these towels in the last 11.5 years. 

The new towels.  They are over sized, but not as big as the old ones. 

Friday was my first day at home, alone, without the kids, since before winter break.  I got so much done!  And took zero pictures of anything.  

On Saturday I made homemade pop-tarts.  Spencer had them at a friend's house and has been begging for them ever since. I believe that everything can be enjoyed in moderation, but really?  Pop-tarts?

They weren't difficult, but there were approximately 800 steps so they took a while. 

No flash

Flash

Spencer went to a friend's house on Saturday afternoon and spent the night, so we took Elliott to church and then out to dinner that night.

I had a big salad.  It's like a salad, only bigger.  Anyone catch that reference?

And no post would be complete without this lady. 

Slow

Last week was a slow week.  It was great.  It was just what we needed to get some stuff done around this place.  It also helped that I was finally, finally feeling back to myself.  It took me three weeks to really recover from whatever sickness I got right before Christmas. 

Spencer had his first soccer game on Sunday.  It was hot, hot, hot.  As in temperature hot. Not action hot.

Monday was MLK Jr day so we were all off from work and school. 

I went to the orthodontist that morning to pick up my new retainers.  They also gave me the molds that were made from the digital scan of my teeth.  They are pretty cool.  This is exactly what my teeth look like. 

We picked up Spencer's friend Jayden that afternoon and took him with us out to lunch and to the movies.  Spencer, Jayden and I saw Jumanji.  Elliott and Michael saw Ferdinand. 

Spencer helped pay for lunch with a gift card he got for his birthday. 

Elliott wanted me to take this picture of him with a napkin on his head. 

Michael wanted a little snack while we were watching TV that night.  We're trying to clear out all of the old candy in the house, so I gave him my chocolate bunny from Easter. 

This is how I presented it to him. 

I had a rough therapy session at work on Tuesday.  I knew SLPs would appreciate it, so I took this picture, 

and posted this in my SLP group on Facebook.  I was right.  SLPs "got" it and sympathized. 

We took down the Christmas shower curtain on Wednesday. It was the last remaining Christmas item, and I almost left it up for longer because it's just so fun. 

See.  Told you it was slow around here.