Another one for the "Urmmmm...." file

I'm going to preface this with the fact that Kathryn was fully warned that if she made these hats, I would take pictures and I would post them on the blog. She made 'em anyway.

It all started when we heard a jet fly over. We live near a tiny little municiple airport and we hear Cessnas and small helicopters, even the occasional World War II Vintage aircraft, but never jets. We're discussing this over dinner and our teenager turns into a conspiracy theorist. And then decides she needs a tin foil hat. When I pointed out the lack of tin foil she went for the aluminum foil. I steered her off my non-stick and she went for the heavy duty. And she made this.

She also thoughtfully made one for her sister. After all we can't let "them" know how Elena feels about Mickey Mouse & macaroni and cheese.

Have I mentioned how much I love my kids?

Have a great week.

Dirt Therapy

I've been joking around lately about being on the "30 day plan to a crazier you". Problem is, it's taking less than 30 days. Work is nuts. It's a busy time of year, we're still experiencing growing pains from the merger & everyone's stress level is high.

Home is also a little bonkers. Laney is TWO! She's read the toddler manuel and is making sure she does it ALL. She's cute & adorable and learning so much. I love her. And she knows her own mind, she's taken to repeating everything she says 5 times, she's a pain at the dinner table lately. I still love her, but I'm tired.

And we had another wheezing incident this week, so that makes it the "A" word - Asthma. At some point during all the free time I have at work, I need to get her scheduled to see the specialist. On the plus side, I have been putting off getting Kat scheduled for one of her normal follow ups, so I'm going to try to get them scheduled together.

Speaking of Kat, she was amazing this week. She got to spend the first part of her Spring Break in Orlando with the band. She got home Tuesday. Laney started getting sick Tuesday night. I took Laney with me to work Wednesday morning and was planning on taking her back with me after her Dr's appointment. Then I realized that she really needed to be home, but I really needed to be at work. Kat bailed me out. She ended up baby sitting four hours on Wednesday and another four hours on Thursday. Saved my bacon, the Lord provided, etc.

So anyways, it's been 4 paragraphs & I am finally getting to the title. Two weeks ago, we had a big chore day & I spent most of my time cleaning out the rose bed and feeding the azaleas. It felt good to play in the dirt. Laney loved it too. I even went out and bought her a plastic spade and the little rake thing so we could do it again. Then it rained last week. And I worked yesterday. Argh.

Today on the way home from church, we stopped at the nursery, bought two 12 packs of impatiens and two rose bushes. After nap, Laney and I planted the impatiens. Kat & her mom showed up while we were planting with a pack of flower seeds in hand, so we planted those too. After we were done with that, I set Laney up to watch "The Fox and the Hound" and went out and planted the new roses. All better now. At least until tomorrow morning. Is it April 1st yet?

Fit for a princess

We finished Elena's big girl room this weekend. Kathryn is in Florida with the band, so we took advantage and temporarily moved Laney into her room so that we could paint on Friday & Saturday. Once that was done, we put up the new curtains and the new princess wall stickers.

I dug into the photo archives for the shots I took when we finished the nursery, which had a Classic Winnie the Pooh theme, for a comparison.

We kept the family tree above the shelves, Laney loves looking up on the wall & seeing her grandparents, great-grandparents & aunts & uncles. (The pictures are all pre-cousins)
We also kept her "ABCs" as she calls them and the cross that Granddaddy gave her at her baptism.

The poster was Kathryn's. She took it down a few months ago and saved it for her sister.

Thanks for taking the tour.

Pictures from a birthday party

Old McLaney had a farm, EIEIO

And on this farm there was a swing
And a choo-choo

And a petting zoo including a wallaby

And a llama

And "rorseys" to ride . . .

Partly cloudy with a chance of lions

First things first, Happy Birthday Uncle Mike!

I took Laney to the zoo on Saturday. Apparently cold & cloudy makes for a great zoo day. The crowds were down & the animals were up. The pacing tiger:
The lazy lions - but, hey!, their heads are up. They're usually sound asleep.
Laney checking out some birds.

A self-portrait at the tiger enclosures.

We rode the carousel, one of the advantages to the zoo membership is half price carousel tickets.

Checking out the giraffes - including the new one-month old:

The meerkats were in the mood to pose:

Laney's favorite animal was the "seal lion" which translates to "sea lion" in grown up speak. It took three trips to their pool to see them. They were very playful, but by that point I had put the camera away for the day.