Signs of Spring

I actually wrote this entry a month ago, but didn't get around to publishing it since I didn't have the time to upload the photos. ~ M Mod 6/14

I realize that I've already posted about our Spring Break, which should count as a sign of spring - but in these parts, it really is not! Ditto for Easter. However, since I have yet to post Easter photos, I'm going to count it. At least it's a sign that spring should be coming.

At our house we have two Easter celebrations; Easter Saturday is when we go to Easter egg hunts and the Easter Bunny visits our home, and Easter Sunday is when the girls first don their new seasonal dresses for church and we try to focus on the religious significance of the holiday.




This year we went to the egg hunt hosted by the church where the girls go to school. M was pleased to meet up with her best friend there, and we also brought one of our cousins. (Who wants to go to their sister's lacrosse game when there are eggs and treasures to be found?) A fun time was had by all. Their cousin won several prizes, many of which were too girlie for him, so the girls benefited too.

In C's age category there was a differently-abled boy who really struggled to make it to an egg before it was picked up by another child. Noting that his basket was practically empty as the hunt was wrapping up, I asked C if she would mind giving him some eggs. She enthusiastically handed him an egg, but then she hid several around a nearby shrub so he could find some of his own. Most of the kids had left the area, but those that came by we shooed away. It was so much fun watching his excitement. I was so proud of C for her willingness to give her candy away to help someone else; she would have emptied the contents of her whole basket had I let her.





One of the great things I love about being a mom is that now I have a good reason to do things I wouldn't have made time for before. One example is the annual tulip festival. I have long wanted to see the fields of blooming tulips, but when I worked full time it just never made it high enough on my priority list to make it a reality. From what I understand, traffic around the farm on the weekends is horrendous. It's bad enough to battle gridlock Monday thru Friday, who wants to do it on a Saturday too?

I went with the girls and my parents two years ago on a weekday, and we practically had the farm to ourselves. This year I'd totally forgotten about the festival until I heard that it was being extended because the flowers had been so late to bloom this year, so once again I made plans to take the girls during the week. As luck would have it, we were blessed with a beautiful day! The sun was shining and the temperature was slightly coolish, but still quite comfortable. I took a ton of picures, and while the girls got tired of trying to smile for the camera, they had a great time looking at all the flowers!







Last week was M's Mother's Day luncheon. Guess what? I got a mug with her handprint on it! What a surprise! Although, oddly enough, that day was the only day she whispered to me that she had a surprise, but didn't tell me what it was. What a funny girl.



That day was also P's birthday. We had a very low key celebration since P decided Wednesday afternoon that he was going to fly out Wednesday evening to go to an auction in California. If he came home as scheduled, it wouldn't have been until after the girls had gone to bed - so we wouldn't have been celebrating on his actual birthday anyway. As it turned out, he finished early and was able to get on an earlier flight home. We picked him up at the airport, went out to eat, and then came home for presents and a hastily made cake.



Our observance of Mother's Day is kind of hit and miss, kind of like Valentine's Day. Some years are great, and other years the day is just like any other but with the obligatory card. This is only the second Mother's Day that P hasn't had to work all day - so already it's shaping up pretty good. This year there was no pampering, but I did get a great gift! At breakfast there was a gift bag sitting on the table. The girls hadn't had a chance to spill the beans because the gift had just been purchased the evening before while I was at a girl's night out. As I approached the table, C started bursting with excitement so P told her not to give me any hints. Still, unable to contain herself, she exclaimed that my present started with a K - to which I added that it could also be a C. (In practicing her spelling, she usually guesses words that start with a hard c as starting with a k.)

So anyway, I got a new camera - a Canon Powershot SX200 IS. So far I am loving it, and taking boatloads of photos, so I'll save those to share with you at a later date.

Below is a little video of M's Mother's Day program.

Shhh, I have a secret

*Spoiler alert - Amber, if you're reading this, and Molly is a better secret keeper than M, you might want to skip this post.*

Every year the preschool holds a Mother's Day luncheon for the students and their moms - no siblings allowed. They make a craft and prepare a program, and the kids are told to not tell their parents because it's a surprise. When C was in preschool, I had no idea what was going to transpire at the luncheon.

For at least the last month, M has been bursting at the seams! She whispers, "Mom, I have a surprise, but I can't tell you. I made us (note the plural) a cup, but I can't tell you. I painted my hand purple and put my handprint on the cup. Shhh, it's a secret!"

I think I've also heard all the songs they'll be singing. She makes me do the hand motions with her.

I love that she is so excited to do something special for me, and I can't believe she's maintained the same level of enthusiasm for this long. Every day I get a chuckle as she jumps on my lap, pushes my hair behind my ear and cups her hands together to whisper her secret to me once again.

Young Love

Lately M has been consumed with the idea of getting married. We've had many discussions on when is an appropriate time to get married (preferrably after college), and also criteria to rule out who she cannot marry (ie someone already married or family members). The main thing that has stuck in her head is that she can't marry her cousins. However, differentiating her cousins from her other friends is a little challenging for her since she has so many cousins living in close proximity that are also her friends.

So last Thursday, when she got out of preschool, she ran to her favorite swivel chair that's in the hallway as you near the exit. While spinning around and around, she asked for clarification as to whether her classmate Kaden is a cousin or friend. I confirmed that he was a friend. A moment after, Kaden walked past and M yelled at him to stop. After he stopped and turned, M proceeded to earnestly ask him if he would marry her when they grew up. Being a boy, he just grimaced and ran off.

I don't know why Kaden was the lucky recipient of her first proposal. Especially when at home she talks all the time about how she wants to marry Zachery, and his favorite color is green. C was about the same age when she first made the object of her affection aware of her feelings. It was two years ago when we were leaving the preschool parking lot that C rolled down her window and yelled for all to hear (and there were quite a few) "I love you Zachery Polzel!"

The same day as the proposal, we decided to stay at the school to play at the playground after we picked C up from school. There were two other boys on the play structure that I didn't recognize. After a short time, M asked one of the boys how old he was. He replied that he was seven. In follow up, M asked "so, are you married?"

I believe that I've mentioned a time or two before how very boy crazy C is. I fear for what the future brings with her! If we're not careful, we find her stalking the 12 year old boys in the hall at church. She also has a HUGE crush on two brothers - Darius and Omar (around 13 and 11). She's wide eyed and calling for them any time they are in her line of sight. I feel so bad for those poor pestered boys. At school we frequently get reports that she chases the boys (yes, multiples) and tries to kiss them. After one such report, P asked the teacher. "Well, I just don't know what else to do. You guys have more experience with this than I do, what should we do?" Her teacher responded that she didn't know. In 20 years of teaching, she'd never seen a girl so boy crazy before! These days, I consider the report that C was merely blowing kisses to boys to be a good day.

Last week, the mother of one of the boys in C's class stopped me on my way to the car to ask if my daughter was named C. She said that her son must have a crush on her, because he talks non stop about her at home and he often draws her in his pictures. Oddly enough, this is practically the only boy that I don't hear her talking about trying to kiss. The next day the same mom stopped me again. She'd told the boy's father that she'd finally met C, and she was a tall blonde, to which dad proudly replied "that's my boy!"

Spring Break

Now that C is in school five days a week, Spring Break actually has some significance in our family - although I guess we have been observing it somewhat since she started preschool. In what is becoming tradition, the girls and I headed off to the beach on Tuesday to visit Grandma and Grandpa.

We had a fun trip. Not so much because we had such spectacular weather, because we didn't, but because the girls kept their squabbling to a minimum. Luckily, we did have enough sunbreaks to spend a little time on the beach too, and the girls went on several hikes/walks with grandpa.

Naturally, it being something of a holiday, we had to visit the cheese factory too. Cheese tasting? Check. Buy some curds and pepperoni sticks? Check. Waffle cones with your choice of ice cream? Check. (Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for the treat!) It just doesn't get much better than this! It's funny, because I can buy the same exact brand and flavor of ice cream at the grocery store, but it never tastes quite as good as when you indulge in a cone of the good stuff right there at the factory.

On Friday, the girls and I headed north to meet up with P at another beach. Last year at a fundraiser auction we had purchased a weekend at a beach house with his parents and his sister's family (the one that lives next door to us). I was a little concerned about sharing a beach house with 11 of us, but my fears were unfounded. The house was huge, with comfortable accomodations for all of us - plus it was a block off the beach, a breakfast restaurant across the street, and a very short walk from town.

Luckily we all headed down to the beach our first night there, because it poured the rest of our stay! Despite the crummy weather, we still had all the makings for a fun stay - good company, books, movies, eating out, junk food, a foosball table and outlet shopping. It was a great Spring Break!

Avon calling

When I was little, I thought there was no job more glamorous than that of an Avon lady. Although I don't ever remember seeing ours personally, I DO remember spending a ton of time browsing the catalogs and thinking how great it would be to wear the makeup, jewelry and perfume. I was certain that Avon ladies were as beautiful as the women in the catalogs, and that wearing their wares would make one just as gorgeous.

That's why I get such a kick out of my girls and their fascination with makeup. For their birthdays, Grandma Mod gave each of them a large case of makeup. Heaven! Well, at least for them. M in particular talks of very little else but her makeup. Here's the results of one makeup session.


The other day the girls slipped next door to their cousins' house. They love to have their older cousins do their hair. Tay used her new wave iron on C. I thought it turned out beautiful - and this picture was even after her bath took out a bit of the curl.



I think she had planned to straight iron M's hair, but I suspect she had a hard time of even running a comb thru her hair, much less straighten it. Nonetheless, M was thrilled with the braids Tay sent her home with.

Happy Birthdayssssss!

I really like that the girls' birthdays are just five days apart. They're so competitive that it's nice to be able to do much of the celebrating together. Plus, they enjoy the same things, so they often get the same things, which is much easier to deal with when they are getting their gifts at the same time.

C kicked off the birthday season when she turned six. We had a quiet celebration at home with just us and the Mod grandparents. C picked out a menu of pepperoni pizza and a chocolate heart shaped birthday cake. Since her birthday follows closely on the heels of Valentine's Day, I'm sure that's why she was so adamant about the shape of the cake. The week before I ran across a recipe for chocolate ganache in the paper. I'm no cook, but I do love ganache, so I thought I'd give it a try. As luck would have it, not even I could screw it up! Yum!!

The birthday girl sampled the ganache and agreed it was fit for her cake.

The next day the girls each brought a friend for their annual visit with Chuck E Cheese. C and her friend had a great time. M's friend wasn't too sure what to make of it. Like any good hostess, M ditched her friend to pursue her own fun activities. Meanwhile, I tried to talk her friend into various activities, but the only one that piqued her interest was feeding the tickets you earn from games into the automatic ticket counter that made munching noises.





We tried to get a picture of all the girls together looking happy, but our suggestions to smile were met with resistance from one little party goer. So we resorted to turning it into a game - which seemed to work, as long as we didn't tell her to smile.

Roar like a lion!

Look silly!

Go to sleep!

Grandma and Grandpa Beachy made a trip in to town to take us all out to eat, and the girls got to open presents from them the next morning.


Then later that day we met C's birthfamily at McDonalds for another celebration. Although C wasn't shy about eventually requesting her presents, I was surprised at how reserved she was with the adults. She's normally quite outgoing with children and adults alike. Our shy one, M, was the one that snuggled up with C's birthmother when we attended her other daughter's basketball game after lunch.

I couldn't stop pondering the situation, and came up with my own theory as to why C was standoffish and M was perfectly comfortable with C's birthfamily. The next night I asked her why she seemed so shy. Without any prompting from me, she confirmed my theory that she was worried they might try to take her away. I assured her that while they like to be able to see her, and they love her too, they are happy that she is a member of our family. They don't want to take her away from us. I also explained that although foster children have been a part of our family and then gone away, neither of them were adopted by us. Both she and M are adopted, which means that they will be in our family forever and ever! She seemed to understand, but it remains to be seen whether she will be more relaxed at the next visit.




For M's fourth birthday, she requested chicken noodle soup and quesadillas for dinner, with popsicles for dessert. Go figure. I had to talk her into an additional dessert just so we would have something to put candles in. I have to say though, that with all the cakes and cupcakes we have had between our parties, and bringing birthday treats to their respective church and school classes, I was really ready to have something besides cake!



After six days of celebration, we wrapped up with the combined birthday party for all the locals in the Mod family to attend. It is by far the biggest party since P's family is so large and the girls have so many cousins. As giddy as I was for the birthday season to begin, it was a huge relief for it to come to an end!


A few days after things quieted down, we took the girls in for their annual birthday pictures, and decided to do a few of the family too - so be sure to check out the slide show at the top of the right column.

If it's not a happy meal, then ...

Today we had lunch at McDonalds. We don't usually get the boxed kid meals anymore because my girls rarely eat the sides, and I don't need any more little toys to pick up around the house.

Ahead of us in line were some girls we know from church. After we had both picked up our orders, I asked the little girls with exaggerated excitement if they had gotten happy meals. They nodded cheerily in agreement and then we walked off.

C looked at our tray of wrapped burgers and drinks and quietly asked, "Mom, did we get the sad meals?"

One, two, free

The other day M was mauling poor little Jinx, again. He never ceases to amaze me - how a feral cat that initially wouldn't let P even touch him, can adapt to become a very well loved and much handled family cat.

Anyway, back to my little story. As I do numerous times a day, I pleaded with my daughter. "M, please put Jinx down. He just wants to be free!"

"No, mommy! He wants to be four!"

Can you tell who's got her fourth birthday on her mind?

Stalked by the tooth fairy

C finally lost her first tooth. She wiggled it for weeks. It was hanging on by a thread. The permanent tooth behind it was pushing it up so far that she was looking snaggle toothed. And yet, she wouldn't let me pull it. Sure, she gave it half hearted attempts herself. She said she wanted the Tooth Fairy (TF) to bring her money. Her expert tooth pulling teacher and Grandma Beachie all offered, but to no avail. Deep down she was petrified of how it would hurt when it came out. I begged and cajoled, but when it came right down to it, it turned out to be a two man job. P had to hold her and tickle her (to take her attention off of what I was doing) while I risked losing a finger while reaching in and grabbing the tooth. It was over lickety split, but I can still see her look of terror as she realized the tooth was coming out.

She said that it didn't really hurt that much after all. Then she was concerned about what would become of her tooth after the TF's visit.

The next morning she found her money and all thoughts of where the tooth went were gone. P thought the TF was too generous, and wanted to see if C would trade him bills since they're all the same to her. (She calls paper money tickets, probably because the Chuck E Cheese tickets are as valuable a commodity to her as money is to us.)

I'm hopeful that the next tooth won't be such a battle, because I'm sure that it will be coming in soon too. We'll be seeing plenty of the TF for the next little while. Hope she's got some good investments going, or maybe a money tree somewhere. All I know is that C is going to be our go to girl if we need a quick cash loan.

Is it too late to post holiday photos?

I seriously considered backdating this entry so that it would appear I had created it in a timely fashion. But that would be cheating, and for those of you who check in semi-regularly, I know I wouldn't be fooling you for a second. So here's my brief post of the holidays, in February.

Thanksgiving at the beach

Christmas Eve with my brother's family.

Christmas Day

I love that they love books!

Grandma & Grandpa's first MP3 player.