Interesting Weekend

This was quite a weekend. It rained on Friday and was cold. Saturday we had lots of cold and snow. Sunday, it was beautiful and the snow melted rapidly.

We had car repairs over the weekend when the spouse's car failed to start in the garage on Saturday evening. With our schedule we were all headed in different directions. Quick modifications to the plans, a call to AAA and remembering there were jumper cables saved the evenings events. On Sunday, Auto Zone gets a big kudos, in a separate post, for great service at the right time.



We had multiple kids doing the spend the night thing and a soccer game on Sunday. There was a school project on the Common Cold and family movie night.



Today as I passed Tractor Supply there was a sign for Ducks and Chicks. I first took my eldest daughter in when we were out running errands. She thought it was cool to see the little poultry. Later in the afternoon the two youngest went back with me.

All got to hold a Duck and a Chick. The Tractor Supply associate keep offering to put a number of them in the box for us to take home. This gentlemen is obviously single. Okay, it is only $4.25 for a duck. And $1.95 for a chicken. Well within my spending range. But, with the house on the market and the fact these cute things will be big enough to be out of the enclosure shown above this wouldn't be a marriage enhancing move on my part. I did think about it. Lots of fun. My parents acquired some Ducks and a Rabbit one year for Easter. Great memories!

Did you know that the air holes for a duck on on his beak? The little duck not only has webbed feet but there are claws on them. When you pick one up it makes a good bit of noise. When you put it back the other Duck buddies come over to check on the well being of the comrade.

To wrap up the weekend the family grilled out this evening. Big fun. Hope you all had a wonderful weekend!

March Madness has arrived

This year March Madness has a completely new meaning in our family. Usually March Madness is associated solely with the NCAA Basketball tournament. Not this year, my youngest brother, A Division III Assistant Basketball Coach, and his lovely wife welcomed the arrival of their first child, Grace Ann, to the world early in the month of March.
Another of my brothers and his lovely wife celebrated the arrival of their granddaughter, Gabriella, within the last week. My sister and my brother in law celebrated the 18th birthday of their son, my nephew. (I was there the day he arrived and still can’t believe that much time has elapsed.) Duncan Hines and the Great American Cookie Company will be able to achieve their future P&L’s this month each year with the contributions from the family.

What a great family time! We can’t wait to meet all of the newest additions to the family. The pictures are beautiful.

On the basketball side of the house the last week has been very interesting. All of the planned first seeds in the NCAA tournament have lost. Pitt, North Carolina, Oklahoma, all dropped games in their conference tournaments, oops! This year’s tournament should be lots of fun. This will also be a tough week. There are over 364 Division I basketball teams. Two Hundred and ninety nine of the basketball teams will be on the outside of the event looking in. It should be fun. Time to develop the brackets. Let the basketball madness commence.

It’s Spring Break at our House

That wonderful event that all school age children love has arrived at our house, SPRING BREAK! For the next week, the kids are out of school.

In our house that means four kids are now available to assist their parental units in whatever tasks, deemed appropriate, for the development of their character. Parental speak for completing chores, cleaning rooms, and fluffing the parents pillows! Yea right! It is nice to dream.

This week has caused some confusion for my 5 year old. Since she is out of school, she would like to know when I get Spring Break! I can’t wait to see my boss on Monday morning. (With the economy the way, it is I’m sure it might not be the right time to ask!) Nevertheless, my darling daughter has hit on a concept that I think should be explored. With vision like this why can’t they wave the constitutional requirement that the President has to be thrity six years old. I wonder how she can do in Economics.)

We are scheduling the week of sleepovers, social events, mall trips, movies, travel to places, activities, and veg time to have a great break. If the scheduling is right, I may see each child every other day as they spend time with their extended families. We use that term for the families of the friends they hang out with. We joke that my son has three hyphenated last names since the families of his buddies kind of claim him as one of their own. (I wonder if we can work that all the way through college? Oops! There I go using my out loud voice again.)

Spring Break is also the time that all children believe that everything is possible. The question was asked; Can’t we just get in the car and ride to see the grandparents? To add context to the discussion we live pretty close to the geographic center of the United States. The relatives live in the far Northeastern corner of the United States and on the East Coast. Another option was proposed by my eight-year-old son. He decided he would like to go to California for the break. We used the chance to do map reading and mapquesting to determine it would only take about 27 hours to get there. Mr. Math was on top of that saying, “it is only 1 and 3/24th of a day to get there.”(Parental pride in the math skill!) (Parental shock in realizing that he believes that I can drive that many hours without bathroom stops and sleep to arrive on the coast!) By the way, I love the sense of adventure that is developing.

We are getting ready for day two of Spring Break. The kids are using the opportunity to sleep in since most stayed up late on the first full day of Spring Break.