a few quick ones!

I finished my work* early (errrr... on time) this week!  So Imma throw up a few recent pics for your enjoyment.

*My Mom comes Wednesdays so I can work most of the day, in case I've never mentioned it.  I'm so thankful for her.  I'm ashamed to say that she also folds our laundry, and I'm wondering today if our laundry would ever get folded these days if it weren't for her.  Love you Momma!  Only four weeks left of this class and I'll have 10+ hours a week back for folding laundry to my heart's content!!

Little C started her own dance class Tuesday mornings!  It's called "open dance"... you pay by the class and there's no commitment, which is perfect for my barely-two-year-old who is not quite ready for a structured class, but is always dancing in the kitchen and clamoring to come in and see the big girls' dance teacher when N and L go to their class on Monday nights. (I'm so thankful for our dance teacher-- she is the perfect example of positivity and encouragement while building skills of self-expression.  All things I really believe my girls should be learning.  They are absolutely in love with her.)

She looks so adorably buttery baby chubby in her little dance outfits; I just want to gobble her up.  There is never enough picture-taking.

I also love all her facial expressions lately.  Miss Priss.

I cut her bangs that morning, with the help of the PBS Kids app on my iPhone (she is vehemently opposed to things like haircuts/fingernail trims these days-- any trick that works I will shamelessly use).  Like the new 'do?

All of our seedlings are doing soooo well!!!!  I'm really relieved that I haven't killed anything yet.  Now if they just survive the re-planting process to our outdoor garden, we'll be all set.  It's FINALLY getting warm enough that we may be able to move them in maybe a couple of weeks.  Fingers crossed!

These cutie pies accompanied me out to the bus stop yesterday to pick up N, because... ahem... nobody napped.  This is becoming more and more common these days.  They're just not tired, because we've been sooooo cooped up for this long winter and they just need to run around outside for hours and hours.  But do you notice those short sleeves??  Mostly because C refused to take off her dance leotard for the entire day... but it was almost 60 degrees yesterday.  Saints be praised!!!

I would also like you to notice that C donned L's shoes and N's socks for our trip to the bus stop.  But hey, she put them on *all by herself* so I did not complain.  In fact, I smiled to myself, because she looks like an adorable little person in gigantic clown shoes and leg warmers.

A playdate with a friend, and N looking quite grown up, I think.

I've had sort of a painful sinus infection/cold/hacking cough this week, so I'm really trying to ingest lots of leafy greens and other vitamin-rich foods to strengthen my immune system.  I thought the green-ness of my lunch was funny yesterday, so I took a picture.  A kale mango smoothie (in a beer glass... I have now officially broken all but two of our drinking glasses) with a a green salad.

Feeling much better today, yay!  

It's funny... this is the type of sickness where my speaking voice sounds somewhat normal, but my singing voice is completely gone.  Back when I was getting paid to sing I would have been freaking out a bit, but now it's actually funny when I try to sing "Do You Want to Build a Snowman" with the girls (the only singing I *have to* do), and I sound like a boy in mid-puberty, and they all laugh at me.  Good times there.

On a final note about sickness, if you ever have an extremely painful sore throat, you must try Sleepy Time Throat Tamer tea.  It was more effective at getting rid of the pain than any of the cold medications I took.  And how comforting when you're sick to drink a warm mug of tea before bed?  This post brought to you by Celestial Seasonings. (JK!!!!!)

Most of you saw when I posted this auto awesome montage on G+.  Pretty serious ice cream eating going on.

In an attempt to feel like I'm getting some one-on-one time with each of my girls, I have declared Thursday night "dollar cone with Mama" night.  Each week I bring a different girl and have some chatty time and McDonald's soft-serve goodness.

They are all amazing in their own ways, but my conversations with L are by far the most... interesting.  I aaaaaalllmost had to tell her where babies come from last Thursday.  I gave her my standard answer that has been satisfactory so far-- mommies and daddies make them together (period), and when she replied, "Yes I know... but how??"  I just changed the subject.

I'm not opposed to being honest with our kids about stuff like that, but neither do I want her to go and share with her preschool friends the baby-making process.  Sooooooo we'll have to think about how to approach that one.

So we've been doing some shopping at Aldi lately, and saving a lot of money!!  It's pretty exciting since our grocery bill had been steadily climbing since we started eating more whole foods and experimenting with alternative grains when we started trying to eat less wheat.

If you keep up with foodie blogs at all, you may have noticed a marketing push recently by Aldi among them... suddenly everyone was blogging about Aldi.  Initially I was turned off by the fact that you have to pay a quarter for a cart, but I gave it another chance and now I'm hooked.  They have some super inexpensive whole-food and produce options.  This post brought to you by Aldi.  (JK!!!!!!)

We can't buy everything there, so it necessitates another grocery trip in the week for me, but actually that works out better, because with kids in tow it is nice to split shopping up over two different days and have a shorter list at each store.

N. E. Way.  Back to the picture of the egg carton above.  Aldi's eggs have Psalm 118 written on the inside!  It was such a nice surprise the first time I ever opened a carton, and I always smile at the reminder to be grateful for each day, as I make breakfast.

Just one of those little things, ya know?

That's about all I've got for today; happy week everybody!!