NCAA Tournament

We went to Pittsburgh today to see the SFU Lady Flash play in the 1st round of the NCAA playoffs. Yeah, we kinda thought they wouldn't pull in a win (although we hoped), but just to take the boys to a tournament game was an opportunity we couldn't pass up.

I think the real success of the game was the number of SFU fans that traveled to watch the game. SFU, a student population of about 2,000 had just as many, if not more fans as Ohio State U, who has a student body of at least 40,000. Just awesome!

Snow Day

Yet another snow day this month (I think this made #5 just in February).

I'm not complaining - it's actually been super nice to be at home with the family.

I made a point last night to get some activities set up so we'd have a fun day.

Here's what we came up with:

Breakfast, my favorite part of the day:

Strawberries and blueberries (nice treat in February) and

cinnamon toast (with cinnamon sugar - couldn't help the added treat!)

Dr. Gertie, wearing her stethoscope, checks Jude out and finds that he's A-OK!

Next was Mom's School! I found some worksheets for Jackson to do (with some reluctance) and for Jude, I pulled out the Highlights Magazines!

LUNCH TIME! I packed the boys' lunches in lunch boxes (so much better than on a plate) and inside had some surprises for them (thanks to a quick stop @ $ General yesterday). In addition to their mediocre lunches, they got Hotwheels cars, chocolate, and pencil toppers. Jackson also got an animal puzzle book and Jude got a set of color/shape flash cards! Since they had no idea about this surprise, they were pretty excited.

Jackson playing the Wii - a snow day tradition. He doesn't play Wii too often (which is something I feared), but when he plays, he really gets into it.

Last, but not least, Fireman Jude. He's all decked out in his fireman PJs, helmet, and played in his firetruck for a while.

And so now, as we begin to wind down for the evening, we're watching Spongebob! I hope it's days like today that the boys always remember. I know I will!

My Book Worm

I couldn't be happier that Jackson has turned into a little bookworm! He's reading everything. SFU has been offering a reading clinic on Saturdays and Jackson's been going and he really loves it - doesn't mind getting up and showered on a Saturday morning to go and read. The kids and their reading buddies (SFU education majors) are called URBs (University Reading Buddies). They play word games, write poems, practice reading to each other, and learn other reading tips.

While he's in reading clinic, I sneak across the way and exercise in the new fitness center on campus (love it:).

This is Jackson and his friend from school 'practicing' their reading skills. I guess he thinks that the words will go straight to his head if he reads up-side-down!

Jackson takes his turn reading a couple of sentences out of the book he picked. There were some pretty big words in there (like 'believed', 'Sith', 'thought', 'powerful', 'light')
So proud of my big boy!

New Shelves

Jeremy built a new set of shelves for our kitchen/living/dining area. We needed these so badly - as you can see they are already filled. We also moved the play table over to this area so now we have an open space by the TV, which we plan on using for dance/activity time in the evenings.

Jackson's School

It's Catholic School's Week this week. The week started off on Saturday with an all-school mass with an open house after mass. We visited Jackson's classroom and got to have cookies (Jude's favorite part) with Jackson and his buddies.

Jude got to test out Jackson's seat.

This is where Jackson sits everyday!

Just because he's so cute

Jackson Made Me do it.....

This was not my idea (swear).

Just a creative kid trapped in the house on a snowy day.