Timesaver

Next time I decide to give my dog a bath at home to save time, please remind me what a stupid idea that is.  

We had a snow day yesterday (a frightening 2 inches on the ground!  This city is snow-retarded.), and it seemed like too much work to get the kids and the dog out of the house to go to the dog wash, which was the one thing on my to do list that I had to do.

So I thought, "Hey, we have a walk-in shower.  We'll wash her here."  I really should have thought it through a little better.

Things I did consider:

• getting into bathing suits (the girls helped) since we'd have to actually be in the shower with Gabby.
• drying her

Yeah, that's pretty much it.  I didn't think it through much beyond that.

Things I realized once we were all soaking wet in the shower with the dog:

• wet dogs stink really really really bad.
• we were going to be stuck in wet swimsuits in a humid stinky bathroom with a stinky wet dog for a really long time while we dried her with our one hair dryer 
• there was a good chance all that Golden Retriever fur was going to clog up the drain
• the girls "help" resulted in every towel in the house being used to dry the dog, which means many more loads of laundry
• the entire bathroom would need to be cleaned because of the dog hair and the shaking
• we would all need showers when this process was over

All in all, my laziness ended up giving me about 2 hours more work than simply loading my kids and the dog into the car would have.  

Hakuna Matata

A few years ago I saw The Lion King musical on Broadway when I went to NYC with Kolby.  I was blown away by it.  Within the first 60 seconds I was crying my eyes out and had goosebumps all over from the sheer beauty of it.  Madeline was four at the time, and loved to pretend to be an animal and move her body just like that animal.  Through the entire play, I wished she was with me because she would have been amazed by it.  I vowed to take her to see The Lion King if it ever came to our city.

Last night we took the kids to to the Paramount Theater in Seattle to see it.  They loved it.  The costumes in this play are so incredible, and the way the actors move to make the costumes work--I can't accurately describe it.  The actors who were giraffes walked with stilts on both their hands and their feet, and then still had to move the way a giraffe moves.  Just amazing.  And it wasn't lost on the kids. 

One of the things I couldn't stop thinking about was that all those people on stage were doing their jobs.   The guy who designed all of the animals lives in Scappoose, a little town just outside of Portland.  That's his job.  I think it's the current state of the economy and rising unemployment, but I just couldn't stop thinking how amazing it must be to get paid to do something you love so much.  

And we learned something new.   Lions do not get new cubs the same way cats get new kittens.  They still smile at each other.  That part is the same.   But instead of hearts between them, a singing baboon produces the new cub.  Hmm.  

(All photos of the play swiped from the web since there was no photography allowed during the play).

Learning 'bout the birds and the bees, virtually

Madeline has figured it out.   She now knows how kittens are made.  I'm sure you thought she had that figured out long ago, with all the imaginary kittens she's helped deliver, but no.  She figured it out just yesterday.  

Kolby and I were sitting in the living room enjoying a lazy Saturday morning when Madeline shrieked and came running in screaming that Sagwa and Smokey had a kitten.  From the level of excitement, you would have thought it was a real kitten.   Not knowing who Sagwa or Smokey were, we were a bit confused.  Kolby thought this was a continuation of the birthing cats scenario, and he was ready for a psych consult.  But then we realized she'd been playing Catz on her Nintendo DS, and two of her catz had mated and had a kitten.

So then she spent the next little while trying to figure out exactly how that happened so she could make it happen again to get more kittenz.  And it turns out, all you have to do is put a male cat next to a female cat, and then they smile at each other, and there are hearts in the air between them, and then lo and behold a new kitten appears.

Glad we figured that out.

Feelin' groovy

This afternoon Amelia packed her bag and got herself all gussied up for a sleepover at her friend Andrea's house.  As I was walking her around the corner to Andrea's, Amelia said, "Mom,  I know I look really cute.  I can just feel it." 

Short days

Wednesdays are early out school days for the girls, and I LOVE love love love love this. It is so nice to have one day during the school week that they can have a nice long playdate, or relax for a few hours before launching into the nightly homework, dinner, reading, bedtime routine.

Today I had the car loaded up and when the kids got out of school, we headed up to ski. Amelia's friend Ellie came along.

I didn't realize that there isn't a 4-person beginner ski lift on the side of the resort that is open mid-week, so two of the girls would have to ride the lift without me. That was almost a deal breaker. But Maddie and Mia got brave and went on the lift for the first time without a parent, while I rode behind with Ellie. After the first scary time (for me and them! Who was going to hold onto my babies with a deathgrip so they didn't fall off???), it was old news, and we got in a bunch of great runs in the 2.5 hours we skied.

Seriously, where did she get this pose?  She even had her lips all puckered up like my teenage niece Macady does in all her photos.  Kolby thinks it's too much Disney channel.

Spiderweb Park

The girls had school off today for President's Day, so after lounging around in p.j.'s all morning, I made them get dressed so we could get out and enjoy the sunshine.

This is one of our favorite parks.  My photos stink--it was very sunny, and I was taking pics with my phone.  

Happy Valentine's Day