National turn of the TV week

We participated in National turn of your television week. (Thanks to Teacher Vicki from First Friends preschool who encouraged us to do this.) We got to read an array of books, play outside and ride bikes everyday, go to the parks in the neighborhood, and build with legos and tinkertoys. Jackson never asked to watch the TV once and was really excited about the challenge (his motivation was the icecream party he was promised). Boomer did a great job but did tell me a few times that he was bored and wanted to watch T.V. Jon was the holdout but helped participate by not turning on the T.V. until the kids went to bed.

The boys got to celebrate by having ice cream!

It was a excellent springboard for changing our habits. We've decided to watch just an hour of T.V. a day from now on. My only complaint is that I used to turn the TV on and take a nap for an an hour or two. I guess my napping days are over. Maybe I better reconsider an hour a day??

Here's what's on next week to choose from:

PUBLIC ACCESS
8:00 Blurry Steve
8:30 Inaudible City Council Meeting
9:00 Do We Have A Caller On The Line? Hello?
9:30 The Best Of Lunch Menus
10:00 My Friend Made This Short Film

E!
8:00 Andy Gibb: A Nightmare Descent Into Booze & Pills
8:30 John Belushi: A Nightmare Descent Into Booze & Pills
9:00 Margot Kidder: A Nightmare Descent Into Booze & Pills
9:30 River Phoenix: A Nightmare Descent Into Booze & Pills
10:00 Boy George: A Nightmare Descent Into Booze & Pills

ESPN2
8:00 Finland's Brutalest Men
8:30 Being Hit By A Trolley Regional Semifinals
9:00 60 Minutes Of Joe Theismann's Leg Breaking
10:00 Coed Spread-Eagled Weight-Training From Maui

LIFETIME
8:00 How Can I Choose Between My Daughters?
9:00 The Abused Wife Who Didn't Mean To Kill Her Fourth Husband in Self-Defense
10:00 The Boy Whose Mommy Watched Far Too Much Television

TNN
8:00 Well, I'll Be Dipped in Pigturd!
8:30 Roadkill Recipe to Warm the Cockles of Your Heart
9:00 You Hush Up, Wanda Mae
9:30 Sheeeeeeee-ewt!
10:00 Hold 'Er Down While I Get the Rifle From the Truck


Right now, TNN is looking the best!

Valentines Day

This is a very tardy post but I wanted to post it anyway. I found this great idea online of how to make some cute personal valentine's day cards:

Here's how ours turned out:

Monster Shirt

Boomer received a shirt with a monster eating a sock from my sister Marnie for his second birthday (almost 2 years ago). It is his favorite shirt which he lovingly calls "my monster shirt". Even though it is a size 2 he continues to wear this shirt as often as possible. Because he loves the shirt so much he asks me to wash it daily. He is teaching himself how to use the washer and dryer so that he can have a clean "monster shirt." If his beloved shirt is in the washer, he will take it out and put it in the drier. The other day he started a new load of laundry just so he could wash his monster shirt. It is such a part of his life that we decided to get some pictures:

The Easter Spirit

Easter seemed to come so quickly this year that we never really got the "Easter Spirit". (???) Jon, Jackson and Sadie participated in the Villebois neighborhood Easter hunt on Friday. They got to see the Easter bunny and overdose on Candy. Boomer, was tired and cranky and fell asleep just as the hunt started. Michelle stayed home and talked to a nice man from India for an hour who finally resolved our wireless internet problems. Therefore, we have no pictures to show. (Boomer got to hunt for some eggs around the house when he woke up and Grandma provided another hunt for us on Sunday.)

As per our tradition, we went to Grandma and Grandpa's for dinner (and the hunt). We didn't do easter baskets this year. As noted before "no Easter Spirit". But the kids are no worse for wear and really didn't even know that we had neglected them. That is the great thing about little kids. They only have the expectations that you give them. I keep trying to leverage that for Christmas this year but I think Jon feels guilty buying them only one gift.

Jon is in the process of hiring another office manager for Beaverton. We hope the next one last longer than six months. This will be his fourth one in 1.5 years. He's really enjoying the Maid's business, even though it can be challenging at times.

Michelle is in the throes of training for a triathlon, it's a short one but fun to train for. I signed up for a fantastic swim class in Canby and am feeling alot better about the swim. The only negative effect is that I have developed an allergy to Chlorine. So even though I'm feeling pretty athletic these days people think I am sick with my stuffy red nose and my persistant cough.
As always life is good but I still wish we were in Hawaii

Naughty Leprechaun

St Patrick's Day: In preschool this year Jackson's teacher set up a leprechaun trap. Unfortunately, the naughty leprechaun only left some candy and magic sprinkles behind. Jackson is not one to give up easily and decided that we could make a better trap. We went online for some help with our creation (the Internet is the source of all knowledge...the other day Jackson asked me to go online and check if Bigfoot is real) and this is what we came up with:

To our chagrin, that naughty leprechaun escaped our trap as well. Jackson spent the next two days working on new versions of the trap. After three days of Jackson constantly pestering me to help him build new traps, I spoiled the fun and told Jackson the bad news that the leprechaun went back to Ireland and we would have to wait until next year to catch him. What I really was thinking was "Never again, I'm tired of these leprechaun traps." The question foremost on Jackson's mind during the process was "What would you do with the pot of gold once we catch the leprechaun?" Of course I told him that I would buy a bigger house with a yard. He wondered, "Then can I get a hunting dog, Mom?" My reply? "Sure Sweetheart, just as soon as we catch that leprechaun."