Thank you, tía Audrey!

I meet some really nice people in the course of my job. 

Audrey is one of the authors of the textbooks we use in lower division Spanish, and we know each other really only through conferences and workshops. at ACTFL last fall she met Kennedy in person, after following her, and her sisters, on this blog. A couple weeks ago, Audrey gave Kennedy (through a textbook company rep who lives in Gainesville, at their yearly sales meeting) this cute hat.

Kennedy appreciated the warmth on this cool January morning, and I too am grateful to have such wonderful people in my life.

Make a wish!

I have lots of memories of breaking wishbones as a kid... the anticipation of waiting for it to dry, thinking of a wish and my sister and I each taking a side and pulling. It probably means that I cook a whole lot less than my mom did, but I just let Resli and Lela enjoy that experience for the first time. 

This time, Lela won. I don't know what she wished for, but earlier she had told me that she was going to wish that nobody in the world would ever be sick again.

Spot o' tea?

A cup of afternoon tea, with a little milk and honey, is one of my favorite guilty pleasures. I decided to invite Resli and Lela to join me for a cup, to see if they shared the family trait. (Both my mother and my grandmother love(d) a good cup of tea!) Theirs was weak, sweet and lukewarm.

Resli was skeptical, to say the least. She sniffed it and refused to taste it.

Lela at least took a sip, but went no further.

That's ok, there's still time for them to grow to enjoy the finer things in life!

Just dance!

We've finally discovered the true joy of the Wii: 

Just Dance 3!

It gets the whole family up and dancing. Or at least moving in dance-like ways. 

Harvey and I had a blast (and I totally kicked his butt), but Resli and Lela did too. 

It was so good I needed a video...

And I'm embarrassed at what it might say about the physical shape we're in but we were all sweating and out of breath and exhausted after half an hour!

SEVEN!

Hello blogfans! 

Well, looky what we have here:

Yes, right here - look at the iPad!

Ta-daaa! Yes indeed folks, I am now SEVEN months old!

And super proud of myself, I might add.

Theater critics

If you don't have small children you may have missed the exciting news of this past weekend - Disney re-released Beauty and the Beast ... in 3D! So of course we had to go. (Parental editorial comment: the cost for 2 adults and 2 kids to go to a 3D movie in Gainesville, in the afternoon, is $48!!!!!!!)

When we got our glasses I was shocked to find that they are no longer cardboard, like this.

(That tells you how long it's been since I've been to a 3D movie, huh?)

This is what they give you now (and then ask you to recycle them afterwards):

Here are the Ward family reviews:

Harvey: It's a great movie that doesn't need 3D gimmicks.

Gillian: Great music. The glasses gave me a headache.

Resli: Awesome. (Her reaction at the first 3D image was "OH MY GOSH DADDY LOOK!". She then screamed every time anything came at her.)

Lela: Good. (Her opinion may be somewhat colored by the fact that she only wore the glasses for about 2 minutes total. The whole blurry image thing didn't seem to bother her...?)

The Great Tomato Mystery

Last weekend the weather was beautiful, so we headed over to Ring Park for some fun, exercise and picnicking. 

    

The best part of the day by far was the mysterious occurrence of the Falling Tomatoes.

Here's what happened. Resli and Lela were playing on the gym thing, while Harvey and I sat on a nearby bench. I started snacking on some grape tomatoes I had brought for lunch. I came across a sort of squishy one that I didn't want to eat, so I lobbed it over into the woods. But hey, I'm no great athlete, so it fell short and landed next to the girls. THEY FREAKED OUT and couldn't figure out where it was coming from. So I thought that was so funny I sacrificed the rest of my snack and kept throwing tomatoes. Some landed nearby, some went over their heads, and some hit them straight on. Regardless, they had no clue where they were coming from. They spent quite a long time discussing the various options (falling from the sky, someone hiding in the bushes throwing them, etc.) but couldn't figure it out. 

Eventually, after we sat down to our picnic, Harvey and I walked them through the process of elimination path to discover that it really had been me doing it all along. They thought it was funny. But Harvey and I thought it was hysterical. I don't remember the last time I laughed that hard!

Does that make me a mean, cruel parent? Maybe, but that's a risk I'm willing to take!

Girl Scout Cookies!

Dear friends and family-
Today is your lucky day! Please see the video for further details:

If you're interested in placing an order, please email me or message me on Facebook. Thanks for your support!

OK, I take it back!

Remember a couple days ago when I was making fun of Florida for its lame winters? Well, I would like to retract that mockery now, as Florida has shown me that it is in fact capable of bringing some winter-y weather our way. 

This morning on my drive to work it was 26 degrees. Yea yea yea, that's not really cold to many of you, but by these standards down here it sure is!

Everyone had to get out their warmest clothes

and their brightest smiles, of course!

Dr. Seuss is in the house!

Reeny and Kenn sent a wonderful box o' fun down our way, which arrived shortly after Christmas. But no, not too late, it was perfect timing because we were all just about going crazy at home! (One or more of this family had been sick for the past two weeks, so we didn't get out too much.

The floor puzzle was a big hit, 

and they were proud to finish it. Lela called for reinforcements from the Cat in the Hat book and  her stuffed jaguar. (And Daddy helped a bit too...)

The flashcards and posters were great too!

Heartfelt thanks from the weary parents!

Camera fun

The Resli Series

The Lela (and Mami) Series

The Sleepy Kennedy (and Daddy) Series

Whose daughter is this?!?

To accompany her black-eyed peas tonight, Resli got out the (uncooked) celery to munch on a stick.

If you know anything about my culinary tastes, you know that there are few things I despise more than celery. (I get that from my mom...)

So where on earth did Resli get her culinary tastes from?

(Yea, Harvey.)

Measuring time

As a new year begins (and Happy 2012 to you all!), we've decided to start a new tradition around here - one we honestly should have begun, oh, about 6 or 7 years ago. 

Every January 1st, we will measure the girls and track their height. We also want to do what we've seen some friends of ours do, which is take a picture of them with an object, the same object every year, to put the changes into perspective. So, here are 2012's entries.

Resli's height:

Lela's height:

Kennedy's height, with help:

(She wasn't standing when we took the picture, which is why the line marking her height is noticeably higher!)

And then we took some shots of all three of them together on our couch, with Tuga, my favorite turtle. (He was a gift from Meliss to me when we visited Ocracoke Island in 2001.)

Check back in 2013 to see what or who has changed!