Handy Steve

I convinced Steve that the TV over the fireplace was awesome, but he wanted to mount it on an "articulating arm" so he could move it around. He borrowed a special drill from some guy and drilled into the mortar of the fireplace. I was sure he was going to reduce our house to rubble. And, for a while, that seemed like a possibility:

Schroeder supervising

But, Steve did it! And the TV looks great! Now everyone is happy.

With it's new location, we freed up a bunch of floor space in the living room and I created a "conversation nook." As Steve pointed out, it's a place I go to talk to...myself. The whole family watched The Secret Life of Walter Mitty last night on the new set up and it was very nice!! Although, Wm declared the movie "boring" about 15 minutes in and disappeared into his room. Typical.

Wm goes to another birthday party tomorrow afternoon - and Steve and I got free tickets to the Home & Garden Show at the fairgrounds. So everyone wins!! 

I just thought this was hilarious:

Astronomy

After I tucked Wm in last night, about 30 minutes later, I heard, "Moooooom?" So I went in his room and he was all agitated. He had decided that he does not want to be a computer programmer when he grows up, but, instead, wants to be an astronomer. He was very worried that astronomy was hard and he wouldn't graduate from college (#9yearoldproblems). He goes, "how hard is astronomy in college?" I go, "Well, I took an astronomy class in college and did well. Does that help?" He smiled really big and he goes, "Definitely. That tells me everything I need to know." He immediately calmed down and went to sleep. Burn.

Spring!

What a gorgeous weekend! Sunny, blue skies, and upper 60's! We had all the windows open and aired out the house on Saturday. When does that happen in February! It felt like spring. We took a long family walk and even saw some little flowers blooming!

 

We had a super busy weekend! On Saturday, I went to lunch and shopping with Suzanne while The Boys went to some hobby shop (train sets, model airplanes, and other masculine hobbies). When I got home, we rearranged our living room. We put the TV over the fireplace. Steve is not 100% sure he likes that.

Neck pain...right ahead!

Then, Wm went to a sleepover birthday party and Steve and I went to dinner at a friend's house. We stayed out late and partied it up.

On Sunday, we ran a million errands and I hung out in the kitchen a bunch - I made 2 kinds of scones, cookies for Wm's school lunches, mini calzones for his lunches, and peach jam (for the scones!)

Wm said it was a GREAT weekend! He has another birthday party next weekend, so he's a party animal! Here he is being a goof (again).

Popular

Wm had a grand time at my office. He is very popular with students and coworkers. He's like the unofficial mascot of BME. The whole day, he has visitors who want to hang out with him. When I finished up with a student appointment, I checked my phone and this had shown up on there from next door:

 

 

 

Wm having more fun at work than me.

I also had a great birthday yesterday! Steve made me a nice breakfast, a friend took me out to lunch, and coworkers showered me with candy. Then, the highlight, was dinner at La Tavola. Wm got pizza and LOVED it! And my friend Mel showed up at the restaurant with flowers!! Afterwards, we stuffed ourselves with cookies. I could barely sleep I was so full!! That's how you know it was a good day.

The Boys at La Tavola

Snow Day

We celebrated Valentine's Day with an all pink dinner!

Pink mac n cheese, cauliflower with pink sauce, apple, and pink sparkling juice

Pink cupcakes for dessert!

Then we all took the day off on Monday and partied! Mimi and I went shopping and out to lunch - and had a BLAST!! Meanwhile, Steve took Wm to the movies. Then, we got some snow, so we went out and built a snowman, had a snowball fight, and basically got wet and cold. Wm looked very cute in his snow pants! Then, we got A LOT more snow over night, so Wm has a snow day today. I brought him in to work with me, so he's next door in "his office."

 

 

 

Snow Pant Pete

Symphony

We had a great time at the symphony last night! Before we left, we had an amazing dinner at home and wore our fancy duds for our fancy dinner. Then we braved the frigid temps to head to the theater downtown. It was SUPER cold, but we parked really close, so we didn't freeze to death. We took pics before we went:

The boys looking cute!

Photographer Wm!

Me and Wm looking cute!

Wm had this to say when I came downstairs:

1. On my hose: "Those are weird, see-through pants."

2. On my heels: "High shoes!?! You hate high shoes!"

Then, Steve started taking rapid-fire pictures and I had to attack him to get my phone back:

Pre-symphony family selfie

You weren't supposed to have cameras in the theater, but I snapped one of Wm before things got started:

And at intermission with the stage:

The show was AMAZING. It was just normal symphony stuff until intermission. Then, after intermission, a band came out and played Journey songs with the symphony - and they ROCKED it. The singer was unbelievably good. Wm loved the whole thing and we stayed until the bitter end. He was exhausted when it was over, but he said it was "a million billion times better" than the symphony he saw with school last week. 

You were DEFINITELY not allowed to take video recordings in the theater. So I'm not sure how this got on my phone. But, somehow a snippet of the band rocking out with the symphony managed to show up on there....somehow...

Celery

The other night, I set out crudités for us to snack on as we waited for dinner to be ready. Steve, apparently, was not a fan of the fact that there was celery on the platter. Of course, neither was Wm. So I told Steve to set a good example and eat his damn celery. He nicely ate it all up. HOWEVER, yesterday, I discovered mummified celery that he had HIDDEN under his chair cushion and forgot about!! STEVE hid the celery. Not Wm!! Well, Wm found that high-larious. Then Wm decided that Steve should be punished for his sneaky food-hiding behavior. So Steve had no screens last night. And he's also on my list! At least it wasn't sardines (also on Steve's list of hated foods).

Snow!

We finally got enough snow (barely 2 inches, but it's something!) for Wm to go out and play in it! Steve murdered him, but the ground was frozen, so he could only halfway bury the Wm corpse:

He went with a smile

Steve: Schroeder is like a bad ex-girlfriend who just doesn't get the hint and won't go away.

We go see the symphony on Saturday. It should be a fun time! The HIGH is 12, so we decided to forgo eating at a fancy place beforehand to minimize outside time. The plan is to have a fancy dinner at home before we go. Then we are going to a nice dinner out on my birthday instead. I also didn't take into account that the symphony is Valentine's Day weekend - so all the restaurants will be crazy! By Wednesday, we should be good to go. La Tavola...here we come!

Wm is having a grand time of it. Yesterday at his Before School program, they had a hot chocolate party. Then, Friday is his class Valentine's Day party. Saturday we go to the symphony, Wednesday we go out to dinner and he gets gourmet pizza, and next Saturday he has a birthday sleep over to attend. Quickly arriving in March is spring break, then shortly after that we head to Toronto. By the time we get back, Wm only has 5 more weeks of 4th grade!! Time flies!! OH - and sandwiched in there is Wm's 10th birthday - DOUBLE DIGITS! Wm is quite the man about town.

Funny Boys

Wm: [whispering to Steve]
Me: What's going on?
Wm: NOTHING.
Me: Whaaaaat??? Tell me!
Wm: It's about Valentine's Day. It's a secret. You'll find out.
Me: Ohhhhh! Am I your valentine?
Wm: Of course! You're my mom.
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve: Xanthapus keeps asking me to do stuff with him.
Me: Oh, that's nice.
Steve: I don't want to.
Me: Dude. He's trying to be your friend.
Steve: I know. UGH.
Me: You are the worst. Go do something with the poor man.
Steve: But I don't want toooooooo!!!!!

Also, Jessica sent me this and EVERYONE needs to read it. In its entirety. READ IT.

Insane-o Steve

Steve and Schroeder were lounging on the bed while I tinkered on my phone. I randomly just started taking a video because they were cute and Schroeder was clearly enjoying his belly scratch. Little did I know I would be able to capture Steve being weird! BONUS! So, stay tuned for the surprise ending: