(Almost) Naked Egg Dying

Saturday was egg dying day at the Sperle household. Dennis was working and it was a dreary rainy day so egg dying added a bit of sunshine to our otherwise cloudy day.
I only hard-boiled a dozen eggs and that just wasn't enough for Sadie. I ran to get the camera and when I came back, she already had most of them put into bowls.
Eli kept putting them into different colors and when he thought they were just the right color, he'd say, "This one is perfect." and then put it back into the egg carton to dry.
Sadie just wanted all of hers green.
A dozen "perfectly" dyed eggs.

By the way, the last post was our 200th post!! Aren't you sick of us yet?

Happy Easter 2008!

The Sperles dressed in their finery. I'll post some (almost) naked egg dying pictures later this week.

Best Friends

We rounded a new corner and it's a corner that moms the world over wait for. It's the "kids entertaining themselves in their room" corner and it's a whole new world for me. They have spent up to thirty minutes entertaining each other in their room without a mishap. It's a fabulous, fabulous place. Granted the first time they were up there by themselves I kept the baby monitor on because I was totally freaking out and thought that chaos was sure to follow, but they totally proved me wrong. Now, I can actually prepare a meal, sweep the floors, clean the bathroom and check my email all while the kids do their thing. Pure mommy bliss.

Lipstick and High Heels

You've gotta love Lip Smackers and Sadie is no exception:
Eli found these pain inducers in my closet:

Snow Update

When the winter storm was all said and done it left 20.4" of the white stuff on the ground setting a new record for the Columbus area. It's already almost gone as yesterday was 50 degrees. The snow was perfect for making forts and snowmen and snow animals and Sadie and Eli didn't even have to wear their mittens!

Lots and Lots of Snow!

Columbus is busy digging out of it's first major snowstorm since we've lived here. It started snowing yesterday morning and continued snowing and snowing and snowing. It finally let up around 6pm tonight. We are surrounded by white and had to go and see just how much there really was. Not quite sure the exact amount, but let's just say that there's a lot of it.
Eli is trying to build a snow house. I think this might be the entry way?
Sadie visiting the snow house, which ended up only having two rooms because Dad got a huge pile of snow on Eli's face while Eli was being covered by his snow-blanket while lying on his snowball pillow in his snow bedroom.

Leotards

I've mentioned before how much Eli and Sadie love gymnastics. Well, if you're going to go to gymnastics, you better look the part. I found a couple of really cute leotards at Once Upon A Child for a steal so I bought them so Sadie could wear them to class. Here she is saying "ta-da".

The only problem with Sadie's new leotards is that Eli likes them A LOT. He wanted to wear them all the time. He'd put one on, run around and say, "let's wrestle". He couldn't figure out why Sadie could wear one to gymnastics, but he couldn't. (This decision came after a long discussion between mom and dad one evening about a child being two and doing what he wants to do versus social norms. It was hard because we've never told him before that something is considered "boy" or "girl" before. But, now he knows and he says it often that "Leotards are for girls".). So, after much search on e-bay for a reasonably priced unitard that was not pink, black velvet, or sparkly in any way, shape or form, we came up with this (this is Eli in his "wrestling stance"):

It's a little big, but it's not pink, velvety, or sparkly, it was cheap and as an added bonus it's Buckeye colors. Perfect! He wore it to gymnastics today and I think it made him jump higher.

Did You See the Latest Blog Feature?

There is a new feature on the blog. "Kids Say the Darndest Things" is down the right hand column under the links to Eli's and Sadie's favorite places. I'm not sure how often I'll update it. I guess it depends on what they say!!

Always Wear Your Rubbers...

...when you're splashing in puddles.

Sadie in action...

...and a smile.
Eli in action...
...and a smile.It was a very good day!

What To Do On A Snow Day??

Dance in the kitchen, of course. Enjoy!

I'm Not Trying to Slack...

...but can you believe that I did not take ONE picture last week? How can that be?? Maybe next week.

Outside Time and Art

When it's nice enough we go outside:

And when it's cold we create masterpieces!

Bathtime

I hesitate to post pictures of my disgusting bathtub, but I hope you're too busy looking at the kids to notice all of the black mold! The kids love their baths and bathtime is even more fun with bubbles!

Ho, Ho, Ho!

Cool hair, dude.

Gymnastics!!!

As promised, here are some pictures of Eli and Sadie at gymnastics. They go to Wendy's Gym and are in the ones and twos class so they are in the same class. It's basically independent free play, but there are obstacle courses, a rope swing, bars, a trampoline, a foam pit and some other fun stuff that is just supposed to introduce them to the equipment and learn a few skills. They have a great time and LOVE every moment. Dennis gets to come too because he doesn't have class on Wednesday mornings when the gymnastics class is and it's a good thing because I don't think I could keep up with them otherwise. Sorry the pictures are bad. Either the kids are too fast or the camera is too slow because we got a lot of pictures that looked like this:

The Search for the Perfect Pre-School

Eli's going to be 3 in the fall which means that we can send him to pre-school. We hemmed and hawed about this but decided that Eli would benefit greatly from spending some time with other kids and adults, being in a school environment (afterall almost every kid and adult he knows goes to school) and spending some time away from mom and dad. Eli's gotten pretty clingly lately especially after he watched Nemo (only up to the scene where Nemo was taken by the scuba-diver) and deemed it the scariest movie ever and now refuses to be in a different room then we are in. So, we're on a mission to find the perfect pre-school. I know it's a bit early but classes fill up fast especially the morning times at good schools. We started searching for schools that are within a very close driving distance from our house (yes, that was our only standard). Turns out that there are about a gazillion that are pretty close to our house so we had to narrow our search down to those that are close to our house and to those that were recommended by someone (who could be a perfect stranger). We visited three this week and have two more on our list. Eli seems to like them all. Sadie too, but I don't think she knows that she's not going to pre-school--at least not in Columbus, Ohio. I really didn't think that pre-schools could be so different, but we were surprised. We visited a very "hippie" school that allows lots creative and free play, but that seemed to be about all they had planned and well, we do that at home and it just didn't seem to be a good fit for this family. I really like things neat and orderly and clean and I love schedules and plans and this school just didn't seem to have that though I do wish that I could be more creative and laid-back and I want my kids to be that way, but I really want a school-like environment that has a set curriculum and follows standards and does progress reports. We found that in another school we visited. I really like this school because it is a school and the kids were learning and having fun and following rules and reading and writing. We also visited a Private Catholic school which we also really liked and perhaps like it more than the other one as it had a very family-like atmosphere, but tuition is a bit higher and classes are a bit shorter. Only two more to check out before final decision time. Hopefully, we'll know be next Friday!

I'm also hoping to get some pictures this week of Eli and Sadie at gymnastics, which they both love, love, love. Sadie can't get enough of the trampoline and Eli totally digs the foam pit. We practically had to drag Eli out of there, which is saying a lot because he's always ready to leave.

Yes, it was 70 degrees here this week, which always scares the crap out of me even though we were outside non-stop. January and seventy degrees in Ohio just shouldn't go together. But, the week before that it was cold and snowy and we took the kids sledding. Eli loves the groovy hat...

Happy New Year!

We spent New Years morning going to Franklin Park Conservatory to see the enchanted train exhibit. The kids loved seeing the train nestled in the exotic plants and they got to stamp their passport, which was probably more fun for me!

Feeding the koi is so much fun. They are some very hungry goldfish. I love how colorful the area is with the Chihuly glass rolling around in the water. It might be my favorite place in the conservatory, but it's tough to beat the desert plants that I'm so fond of.

It's getting really really hard for Sadie to stand still for a second which is why there isn't a train in this picture. Sadie just couldn't wait for it to come around again!

Sadie managed to find the only puddle in the place and she managed to fall into the puddle while she was splashing around. It turns out that the bathrooms do not have fans only paper towels so it was a very wet ride home for her!

Eli's New Bike

After bribing Eli with M&Ms (they work for everything) we finally convinced him to ride his bike. He did great. Riding a big boy bike is very different from riding a big wheel so he has to get used to not pushing backwards as he ends up putting on the brakes. And on his hot wheel the pedals are connected to the wheel so once he gets started the momentum keeps him going, but on the big boy bike he has to push quite hard to keep himself moving. But, as you can see, he's getting the hang of it already.

The Blog Gets a New Look for 2008

As you may have noticed, I have been playing around with some of bloggers fine options. There is the great new picture of the kids, a list of links to places that we love to frequent, and a new poll. I changed the colors awhile back to Scarlet and Gray in honor of The OSU Buckeyes. It may change again, but give me some feedback.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

I'm a little late at posting Christmas pics. but they're really not all that exciting. As I'm sure I've stated before, this was the first year that Dennis and I have not made it to North Dakota since we were married (a whole 5 years ago yesterday!). We greatly missed our families, but we did enjoy the peacefulness that comes with not traveling over the holidays. We ate Christmas Eve dinner before mass at 5:30 and opened presents as soon as we got home. We spent most of Christmas day in our pjs eating and playing and napping. It was splendid.
The kids got way too many presents which I guess is the American way. Eli got lots and lots of new games: Cariboo, Candyland Castle, Elefun, and Treasure Quest. He loves them all and wants to play them ALL THE TIME! Not that Dennis and I don't love games. It's just that Sadie is not quite ready for them so it ends up being a battle everytime. Sadie loves Elefun though. She just stands there, holding the net and laughing as the butterflies fly out of the elephants trunk, but she never catches any butterflies.
This was the year of the stuffed animal for Sadie. People must know how much I dislike stuffed animals. No, it's not that I don't like them, it's that I don't have the room for a gazillion stuffed animals. And now Sadie has about 50. Don't worry. We keep them caged in her crib and she sleeps on the floor.


Opening presents was a very serious job for Sadie. She really preferred playing in the paper and boxes.


Eli got the job of "gift opener" this year. He opened everyones presents and said, "Wow!", "That's nice." or "I like this." after opening every gift, even if it belonged to me or Dennis.

Santa Claus came and brougt Eli just what he asked for for Christmas-- a big boy bike. So, why isn't Eli sitting on the bike in this picture? Because, Eli will have nothing to do with the bike. He tells everyone he got a big boy bike and how much he likes it, but that's about as far as it goes.

Santa brought Sadie this way cool retro-kitchen. (Notice the stuffed animals falling out of the toy box in the background.)

"Don't send anymore stuffed animals. I have enough."