On recycling the peanut butter jar...

OK, so I've been recycling for years and I'm a huge supporter. I even break down my items and sort everything out according to the town's instructions. Anything I can do to help maintain (or even better) the environment I'm all for it. There is, however, one item of recycling that always causes me inner turmoil. The peanut butter jar. One one hand, I don't want to put any food wastes into the recycling, so everything gets rinsed out before going in the bin. On the other hand, I expend so much effort and hot water trying to get the last of the peanut butter out of the jar that I feel like I'm wasting far more than I'm saving. At what point does it become not worth the effort? Should I just toss the nearly-empty jar into the trash and let it take up space? Should I casually leave the jar open and within reach of the dog, and then just recycle whatever parts of it he fails to digest? The town's instruction booklet doesn't offer me any help on this one...

Firehouse fun

We recently attended the Littleton Fire Department's Spaghetti Dinner. We all ate well, and of course the kids got covered in spaghetti sauce in the process. In fact, Lauren was so covered and so cute that a photographer from the local paper (Littleton Independent) asked to take her picture for the paper. We'll have to keep our eyes open for that one!

After dinner the kids got to play some games and play on the fire trucks. They loved playing on the fire truck and took turns sitting in each of the seats, pretending to drive to fires, and pretending to talk through the communication headphones. It was a joy to watch them have such a good time, and very nice of the firemen to be so patient with all these kids mishandling the equipment.

Busy Busy Busy

Lauren is always busy. She is so interested and active. It is a ton of fun when it is not wearing me out, and definitely shows me why there is an advantage to having kids when you are younger. She should have been the child I had when I was 28, not 38, but she makes me smile most of the time (yes, even when I am removing her from the top of the TV). Yesterday, Max went to "camp" at The Little Gym so it was just me and Lauren. Josh had gotten Max a wiffle ball set and he hadn't been too into sharing it, so I got Lauren her own ball and bat. She insisted that the baseball bat was called "my baseball" but she was thrilled. We went out back on a gorgeous day to play. She insisted on wearing Max's baby doll on her back. We had a very busy morning.

Butterflies!

There is a place called "The Butterfly Place" in town. I have wanted to visit it for quite a while, and finally got there on Monday with the kids and a couple of friends and their daughters. Max and Lauren really enjoyed it. Max was really intrigued by the "HabEEEtats" for the butterflies, and Lauren, who rode on my back the whole time, loved seeing the butterflies flying around. How do I know she enjoyed it? Every time we got in the car last week (we went on Monday), she said hopefully "bufwys?" I will definitely have to take her there again soon.

Daddy's Helpers

Josh has started making dinner (most) Sundays. I try not to help, though I do, from time to time, suggest. A couple of weeks ago, I suggested that he make pizza with the kids. They made the pizza dough using the recipe in Max's cookbook. Josh hadn't worked with yeast dough before, so it was a totally new experience with him (though he can work the bread machine). It is hard to cook with both kids, but he did a pretty good job at letting them help, even if it meant ending up with bizarely shaped pizzas with uneven cheese and watching more pepperoni end up in their mouths than the pizza (which is probably good as they like it cold, but not hot for some reason).

So Sweet

I usually manage to avoid buying cute little dresses for Lauren. It isn't that I never get her anything cute, but layered dresses, big bows, etc, are just not my style. However, I couldn't resist this find at Marshalls. It even came with a matching dress for her "baby." She loves it. It is a bit big, but still looks nice on her. The biggest issue now is when on earth will she wear it.

Easter

The kids really enjoyed Easter this year. We don't make a big deal out of it, and barely mention the Easter bunny, but last year, in a moment of weakness, I bought the kids an Italian Easter egg from Maria's in the North End. I wasn't really thinking this would become tradition, but Max remembered it clearly, so this year, Grandma and I went in and bought each child an egg (Lauren would definitely have noticed if she didn't get her own toy this year). Max was thrilled and had a great time opening his and finding his rooster in it. He also enjoyed helping Lauren open hers. We also hid plastic eggs filled with stickers around the house. They really enjoyed finding them.

I am not sure if we will to the chocolate eggs again next year as they really cause issues when it comes to kids wanting to eat chocolate all day, but they definitely are fun.

Kids in Wigs

The kids love to play with my wigs. We have two that we have decided to let them call their own. They love them. Max has claimed the black one as his, and Lauren, the blond. The results are pretty funny. For some reason, when Max puts "his" on, it really accentuates those beautiful red cheeks and lips (got to love those telling us his body is still making lots of red cells). Lauren's look is something else, too.

Oh, and just for the record, I do know that Max is going to hate me for this one when he gets older.

Another day to play in the snow

I think everyone was surprised at how much show we got this weekend, including the weather-people. There wasn't much talk of snow happening, and then on Thursday night / Friday morning they started predicting anywhere from four to ten inches falling from Friday night to Saturday morning. It did snow for a long time, but we ended up with about five inches of heavy snow. Saturday afternoon we packed up the kids, the dogs, and the snowshoes, and headed over to Great Brook Farm to tromp off through the woods. As usual, (and you'd think we'd plan for this by now) Max announced he wanted to get in the carrier. So we took Lauren down, put Max up, and of course Lauren wanted to get into Max's snowshoes. She stomped around in them for a while, announced "I doing it!", and then grew tired and asked me to take them off for her.


Max did eventually get down from the carrier again, and he and I trekked along while Mom and Lauren went off after the dogs. The dogs never get too far ahead of us, but they do spend a lot of time running back and looking at us as if to say "Well, are you guys coming or what?" Today Max made sure he payed attention to everything along the way so that we would know how to get back when we were done. Imagine his surprise when he found we walked in a big loop and ended up back where we started. At least he recognized that, so he must have been paying attention.




After trekking through the snow for an hour or two the kids were a little cold. At least that's the excuse they gave us when they asked for hot chocolates. In the winter they offer cross-country skiing at Great Brook Farm and one of the old farm buildings has been converted into a lodge and ski rental shop. We ordered hot chocolates for each of us and settled down at a picnic table. It was my first time in the lodge and I had a good time exploring the old silo and split-log benches. Max and Lauren, for the most part, sat and enjoyed some nice hot chocolate and talked with the other children. It was another good day in the snow for us all.

One more snowy day

Well, I got my wish of one last (?) good snowfall this winter! It snowed all day on Friday and left us with a good six inches of beautiful snow. After clearing the driveway and other necessities we decided to take the family over to the fairgrounds for some nice outdoor time. Max walked over in his snowshoes, but once we got to the park he took them off so he could run around with the dogs. Lauren wasted no time in asking to get down from the carrier and into the snowshoes herself. She's gotten big enough to wear them and did a fair job of stomping around in them. Max is getting big too and is finally big enough to walk to Diamond on his own. Well, almost big enough. Cisco loves running in the snow and it's really impressive to see how fast he can run.

It was nice to have another chance to see our neighborhood covered in snow again. It's really beautiful to look at, especially when it's fresh and still sticking to the tree branches. We often point out tracks in the snow to the kids and ask them to "help" identify what animal made them. And of course it's great to just watch them run around and have fun in it. They've been sledding in the yard, Max always helps me with the shoveling, and Lauren loves to stomp around like a yeti. It's been a good winter for us.