Mike & Ariel

Wrestling

I saw on my friend's blog, Laurel, that we can convert our blogs into books through http://www.blurb.com/. This is motivating me to keep a more consistent and, hopefully, accurate family history. I want to make sure this is in the record books. Hee hee.

Growing up in the Hawkes house it was the norm to engage in arm wrestle, leg wrestle, leg lift, pull up, push up contests with siblings, parents or friends. Hopefully, this will explain why we do this in our house. Isaac is the thumb wrestling pro. He will seriously beat me 4 out of 5 times and has even acknowledged he has a strategy.

Lucas was thrilled to take the pictures for the first time.

Although Isaac holds the record for thumb wrestling, I will boast I am pretty good at leg wrestling. I think the score today was Mike-4 Lisa-4. A tie. When I was younger, I must have been much stronger because I had an easier time defeating my older brothers. I think David is still too scared to have a rematch.

Going. . .

Going. . .

Gone!

I should be embarrassed for posting these photos!

This Week

The temperature this week reached mid 30's and some of the snow started to melt. The boys decided it was spring and pulled out their scooters and super hero costumes and rode around without coats feeling the warm 35 degree weather on their face. While the boys were feeling like super heroes this week, I for some reason was feeling like super grouch. For about 3 days I just couldn't kick the grouchiness. I was very aware of my grouchy condition and I came up with my top groucho things of the week list.
1. Mike clocked in 110 hours at work. This does not include the studying while home. Aren't their only 165 hrs in a week?!? Add in for sleep (very little) and that's the whole week.
2.Taking the kids on vacation without Mike, driving in "dangerous winter weather conditions," printing bad map quest directions and getting lost.
3. Mailbox being knocked out of ground while out of town so my mail is not being delivered until it is fixed. I think the ground needs to thaw before that happens.
4. Ariel's ear infection STILL has not cleared up and she on another round of antibiotics.

To be fair and balanced there is a list of Good things that have happened this week:

1.Superheroes
2.Boys outside on scooters

3.Sewing fun legwarmers for Ariel

4.Piggy tails

5. Getting together with friends

6. Successful Young Women's party

Almost Spring

The temperature this week reached mid 30's and some of the snow started to melt. The boys decided it was spring and pulled out their scooters and super hero costumes and rode around without coats feeling the warm 35 degree weather on their face. While the boys were feeling like super heroes this week I for some reason was feeling like super grouch. For about 3 days I just couldn't kick it. I was just very aware of my grouchy condition. I started analyzing why I might feel so grouchy. Not good reason. But I did come up with my top groucho things of the week list.
have a few super groucho things
1. Mike clocked in 110 hours at work. This does not include the studying while home. Aren't their only 165 hrs in a week?!?
2.Taking the kids on vacation without Mike, driving in "dangerous winter weather conditions", printing bad mapquest directions and getting lost.
3. mailbox being knocked out of ground while out of town so my mail is not being delivered until it is fixed. I think ground needs to thaw until that happens.
4. Ariel's ear infection STILL has not cleared and on another round of antibiotics

So to be fair and balanced there is a list of Good things that have happened this week

1.Boys playing outside in super hero costumes
2.Pulling out sewing machine and making Ariel fun legwarmers

3.Pigtails
4.Visiting friends in Rochester

Egg Hunt Minnesota Style

We had a nice egg hunt with our friends in Rochester, Minnesota. It looked and felt more like we were getting together for Christmas rather than Easter. It was a little challenging to hide and find eggs in deep snow. I would drop an egg in the snow and it would immediately disappear from view. Finding eggs was more of the challenge. The boys would just plow through the snow with their hands, hoping to grasp something in their gloves. I noticed if you looked at the right angle, you could see the egg colors through the snow. The property where we were egg hunting had many streams. Isaac, unfortunately, found his way into the middle of a stream by falling down the embankment, which lead to his eggs falling out of his basket, and he chased his eggs down stream as they went floating along. Which led to him slamming into a large tree, scratching up his face and getting a small goose egg on his brow bone. I should not forget Ariel also took a spill on the deck, cutting her upper lip and gums. Later Lucas, not wanting to be left out, took off running throughout the mall and slammed his face into a brochure stand and received a long gash and deep blue bruise. I was feeling a little self conscience that my kids were looking like victims of child abuse. I think this is my excuse for no photos of the kids in their Easter best.

Milestone

Lucas has an insatiable appetite for sugar and sweets that reminds me a lot of my older brother, Jimmy. Jimmy was known to horde sugar cereal, fruit roll ups, etc. from the rest of his siblings. Unlike Lucas, Isaac likes to save his sweets in a "secret" spot which Lucas gets into on a daily basis and takes what he likes. Isaac is tolerant of the Thief Lord. Well, the other day Lucas chose the best of his preschool Easter loot and gave it to his little sister. This is a VERY big milestone. I know he is crazy about his sister and this is the proof - a strawberry swirl bunny head lollipop.

PS: (for my PS loving cousins) I have a pet peeve against using mixing bowls, Tupperware, serving spoons, wooden spoons (you get the picture) to eat things out of such as cereal and ice cream. None of my boys have issues with that.

PPS: Ariel worked for 3 hours in her crib for that hairdo, if that isn't obvious. We are going for the Einstein look.

LOST

LOST

Lower Right Lateral Incisor went missing

8:05 pm March 14, 2008.

tooth is small and white and might have traces of blood

last seen in Isaac's mouth while playing Guess Who in the family room

$1 reward

Me and my Peeps

Lucas shredding

the end of the day

meeting up on the bunny hill

Isaac in the background all hyped.

We had a good time snowboarding. I might think twice before taking both boys again by myself. The boys are at different levels and Isaac spent most of the time waiting at the bottom of the hill for us. Lucas was so upset by Isaac beating us that his only focus was on beating Isaac, translation: me holding his harness as we flew down the hill at high speeds. After about our 8th crash from his board crossing mine or our edges hitting, I nixed the idea of going tandem. Lucas is quite a character. He has incredibly strong leg muscles and the potential to be great at this. Frustrated by his skill level at times, he would say, "I am only 3, Mom!" He is 4. Being 5 is a very big deal to him and we talk daily about how many more days until he is 5, which happens to be the last day of the year. His dream-come-true would be to be 10 years old. Claiming he was 3 told me a lot about his frustration about being so far behind Isaac.

Roller Skating

Tonight, as a church activity, we rented the roller skating rink. We showed up on time and had the rink all to ourselves for about 15 minutes. That was just enough time to warm up and work on our skills. Isaac had a lot of fun and even won the limbo contest.
I have a blister the size of a quarter on my foot. Ariel enjoyed being carried around on skates. They banned us from doing that after about an hour. I guess they saw we are lacking in judgement.

Lucas has no interest in roller skating and will only ice skate. He had fun climbing the carpeted walls.

What a fun family activity!

It's a Chic Thing -- Leap Year Day

Starting in 1938, February 29th became known as Sadie Hawkins day – a day set aside for ladies to profess their love and commitment for the men in their lives. Ariel and Anna dressed up and went out dancing. The tradition of Leap Year Day being a day when Girls Rule originates in Ireland in the 5th century, when St. Bridget convinced St. Patrick to allow one day a year that a woman could propose. Incidentally, St. Bridget proposed to St. Patrick that day. Another part of this tradition was that if the man rejects the proposal, he should soften the blow by providing a kiss, one pound currency, and a silk gown.

In our family, it is now Nate & Mandy's wedding day and we had a lot of fun dancing at their wedding celebration.

"Some women are dripping with diamonds. Some women are dripping with pearls. Lucky me! Lucky me! Look at what I'm dripping with. . . Little girls."

Chocolate lovers unite.

This year's crop of girl cousins had fun hanging out together at Mabel's blessing party.

Lisa & Ariel, Thank you for traveling all the way out to be with us. Love, Haley (guest blogger)

Dinner Special

Signs of Spring

Other parts of the country are showing signs of spring. Not here. We are embracing the winter and will be enjoying winter sports long after most people have put their winter coats away. The local ice rink offers free ice skating to preschool aged children Tuesday mornings.

Lucas pushing an old broken chair for balance.

Lucky Me

Last night Ariel and I flew home from Utah. The first leg of the journey was somewhat comical. My top 3 things Ariel did on board:
1. Relentlessly try to wake up the sleeping teenage girl sitting next to us. I finally had to remove Ariel from this situation which led to number 2.
2. While walking up and down the aisle 82 times, Ariel stopped to take a bite out of a passenger's shoes. This girl was wearing some Ugg like boots with spongy soles, her leg was crossed and her shoe was in the aisle a little lower than eye level. Ariel is getting her molars and has started biting pretty much everything, like teething babies do. Unfortunately, this time it was the sole of a stranger's shoe.
3. Tiring of the woman's shoe, Ariel continued down the aisle and tried to wrestle a man's novel out of his hands. She gave it her best effort but, never the less, the man won.
None of this made me lucky (note the title of this post) but it was the next leg of the journey where my luck began. The ticket agent at the gate was looking for 8 volunteers to get on the next flight. On her third request (and after a quick phone call to Mike) I decided to volunteer. For my reward, I got dinner and an airline ticket. Fabulous. But where I really scored was that my original flight never made it to our destination. Before touchdown, they turned around and headed back to their airport of origin. So if I had stayed on the flight, I would not have made it home until the wee hours of the next morning. However, I am still waiting for my luggage that stayed on that plane.

Boys on Boards

When the GIRLS are away, the BOYS will play!