The Circus and CANDY!!!!

We went to our 4th circus show with Addie this year! We have gone every year since Addie was born..hard to believe. We started when Addie was 9 months old. We being YaYa, Granddad, Addie and myself!

Last year we learned that if you get to the circus an hour early you get to go down on the floor and see one of the elephants up close and personal. Wow..those things are HUGE! YaYa was nervous it was going to stampede and thought we should stay in our seats! Thank goodness no one was saying "told you so" because we went down on the floor...and there was no stampede! This elephant's talent was to paint a picture by holding paint brushes with his trunk. Addie LOVED this. All day long I asked Addie what her favorite part of the circus was and she kept coming back to "the elephants". So..I am glad we got there early!

Of course eating is a huge part of the Circus...Addie actually turned down popcorn though..Can you believe it?! We couldn't.

Later that weekend Addie and I made peppermint patties from scratch. Oh My Goodness. Not to toot my own horn but I thought they were delicious! Peppermint Patties are one of my favorite candies. So when I found the recipe and realized how easy they were to make...I was thrilled!

Addie pretty much just ate the powdered sugar while I did everything else! She had it ALL over her....

Taste test! Success!

We added pink food coloring just for fun! You can't really tell from this picture but the recipe made a TON! I kept it in my freezer. I was curious to see how long it would stay fresh if I kept it in the freezer but needless to say....it only lasted a week. Mmm. Mmm. Good.

Valentine's Weekend!

Well...I gave in....more stuffed animals. We went to The Disney Store Friday February 11 with me giving Addie one instruction....."no stuffed animals". Well of course...that was all that she wanted. I kept an eye on what she toted around the store that night. Once Addie finally picked something out that was not a stuffed animal, Mom and Dad (YaYa and Granddad), distracted Addie while I went back to buy the stuffed animals that Addie just had to have. Needless to say the next morning when Addie woke up and saw them sitting in her playroom...She was thrilled!

Of course she loved the Disney chocolate too.

You slap a princess on a box and everyone buys it...no matter what it is..or what it tastes like. Addie was soo sweet to offer me a piece of her "princess" chocolate. Wow....that was probably the worst chocolate I have ever eaten in my whole life. I couldn't even finish it. It basically tasted like wax with a little brown food coloring thrown in. But WAIT...it is princess chocolate so of course Addie loved it!

Addie was invited to a birthday party at Chuck E Cheese on Feb 12th! Addie LOVES this place. The picture above shows Addie with her good school friend, Kaitlyn. Kaitlyn and Addie have a knack for getting in trouble together at school.....almost every day. Addie's poor teacher, Ms. Lorie, has had to separate them lately because they are both really good instigators at getting the other one to NOT follow the rules!

This is the birthday girl, Viana!

Addie loving on Chuck E Cheese! No fear of a mouse that towers over her.....

We finished out our Valentine's weekend with Addie showing me her skills on the computer! I am so proud of her. We love the website, Starfall. Addie has learned to use a mouse and navigate her way through the program all by herself! Perhaps all 3 year olds are doing this but it still amazes me how much she knows!

Roofin' is the life for me.....

This weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to be a part of Clark Howard's 2011 Habitat for Humanity House Build. It was about 35 degrees this morning and raining when I left my house around 645. They build their houses rain or shine so you have to come prepared. After I put on long johns (top and bottom), jeans, fleece pullover, fleece jacket, rain jacket, ear warmers, gloves, scarf, wool socks and work boots...I was out the door! Clark welcomed all of us when we got there and then we got started! The first half of the day I painted siding! I learned, well I already knew, that I am an extremely messy painter....This picture really doesn't do it justice but needless to say...this jacket is now a painting jacket because this stuff won't be coming off anytime soon!

Then we headed to the Varsity truck that was waiting to feed us a really healthy lunch of chili dogs, french fries and onion rings! A friendly face quickly took our order by properly saying "Whatayahave?" (only true Varsity goers will get that..and Clark really did say it!)

This was day 3 of this house build..can you believe it? This has all been done in three days!

After lunch I decided it was time for me to get some roof time in.....and I loved it! I shingled, nailed, measured and did all that other stuff that roofers do! I learned the proper way to lay shingles and I learned the proper way to remove the nails that you have put in the wrong place....with a Cat Paw! This became my favorite tool..because when I first started I put a lot of nails in the wrong place! Luckily I had a great teacher who was very patient. I guess you have to be patient when you are working with people that are doing this for free! The girl in blue below, Krista, was my shingle teacher. She has been volunteering her time time with Habitat for over 7 years.

OK...so the picture below is AWFUL of me....but this was towards the end of the day and after all....Roofers can't look pretty all the time...right!
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Clark was right up there on the roof next to us and hard at work! Clark's brother was helping out too. They are the most down to earth people. Of course I haven't met that many millionaires in my time but I can only assume that most are not as humble or giving as Clark. He has been working with Habitat since 1996 and building homes. He has sponsored about 3 homes a year since then. Really amazing! We met the future homeowners of the house we were working on and they were hard at work with the rest of us. I was not that familiar with how Habitat actually works but the future homeowners have to put in 250 volunteer hours of work prior to getting their house. They were very appreciative. Overall...It was a very successful day and I can't wait to do this again!