MJ's News and Notes

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Ice cream!

I stole an idea from our ECFE class to make a homemade and cheap ice cream play set for Ben & Maddie.

From 2012-03-25

The set consists of:
1) Pompoms as ice cream (from JoAnn)
2) A cleaned-up ice cream tub
3) Cheap plastic scoops (from Walmart)
4) Cheap plastic bowls (from Walmart)
5) "cones" made out of brown construction paper

From 2012-03-25

Sunday, March 11, 2012

Spring is here! (we sorta skipped winter, I guess)

It's been so awesome having the kids outside yesterday and today!

Yesterday was the moms of multiples garage sale, so I not only unloaded a ton of our old stuff, but also got a few new things.

The big purchase was two scooters. Ben & Maddie tried them out right away yesterday afternoon -- including their new bike helmets.

From 2012-03-03

And here's Maddie wearing one of the two fire chief hats I got them (Ben is really into fire trucks)

From 2012-03-03

I also got Ben a play tractor with a trailer. The thing is pretty big and he fell in love with it instantly. This morning he nearly had a meltdown cause Maddie tried to play with it. For Maddie I got a play cash register (with money!). Yesterday she kept opening it up and then pulling out a piece of money and divvied them up between me, Ben and Jamey.

And I found this picture from awhile ago -- whenever we got that last snow. I took the kids out sledding and they wanted hot chocolate when they came in. However, they don't really want the hot chocolate they want the marshmallows. So I just gave them each a small bowl of marshmallows and then sat like this on a two-tiered step stool next to our fridge.

From 2012-03-03

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

More entertainment from Maddie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF9QBGPvn1s&feature=youtube_gdata_player

More entertainment from Maddie

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PF9QBGPvn1s&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Saturday, February 18, 2012

My latest: vacant homes & foreclosures

My latest story (a collaboration w/ another reporter) is in the Pioneer Press.

Read the story here:
http://www.twincities.com/stpaul/ci_19991033

See the interactive maps and searchable database that I built here:
http://extra.twincities.com/car/foreclosures/

And read more about how it all came together in my work blog, The Data Mine:
http://blogs.twincities.com/datamine/2012/02/18/vacant-homes-and-foreclosures/

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Entertainment from Ben & Maddie

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Sunday morning bowling!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Wow, it's February already?

I've been awful about taking pictures (or posting updates) lately, so I pulled out the camera today.

The kids are doing great -- talking like crazy, very active. They are taking swimming lessons on Saturdays and have their music class on Thursday nights. Starting Monday, they will add a short preschool class on Monday mornings. They are really excited about going to "school" -- especially Maddie. I know that she will especially love the opportunity to do more arts & crafts and to interact with other kids.

Ben's first question to me when I told him that he was going to school was "Will there be lots of girls there?"
He loves girls, especially since his world revolves around his sister and his best friend, Clara.

From 2012-02-04

Saturday, January 21, 2012

Doing well at 3

Yesterday Ben & Maddie had their 3-year well visit with their doctor. Both passed with flying colors.

They "tried" to do vision and hearing tests, but it was a bit of a challenge. Maddie did OK but Ben just giggled most of the time.

Both are growing very well. Ben is still in about the 25th percentile compared to boys his age. Maddie is at about 36th percentile. I'm happy with that!

I asked the doctor if she thought their language skills were OK and she said that generally kids that age can only be understood about 50 percent of the time. But she thinks Ben & Maddie have very good speaking skills and their understandability is closer to 99%! Nice.

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Happy 3rd Birthday!

Ben & Maddie turned 3 years old yesterday. What an exciting milestone! We had a small party -- essentially a playdate -- with friends who have kids about the same age. We went to an indoor playground called the Eagele's Nest, where they let you rent a room for your food/cake, etc., and the kids can play all they want.

From 2011-12-31