Snaggle-Tooth

Since her first few teeth came in, it's been obvious to me that
Evelyn was going to need braces. She's always had an interesting
arrangement of teeth in her sweet little mouth, but it's gone to a
whole new level now. I noticed today that one of her upper front
teeth has turned a really interesting shade of gray. Bummer. We're
taking her to the dentist tomorrow. Everyone say a little prayer that
they don't have to pull the tooth. A gray front tooth is better than
no front tooth at all. I think that will be the first sentence of
the novel I'm going to write someday. I'll post an update to let
everyone know if Evelyn is officially snaggle-toothed tomorrow.

Awesome Weekend

We recovered from the Disney trip in the best possible way. We spent
the last few days getting the yard and patio all spruced up for
spring. Jason mowed, we planted flowers and vegetables, and I
cleaned off the patio and got out all the water and sand toys for the
girls. I'm sitting out on the patio right now while Evelyn and Willa
play in the freezing cold baby pool 100% naked. I tried to get them
to put on swimsuits, but it was a half-hearted try because they're so
stinkin' cute when they're naked. Mary Grace has a swimsuit on, but
is walking around with a towel wrapped around herself, tucked under
her arms (very grown-up looking) and it's funny watching Evelyn and
Willa try to accomplish the same thing with their towels. Mostly,
they just hold the towels up to their bodies and prance around
showing off.

This is the best time of year in Texas for sure. Spring Break always
gets me psyched for summer break, and sometimes I forget that we
actually have a few more weeks of school until then! I'm already
busy trying to decide where we'll go camping this summer...somewhere
that's not too hot, but not too far away, but not someplace we've
already been. That list gets shorter every year...

loooong day

Okay...we're tired now. We did Magic Kingdom today and rode about
three times as many rides as we did the other days. The rides were
great but the overall atmosphere in this park was much more stressful.
Not because we were stressed. We were actually pretty jolly all day.
But lots of other stressed families, crying childre, pushing, etc.
Mary Grace's favorites today were Tom Sawyer Island (a little known
part of the park with caves, trails, and a fort to explore), and a
race car track. So basically she liked the camping thing and the
go-cart thing. The band performed before the nighttime lit parade and
they were terrific. Jason said the kids loved it. We still have one
day of touring tomorrow. I think Mary Grace and I are going to do a
lot of sitting and eating.

epcot

Well the best part of the day for me had nothing to do with
disneyworld. this evening while we were waiting for an outdoor show
at a theater we saw the shuttle discovery take off directly in front
of us! It's amazing that cape canaveral is so far away, yet it was a
huge fireball flying into the sky. the whole crowd waiting for the
show went nuts. Mary Grace thought it was so cool that it was going
to outer space. We all liked the rides at epcot. soarin-a flying
simulation ride-was our fav, followed closely by the old standard
spaceship earth where you learn about communication past to present.
when it talked about the phoenicians inventing the alphabet, she said
"is that true? i should do a report about that!" it's been a long day
and we're beat. looking forward to magic kingdom tomorrow.

the world day 1

I'm laying here next to Mary Grace who is still reeling from riding
the Tower of Terror at Disney Hollywood Studios today. She is too
brave for her own good. No amount of warning could lessen her desire
to ride the scariest rides in the park. In a ride called Dinosaur
where you get chased by giant scary dinos during a terrifying meteor
shower, I was grabbing HER every time I got startled. Now it has
caught up, though, and she says no scary rides tomorrow. Fine with
me. I was starting to wish I had brought Evelyn and Willa so that I
would have an excuse to sit some of these out! Epcot tomorrow!

on the bus

Mary grace and I are on the bus with Jason and 250 high schoolers on
our way to Disneyworld. We have completed 10 hours of a 23 hour ride
so far. It's been good so far save one incident. There are 5 buses
caravanning together and earlier bus #3 pulled over to help a stranded
bus that was not part of our group. The driver then invited these
stranded strangers to hop on the bus with the band kids! Jasonappeared
calm to the untrained eye, but it was obvious to me that he was...
um... quite displeased. he explained to the driver that we don't
pick up strangers (DUH!) and we were on our way again. Jason
continues to refer to the guy as the "Rogue Driver." We'll see if he
provides anymore excitement.

Gotta love it when any aspect of your life reminds you of Home Alone...

You know that scene at the beginning of home alone where the parents
are all over the place trying to pack and get ready for their trip
while the children run around the house wild and completely
unsupervised? That's exactly what is happening at my house right now.

Special Day with Evelyn

I stayed home with Evelyn today, since she is recovering from strep
throat. We had such a fun morning just the two of us. We did
puzzles, played with cars, named ALL the plastic animals in her many
plastic animal sets, read books, danced, and sang songs. She even
helped me clean the bathrooms. We had a ball. At one point during
the morning, she said, "Mommy play ME!" as though she was so shocked
and excited to have me all to herself (an admittedly rare thing). I
loved having one on one time with her. It was a really special day.

Then, when we picked up Mary Grace and Willa from school, Mary Grace
asked Evelyn what she did today. Evelyn looked at her and said, "I
made biscuits at school!"

Oh well.

Hermit Crab Update

For crying out loud...the hermit crab is still alive! It's some kind of super-crab. I swear Mary Grace has not fed this thing or changed its water in over a month. This was our trial-pet so that I could tell Mary Grace she's not ready to get a hamster. Now she thinks she's a wonderful pet owner and wants to know when we're going mammal-shopping.

Avoiding my to-do list

The list of stuff I have to do before we leave for Disney on Friday
is really long, and the rate at which I am adding things to the list
is far outpacing the rate at which I am checking things off. Right
now, I'm typing this entry in an effort to avoid one of the things on
my list: helping Mary Grace clean out her hermit crab habitat. I am
fairly certain that little Lizzie the crab is dead. I told Mary
Grace as much at dinner tonight by saying "I think that she is no
longer with us." Mary Grace asked me what that means, so I told her
it means I think she's dead, to which she asked very matter-of-
factly, "Why didn't you just say she's dead?" This is the same sweet
little princess who brought home a treasure wrapped in a napkin last
week. When I asked her to show me what it was, she carefully
unwrapped and presented a severed rabbit's foot she had found outside
her classroom after the school cat had disemboweled the poor creature
in the courtyard. She was quite upset when I told her she could only
keep it for two days, and it had to be in a ziploc baggie, and oh by
the way GO WASH YOUR HANDS!!!!

Finally, I can blog while I'm driving!

I know many of you Schayot fans out there have been bemoaning the fact that you couldn't get more current info on the minutia of our daily lives.  It's been hard to make time to sit down and write lately, but instead of taking personal responsibility, or altering my schedule, I've decided to blame the problem on technology.  My previous blogging methodology (using iWeb on my Mac) was far too slow and cumbersome, and that's why I wasn't keeping up with it. It has nothing to do with the fact that I work, and have two toddlers and a six year old.  No, no.  It's really just that I needed an easier way of posting, a new, faster laptop, and a phone that has a full keyboard and internet access. 

Seriously, though, I have always loved to write, and I've missed writing about the thing I love most - my family.  So here I go with another try at the blog.  Let's all watch Molly try to make time for something she likes to do that isn't directly related to washing (dishes, clothing, floors, children, etc).