The amaryllis

So when my parents leave for their warm weather destinations during the winter, my mom has me take care of her amaryllis. Well, this is the first year that it has had five flowers on it. It is quite amazing to watch this plant grow.

Sophia is just mesmerized by the fact that it is growing so tall and that flowers can actually come out of it. Last night one of the flowers started to open and this morning I showed her what it looked like. Of course she wanted to touch it which was super funny. She was very gentle so she wouldn't hurt it.

I can't wait to see the actual flowers open up this weekend. I hope I don't miss it today by being at work.

Tomorrow I am in charge of a pancake breakfast fundraiser at my school. Sophia and Hal are coming to join me later in all of the chaos. We sold 240 tickets so I'm sure I will be exhausted by the time it gets done. Wish me luck!

Our First Garden

Hal and I have been talking about starting a garden ever since we got married. In our old house, we had a rose garden and had 4 rose bushes. We really enjoyed watching them grow and bloom, but really wanted to have vegetables and fruit.

Now that we have been in our new house for a year and four months, we are finally ready for the garden. We started out by buying several of those little plants from the dollar section at Target. We have gone through several of them, but nothing has survived. So this weekend we went all out. We officially started our very own garden. We planted mini pumpkins, chives, cilantro, jalapeno peppers, and green peppers.

Sophia had a wonderful time planting the seeds. She picked out the baby pumpkins and she can barely wait to see them. She keeps talking about her growing pumpkins every time she walks in the sun room.

Along with the garden growing in the sun room, we also have an amaryllis plant. Right now it has five plants waiting to flower. One of them is just starting to open up. Sophia just loves watering the bulb and watching it slowly grow and change. Each year when my parents leave they leave a gift with us....the plant. It has been quite amazing this year and I can barely wait to see all of the flowers open.

Thinking spring here at our house!

The little scientist

Here's a great picture of our little scientist.....

New Teeth and Dry Nights

This morning marks 6 nights out of 7 that Sophia has been dry in the morning. I hope that this signals the bitter end of potty training for us. She has been completely dry during the day since forever, but the night thing hadn't kicked in for her yet. She is completely thrilled to wear her "big girl panties" to bed tonight as a celebration of her dry nights!

Also this morning as I was brushing her teeth I noticed two new teeth coming in. They are just barely popping through, but I am guessing that these are called her two-year molars. Funny how they have that name considering she is much closer to three than two.

Lots of successes this week. My little girl is growing up!

Cookie Monsters

Tonight Sophia had a playdate with Peyton and Gavin. They came over to make sugar cookies for Valentine's Day and decorated them with sprinkles and frosting. They all had a great time rolling out the dough and cutting the cookies out. After the cookies were all done, the tasting began. The kids could barely resist getting their hands on a fresh sugar cookie. They turned out just fantastic and tasted even better!

Sophia rolling her cookie dough out

Peyton rolling her dough out

Gavin rolling his dough out
All in all we had a wonderful playdate. It was so fun to hang out with Rana too. The rest of the week can fly by already. I'm ready for the weekend. Sophia is too!

Culver's Night

Last night Sophia got to come help out at my school fundraiser at Culver's Restaurant in Eagan. She did such a wonderful job of helping me bring orders to the tables and entertaining the patrons of the restaurant. Of course, she was loved by all. Yes, my little ham for surely did show off everything she knew last night. After working for a bit, she took a break to have dinner. When she finished she could barely wait for her ice cream treat. She picked vanilla custard with sprinkles. This is her most favorite treat and she has the same thing every time we go to Culver's. She is just like her mom! She is very close to having all of her team scoopie points. She is saving them for the hot pink t-shirt.

In other news, tonight was our last class of Sports Sampler. We had such a great time playing basketball, scooters, hockey, soccer, and tumbling down the wedge mat. I'm sure Sophia will miss going to this class and asked if we could go again sometime. I'm bummed because you have to be 4 to start in the youth soccer program which I thought we might be able to try this summer. Oh well, next summer then. Not sure what we will try this summer. I know she will continue with dance, but maybe swimming or gymnastics. I'm also hoping to find a music class to enroll her in since she likes to play marching band so much at home.

This weekend will be another busy one. Friday Sophia and I will be spending the day together due to the fact that Corey will be out of town. We plan on getting all of our Valentine's presents/cards. She also needs some new shoes so it looks as though we will head to Stride Rite. Saturday night is the big Silent Auction with Tim Mahoney for my school. I'm hoping it will be a big success. Sunday will be a day to relax before heading back to another busy week at work.

I'm really looking forward to a little break and some warmer weather. Only 46 more days until we head to Disney World.