Our sidewalks have been extremely icy since Christmas.  It's safer to walk on the narrow, (still icy) streets than it is to even attempt the sidewalks, with their solid coating of ice concealed and polished by just a tiny dusting of snow.  It makes outside activity difficult, unless, of course…

  I've always avoided statements like "Children are the future" and "The children of today hold the answers tomorrow's greatest questions."  Really, they just seem a sappy statement of the obvious, kind of a nauseating, idealistic declaration. However, over the weekend, those exact little sentences popped into my mind.  The…

We've been meaning to take a trip down to St. Paul to visit the Minnesota Children's Museum for years and years, and never got around to it.  Last summer when I renewed our regular local children's museum membership, I decided that this would be the year, and I bought the…

They got the brilliant idea of scuba diving for treasure underneath Ya Ya's bed.  Of course, they had to dress up for the occasion.  Goggles were a must, along with Mr. SP's wet suit and green plastic flippers for his feet.  The Banana thought a princess dress with red tights…

    On Friday morning I got up and made breakfast.  I sent Ya Ya off on the bus to school after a quick last minute practice for her spelling test.  Mr. Sneaky Pants went up to my office to play with the dollhouse.  I went back to my bed to snuggle…

Every day I hear this 17 times at the very least: The Banana:  Mama.  Mama.  Mama.  Mama. Me:  What, Love? The Banana:  Mama, I have to tell you something. Me:  Ok.  What? The Banana:  I have to tell you something.  I really don't like taking a nap.   I know,…

"Mom, if you were a bus driver, you would have to be a lot more interested in diesel fuel and how it works."    

Dressing up continues to be the activity of choice around here.  There are costumes in every nook and cranny from the top to the bottom of the house.  You never can be sure who will be wearing what and when they might decide to wear it.  In fact, if the…

On weekends, when the other kidlets retire to their rooms for a little rest, Ya Ya does some silent reading.  Most of the time she is happy about that idea.  Sometimes she grumps because she'd rather be playing by herself.  Even she admits that once she gets started reading, she…

I was starving.  Dr. Peds had the day off.  We decided to go out for lunch.  After thinking through the many culinary options available to us, we decided on one of my favorites, Va Bene, a small Italian restaurant that overlooks Lake Superior.  It is cozy.  The colors inside and…