Hunger Games - The Movie

The last night of our whirlwind family visit Dr. J and I managed to see a 9:30 showing of the Hunger Games.  A few years ago I stumbled upon the book.  I read it in a night.  I had to wait a year for the next book to come out and then another year for the series to end but it became one of my all time favorite stories and the character Peeta, in my own opinion, the best literary love interest ever!  Ignoring his ridiculous name, who knew baking could be such a desirable profession :)  When Dr. J was flying out to New York last year I stuck the first book in his bag.  When he came back he asked for the second, and then the third.  So while we had access to a free babysitter we had to see the movie, the first we've seen in the theater since probably Tangled.  Because of timing, we ended up watching it on the IMAX screen, hello slightly overwhelming.  I had just reread the first book and initially after watching the movie was disappointed.  There is so much emotion tied up in the books and with the rapid pacing the movie followed it just was not able to capture everything going on in the characters minds.  Things that I felt were extremely important to the original story line were either rushed over or absent.  Some of the dialogue that was changed, I felt carried more weight in the original writing.  Cinna and Haymitch were not as I pictured.  I liked the movie, I just was wishing for more.  A few days have gone by and some of that disappointment has left.  I appreciate that the movie really did stay remarkably true to the book (probably because Suzanne Collins wrote the original screen play) and while the movie character Peeta wasn't everything I hoped for (thanks to the rushing pace and the actor Josh Hutcherson, I mean could we not find someone just a smidge bigger then Katniss?) I would definitely add the movie to my collection and watch it again.  I also was excited to read that they will be splitting the final two books into three movies.  Hopefully there will be time in the next movies for a little more character development.

St Patrick's Day/Soccer Begins

 We started out St. Patrick's Day with an 8:15 practice.  When Captain E was younger we signed him up for soccer at the Y.  He sat in the corner of the field.  We signed him up for basketball, he stood in the corner.  Finally we went with Tae Kwon Doe.  It was about individual effort and achievement and for a shy kid sometimes that is what you need.  This spring we decided to try soccer again.  We signed up both Captain E and Gigi.  Wow what a difference a year or two makes.  E was involved with the group, listening to the couch, participating and interacting with kids he'd never met before.  It was truly beautiful...well it would have been had it not been 8:15 in the morning.

 Peach just wanted to eat candy.  Gigi wanted to be held.  Cheetah snuggled in with daddy.  Dr. J had worked the night before but Saturday was his day off so he came home, changed, and joined us on the field.  He's been working a month of nights with only one day off a week.  He said to me, "On my one day off I should be a good dad," he paused for a second and then said, "or at least a kind of good dad."  We both had a laugh at that.  Oh medicine, you make it possible to pay for the kids, but you make it almost impossible to ever see them...bitter sweet :)

 The girls got some playground time.  

 We then headed to I HOP to treat the kids to breakfast.  Note to self, no more meals for Gigi and Peach.  Those two have to share until they can prove otherwise.  The next step was a trip down to the downtown canal.  They had dyed it green for St. Pattys.  We had a good laugh at all the runners decked out for the St. Patty's day run.  So fun, I definitely want to join in next year!

 Dr. J and the kids hanging out with the green canal.  Look at how cute picture two is.  Keep that in mind when you see the one and only picture of me and the kids.

 There are fish in the canal.  We actually spent quite a bit of time watching two carp trying to kill a third.  Dr. J scared them off several times but what can you do when they are determined to eat the scales off another fish, circle of life kids, circle of life.

 Ok here it is.  The one and only picture of me.  Lovely isn't it.  I think this explains two things, 1) why two weeks ago I started Weight Watchers, and 2) why I just would rather not ever have a picture taken of myself.  Blah.  Thanks honey for taking a picture while I was scowling.

My kids are so theatrical, especially my first born.  "Mom, take a picture of me being squished by this wholly mammoth."  "Mom now I'm going to save Gigi."  "Mom I'm going to pose like this, snap the picture.  Let me see it.  AWESOME, that's what I was going for.  It looks like I'm running."  E's birthday is coming up in just a few months and I'm determined to get him a nice little flip camera so that he do his own photos, film and make his own home videos.  

 Finally at 1:15 we had soccer practice for Gigi.  Cracks me up.  This little girl is ALL LEGS!  Finally at 2:30 we made it home.  Dr. J was beat and collapsed almost immediately.  I made it to the couch where I fell asleep nursing.

Spring Was Here....

 I wish this picture wasn't blurry.  We had about three days of spring and this was one of them.  Huge raindrops were pelting so hard I didn't even want to stand in the doorway, but there were my kids swinging away having a good old time.  Meanwhile Peach was in the house, eating.  A girl after my own heart, an empty stomach and a little more common sense when it comes to the weather :)

 Little miss cheetah was hanging out in her "favorite" place.  Well it used to be her favorite.  As of late she just hasn't been that happy in the swing.  Every time I walk by I hear, "Mum, mum, mum."  So funny!

First Friend Phone Call

When does this usually start?  Captain E came home with a phone number for school.  After about twenty minutes of pestering me I let him call Max from school.  Five minutes of video conversation, followed by some giggling, and the singing of a song I'd never heard.  Then a goodbye.  I'm sure when I can't get him to look up because he's too busy texting it won't be nearly so cute, but today, this first phone call, he was truly adorable.

Pinned It - Something Sweet

 I've never made fresh lemonade.  Is that weird?  I grew up in Arizona with grandparents who had citrus in their backyard.  I've made and drunk gallons of orange and grapefruit juice but for some reason no lemon.  This week I had a bag of lemons.  I needed two.  Thank you pinterest.  Because of weight watchers I only had a small sip but it tasted delicious and the kids LOVED IT!  Who knew lemonade was so easy to make.  With the hot summer on the way we are definitely going to be making more of this.

 March 14, the day nerdy foodies like to indulge in a little math joke.  This year with strawberries running a dollar a quart I went with this little beauty.  Something about a cool pie, so yum!  Anyone want to sit and eat and get fat with me this summer :)

 I holidays traditions for the kids and St. Patrick's Day is no exception.  I love to put a little something/something together for them.  This year it was this great idea.  How cute are these rainbows?

 These two weren't pins, but I almost felt like they should have been.  G bear came home with this leprechaun paper plate face mask and every time I look at it I just crack up.  And then there are the magazines.  These are just a few of the magazines Dr. J has gotten over the last few months...so many that I swear he's never going to read them.  Why can't this stuff just all be apps on your I Phone?  Stop killing trees med profession.  And while we are on that it's time to move away from pagers.  2012, please start texting!  Ok off the soap box.  I want to toss these magazines but they are what is current in medicine and sometimes Dr. J likes to flip through them, but they were driving me crazy falling down on the shelf, so I found these cute magazine holders at target.  Just a dollar a piece in the dollar section.  Hurrah!

Pinned It

I love Pinterest.  It takes bookmarks, allows you to organize them by category, add a picture so you can actually remember what the heck they represent, and see what your friends are looking at as well.  For people who love projects, well it is amazing. There is some concern going around that make me a little nervous about the terms they use.  Like really if they think they own pictures that are posted, well that just doesn't make sense, but as it is currently being used as a photo bookmarking site with social media bits, well that is fun and addicting.  My friends send me to blogs I never would have found, introduce me to knew recipes, and give me so many project ideas.  The only thing I dislike, pins on facebook.  But that's just me.  These are things I saw on Pintrest and then did this week.  To be clear, I don't own these ideas, or the sites, or the photographs on the sites :)  I just pinned them or saw them on a friends site pinned and I went to the site and did them.  Now if you want you can go and do them to.  Yes I recommend it!

Have a lot of bags laying around.  Sure I have reusable bags but about half the time I forget to put them back in my car, and so I always have grocery bags.  We use them for our bathroom trash cans but they drive me nuts because they are all over the place.  This site shows you how to to roll those puppies up and pull them out one by one :)

I let my kids watch way too much TV, I mean way too much.  Sometimes I have hard time coming up with things to do.  Well guess what let's go back to the basics.  I made homemade play dough with the kids one night off this site and they had so much fun picking out the colors and everything I needed was in my cabinet.  

Ahh my counter is such a mess all the time.  Why didn't I think of bringing file folders downstairs to use?  I have categories like bills to pay, papers to file, a folder for all the kids school work, and any papers I need for any up coming appointments.  

My mops group and I did a really cool service project.  I was responsible for the salads and decided to make an Oliver Garden Dressing to come along.  YUM!

Heard about eating quinoa for breakfast instead of oatmeal.  Have been loving quinoa, bananas, some pecan slivers, a drizel of honey, and a 1/2 cup of almond milk for breakfast.  So yummy!  Turns out you can make quinoa super simple in your rice cooker.  Check out how, here.  The only negative...my hubby and son hate the smell of the quinoa cooking.  Still delicious!!!!

Need something new to do with your hair, try a top knot.  Great way to deal with that post prego hair loss.

Desert for breakfast, how about cinnamon roll waffles.  They use canned ones for these but I just rolled some left over pizza dough I had, added some brown sugar, cinnamon, butter, and raisins, rolled it back up and sliced.  Delicious!!!!!  You should be warned though...difficult to clean the waffle iron after.  I think I just need to make regular waffles and throw the first one away :)

Finally I bought a ton of flowers to make hair clips for the girls.  I was thinking about where I was going to put them.  Pin!