Month in review

Holy Cow! It's been a little over a month since my last post. It's the last day of March, so I thought I would do a month in review. Here are some highlights:

Dr. Seuss's birthday-  Joey did a lot of Dr. Seuss related activities at school. I decided to take it a step further and have a little celebration. I made him green eggs and ham for breakfast. We read Dr. Seuss books and watched The Lorax and Horton Hears a Who. It was a fun day. I think this may be something we do every year, since Joey enjoys it so much.

The winter that never ended- We were hoping Spring would come early. We got a last minute storm that made us wish Spring would arrive. (This past Saturday gave me hope that warmer days are upon us. It was gorgeous.)
 

Parent teacher conference- This was our second PTC of the year. I opted to stay at home with Joey, while Tony went to visit his teacher. We heard lots of positive remarks. He is excelling in school. His teacher informed us he reads at a third grade level. (Beaming parent here) He has become a teacher's helper. He helps his classmates with their work. A few things he needs to work on, his social skills (I should work on that as well.) and following the rules of the classroom. Other than that, he is on track for the year. We are very proud of him.

 Relief Society Birthday- I helped organize the yearly RS birthday celebration. I decided to do a project to go along with the celebration. We had sisters write down a special memory they had of Relief Society. I must admit, I was not sure how I wanted to make this project. I had a vision, but could not think of a way to display it. I turned to Pinterest. I didn't see anything, but I came across a picture with a bunch of balloons in the sky and that's when it hit me. I made balloons using scrapbook paper and printed their memory inside. It turned out better than I expected.
The celebration went great. We played a few games, had brunch, and cake. It was nice to have sisters from our ward come together and have a good time. I am so thankful for this wonderful group of women. 

Karaoke- Our friend Ashley had a birthday this month. To celebrate, a bunch of us went to dinner and following dinner, we did karaoke. It was my first time doing karaoke. We got our own private room and we all got to sing our hearts out. It was a blast.


Shopping- A few times a year, we like to head to Staten Island and NJ for some shopping. We usually go to the Staten Island mall and the Wal-mart in Bayonne, NJ. However, with the recent toll increase, these trips may become fewer and far between (It's $15 to cross the Verrazano Bridge into Staten Island and another $11 to cross back into Staten Island, from Bayonne. Yes. We need to get E-Z pass. ASAP). I love these trips. We don't usually buy much at the mall. We like to walk around and browse. If we see a good deal, we snap it right up. Although, we seem to spend a small fortune at Wal-mart. Which is why these trips only happen a few times a year.  I look forward to our next shopping excursion.

Spring Break- For the past week, Joey has been on Spring Break. I was very ambitious. I had plans every day. We ended up doing absolutely nothing. We lost all sense of routine. I started to feel like a real slacker. However, Joey loved it. He got to stay up later and didn't have to do homework. He thinks this is the best week ever. I, on the other hand, feel we could have done a bit more.
To salvage this week, I decided to take him to the Museum of Modern Art or MOMA. On display until the end of April, is Edvard Munch's 'The Scream". I showed Joey the painting once and he wanted to see it. I decided to go during the museum's free hours, which is every Friday from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. It get pretty busy during that time. Next time, I may just go and pay the $25 admittance fee, if it means less people. We got to see paintings from famous artists such as: Jackson Pollack, Andy Warhol, Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, and Monet, just to name a few. The hour and a half we spent there was not enough time to look at everything. I may need to go back one day.

Birthday parties- We had the lucky pleasure of being invited to two birthday parties this month. The first one was for one of Tony's friend's daughter.  Joey had fun and everyone at the party was so nice. We have plans for summer BBQ's. I hope to get to know this family better. They are nicest people.
The next party was for Joey's little friends, Blake and Lola. Their parents had the party at one of the nicest parks in Brooklyn. It has a great view of the the water, Verrazano Bridge and Staten Island. All the younger children from our ward were invited. The children played with friends, ate cupcakes, and got to participate in an Easter egg hunt. The kids had a blast, but I think the adults had just as much fun. I really love the families in our ward and I am thankful Joey and I have such a wonderful group of friends.

Easter- I was asked what traditions I had for Easter. I said I didn't have any. As of tonight, I realize I do have traditions as well as a few new ones:

- We color eggs Saturday night.
- I buy a special Easter outfit for Joey.
- We hide eggs in our living room.
- We take found eggs and use it to make potato salad.
- We watch videos on Lds.org
 New traditions:

- Ham is now part of our Easter dinner. I bought a ham and cooked it for the first time. It was a hit.           Everyone requested it for next year.

- Pineapple/orange jello for dessert.
- Reading the Scriptures with Joey about Jesus' last days on earth leading up to his death and resurrection.

Looking back, this month seemed eventful. When I sat down to write the entry, I was thinking how boring this month was for us. It was filled with fun activities and I look forward to what April brings. Now that it's officially Spring, and the weather is warming up, I expect us to be outdoors more often.