look what we found!

we have gone crazy!

 crazy for jamba juice, that is!

we had been hearing rumors of a jamba juice on the campus at ub, but had never been.

well, the girls and i ventured onto campus and found it right in the student union.

it was worth the 30 minute drive around campus looking for parking.

it was worth every single second.

i figure if we spend enough money there, they'll have to open a store off-campus somewhere, right?

maybe we can get afton to start a campaign!

our little activist

 tonite we attended our district school board budget hearings. 

due to our corrupt & bankrupt state government (go ny) our truly awesome, but already highly taxed, school district has to make some cuts and raise taxes.  but only a 3% increase this year.  fortunately they have been good with our taxes and have a surplus which limits the cuts.  however next year will be a different story.

so, they are proposing a cut to the 5th grade LOTE (languages other than english) program as well as reducing art, technology, home-ec, etc.

well, aftie had just turned in her paper with her choice of french for next year's LOTE.

after a pta meeting one evening, i shared with her the news that the LOTE program might be cut for 5th grade.  apparently it didn't sit well with her.  the next day she and two other 4th grade cuties decided to do something about this.  they wrote a letter for all 4th grade supporters to sign and then turned it in at the school board meeting tonite.  they made posters to promote their cause and even went to each classroom explaining the situation and asking for signatures on the petition.  their wonderful teacher helped them by editing the petition and giving them a bit of direction.  they received permission from the principal to hang posters and to visit each classroom to ask for signatures.

way to go aftie!

a funny sidenote:  aftie was explaining their plans to me the other night and told me that her friend "was really excited and had been wanting to do something big for a while now".  "she's just wanted to be part of a cause". 

isn't that cute?  and great?  and sweet? and responsible?

i love it!  i love that my children are having opportunities to have their opinions heard.

the principal sat in front of us tonite and she told aftie that if you think something is important you should believe and make your voice heard.

great lesson. 

enjoy your lunch

i am certainly enjoying my lunch today.  i just love these burritos.  they are my favorite frozen food.  i just throw them in the microwave and then dip them in some yummy roasted tomato salsa from wegmans.  happy, happy.

ewwwww!

i ran to wegman's this morning and when i got back i found little green leprechaun poops all over our house! 

 i found a little trail that started outside and went right inside our front door!

ella asked if the front door was still open when i came home.  luckily it was closed!

i followed it all through the entryway and dining room and then into the kitchen and down the hallway to ella and afton's bedrooms. 

i waited for the girls to get home so they could help me figure out what was going on.  we followed the trails and at the end we found treasures! 

ella had gold, chocolate coins and a bottle of green bubbles inside her boot!

afton's treasure was hidden under a pile of pillows. those leprechauns left her gold chocolate coins and sidewalk chalk!

those sneaky guys must have known we would want to play outside, since it's so sunny and warm today!

happy st patrick's day!

splash lagoon

this is a photo of our beloved splash lagoon.

we spent last weekend playing and celebrating "hulse holiday".

we were so busy having fun that we didn't have time to take one picture. 

i think this was my favorite year so far.  i felt like i could finally relax a bit and not worry incessantly about one of the girls drowning while i turned my head for 2 seconds.  they can both swim pretty well now, which brings a worry-filled mama much relief.

belle tried out the red slide this year and fell in love with it!

aft consented to a ride on the cyclone with dad.  she did not love it. 

but she did try out the python plunge with me and decided it was a pretty good slide.

we had a great time and even got to play with our friends for the evening!

also, we're happy to report that it snowed while we were there.  ryan was a little concerned that our record of snow falling every year during our trip would be broken this year.  lucky for us that didn't happen.

so lucky.

shoes

well, we didn't get this particular pair of shoes today, but we did find some other beauties for aftie.
the funny part was that afton's dad could not understand what sort of shoes she needed/wanted.
he kept asking questions like, "what kind of shoes are you looking for?"
"you need black shoes?"  "do you need brown shoes?"  "do you need casual shoes?"  "you don't want sneakers?"  "wait, you already have black shoes?"  "why do you need more shoes?"  "why do you need gold shoes with butterflies on them?"  "i thought we weren't buying more shoes?!?!"
poor dad.

don't pay any attention to this boy

ryan doesn't want any attention on this blog, but since i'm in charge of it...

congratulations to our little/big superstar!

ry got a great new opportunity at work and we are all super excited for him.

he works hard for us and we appreciate him very very much.

we celebrated with dinner at outback.  ry's favorite dinner out.

way to go lovey!