Life on a schedule?

I've been considering putting the kids and I on a schedule.  If you know me well, you're thinking "I thought those kids were already pretty scheduled!"  True enough.  I'm a schedule person - I can't seem to help myself.  I like to know what's coming up and what to look forward to.  I'm sure it's leftovers from my teaching days, but I need order!!
Anyways, back to what I was saying ... I'm thinking a weekly schedule kind of an idea.  I haven't done a lot of this yet and I find that the days stretch out ahead of me and all blend together and I find I don't enjoy them when they are all the same.  Wake up - eat breakfast - get cleaned up - play - lunch - clean up etc etc
So our weeks would be relatively the same, but with lots of wiggle-room.  We might have bible study on Tuesdays, gymnastics on Thursdays, arts&crafts on Saturdays, playdates on Fridays ...
So here's my question: is this ridiculous?  Or does everybody do this?  Do I just need to relax or should we just do what works for us?  Any parents of toddlers out there with some input?!

Pumpkin White Chocolate Chip Cookies

I made some of these the other day.  Oh man, are they ever good.  And I have no idea why I made them because I am really trying hard to watch what I eat.  (And by that I mean I let myself eat one a day rather than one dozen a day!)  But I seem to have this crazy obsession with pumpkin in the fall and I want to use it in everything!  I've also made pumpkin spice muffins and I'm going to make pumpkin cornbread to go with chili over the weekend.  Anyways, if you're interested, here's the link:

http://tastykitchen.com/blog/2011/10/white-chocolate-pumpkin-spice-cookies/

You won't regret it.  Well, maybe you will :)

Kara turns three!

This morning we had our purple party extravaganza to celebrate Kara turning "fee".

We all wore purple clothes:

Curtis wanted to know why we invited Katy Perry, but I know he thought it was hot :)

We ate purple food:

Lunch was hamburgers in purple buns, purple french fries, purple milkshakes and purple cupcakes to top it all off!

Our friends even got in on the theme and bought Kara some beautiful purple gifts!  We bought Kara her own cooking tools and I made her a purple apron.  She was thrilled!

In all, a great purple success.  I can hardly believe we have been blessed with this girl for three years.  Where does the time go?  So thankful for her in our lives.

Finally ...

I've been trying to figure out why I have been avoiding this blog like the plague!  And I think (after weeks of serious contemplation!) that I was dreading it because it has been so long since I've written anything.  It felt like I would have to go back to where I left off and update everyone on exactly what we've been doing for 3 1/2 months!  And that was a project that I just couldn't manage the thought of.  So instead, I will just pick up from today and pretend like I never missed a beat.  And that way I will start writing again, and it won't seem so daunting, and you can stop hassling me to write something (you know who you are!!).

I did want to tell you about one big milestone that we hit in the last few months.  My son turned one.  We had a lovely lego party with some friends in town to celebrate his big day.

I have a lot of fun coming up with birthday party themes and ideas.  Kara's birthday party is tomorrow and she has chosen to have a purple party.  At first I thought that would be a dud, but it's actually great and there are tons of things we are going to do with the purple theme.  I promise, pictures of that party to follow (probably tomorrow) and not in 3 months :)