Baking Beauties

The girls baked and decorated these cookies themselves, I can't remember if I've posted these pics before (and I think they are cute :) so you can enjoy them again if it's a repeat :)

BTW: I can't believe how hard it is typing in full sentences after getting so used to texting! Forgive my editing mistakes as you read through, I've lost my skills :)

Well, I'm not really far behind this time like usual . . .

It seems after the holiday rush rushed by, we haven't done much photo or blog-worthy :) But with a sunshiny backyard full of fresh snow (and the children playing in it), I thought I'd sit down a minute and throw some highlights on the page.

The kids have been absorbed in playing the board games their Uncle C gave them for Christmas. I love walking into a quiet room, seeing them recalling rules and strategizing moves (or making up stories and using the game pieces as the characters and scenery . . . I used to do this CONSTANTLY when I was younger . . . I had elaborate notebook entries detailing the lives of each car full of pink and blue pegs in the game of LIFE--I could play 6 cars at once, all by myself, ha!)

We did take in a performance at the theater in our state's capitol city. Giant puppetry, which is cool to watch (but a little slow moving in the storyline :)

Nevertheless, the kids got some culture, it was a nice school trip, and then we met their dad at a state sports & achievement museum. That was cool because we were the ONLY ones there for the two or more hours we wandered through. They have green screen games, and you can record your voice as a radio announcer, lots of touch-screen technology. Good learning opportunity disguised as fun :) And when you cap it off with a trip to the Olive Garden for dinner, well yumm! And what a day!

Another fun visit was to see my little brothers play basketball . . . I got to hold little bitty most of the day, which is straight up wonderful! Thus, I have no pictures of the boys playing basketball, but the girls took their Christmas cameras (which we have yet to upload pictures from, they must have some astounding memory cards inside! :) but I do have one of my little niece bundled in pink :)

Valentine's Day Events

We celebrated Valentine's Day in several ways . . .

First the kids awoke to a kitchen decorated with pink swirls and a Happy Valentine's Day banner, a table covered with a red cloth, and gifts and cards from us and family who'd sent along a treat in the mail. They too pulled out a stack of valentine surprises they'd made and stashed away in their rooms for their dad and me.

For breakfast, we ate pink pancakes by candlelight :)

For lunch, Graysen helped me decorate pizzas with heart-shaped Canadian bacon and turkey pepperonis!

Then Buck called from work and asked if we should meet at the great little car dealership we discovered in a neighboring small town (after three years of throwing most of our paycheck at debt, we were clear of everything but my student loan and our house payment)! Whoohoo! And just in time to replace Buck's 160,000+ mileage car with a new set of safer (shinier) wheels :) He researched for months and months to find something that would be safe, get good gas mileage, and would be fun to drive. We happened along this little pre-owned beauty, and then Buck visited it daily until we made a decision to buy :) The kids were excited too, but Buck insisted I drive it home (awww :) We went out to eat Mexican food to celebrate, and after all, it was Valentine's Day, why not?!

The next day, the girls got to try out the new ride on their way to their first-ever Father-Daughter dance. Buck bought them little wrist corsages and they were over the moon! They'd never seen such a thing! The three of them got all spiffed up, and I took a bunch of pictures, and they were off to dinner (it was a big eating out week for us I guess :)

At the dance, Caelan and Buck busted a move on the dance floor with some other dads and kids from church. Gab felt the emotions of childhood social scenes a little more, not used to sharing her crowd of friends with other crowds of friends they know from school (but our girls, of course, don't). There were some tears, I'm told, but Buck handled it well . . . and the gift bags filled with treats and toys upon exit was a nice ending to the event :)

Of course, while the girls were away, the boys had to get their dance moves going! So, after being allowed to eat supper in the living room (ooooh!) they put the Zumba game on the XBOX and we had our own little dance party at  home!

Pre-Valentine Party and Post-Valentine Date

For weeks and weeks, the girls worked on a Valentine surprise for their brothers--they got their Grandma on-board and she contributed a bag full of goodies and prizes. They made decorations in their room for days on end, then spent another several days putting the decorations in place downstairs (the basement was OFF LIMITS to the boys for a week! :) They went shopping with me and purchased balloons and gifts for their brothers from their own allowance, love that!

They made up games, they built a scavenger hunt, they wrote a play (complete with costumes) . . . I cannot believe how much time and effort they put into this event! So of course, they couldn't wait until Valentine's Day to share the fun with their brothers :)

Talk about excitement! The boys were amazed at the transformation downstairs, and came out of the deal with a bag full of prizes that would envy a town parade. They were truly thankful for their sisters' efforts and played the games, watched the play, collected their gifts, and remarked how nice it was that the girls had done this for them (we will just ignore the part where they haphazardly tore down all the handmade decorations blocking the TV so they could play Wii a few days later; sisters weren't so happy about that . . . :)

While cleaning out our key box, Buck discovered an unused restaurant gift card . . . we decided to pair this with the movie tickets we "won" at his company's holiday party, and boom, free date! (well other than the sitter :) We set out in the mid-afternoon on the Saturday following Valentine's Day and rolled in the new car (seriously, even the kid helping me load groceries at the store couldn't stop talking about how cool the car is :) to lunch. We decided on the way that we would save the movie tickets for the movie date we'd promised the kids for their next chore chart team goal (and we went to see Escape from Planet Earth the next Monday, it was really pretty cute! they all loved it, and there were not really many questionable scenes/themes for their age-range). So, then what to do with a free afternoon?

As it turns out, we were pretty close to a mall that I've not been to since college . . . so we decided to check it out. Good gravy Marie! With President's Day on the horizon, it was like the whole place was on sale! We didn't intend to shop, necessarily, but at the shoe store (where there was an employee so super, Buck wanted to steal him :) we bought three pairs of shoes and a hat for $27! The Children's Place was ridiculous--jeans for under $8, pjs for $3.50 (the cotton kind that Graysen can wear!)

It was fun just to hang out together and to find little surprises hidden here and there. We were even home in time to put the kids to bed, so it ended up being a very nice, relaxing day (not to mention we'd cleaned/fixed stuff around the house all morning, so it also felt like a day of accomplishments! He should take Saturdays off more often :)