Warmer Stay-Cay Day

The next day was all kinds of warm! We surprised the kids with a trip to see the new Lego Batman movie (lots of funny parts, but how many times did I catch myself thinking--I'm watching a movie about toys . . . I paid to watch a full-length movie about little plastic toys, lol!) By the time we left the theater, all traces of snow had left the ground (and left that ground plenty muddy and squishy!)

This was the best picture I could get, ha!
It was unusually sunny :)

We'd eaten a late brunchy kind of breakfast/lunch, but didn't have a dinner plan. Buck suggested we try the Papa Murphy's take-and-bake pizza place, so we did. It ended up being really tasty pizza! Buck tried grilling the chicken, spinach, artichoke on his Traeger. We think it would have gone better on a pizza stone rather than the paper baking sheet they provide (there's no flame with Traeger, so we thought we'd try). Next time we'll go stone. Live and learn!

Brennen had a really bad headache all day--I finally broke down and gave him Tylenol. It fixed him up quickly, and the headache never came back. I think he's growing because his hip socket is bugging him again too like it was when he was playing baseball last summer.

After dinner, the girls took the dessert they'd made (they have been on a baking craze lately--Grandma Beryl's scratch chocolate cake, graduation mints, banana bread with chocolate chips, peanut butter bars with oatmeal, peanut butter bars with chocolate frosting, mint/chocolate brownies . . . and wait til you see what they did yesterday (photos to come--unless you're reading this top to bottom, and then you already know :) Shoot--I totally got off track with that sentence and never finished it, ha! Okay, so they took the chocolate chip cookie bars they made to a homeschool teen social event (yes, Uncle C, I can hear you laughing from here :)

This is a group they've been invited to which gets together twice a month. The past two times we've either been sick or the weather was too bad to drive. However, this one was at our favorite local ministry, so nothing could stop us!! (except maybe that I really just wanted to stay home and read a book on the couch with Buck because I now had the headache B had earlier :)

Brain Games was the theme of the night--kind of a team event combining Minute to Win It games, Bible trivia, Family Feud, and physical challenges. Our girls knew some kids from choir and some from church, but most were new faces. I hung out for a while to see how things ran--but it was mostly the kids keeping things rolling, so that was great! Both girls were chosen as their team captains--Caelan's team even named itself after her (not her idea).

After about 30 minutes, I decided to head to Target to get my Valentine shopping accomplished. So, so weird to be alone. So, so weird to be shopping alone! I also needed to get birthday gifts for the boys' friends to whose party they are invited next weekend, and I needed to get our new little critter some toys. Yes, for real.

Target did not have these, so I went to the place from whence Gandalf came (it wasn't too far away). I expressed the children's concerns that gerbils are supposed to have buddies, not to be alone. Well, the second lady confirmed what the first lady said when we bought him--not the guys; that's a girl thing. So, I spent several minutes perusing the gerbil toys (you'd be surprised at the selection), then caught a worker passing by and asked, "Do I really need to buy pre-packaged sticks in a bag or can I just cut them off of my own tree?" She said I could if it was a "safe" tree--umm, yes. "Then freeze the branches for 24 hours." Okay, so I've already begun a twice weekly washing of a *pet load* of laundry--now they've got my freezer--augh!

Tasks accomplished, I headed back to the ministry hq and waited for the girls to finish up. C's team was in the finals. Gab's was watching nearby. That is why I only have pics of C and not Gab. As her team captain, C had to participate in a tie-breaker for first place in the Brain Games--bottle flipping. Have you seen this craze where kids spend hours flipping half-filled water bottles to get them to stand on end? On top of cars, on porches, on roofs, on benches? Okay, so Caelan is probably one of the last remaining teenagers on the planet who has never played this trending game. I don't think she landed a single bottle :) But her team didn't mind.

Too much height on that bottle flip?

The girls jabbered all the way home about the events and the fun they'd had--and when I told them one of the upcoming events was a mock trial (and then explained what a mock trial was :) they got super jazzed about participating in that too!

It's been nice to be able to *add* a couple of things here and there after subtracting so many. Karate starts up again next week, though, so I guess it's time to get moving!