Valentine's Day

This year I got to help with the Valentine's Day party in John's class.  That meant Eve and Ellie got to come too!  Since the snowball fight was so fun, we had one with John's class, too.  We also had a craft and snack.  Fun!

 From Eve, going clockwise: Eve, Lydia, Bonnie, Sami, Selina, Leah, Ellie, and John

From the far left, clockwise: Samuel, Thomas, Roland, William, Zachary, Ava Grace, Sully, and Camden (poor Lucas had strep throat).

When You Live In The South...

When you live in the south, sometimes you just have to make-do.  Superbowl Sunday was another of our unseasonalby warm and awesome days (note the shorts and t-shirts in February...and the Green Bay gear even though they didn't get to play this year).  Our church small group had a snowball fight...with socks.  It was awesome!

 John developed a pretty impressive technique.

You can take the boy out of Wisconsin, but you can't take the Wisconsin out of the boy.  Years of snowball practice paid off.  We had a few dads (and one mom...not me), that I thought might put a dent in the van.  We're still finding "snowballs" around the house!

Phineas and Ferb

A few weekends we kept the mice from John's class, Phineas and Ferb.  They got a new ball to run around in.  It was fun for all!

...until Ellie got ahold of it.  Then it was even more of an adventure!

Fashionista #2

Eve has always been quite the fashionista.  Ellie has a new way to shoe her flair.  She loves wearing these, and they're so funny to look at on her chubby face!  She's always asking us to put them on for her, and continues to wear them even after they're completely fogged.  Notice she's also sporting one pigtail.  She now loves having her hair in pigtails.  It's still so short we can only gather small sections and most is left down.  Even with that, they stick straight out, and as you can see, fall out relatively easily.  They're super fun, though.

Give me a kiss!

Wish I Had a Camera

If only I could've captured this one on video...unfortunately the camera is never out at the right time.
John got a cool toy from McDonalds.  It's an R2D2 with a top.  You twist the tip around the bottom of R2D2, then press a button on his head and the top drops down and spins.  Lots of these top toys are a bust, but this one actually works really well.  I was helping John do it the first time.  We dropped it on the floor and watched it spin in one spot.  He reached down to pick it up while it was still spinning, and as his hand got closer, it started to move away.  With pure genuine amazement on his face, wide-eyed, he slowly turned to me and whispered, "I used the force!"  It's a joke now, but I think for a moment, he actually believed it...it was the only logical explanation.  It was a priceless (hilarious) moment.

Time Flies

Buck and I just enjoyed a few nights away on a leadership retreat with church.  It's such a wonderful thing to be able to leave the kids with Mom and know that everyone is having fun, and be able to just clear our minds and avoid responsibility for a while.
When I went to pick the kids up, Mom and I noticed that Eve's hands were really red, chapped-looking (we now suspect it was due to playing with off-brand play dough...she's fine).  When I was buckling her in the car I noticed her cheek was red too.  Mom and I were tossing around possibilities for what caused it.  "Maybe it was the soap", "Maybe it was the play-dough", and Eve's response, "Maybe I'm just getting old."  Everyone says they grow up so fast, but I think that's pushing it a bit!

January

I guess I didn't post much in January.  I guess not a lot happened besides tearing out wallpaper in the kids' bathroom, trying to repair the damage from doing a terrible job at that, then applying multiple coats of paint because I'm TERRIBLE at picking a paint color.  Fortunately the weekend project that started just after Christmas with one rip of wallpaper is FINALLY done, a month and a half later.  The kids have been forced to play alone and (hanging my head in shame) watch more TV so we could get a coat of paint up here and there.  We've also spent a good amount of time playing outside in the amazing weather we've had.  It's February 8, and the daffodils are blooming!  It's really crazy.  We spread manure (always a fun thing with kids...especially when they know it's poop), and planted peas, broccoli, and carrots in our veggie garden.
One funny thing John said, the other night we were eating soup and the kids weren't crazy about trying it (although after they tried it, it wasn't so bad).  Really they just weren't in the mood to sit at the table and eat.  We challenged John and Eve to a certain number of bites.  After a while John said he was done.  "How many bites did you eat?" "I don't know.  I lost control."
Another cute thing, when I zip Ellie in and out of her footie pajamas, I sing Zippety Do Da.  They all love it for some reason.  I love that they mess the words up just a little and sing, "Zippety Do Da Zippety A.  My oh my have a wonderful day."  I think they've actually improved the song.