February

Blake's stomach upset so he stayed home for 2 days. When Miles saw the skeleton, he said in awe and amazement, "THAT IS AWESOME!"

Excited to show me how they learned to make a tiger in Art Class

 

Campbell's longest book so far 600+ pages! A fantasy book called Eldest which is about dragons. 

 

She never stops! Made Gabe & I breakfast in bed (Gabe a shake & me egg in the hole with oranges & OJ), knitted a hat for her teacher's baby & painted a picture for Blake...all in the same day!

Campbell invented a new style to wear scarves. Miles is very happy to look like a pirate.

 

Happy 1/2 Birthday Mr. Miles!

 

A very furry bunny

Blake's drawing he was very proud to mail to Nana & Papa

So busy making creations

Mud!

Big Boy Room Fiesta

With the baby coming and how hard of a time Blake has been falling asleep by himself, we've been talking about moving Miles into Blake's room. We considered bunk beds (too hard for me to wash ALL bedding every 10 days with Blake's dust mite allergy), a trundle, and 2 single beds. We thought we should try the boys sleeping in the same queen bed that is already in there and see how it goes. Gabe slept in a double bed with Garet until he was 8, so might as well give it a try. The big kids wanted to have a "New Room Fiesta" and did all the work getting the room ready. First on their priority list was moving all of Miles's postcards into Blake's closet. Miles said it was a "present better than Christmas!" Then they moved Miles's clothes into the newly opened up half of the dresser (since we organized/purged/moved toys to the newly finished basement guest room closet). Then Campbell made cookies while Blake put up "streamers" (yarn) and made a "this is going to be fun" sign.

I love these big ideas that they get and how they execute them. It would have been pretty boring otherwise.

Starting the party with Campbell's Madeline Jelly Sandwich Cookies

Get your tickets here

Surprise! Time to cut down the streamers. (Even though Miles helped put up alot of the decorations)

The first night was a success! Even though Blake fell asleep in our bed, the night went well and in the morning Blake said he liked Miles being there with him.

Update: Second night Miles had a stomach ache so is sleeping on the bathroom floor. Blake has had a stomach bug and missed 3 days of school. Poor buddy, seems to keep coming and going because he was good yesterday when the party was.

Basement Trim

Got motivated to finish up a couple projects in the basement (the trim on the egress windows, install the closet doors and put up closet shelving). FINALLY unpacked the last boxes from moving in, feels good to get that organized, donated, put away. The Guest Room looks so much better!

 

           

Now that this closet was cleared out, we put in shelving & moved most of the toys from the kids' closets. Nice to purge & be organized! But, man, where did all these toys come from?!?

60 Degrees in February?!?

Can't remember the last time the kids played outside. It's been such a strange winter with rain that melted most of the snow so the yard has been covered in ice and unsafe to play on for a long time. Fresh, warm air feels so amazing. They played outside for hours. 

Muddy and worn out! Miles is saying "Statue of Liberty!"

Waiting for the steak to grill

Valentine's Day

 

All ready to go to school. 

Campbell has been excited to make her Valentines for months. Always amazed by her creativity and artistic talent (of which I have none), she came up with the ideas and made the her fox themed box and cards all by herself, I just helped her cut out and assemble on the construction paper.

 

Blake wanted another Star Wars box and luckily he had been using his from last year to store his Pokemon cards. Found a new picture for the top and he was happy. 

Cupid

First Movie for Miles

The Lego Batman movie came out so we decided to take Miles to his first movie. He did great and sat thru the whole thing (the lazy boy recliners at the theater helped contain him, but he was pretty enthralled by the theater experience. He said, "that TV was bigger than our house!").

Last Basketball Game

The last game of Blake's basketball season was Parents vs Kids. When I told him I couldn't play this year he said that "they could use me as the ball." It was fun to watch, and Gabe had fun playing (especially dunking on the kids size hoop).

 

Post game/season celebration of an ice cream cone that was so tall it fell over in his lap. 

Too Many Grandmas

Grammy, Aunt Judy & Aunt Sheila came down to stay with us for 3 days so they could visit Uncle Denny. Campbell said, "that's too many grandmas!" It was so nice to catch up with everyone and hopefully they come again soon.

Campbell teaching Aunt Judy chess

  

Miles really took a liking to Aunt Sheila, which started when she took an interest in his postcard collection in his room. He kept telling her her liked her and "weally (really) loved her".  

   

Craft time

Waiting at Trader Joe's

Dad's Night

All Saints hosted a Dad's Night for Miles's preschool class, which included crafts and songs. Similar to the Christmas Program, Miles was very shy and wouldn't participate. Daddy took him to Lakewinds after for a treat where he was much happier.

Not having it

After party

Love seeing what they come up with. The last one especially had Gabe & I cracking up. 

Orchestra Concert

Second orchestra concert for Campbell. Her bow broke as she was tightening it before the concert, and she immediately broke into tears. I quickly called Gabe and luckily he just happened to be near where he needed to turn to Schmitt Music. I called the store and luckily they had 1/2 size bow available, so Gabe swung in and got it to Campbell with a few minutes to spare before the concert began, phew!

 

 

Such a large group of kids that they had the other half of the district's concert separately.

Recreation of the bow crisis after the concert.