February Fun

In our latest installment of "Mega Posts to Get Caught Up On Blogging" we present for your perusal...

Claire in yet another random sleep location.  

Coloring really is hard work, just ask her!

Cuddling with Amelia while she picks my nose.

Amelia is making it easier to tell where she's been snooping around recently

Be honest now, who among you is trying to figure out what canned goods are in our pantry?

It's OK, I'd probably be doing the same thing if our roles were reversed ;D

And yes, there is a LOT of canned pumpkin in there.  Pumpkin muffins and pancakes are popular items around here.

Amelia is also quite persistent about climbing the chairs at the kitchen table.  I try to keep them pushed in all the way to prevent her from getting on top of the table.  This leads to some frustration on her part.  Poor kid.

Making Valentine's Day cards

Decorating Valentine's Day cookies

I had the *brilliant* idea to let the girls place the M&Ms in various designs on the cookies instead of just mixing them in like normal. 

Beautiful, aren't they?

(the girls and the cookies alike)

I especially like the face cookie Melanie made that has "teeth" inside the smile.

Claire was all about thorough chocolate coverage.

Good idea, unfortunately it didn't really turn out as nicely as I would have liked.  I knew they wouldn't since chocolate chip cookie dough is so soft, but I powered through and tried anyway.  Gotta prove myself wrong from time to time (or would it be proving myself right in this instance since I knew it most likely wasn't going to work?)  The girls really enjoyed it regardless of how the cookies looked to me. 

Melanie also gave white chocolate pretzels as part of her Valentine's treats at school, and the big girls really enjoyed eating the "stripes" that fell off into the bottom of the container.

Amelia's newest talent: getting her shoes and socks off.  She especially enjoys doing this when we're in the car, proudly announcing her accomplishment with a joyous "Uh-oh!"

Uh-oh my foot. :P

Claire can gallop, and it very much reminds us of the galloping in "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

Matt caught a picture of all three girls enjoying the bedtime routine
(as well as a rare occasion of their floor not being covered by baskets full of laundry waiting to be folded and put away)

There are enough pictures below for an entire post on a day we spent at the ranch, but I've already been working on this post "in my spare time" for two days, and I don't want to have to download them again, so here is a post-within-a-post full of outdoor fun at Spring Creek.

I'm pretty sure this is the first time Amelia has been able to be down on the ground by the creek.  She was pretty fascinated by everything.

The newest form of amusement was trying to toss rocks across the creek into a hollowed out old tree, where they will plunk their way back down and out a hole in the base and into the creek. 

Their were discussions about coming up with some sort of "Spring Creek Challenge" to be executed on the 4th of July, with the Hollow Trunk Rock Toss being one of the things you had to accomplish.  We're open to suggestions for additional events to add to the list.

Everybody enjoys a good Gator ride!

Sweet picture of Amelia and Grams

An evening on the deck with Gramps after a fun day of outdoor play.  What could be better?

"Hospital Day" at preschool

(aka pajama day)

The kids received a hospital bracelet upon being "admitted" to school in the morning, were assigned an illness that started with the same letter as their first name, and had a visit from a nurse and learned about good hygiene and general health. 

Playdate with Melanie's friend and making pretzels for a lenten treat.

Arms folded in prayer just like a pretzel!

A dear friend came home from a deployment, so while his wife and daughter went to meet up with him and attend the welcome home ceremony we volunteered to "let the dog out" while they were gone for the day.  Of course while we were there we made our own little "Welcome Home!"  surprise for him.

The girls really enjoyed making the "Welcome Home" banner.

Welcomed home with a strawberry rhubarb pie and "cards" from our girls.

FYI, if you are mailing something internationally, don't go to Dillons to do it.  We tried to send a care package to our friend while he was deployed, not realizing we would need to fill out a customs form.  The employee at the customer service desk at Dillons didn't know either, so we paid for a package to be shipped only to have it sent back to us a week later since it lacked customs forms.  We were dubious that it would make it to him before the mail cutoff date at that point, so we just saved it for when he got home.  It's the thought that counts, right?

Mustaches the girls got from the toy tower at the doctor's office when we went in for Amelia's 1-year well-child checkup.  

Obviously not a significant part of our month, but I thought they were funny.