Civil War Buff

Logan loves non fiction books, or "informational text" as he calls them. His current favorite subject is Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War. He knows quite a lot of facts about them, and being the boy he is has integrated his new-found knowledge and interests into his longstanding interest of creating things, and he made this Civil War game. And in the game he has managed to make it so that the Northern soldiers (especially Abe Lincoln himself) are harder to know down, so the North always wins! What a clever boy!

Valentines Day

On Valentines Day we bought an ice cream cake to share, as per tradition. But it wasn't decorated in any way, a problem the kids soon fixed with cut out hearts taped to toothpicks that they stuck all over the cake. Now it was as festive as it was yummy! 

Daddy Daughter Dance

Ali got to go with her Dad to the Daddy Daughter Dance at school again this year. Last year I had to force her into a skirt for the event (dresses for Sundays can be a struggle too), so imagine my surprise when I suggested that this year she wear the outfit Grandma sent her from Spain and she excitedly agreed and then came down wearing not only the dress but the shoes and hat as well! She looked absolutely adorable and you could tell she felt beautiful and ate up all the compliments from her brothers and me and then later her Dad when he came home. They had a great time. Ali is lucky to have such an amazing Daddy, and he and I are lucky to have such an amazing girl!

Snow Day

A couple of weeks ago we got about 19 inches of snow in less than a day and then the next day school was cancelled. I was starting to get annoyed with all the cold and snow days we were having (I think we're up to five in about a month and a half), until Jason reminded me that every one of those we have now is a day in the spring that I will have a newborn where the kids are still in school, and now I am a much bigger fan of them:)

Poor Jason had to do all the shoveling by himself, and was nice enough to throw most of it into one of two spots making the creation of fantastic snow forts possible. The kids spent at least two hours out there on both the day it snowed and the next day enjoying the snow. It wasn't so bitter cold as it was the previous times it snowed this winter which they enjoyed. And I enjoyed watching them play while sitting on the couch in my front room.

The snow was up to their knees or higher!

Working on the fort.

See the mailbox behind Eli? That gives you an idea of how high these piles are!

Joy School

Eli is enjoying Joy School again this year. On this day I taught we were talking about trying new things, so we read the book Green Eggs and Ham and then had some for snack. Interestingly, most of the kids, including Eli, had actually had green eggs and ham before, but they enjoyed them nonetheless.

30 Weeks

Here is a picture at about 30 weeks, though now I almost 33 weeks. This pregnancy has been different than my other two in a few different ways. Early on I was much more nauseous than before. I never threw up, thankfully, but for a few months I felt like I might throw up at any second. 

Now that I am further along, I think I must be carrying differently, more straight out, because already clothes that fit to the end of my previous pregnancies already don't fit even though at this point I haven't gained as much weight as I did by the end of my other pregnancies. Add to that the fact that I am having to be very careful with my physical activities because even an hour of simply standing causes the muscles under my belly to start to ache, and pushing myself more than that has been known to make walking a painful process for days afterwards. 

And then there is Little Mister himself who is a wild child and a night owl. None of my other babies moved as much or as violently as this little one. My other babies moved in small movements more or less all day long, but he already seems to have very clear sleep and wake periods, the most wide-awake of which seems to be from about 10pm-2am, So he is the first of my babies to keep me awake at night before he is born.We joke that he already likes to do somersaults like his big brothers and sister and I really feel like that is not far from the truth. He gets hiccups about daily which helps me to tell how he is positioned (I can't tell a foot from an elbow, but I figure I feel the hiccups in his chest area every time) and I marvel at how drastically his body position changes from day to day. I feel like he already has such a personality, and it will be interesting to see if he stays like this once he is born!

Book Orders

When the book orders come home from school the kids pour over them, making wish lists. I have a standing deal that I will buy them something $5 or less (because I am a sucker for book orders too), and if they want something that costs more than that (which they always do) they are welcome to use their allowance money to make up the difference. This has resulted in some pretty cool book order buys, including this one Logan bought that came with a block full of "fossil bones" that we excavated and then put together to make a model dinosaur:

And not one, but two, "melting " snowman kits (because of course they had to have their own) where you build a snowman out of this playdough that then slowly sinks lower and lower until the playdough is flat, or "melted." Oh, and they came with some books too...

Puzzles

Lately Eli has rediscovered the puzzles and has been pleased to find he is pretty good at them now. I am impressed with how well he does with them on his own and am hopeful that maybe I finally have a kid who will make use of all the many puzzles we have accumulated over the years which for the most part have just sat in a drawer.

Taekwondo

Ali and Logan both took a short, four session, after-school taekwondo class and then got to show off what they had learned for us. The teacher did a great job with such a big group of little kids and it was clear they really had learned a lot and listened really well to him. The best part of the day was that they got to try and break a board, something they hadn't tried before, and they both did it! They were so proud! 

Battle Gear

The kids have found yet another use for the toy boxes that is not its intended use: a shield. He's a knight here.

Book Sniffer

You might know my girl likes to read, but did you know she also loves the smell of books? Upon opening a book to read it, the first thing she does is smell it, and then might smell another page or two as she reads. I just love her.