What we do in the long cold evenings..

Winter is the time of fun hops. One of the best toys we've gotten for our kids! Great inside energy outlet. Good for hitting, jumping on, kicking, throwing...and the occasional bouncing. Laughter is more prevalent than tears, which is always a good sign. I wish they made fun hops for adults! Instead, we've got exercise balls, which aren't so bad, just not quite as fun. Besides the exercises you do on them, we have also used ours to bounce on with fussy newborns. Great tip! ....anyway..

here are the hard workers doing their sit-ups:

Lately, the kids just want to exercise with their balls in front of our DVD at any time of day. Don't be fooled though; their attention span for following the video: 10 minutes and declining each time that dvd plays. However, after those few minutes of bouncing bun lifts and "seeing that girl's bum" (followed by raucous mocking laughter) comes their true workout.

Valentine's Day fun-nity

We're still figuring out Valentine's Day at our house. I like keeping it fairly simple, like a little book and candy for the kids (what my parents did), and that's it. Maybe some pink pancakes, maybe some pink milk at lunch, some pink cookie decorating, probably a dinner that is assumed to be "nicer" regardless if it actually is or not...some dessert...but that's it! Wait...that really doesn't sound that simple once I wrote it all down. But it is a regular day! No, we can't take a break from chores, and no, it's not like Christmas with cousin visits and parties. I like the days leading up to V-day best. A little decoration, a lot of card-making, and some heart crafts. Anticipation is more my thing I guess.

I really like the valentine exchange at school and all, but the meaning is really not there for my kids. At least not yet. I remember when I was a kid I would search through all my Little House on the Prairie valentines (or Smurfs? ET? Neverending Story?) to try to find the perfect saying to give that cute boy(s)/best friends and then finding just the right expressions on the candy hearts to go in those envelopes as well. Then I'd come home and analyze what cards I got from those boys/friends and what the secret message really meant.

The goods at our house. It was so nice to see the cards Isabelle and Anika made for everyone, donating their own candies (good ones too!) to give to all of us. Now that is sweet.
Olivia had her preschool Tuesday and she had a donut (see above) that she only ate the frosting from. She is proud of her donut and is saving it with the rest of her stash. I shudder to think what that donut would taste like right now. Ah...fun times.

Now bring on the Easter candy!

Happy Valentine's Day!

One year old is well, 1!

Sam is an actual number age now! It was funny because this morning Isabelle was excited for Sam to wake up, curious about what he was going to look like now that he is 1. She was a bit disappointed to see that he looked the same as he did yesterday at 364 days old. Everyone's a bit sad that he's not even excited about his BIG DAY. What's the point if he doesn't even know? Well....I'll show you....

We re-gifted the truck Sam got for Christmas. Maybe he'll start playing with it now he's a little more mature.

He also got his first pair of shoes. Yes, he has been a bit neglected on the shoe-front. I just don't believe in shoes unless they're used for walkin'.

Mr. Blue Lips loves sucking on food coloring. Hey- the lid was on! He's got good sucking mechanisms.

Since he loves food coloring so much I made Red Velvet cupcakes. They use a ton of red food coloring. Not as good as blue, but close. He wasn't shy about diggin' in, as he was introduced to cake about six months ago. (how can you in good conscience hold back things that bring such joy?)

Happy Birthday Bo-B!