Other recent scenes...

Henry's been making quick work of his jeans lately. I finally got some patches in hopes that I can make them last until summer. I could only find boring old square patches though, so I tried to get a little creative.... I wasn't sure if he'd be okay with wearing them to school or not. But as soon as he saw them Henry shouted "awesome," and then later said "I'll be the only kid at school with patches on my jeans!" So, I guess if I've raised my kid to think that's a good thing, I've done something right.

 The other day Clara had a mild fever. She got over it quickly, but it resulted in quite a long nap on Thursday. I had to wake her to get Henry from school and we were still a bit late. Poor little sleeping baby.

 That same night both kids had baths and I took a quick one too. Of course there's no real quiet time for Mom. I came out of my bath to much pounding outside the door. When I opened up I found this:

Today the kids have been to a bounce-house birthday party and came home to a house full of kids (I was watching the neighbor kids for a few hours this afternoon). I'm hoping all of that activity means early bedtimes for them. Baths will have to wait until the morning. Pete and I may finally get to watch the season 2 premier of Downton Abbey.

February Snow

It started out yesterday like this. It was rainy and then turned into these huge fluffy flakes.

 Eventually it started to stick.

 And this morning it looked like this.

 Henry threw a snowball at me on the way to school.

 And Clara and I made a quickie-quick snowman before heading out for our morning errands. He's a little lopsided, but I'm more disturbed by the contrast of the white snow and the mossy grime covering our siding. I guess it's time to get the power-washer out. Maybe if we ever re-side we'll go with a nice green color.

Crazy 8s!

Maybe it will work now?
Assuming it does...I just really liked being able to capture this nice moment between the two kids. Of course, at the end you can see a subtle version of Henry's unwillingness to not win a game....

Hard at work

Eleanor is working on a 'laboratory book' and Clara is coloring a 'naked picture' of Cinderella, apparently.

Penelope

We're getting lots of good Penelope time today. She likes Uncle Pete, of course.

Happy Heart day from my funny Valentines!

Recent Happenings

Seems like we've been pretty busy lately, though I'm not really sure what we've accomplished. Here are some pictures from our last few days. Henry had a whole week of 'spirit' days. Tuesday was "tie or tie-dye day." He wore Pete's Peanuts tie to school and Pete took this sassy picture.

 

 Yesterday was cold as all get out. We had, fortunately, made some fun indoor plans with friends we hadn't seen in a long time. We met Keri and Sue and their cutie-pie Noah out for bowling. It was a party with the "cosmic" lights on.

 

Clara chose a very special outfit for the occasion, layering several looks. When it wasn't her turn to bowl, she mostly seemed to enjoy lying on the floor and rolling the ball around. It probably didn't help that it was 1:30 and she's usually in bed for a nap at that time.

 Today was a quieter day. Pancakes for breakfast, then the kids went with me to school for a little bit to take care of some things, while Pete ran other errands. Then we all met up at Potbelly for lunch. After naps for all we worked on the kids' Valentines. We made superhero Tootsie-Roll pops with the message "you're a super friend!" I found the idea online and, aside from cutting out all the masks, they were easy to make.

 Tonight was spaghetti for dinner and baths, not necessarily in that order, and then a bit of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory before bed. Hopefully Clara will settle down enough that Pete and I can enjoy watching a bit of the Grammys. Here's our spunky little girl in the tub:

Princess Show

We all loved the show! The kids were awesome about not begging for plastic flashy crap. It probably helped that Clara already had a flashy crown. Henry did ask a few too many times for cotton candy, but he didn't get any. The show was quite a spectacle. Clara told me her favorite part was the "gardeners" by which she meant Cinderella's royal guard. Pete's favorite part was the Bud Light zamboni.

Fancy

Lately Clara's been getting herself dressed first thing in the morning, sometimes even before we're up. This morning she wanted to wear something fancy because we're going to the Disney princesses on ice 'Dare to Dream!' show. Here's what she had on when I got out of bed.