Fun in the (February) Sun!

We had an unseasonably warm past week. The teacher in me hasn't given up on snow days though!!

Willow had a sweet friend ride the bus home with her from school to stay over and play for a bit. They did their reading homework in the hammock!

Owen and I snuck away to DQ while Willow was at music last week. Ssshhhhh!!

Willow had her last basketball practice today. They played a bunch of games and enjoyed cheering each other on!

When the kids were little (can I really say that??) we'd often find Alli napping on the changing table pad. Chris always talked about turning it into a cat bed for her when we didn't need it anymore. Nana and Grandpa were able to use it with Hannah and Hunter but recently gave it back. Today Chris installed Alli's new "window bed" in our  master bath. She loves it!!

We got out in the backyard for a long while this afternoon. It was beautiful! The kids even enjoyed playing together for a while, which was even more beautiful!!

Always.Playing.StarWars.

Owen LOVED playing goalie!!

Check out our skills!!

Willow's new trick on the trampoline.

Hockey!

This year there's a new minor league hockey team in town. We took advantage of an online ticket/popcorn deal AND the draw of it being Star Wars night, to take the kids out to their first hockey game. They both enjoyed seeing the characters (from a distance) and even did well watching the game!

Owen knew all the names of the characters he saw:

I think I was only able to convince them to take a selfie with R2-D2 because he was smaller than us and he was between us and the popcorn stand!!

When the screen says "Get Loud!" Owen would rather everyone get quiet!!

And afterwards, Alli joined us in watching Planet Earth 2. I think she wants to join us at the beach the next time we go!

and she's pretty sure she's gonna catch that bird!

All things random...

Thankfully I've been doing a better job prioritizing lately, but unfortunately it hasn't involved taking as many pictures or blogging. Here are a few things that have been captured this year but not posted yet:

Owen was blessed with a ridiculous number of Lego sets this Christmas. We had to limit him to one per day and made a rule that he couldn't take any of them apart until they were all put together (mostly for the pic that I never got...). Sidenote: If anyone knows a kid who would enjoy the Star Wars Operation game, let me know, because Owen is terrified to play it!

My naptime cuddle buddy (no necks were impaled in the taking of this picture)

Chris got me this awesome 1000 piece for puzzle for Christmas. Alli was happy to help:

Chris and Willow helped some too!

We got a few inches of snow in January and got a couple snow days out of it. Unfortunately it was during a time when we were taking turns being sick, so no one really need to be out in it too much!

Done!!

Gramps and Gramma got us some fun extendable skewers for s'mores, which we were happy to try out recently.

Morgan let us know about a free Batman Lego build event at Toys R Us. The kids each had fun putting Batman's vehicle together!

And always lots of time on the trampoline. We've had a good number of warm days in the past month to help us get outside and enjoy the fresh air!

Swimming update

The kids continue to improve with their swimming and it's been fun to see both of them spend some of their lesson time swimming the whole length of the pool! Willow's class spends 80% of their time swimming between the lap lanes and Owen's class usually spends the last 25% of their time there. Check them out swimming the whole length!   Willow      Owen

Happy Valentine's Day!

This year the kids had fun looking at ideas on Pinterest to pick out their own Valentines to make for their friends! Of course, Owen went with Legos. He did a great job of writing his friends' names! Here he is reading them. 

We were able to reuse the molds from his Lego birthday party to make chocolate Legos to go along with them. 

Willow picked out a valentine with the parts to make a s'more!

Both kids enjoyed helping make valentine-shaped sugar cookies:

I wrongly assumed we had valentine sprinkles but ended up only having red sprinkles. We were, though, able to pick out the green sprinkles from Christmas sprinkles, but hated to waste the green ones!