Valentine's Day

Hi! I am going to open with a photo of Caroline's effort to set the table. It looks a little like modern art!

We had a busy week celebrating Valentine's Day. I became obsessed with heart-shaped foods, starting with the girls lunch boxes on Friday, which included heart-shaped cheese, cucumbers and strawberries in jello.

The girls both took valentines to their classmates. Caroline decided she would rather hold on to hers than pass them out, so she spent the first part of the morning carrying her box of cards around.

Katie on the other hand was excited to pass her cards out. We spent several nights preparing the cards (see needed 40+ for the four preschool groups and the teachers and helpers). So she got lots of practice writing her name! I was remembering back to her first year in preschool when I wrote her name and she scribbled on the card.

Here is the bag that Katie decorated- very fancy!

Saturday morning the girls received Valentines treat bags along with a little mailbox containing valentines from Jamie and me.

Unfortunatley the weekend also brought a bought of stomach flu for Caroline, so that mitigated her enjoyment of the day, but she was happy to load up her valentines into her mailbox.

We had special heart-shaped strawberry muffins for breakfast and then we anxiously awaitied our visit from Jen, Billy, Hannah and Emma (who made the trip despite my call forwarning them of the pukey factor).

They arrived just before lunch (which consisted of heart-shaped grilled cheese for the kids) and we played and then got everyone down for a nap.

Once the girls were awake the girls decorated their mailboxes. Caroline pretty much just filled her box with the decor, but I was eventually able to convince her to stick things on it.

Emma didn't do much crafting, but was her usual enjoyable self!

Caroline making her "mad face"

Katie showing off her work.

Billy helps Hannah with her masterpiece, although he said this photo might ruin his "street cred."

Dinner consisted of . . . heart-shaped pizza and a cheesecake that started as a heart shape (pictured) but collapsed before it was served!

Dog Days of Winter

I will start this week's post with a funny picture from last Monday. I was home over my lunch hour and let Lily out. Later, I looked out the window and found her sitting peacefully beside our snowman. Perhaps she needs a little more attention from the rest of us!

The week was busy, as they all seem to be. Caroline started a new habit of waking up about 30 minutes early so that she could get in some extra play time. I would go get her and she would say "I play downstairs for a few minutes". And she would play while I was still getting things organized in the kitchen and eating breakfast. It definitely made my mornings a little more hectic as I had to add pretending to eat play food to my morning to-do list. Thankfully, the weekend seems to have shifted Caroline back to her regular wake-up time.


Speaking of the weekend, it was a good one. I spent a lot of time running errands in preparation for our trip to Florida. When I returned home from getting my hair cut Saturday morning, the girls were playing in the market, Caroline on the cash register and Katie on the laptop. They told me they were "doing inventory" (I think Dad might have come up with that one).

Saturday afternoon Katie and I went shopping for her and she came home with a lot of new spring clothes, including our big expenditure of a really cute pair of shoes from Gap Kids. We both agreed that they were expensive for kids dress shoes, but we also both agreed we had to have them. I told her they were a lot of money and she said "Okay let's spend all of our money on these" I am sure they will be featured in an upcoming blog. Caroline also must have found them appealing because I later found the shoes had made their way into her closet!


Saturday evening Katie and Jamie had an Indian Princesses ice skating/broom ball outing. As they were preparing their equipment, Caroline got very interested as well and was quite determined that she was going to go too. Before they left, Caroline went ahead and put her own stuff in Jamie's hockey bag and then tried to drag the huge bag to the door. She quickly got over it as I distracted her by helping her try on her new swimsuit. She then decided she would wear it to bed. And then another distraction was needed . . .

Katie really enjoyed the broom ball and Jamie said her skating is improving. In fact, he called me from the rink to tell me how great she was doing.

Sunday we had church and stayed for donuts after- you know our girls hate to miss a chance to eat donuts! The rest of the day flew by in a blur of errands, chores and playing of course. The weather was warm and sunny, so all of our snow melted. Katie got to play outside with our neighbor Miranda and Lily enjoyed getting very muddy in the backyard (the one downside of spring weather).

Sunday night we celebrated Caroline's half birthday with cupcakes and she was very pleased. You may wonder about her attire here. As I said, it was warm, but not quite sundress weather! I had her trying on some things in preparation for Florida and once she rediscovered this dress she was not going to take it off. She has some very strong opinions about what she wears!

Snowy Week

We had our snowiest week of the year so far. Thankfully, the girls' school was open all week except one afternoon, so we plugged along, just with more hassles and wet shoes. Is it spring yet? We have booked our winter trip to Florida, so at least we have that to look forward to!

Aside from vacation, our big focus is plans for kindergarten next year. Our public school's levy did not pass in November and they are planning to do a full-day kindergarten every other day (M,W,F one week, Tu,Th the next). We don't care for this plan at all, so it has nudged us further toward considering Catholic school. Our parish has added a full-day kindergarten option (every day!) for 2009/10 and we think that will be great for Katie. I attended an informational meeting Monday evening and Jamie and I will tour the school on Friday. We're somewhat familiar since Katie goes to Sunday school there, but just want to check it out and get some questions answered. Needless to say, this feels like a big decision and it is stressing me out! Katie is excited about it because she will get to wear a uniform (which she pronounced oohn-a-form), like Cousin Bates.

Here are some photos of the girls being silly. Caroline will do anything for a laugh (she loves imitating us- she pretends to chew gum, crosses her arms and sighs, shakes her head, etc.). Perhaps the talk of Catholic school has led them to consider the nunnery?



Caroline still has her moments of extreme interest in the potty and her teachers thought she might be ready for underwear and official potty training (those brave ladies!) We decided to give it a try this weekend, and on Saturday took her to pick out her big girl panties. She was very proud of getting to make the choice. She picked princesses right away (which was a surprise to us, since she seems to like Dora (Nora) and Elmo more. Her second choice was Pooh Bear, but when Jamie loudly announced that she didn't want Pooh on her underwear, we knew we couldn't get those. (Quick sidebar: Unfortunately, I remembered Jamie's comment on church on Sunday when I noticed the man who was giving me communion was wearing a Winnie the Pooh sweatshirt. I must have looked kind of smirky as I said Amen).

In the end she selected Elmo as her second choice. With everything going on, we didn't get to try them out until Sunday afternoon and it didn't go so well, so I think we're going to table this adventure until we return from vacation.

After lunch on Sunday, we finally got to get out in the snow to play. It was a terrific day, because it had warmed up to almost 40 and the snow was good to pack. We made a great little snowman.

And some snow angels

Caroline even gave him a little kiss!

Lily was interested in him, too.

After a while Caroline went in for her nap and Katie and a neighbor girl went to sled on a little hill nearby.

We ended the day with our own Super Bowl party. Jamie was in charge of the main menu (spinach artichoke dip and sausage balls) and he spent a lot of time working on the food. I handled veggies and dessert (s'mores brownies). It was all delicious and the girls liked having the TV on during dinner. For some reason I didn't end up taking any photos of us eating, so I will just tell you that Caroline made a huge mess, with dip smeared everywhere. Katie loved everything and kept eating and eating sausage balls and celery, even after Caroline had finished her dessert and was well into wiping chocolate into her hair.