We've been keeping busy this winter to keep the blahs away. We especially look forward to the weekends. Every Friday is friends Friday and the kids like to invite friends over each week. And I do too, most times. :) One day, Lucy and her friend Danica found one of my red stamp pads and decided to ink themselves. The picture doesn't look as bad as it really was. It was all over not just them but the rugs and all! Silly girls. We also look forward to pizza night (takeout or homemade) and family movie night on Fridays as well, always a treat!
January 15 marked National Strawberry Ice cream Day. We like to celebrate wacky holidays around here, to give us something to do when there is nothing else to do. :) We played a few word games, kind of like Scattegories, were everyone had to come up with as many words for each letter of "ice cream" as they could in one minute. Emma did really well and was impressive. Then we played "Ice, ice, cream!" like "Duck, Duck, Goose. And of course, we finished it all off with our favorite ice cream. We also celebrated Cereal day and Pi day as well and had fun with those.
The kid have been finding ways to keep themselves entertained indoors and out. One day, the kids put pillows in oversized shirts and sang Wierd Al's Fat. This is just what Daddy and his brothers did when they were kids when visitors would come over to show off. We took a video, it was pretty hilarious! Seriously, kids are total built-in entertainment!
They love dressing up poor, helpless Covey. The kids wanted to do his hair, and this is what they came up with:
We've been able to go clean up the church a few times on Saturdays, which is great for the kids. Emma is a stellar helper there. We all also like to go to play in the gym at the church on Saturdays, after I practice the organ. We've played tennis, baseball, tag, running games, volleyball and basketball in there. Tons of fun!
One night, we did "ice skating" games in the kitchen. We had races, did different obstacles, and danced on the "ice" with our paper plate skates. They enjoyed it.
The weekends are a great time to bake...I like to make homemade bread, but don't do it all of the time. Emma has been loving helping to cook and bake lately, and is getting good at doing it all by herself. She made this great peach pie almost all by herself!
We like just sitting around playing games and relaxing a lot too. One night, when we were playing games, Covey came out with his gun and started going "Boom boom!" and pointing his gun at everyone while she stuck out his little belly. So funny!
We've had friends over and been over to friends houses quite a bit. One night, when a few friends came over for a game night, Cal said he was going to go get changed into his party clothes. This is the ensemble he came up with. Silly kid!
The kids have been enjoying all of the snow! Always love sledding, building, digging, snow balling, etc. Even when it's really cold, they love being out there. It has been a pretty mild winter though, and we have had some pretty warm days in January and Febraury where we were able to go to the park because it's been about 50 or above!
Weekends mean taking care of our honey-do lists. :) This was Cov right before his much needed haircut. He was so wiggly this time around, but it looked pretty good. And I helped do Cal's, and it actually turned out pretty good this time!
We have also been trying to stay alive...poor Cov has had his share of sicknesses this winter, and they always seem to get worse or come during the weekend. He's had 2 ear infections (including a double ear infection), tonsilitis, strep throat and a few viruses. On top of that, he's gotten some new teeth. Sad sad! But after about a month and a half of feeling better for a few days and coming down with something else, he's doing great. And it was so good to see him smiling again! Cov is such a trouble maker and loves making messes now. One of his most recent feats include vaseline in the hair. Cov is also lucky to be alive. He's obsessed with electrical outlets. He used to pull plugs and the safety covers out to try to stick his fingers in, which he did a few times and got shocked each time. But it wasn't enough to teach him his lesson until he stuck a KEY into it. It blew the fuse, and the lights went off in our house. He must have gotten a big jolt, but not serious enough to take him in, because he hasn't touched them at all since.
We like going on outings on the weekend, even if it's just to the store. Cal has had this fascination with his zippers lately and likes to lick them when he's in his carseat.
Speaking of going to the store, I got the deal of the century recently. I was working one night a Walmart, when they made the announcement that all remaining Christmas items were going to be a penny each. So I clocked out really quick, got a shopping cart and filled it. I got bags of bows, labels, boxes of cards, cookie cutters, body wash sets for kids, air freshner plug ins, and all kinds of other stuff. My cart was full and I paid around $3! It was crazy! Love bargain shopping...and that is what I would call a bargain!
We also look forward to participating in
Bountiful Baskets every other Friday night. Always some great stuff! We just got these purple oranges, which were extra tangy and tart and sweet...they were pretty good! The kids usually like going, too, because we'll usually run into friends while waiting or helping to unload the truck.
We have helped do several baby showers lately. It's been fun, I love baby showers!
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| I did not make this cake...wish I did. |
Weekends are a time to clean and organize for us. Emma organized her kitties and just loves those cats. Total crazy cat lady in training! Like grandma, like granddaughter! The last time I asked her how many she had, it was up to 32. And she loves them all on her bed, to the point where it seems like there's not much room for her. So I have taken a few in the past, but she totally knows if even a couple are gone. "Where's Cobbler?" "Have you seen Sparkles, Mom?" She loves playing with them and longs for a real cat, but this mean mom won't let her...yet. I'll probably give in some day,
We've had quite a few weekend events for the school activities. For "leveling up" in his reading program at school, Cal was invited to the high school basketball game, where he was featured at half time. They got to run up to center court and give high fives to the cheerleaders and school administration, then they got some special treats. He thought that was pretty cool. Emma was also chosen to sing the National Anthem at the high school tournament here with a choir that had a couple of kids from each class in it. They sounded really great and Emma thought it was neat to do that.
We've had some fun times with all of the school days off. Human rights day was fun, though Daddy had to work. I wish work schedules and school schedules correlated...:) For president's day, we read some books about the presidents and had cherry pie and played a lot of games to celebrate. Then we had a four day weekend, since there were a few teacher development days. We played at the park, went to the library for their reading programs, relaxed, went shopping. On Friday morning, we had a friend un-sleepover pajama party. We had waffles and crepes with all the fixings, Then they played charades, telephone, and a few other classic games. And they made door hangers to put on their bedroom doors. Then it was dancing time and play time. Our kids have some sweet friends, they are lucky!
Friday night, we had a family camp-in. We made hot dogs, baked beans, home fries, and veggies for dinner. Then we read a bunch of fun camping books, and camp fire poems. We made up our own scary stories. We had some good ones about ears of corn coming alive in a corn field and attacking people, and guns shooting out ketchup, and a ghost whose eyeballs popped out and went to scare everyone. It was a hoot! We sang some camp songs. We set up the tent in the living room and set it all up. And the girls put our artificial trees and forest stuffed animals around the tent. We watched a Diary of the Wimpy Kid movie where he goes camping (the kids have been way into those books lately...and I have to agree, they're funny! We read the first one out loud). They loved sleeping in their sleeping bags in the tent! It was a great night!
The next day, we went to see the Chariot races in Saratoga for a while. It was pretty fun to see and it was a beautiful day! Cov loved the horsies especially.
After the races, we went and soaked in the hot pools there. Cal thought it was cool getting in the river and going back to the hot pools and back and forth between the two. Then we went to the Outhouse gift shop to look around, and we found one of the employees that used to work in one of Dave's departments at her boutique/specialty shop. We then at dinner at Platte Valley Pizza, which was a pretty good place, and it was fun because right after we got there, some of our other friends did, too!
Then of course, there's Sunday. I'm so thankful to have a day of rest to regroup, spend time as a family, worship at church and home, and renew my covenants on the Sabbath Day. One Sunday, while getting ready for church, Lucy decided to deck her arms out with bracelets like Grandma Sue. There were a ton on both arms! We let her wear them, but I think she got embarrased and took them off and into our church bag. Lucy started Primary, and enjoys sunbeams. And Cov recently began going to Nursery. He usually loves it and just goes right on in.
TGIWW - Thank goodness it's a winter weekend!
