Sweets for the Sweet

We didn't do our traditional Valentine's Day scavenger hunt this year.  Valentine's Day fell on a school day, so I told the kids we'd celebrate the day on a non-school day.  Unfortunately, I was sick instead and didn't do much for the kiddos.  We made heart-shaped brownies together once I finally felt better, so I think they were happy...eventually.  There were some important grownups, though, that made Valentine's Day special for my kids even though I didn't.  You know who you are, and thank you!  One of them was Doreen, who gave the kids some of her special cookies.  As you can see, they were thrilled.

One More from Valentine's Day

She came out of Sunday school looking like this on the day before Valentine's Day.  Silly girl!

I think Charlotte told him about this trick...

and maybe he's trying to avoid eating his broccoli?

Sick Baby

He came down with whatever-it-was during church on Sunday, had a fever all afternoon, and then was fine Monday morning!

The Daddy Daughter Dance

She's been talking about it for a year...recognizing the music from last year's dance on the radio...making her plans to go this year...and finally, the evening came.  Here are some pictures I took of her while we got ready for her big night with Daddy.

Getting any kind of still picture with this girl is quite a trick!  I won't tell you how many "duds" I took to get one good one!

Super excited for an evening out together!  And I heard later, from others who were there, that Gracie can really "cut a rug."  Ha!  I heard from Grace that she and her daddy ate a lot of chocolate.  So, all in all, it was a wonderful evening!

How Many Does It Take?

As you may know, Grace's birthday is coming up.  Traditionally, we have small, immediate-family birthday parties for our kids until they are in school.  So, with less than a month before Grace's birthday, I knew I needed to figure out an invitation.  However, I was sick and feeling very uninspired.  I almost sent out an invitation without a picture, but I figured my grandma would really like a picture.  So, I got to work.  I took sixteen pictures of Grace.  I got one that I could use.  It's down at the bottom.  (I suppose I could have sent an invitation with a collage of silly pictures?  But, remember, I was feeling sick and uninspired.)  Here are some of the funny ones of the sixteen I took.  (Quite a contrast to Benjamin's willingness to be cute on command.)

Here's the one I used on her invitation.  And, sure enough, when Grandma received it, she called me to tell me how much she liked the picture!  Good thing I used one!

The Monkeys

Self-portrait, but with curly hair...

Pancakes

We have a Saturday morning pancake tradition.  When Jeff gets up - or, after he's back from his run - he makes pancakes for the kids.  The kids look forward to it all week.  We have some friends who turned vegan for awhile, and they gave us a delicious recipe for pancakes.  We're not vegan, but we love the recipe.  (Jeff has butter on his.  Definitely not vegan.)  We have ended up with a tradition of putting Nutella between our pancakes, too, which some of us like much better than syrup.

The kids are always anxious to get in on the action of making the pancakes.  Jeff is a lot more tolerant of kids on counters than I am, so they really enjoy getting close to all the ingredients...and their daddy.

Before the Trip

The morning of my trip that I mentioned earlier, we all took Jonathan to school, and then we had a little playtime before Jeff and the younger kids took me to the airport.  They were so thrilled to have Jeff home!  Here are some of the pictures I took of them playing.