V-dub's V-Day

It's been a whole week since Valentine's Day, but one of my roses is still hanging on. Our Valentine boxes still get a daily rummaging. I think Mia's box from last year hung around for two months. We really hate losing our holidays around here. :)

The girls got some cute packages from Grandmas, filled with Valentine clothes and treats. Those things are so much fun- like a little party in a box. After those arrived, they were super excited to go to our homeschooling group's Valentine party to exchange V-day cards.

This year we learned from our experience and made bigger boxes with bigger holes. We dismantled Grandma's singing V-day card and rigged Mia's box to play when the flap over her mail slot was opened and closed. Bree and Anya hadn't seemed too excited about our invention, but then Bree asked me the night before the party if she could have a singing box like Mia's. :( Next year... Every year I find something I want to remember to do for the next, ha. There were 32 kids participating this time, so we were definitely feelin' the love.

When we got home we went "Valentining." It has become the favorite part of holidays for these kids- dressing up and handing goodies to our neighbors.
Now we just need more neighbors who are home on holidays..


The day after Valentine's Kael turned seven months old.

Man-I thought he had me wrapped around my finger before? He started babbling "Mamamamamamama." I might as well now be his personal 6-foot marionette.
Could you resist that?
Well, I can't. :)

Going going gone

We've had a few fun things going on lately! The twins started a dance class at the rec center. We signed Mia up, too and decided we'd stop paying $47 bucks a month to put her in Pinell Dance Studio. The free class is just as good for a five-year-old...

Mia lost her first tooth-
...............Going............................going......................... gone!
She put it in her princess bag, so the tooth fairy had a great place to put a certificate and a little tooth fairy note, a sucker (which Mia specifically hoped for, so good thing the tooth fairy heard her, huh) and a "silver dollar."


And she also made her first fairy crown. Aunt Kiley gave us a fun idea book for Christmas, and we're having a hard time choosing which ones to do first- they're all so cute.


We also started on Mim's first science project. She wants to find out which sense is the best for telling foods apart between taste, smell and touch. Her bet is on taste.





If anyone would like to participate, she needs more test subjects this week!

Birth order

I heard that my grandma's motto about raising children was that we're simply supposed to work ourselves out of a job.
Zach and I can't help but notice how fast time is flying when we see how Mia ages five years whenever she dotes on her little brother. She's in such a hurry to be a good mommy.
Funny thing, I remember exactly how she feels. I remember more than one occasion when my mom had to remind me who the real parent of my sibings was, and so it's hard not to laugh as I watch Mia try to teach the twins how to do their dot-to-dots , and as she gives them "talking lessons."
"Say: MOOOmmy."
Two little voices repeat her.
The best is when she paraphrases something I tell the twins, and I know exactly how my mom must have felt dealing with a little echo voice. Good and bad, there's nothing like being the oldest, I tell 'ya.

I'm interested to see if the "middle child" role will affect the twins doubly or not at all, or what.

Here's the current youngest. I'm also interested to see if he ends up being the youngest, or if we decide we're crazy enough to do this again. ;)

You heard Mia say we should send this to Dad? He's been gone the last couple of weeks doing the last six of eleven interviews. The twelfth and very final one will be at OSU next month. We're collecting info on a bunch of states and a bunch of programs, so we can form a list that ranks our preferences. We'll find out where we've "matched" on St. Patrick's Day, it looks like. Luckily, there are good aspects to every program, so we know that wherever we're going next will be just fine. Meanwhile, I'm glad the interviewing part is over. I went from shoveling the walk to nursing the baby in .00006 seconds today. ;) We're so glad when Daddy comes home...

Better get in our monthly post

I wanted to wait until either he was six months old or sitting up on his own, but Zach's worried his son is a lightweight and the pediatrician gave the green light, so Kael got something new for Christmas dinner.


He's actually loving it now, and Zach gets a kick out of helping to feed the baby finally.
We bought some of those new gingerbread graham crackers. They taste... like gingerbread graham crackers. Don't try and make s'mores with them, that's all I've got to say.



Mia wrote her name on hers with icing squeezed from a corner-cut Ziploc. I was pretty impressed.

We finally made use of our snow clothes last week, and went sledding with our friends.

We really need to get a sled.

Or not...