One of the things I get to do is attend Activity Days with K. The Valentine activity was quite clever and enjoyable. An act of service the girls did was to make hearts and walk down the street to heart attack the bishop's front door. It was made even more fun due to the sheet of frozen rain that turned the sidewalk into an ice rink!
Progress at 100 mile club: M hit the 50 mile mark and D hit the 75. I took this picture right before Hubby took him to his district Klondike activity. It was unusually warm and windy and he seemed to have a good time but was even more excited to work on his first pinewood derby car after he got home.
While Hubby and D were at the Klondike, we girls picked up Grandpa and headed to the Girl Scout day at the CSU basketball game. I hadn't been there since watching my sister-in-law's sister-in-law play volleyball there over a decade ago. This was their first college sporting event and their favorite part? The fact that lots of women's sports teams were there to sign autographs on the free team posters.
Winter time: usually January is the worst for me but I got really sick of winter in Feb this year -- I call that progress. I am grateful for my audio books when I am stuck indoors cleaning the house, etc. Along with listening to books for book club like Still Alice (terrorizing), Navigating Early (way better than the book cover suggests), The Prisoner of Cell 25 (fun), The Book Thief (loved the narrator), The Lightning Thief (ok), Serafina and the Black Cloak (different) and The Screaming Staircase (which would totally be an R rated movie due to the Red Room)... I have listened others of my own choosing such as To Kill A Mockingbird (which I loved so much more as a parent), The Nightingale (so good but so sad), The Zookeeper's Wife (set in Warsaw), Cinder (and Scarlet & Cress), Major Pettigrew's Last Stand (I've got to go to England someday), Station Eleven (which really makes to think), Ready Player One (which I really liked), A Wrinkle in Time (not what I expected -- even better), The White Queen (which made me want to read more Phillipa Gregory), Far From the Madding Crowd (so ahead of it's time!), Island of the Blue Dolphins (I don't see what the big deal is about), The Maze Runner (decent), 2 more Maisie Dobbs books (Leaving Everything Most Loved and A Dangerous Place) and I have now read the entire Giver quartet (The Giver, Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son) and I finally read Pride and Prejudice (no wonder that book was so famous for that time period!). I never knew I could inhale so much fiction. Just to make sure I haven't left nonfiction in the dust, I've also been listening to Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela (soooo detailed I fell asleep listening to it at least once) and A Man on the Moon about the Apollo space program (which makes me want to watch From the Earth to the Moon again) after reading The Astronaut Wives Club (makes me glad I'm not married to a famous guy), the 5 Love Languages of Children (awesome) and The Opposite of Worry (good for parents of children with anxiety) & the Gift of Fear (so good!) and The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up (which I chose for book club when I host). Ok. So maybe I've pulled these titles from the last year but you get the idea. I've learned I really like books set in England and like having to ask Siri what words like sacrosanct mean because of those English authors. Helps keep my brain alive while most of my life is still centered around ages 3-9.
I have to mention the $1,000 worth of repairs that happened in our 3 year old house! After getting worse and worse, I hired a neighbor recommended handy man to fix all the counters that were moving away from the wall. I love my home and wouldn't want any other, but I must admit, having to fix this when the builder refused was pretty annoying.
We had some beautiful days in February that let to impromptu park play dates after school. N is getting much more confident in her climbing skills and K.T. provided lots of fun the day she brought her squid kite with her.
Our next door neighbor's puppy is super good, a great dog, and has taught my children that they don't want a puppy. lol.
I had a good time helping D prepare and share his family history project. It included interviewing my in-laws over FaceTime, taking in my dad's Civil War era cannon ball, and having pictures printed out for his timeline. What a cutie pie & boy, his he growing up fast! As a bonus, all this family history led to D earning a Scout belt loop and K and M earning their GS badge. Nice!
Getting all decorated for Valentine's Day by writing love notes to the family while they were at work and school. I have the best little helped who really wanted her picture taken with the construction paper hearts.
Pinewood Derby! Both D and M won 3rd place medals! M's was for the siblings category and D's was for his Wolf den. Pretty neat, if you ask me!
Valentine's Eve: to earn our Thinking Day 2017 badge we held a "Bring A Friend event." We had 22 1st and 2nd graders in our home and boy, was that crazy! Luckily we had lots of extra help. It's great to say we did something crazy like this -- for now I won't feel the need to do it again next year. lol. Later that same night, K participated in her first cookie booth. They did so well! I loved the extra touches the leader brought for the holiday sales.
Valentine's Day! I got to go to N's class party in the morning and join her room moms for lunch and a trip to a bakery that had GF goodies too. Then it was back to the school in time to run K's class party. I am so glad I get to be her room mom but sad I had to miss D and M's parties. (M cried that morning.) It was one of those days -- recovering from scouts and knowing Activity Days would be at my house the next day -- made me want to quit all my volunteerism!
A great post-spending-too-much-time-in-an-elementary-school is going hiking on an unusually warm day! I got to meet up with high school friends, Melissa & Renae, at Chautauqua Park -- a place I have been meaning to go but never had been! We hiked McClintock Trail, which was just right for having a preschooler along for the fun. I am so grateful for the nice people I have met throughout my life!
Day after & before AD at our house
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