Prayer Requests

For a 4 year old boy who fell out of a 2nd story window day before yesterday and is ICU

For our music teacher Ms. Ro and her family as they travel to her mom's memorial service in CA, and for her husband who is in the hospital.

Thanks!

Katie's Birthday Party

Our newest friends, 2.5 week old Anna and Jacob



I intended for this to be an "art party," but all our guests decided our toys were more fun than painting or Play-Doh.

Above: Adam and Dougie, playing with our new garage sale find. Below: Jeremy and Adam playing with our Diego Rescue Center, and Sammy playing with our new Little People Noah's Ark, that he's been waiting for us to open for 6 weeks now. (It wasn't as well hidden on the high shelf in our garage as my brother would have supposed.)


Katie herself chose "tup-takes" over a cake. She wanted "nana tup-takes" but we made vanilla instead. Daddy found a mix at Wild Oats/Whole Foods that didn't have any of our allergens in it. We also tried a new egg substitute powder instead of substituting our usual applesauce. We used sprinkles and Teddy Grahams to decorate them. Nobody complained about them, so I guess they were OK.



More pics of our new friends.

Opening gifts. Sammy had to help. Until he found one he wanted to play with (a WordWorld "Things That Go" Magnetic play set), and disappeared with it.

MawMaw and PawPaw gave her a bubble-maker. It's pretty cool - it occasionally makes smaller bubbles inside of a big one. It was a HUGE hit. Everyone was running around shouting "Bubbles! Bubbles! Bubbles!"

After the party, we had burgers, dogs, and brats. Zachary, who was having a late nap during our party, showed up after everyone else had left. Katie was so happy to see him, she bounced all the way across the house to greet him!

It was a fun (but exhausting!) day.

Happy Birthday Dear Katie!

My baby turned two today. She *loved* having the Happy Birthday song sung to her. I cannot believe how big she is. And how vocal. And how smart. She spelled her big brother's name today!

I spent pretty much the whole day painting ceilings in the basement (except for the dozen times I had to come up to take care of one or the other or both crying kids), but thanks to the help of our Mommy's helper Kyra, Katie spent the day doing all of her favorite things - painting, Play-Doh, having a picnic and playing in the backyard, sidewalk chalk, swinging, playing ball, going on a stroller ride, running in circles inside the house, playing Chutes and Ladders, eating bananas, watching a video, playing with her Little People...

Thank you Aunt Jena and Aunt Julie and Mimi for calling to wish her a happy birthday! And everyone else who emailed her or sent something in the mail or thought about her!

Wow Wow!

We actually did quite a few art projects yesterday. Here is one of them - Katie coloring Wow Wow Wubzy. (Can you tell we raided nickjr.com's printables yesterday?!?!)

     

Sammy and his Qwidgits

Sammy likes to play along with his Leap Frog videos. Here are some photos of him playing with his Math Circus toys. The "qwidgits" in the video are block manipulatives to help them grasp the ideas of adding and subtracting. He had been using Lego-type squares as his qwidgits, but recently switched to these big blocks.

     
 

Love the X!

Last time we were at her house, Grammy gave us a Xyron sticker maker.

We had a good time with it yesterday making these Diego stickers.

Calling all geeks

Check out this Chemistry trading card game. I thought about getting a copy for my geek husband, but then I thought back to the hundreds of agonizing hours I spent in college waiting for him and his(/my) geek friends to finish playing Magic so we could go do something fun, and had to ask myself - do I really want to give him ANOTHER way not to spend time with me? (And also, who would he play with these days?)

Those of you with homeschooling teens might want to check it out, though!

Basement Progress

Cabinets and flooring are ordered. Walls are hung, taped, mudded, sanded, and primed. Texture should go up tomorrow, and paint this coming week.

Sammy's favorite spot

At least when it's too cold to go out!

Lenten Veggie Soup

Vegetable boullion, spinach, purple cabbage, onion, garlic, celery, corn, green beans, carrots, zucchini, yellow squash, asparagus, canned diced tomatoes. Boil hard until veggies are soft. Salt and pepper to taste.
       

Katie's step

When Katie wants to take a break, this is her favorite spot:

Cuties!

(Early Feb.)