I never anticipated how hard it would be to get back into the swing of things after the new year!
We were slow getting started back up and then a little unproductive once we got going. Nonetheless, we have been busy for the past few months!
On Fridays, I drop off the three youngest kids at the church and Lily and I have some time together. Typically, we run errands and sometimes meet up with Ben for lunch. Every once in a while, we get to do something a little more fun, like swing by The Imaginarium. Lily enjoyed solving the brain teasers, experimenting with the magnets and building the arch.
We have so much fun together!
While we were cleaning out the garage in December, we came across some old VHS tapes. Ben decided to open one up so the girls could see how it worked. Once they checked it out semi-intact, they decided to remove all of the tape and that resulted in hours of fun!
We kept up with a tradition we started last year by taking the kids on a Christmas Light Adventure in the Minivan Express. We strung up some lights and printed tickets for each of the kids. Ben was the conductor and punched their tickets at each stop. We had a blast!
Our neighbors, Bill and Betsy, graciously gifted the kids with a drum kit for Christmas. We have enjoyed many concerts over the last couple of months!
Pappaw and Mammaw Lauri brought down new aprons, utensils and an Easy Bake Oven for the girls and they enjoyed making treats with Pappaw.
Even with all of the exciting new presents, a new bucket of markers and a bunch of empty boxes proved to be the favorite gift. They spent many hours building houses and caves and castles and decorating all of the boxes.
The year ended on a high note by celebrating Lily's 6th birthday. It really is hard to believe she is 6 already! We are always impressed by her and can't wait to see what another year brings!
Just a week after her birthday, Lily lost her first tooth. She was pretty excited!
We went camping in January and it was the coldest weekend we've had all year! The temps got down to 42 at night and we definitely needed the campfire. We still had a great time and took lots of long walks during which we saw tons of critters and did some geocaching.
And, of course, we roasted marshmallows!
A new library opened downtown and we have been several times. They have created a nice space for the kids to read and relax and, now that Lily is reading, we spend a lot of time there.
We also try to get to the hydroponic farm around the corner pretty often. They have great fruits and vegetables and also yummy prepared foods.
I would say that the highlight of every visit is seeing "Booger" the tortoise.
We have, of course been back to work in the school room and everyone is making good progress. They are still having fun with school which makes me happy!
The January weather was perfect for afternoons at the park and we met up with Ben at the Buckingham Community Center on his way home from work a few times.
The girls love to assemble collections of things they find interesting at the park. We have started taking pictures of their collections so that we don't have to bring them home.
We have also continued to cook a lot together. Stacked pancakes are still a favorite and are requested at least once a week!
We made some cupcakes and added some fresh meyer lemon juice to the icing.
Our January MOPS playdate was a tour of Publix. The kids were given a tour of the entire store including the bakery, produce section, butcher shop, delivery and storage areas and the walk-in freezer. All of the kids loved the tour and the bags filled with treats and goodies!
Everett is getting really big. This sometimes results in awesome things like him riding the trike and looking great!
Unfortunately, it also sometimes results in shoes in the toilet.
February weather was also great for being outside. This is the group of cows that live in the pasture at the end of our street. We like to feed them produce we forget to eat before it gets wilted or carambola that start to decay on Bill and Betsy's lawn. They slobber all over the place while they eat!
We took advantage of the weather with a few more park days and picnics, too!
Our February homeschool co-op theme was dinosaurs. Lynne taught the group about different types of dinosaurs and even had fossils for the kids to see.
The kids then became paleontologists and searched for dinosaur "fossils" which they matched up to the diagram of the completed skeleton.
They each got to paint a dinosaur to take home.
The day's activities culminated with the excavation of a dinosaur from a small block of ice. They had a lot of fun working at this!
We try to mix things up a little when we can and Ruthie especially liked working on her phonics in the driveway. When I was done working with her, Lily took over with a list of "-it" words for her. It is really fun to watch them teach each other.
It is also fun to see what they choose to do during play time. I walked into the playroom to witness this picnic they had set up for themselves.
Our February MOPS playdate took us to 31 Produce in Alva. We smelled all of the different herbs in the herb garden and then picked some fresh strawberries.
When we were finished with the strawberry picking, we took a tractor ride around the farm and got to see all of there planting areas and also the horses that are bred for barrel racing. This baby was just 3 days old!
Thus far, March has brought us Josie's 3rd birthday. Unfortunately, this came in a week when the whole family had a stomach bug so she was feeling less than awesome when she woke up and sat down to birthday pancakes.
Luckily, by midday, she was feeling better and was able to enjoy her day.
Ben is participating in fitness challenge at work and he has been wearing the fitbit to track his activity. This has sparked some conversations about goals and Lily decided to set a goal for herself. She decided to run fifteen laps around the backyard. This is how she wrote out her goal and got right to work!
I am going to try harder to keep up with the blog since we are keeping up with pictures! More to come soon!
