VACATION!

we're officially on break. we went on a double date last night, no kids! we were home before 10pm, but it was a great time out with friends we haven't seen in WAY too long :)

the girls found some stencils yesterday buried in our craft boxes. avery used one to make a butterfly, then wanted me to make a butterfly for her. i told her i wasn't very good at drawing things like that, so she tried it herself.

think she did a pretty awesome job :) how she knows to do a mirror image for the wings (and HOW to do the mirror image) baffles me. i can't wait to see what she creates the more artwork she does.

the girls are obsessed with dressing up lately. in anything. this pig hat (that avery wore when she was 11 months old during her first halloween) has gotten it's share of use!

tomorrow we have plans to go to the children's museum early to take advantage of their members only hour. funny, when we got our membership, we were so excited that we'd have someplace to go on the cold and snowy days when we were stuck in the house. never would have guessed we'd have no need for such a destination! crazy winter. or lack thereof.

friday photos. lots of em.

mardi gras party at our neighbors last friday. lots of people, kids, food, drink, crafts, commotion. it was awesome. the girls had a blast, avery found the baby in the king cake and was king of mardi gras!, i parked myself by the buffalo dip that i love and its safe to say after how sick i was, i won't be craving it any time soon.

avery was scrambling to get her crown and mask on before she went down in the basement with the other kids because "i want to look cute". well!

we celebrated valentine's day late. i felt so guilty on valentine's night when avery was near tears b/c she was sad it was over. the girls had school the next day (where they gave and received valentines from their classmates) and we made these delicious pretzels that night. i should clarify and say that avery gave up after a couple and nola stuck with it til the end :)

so good.

nola sporting a headband mema sent the girls for valentine's day. my little girl is growing up...

avery was playing a game. she had her back to me and i was supposed to say (over and over and over) "don't turn around! don't look at me!", then she'd turn around and i'd take a picture. she's really into telling us all what to say and do lately! she was trying to growl, but giggled in the process when i took the picture :)

the playdate with jane. by looking, you wouldn't know nola is a whole 2 years younger than jane ;)

snack time in front of shaun the sheep.

it's friday! zane starts vacation! i have a sore throat! nola hit avery no less than 7 times this morning and laughed after each time out! we have a double date set for tonight! it's sunny out! i want spring! and a nap.

olivia.

olivia newton john, no?

today we had a first! the first time a friend came over and stayed here for a playdate with out the friend's mom! our neighbor dropped her daughter off so she could take her youngest to the dr to get a button removed from the nose. eek. avery, nola and jane had a BLAST playing ballerina, stickers, eating snacks, watching shaun the sheep and hitting each other with balloons. (more pictures to come). after jane left, zane and i were making dinner and i heard avery call: "mama, come here and say 'why is the princess sad?'" she was staring out the window, telling me she missed her friend :(

she got over it quickly though and after dinner, during a break from their dance-a-thon, took this picture of nola and zane :)

i may just hand over my camera to her after all. this might be my favorite picture of these two ever. thanks, avery!

more lysol please

unfortunately, this is a pretty accurate depiction of this weekend. actually, take me out of that chair and put me in bed, immobile for 24 hours and that's more like it. i'm hopefully the last to be hit with this bug and things might start getting back to normal around here soon. there's a good chance i wont be making it to my classes tomorrow night, maybe i can take the time to blog about the good things that happened on friday before all the very, very bad.

hope everyone reading is healthy. this illness has prompted me to become a little ocd about hand washing.

ps, avery took this picture. along with 111 others today. when i finally took my camera off her hands and handed her the pink toddler one she got for her 3rd birthday, she looked so insulted. i said "you like my camera better than yours?" and she answered, "huh, YES, mom!"

spotty.

dancing on the lawn in february. with no snow. anywhere.

i went down to the basement to feed the dogs and my heart did a little flip-flop when i saw what zane was working on :) pads on the bottoms of the girls dress up shoes so they don't break a leg. *love*

yep, just a 60 degree february afternoon, playing outside with vests on. VESTS.

we're gearing up for valentines day. love the reds and pinks and hearts and candy :)

had a meeting tonight for school and was THRILLED to hear some good news. for my practicum next year i have to do an elementary school and a secondary school, which they've always insisted be a public high school. the director has just decided to allow students to do their secondary school practicum in a middle school. for which i have multiple connections. (and high schools scare me :)) before hearing any of this, i was thinking today in the shower (i LOVE being able to take showers in the middle of the day either when the girls are napping OR when they're playing together upstairs. it's a whole new world) that middle school would be a great age to work with in the library and then immediately got frustrated that we can visit middle schools for our pre-practicum observations but not for our 100 hour field study. funny how things work out sometimes...

nola is in the habit of yelling things to us after we put her down at night. there was a phase when something hurt, either her toe or leg or neck. and we'd just have to tell her to roll over and sleep and she'd feel better. now it's either "mama, i like you!" or (tonight's newest addition) "mama, me love you so much world!" :)

avery is a number fool. the other night with zane helping on the 10's, she counted to 77. she's been counting to 12 in spanish for a few weeks now, but just the other day she counted backwards from 10. in spanish. she's also learning how to add numbers together, using her fingers on both hands, but somehow zane told me she counted 10+3 the other day to get 13. definitely got zanes portion of number smarts :)

right before zane just fell asleep he said "we have too much on our plates. there's too much going on. we need to slow down." unfortunately, there is a lot going on but it's not the kind of stuff we can help. work meetings, mtel test, trainings for work, observation hours, preschool tours, etc etc. so, bear with me if posting gets even more spotty!