a blessed February 2013...

Probably our favorite part of the month was our weekend spent "away" over President's Day weekend.  It was such good timing after our sick in January and another round of sick the beginning of February with strep throat for G, W & C.  There were lots of fun things happening during the month though so here is a kid by kid breakdown of them:
 

~ G ~
Along with enjoying Valentine's Day, G's class also celebrated their 100th day of school.  And their mission was to come to school dressed up as their 100 yr old self.  This was funny to try to talk to G about this.  She definitely wanted glasses and her hair up in a bun at the top of her head and a sweater.  I asked her what she would want to wear when she was 100 and she said "dresses...pink ones!" (oh this girly girl of mine!).  I also asked her if there was anything else that she thought she might have in the future that we did not have now (compared it to Little House on the Prairie vs now, since we have been reading the series).  She came up with a cell phone ring - she wouldn't have to dial at all, all she would have to do was talk to the ring and it would call whoever she wanted.  So she made that out of a pipe-cleaner (you can see it in the next photo).

And she made her aahma's proud when she wrote this:  "I think that when I am 100 years old, I will take my grandchildren everywhere that I went and have fun..."

G's half-birthday is also at the end of February which is a super convenient time to get valentine clearance goodies, and we snagged these cute make your own treat bags for 90% off!  These are right up my crafty-loving girl's ally and she loved making princesses for the girls and robots for the boys.  Filled them with tiny pkgs of goldfish for a very unique and fun treat to hand to her classmates.

~ W ~

Since I am a room mom for kindergarten, I helped out in W's classroom for the Valentine's Day party.  We had fun heart shaped cookies right after recess (hence the sweaty boy!), and then got down to the business of opening up the valentines....

The big play center in the kindergarten classroom for the month was a post office.  They learned about the post office and their address in lessons, and then made Valentine boxes with labels for each of their names to put in the play center post office.  They had so much fun delivering their valentine's each day and at the party we so excited to open everything.

(side note: to help W learn his address, we did the same thing we did for G in kindergarten and put it to a beat.  Totally helps!  But then try, as the momma who came up with this clever idea, when asked for her address for important mortgage refinancing information, to say it without using the beat...nigh impossible.)

One of W's activities with his 8th grade partner - spot on by the way.

Reading one of his letterbook stories to C...these letterbooks is the main curriculum in kindergarten and the kids just love them.  After Christmas they started coming home with stories in them that the kids can now read.  W was able to read these when G brought them home in kindergarten, but he still dutifully reads them outloud to us and makes it interesting for himself by using a lot of expression.  We love it.

~ C ~

Doodlebugs was definitely a highlight of the month for C.  Other than that C played hard with his siblings all month.  The boys are starting to break away and do some things different from G and include H - here they are in their rocket ship. =)

C is also taking his role as big brother seriously on the days when G & W are in school.  He will play with H, try to help him with different things, and order H around, just like his big siblings do to him.  For the most part H takes it just great and loves the attention from C - they are good buddies!

Our next door neighbor's mom, known by us all as Grandma C, had brain surgery to help her with her Parkinson's (fascinating stuff if you want to know the long story someday).  They only shaved a portion of her head in the hospital for where they were going to make the incision.  So she had quite the hairdo going on after it was all said and done.  Mrs. L asked if I would come over and give her the same haircut I just gave C, which we happily did!  C was pretty proud that he and Gma C had the same haircut, and they teased each other that it was going to be a race to see whose hair grew faster.  H posed for the photo too since his haircut is the same by default!

~ H ~

This little boy is getting around so well!  He had gone from walking to almost running now, and likes to climb and get into everything.  He discovered that he fits just perfectly in the linen closet upstairs, and thinks it is a great hiding spot.  Now that he can walk and carry things too we have found that he loves bring things to people.  Which all of us have had a lot of fun with - "Bring this to Dadda...bring this to Momma...bring this to G or W or C!"  And he happily does and loves the praise.

He also loves shoes.  Especially walking around in S's and my shoes - how cute is he?!!!  He is getting very good at saying "peeez(please)" and "day-doooo(thank you)", even doing it unprompted at times!  Seriously nothing melts a momma's heart more to hear a please or thank you unprompted, especially from a 15 month old!  Other words for H:  mi(milk), signs for socks and shoes, hhhha(hot, with the sign), and "wi-wi-wi!" (for Wild Kratts...yep he sings along with his siblings to the theme song).

And I will leave you with a video - be prepared for the cuteness...this boy loves his peek-a-boo!