Valentine's Morning

Miles, Ruby and Andrew made us breakfast the morning of Valentine's Day. I love all the "baby" pancakes.

We "heart attacked" our neighbors Joe and Monica for Valentine's Day.

We also heart attacked the kid's rooms! They were so surprised when they woke up in the morning and have left the hearts on all week. Ruby asked if she could keep them on forever.

Cans for Haiti

On Monday, the kids and I decided to go collect bottles and cans from all around the neighborhood and send all the money we get to Haiti. The kids were pretty clueless as to what is really going on over there so we also spent the morning reading different blogs and websites that talk about the destruction and poverty. They weren't very onboard with the idea of giving all their hard earned money away at first, but I'm hoping that as we keep talking about it, and praying about it, and reminding ourselves to be THANKFUL for everything we have and not take anything for granted, they will develop a bit more compassion. I'm very concerned right now that my children develop more of a global view and start thinking a little more about what's going on outside the "San Diego bubble". Frankly, that goes for me as well.

After encouraging the kids to eat the "healthy" part of their lunch, not just the cheetos, we made gingerbread man cookies with raisin faces. The kids did great and had a lot of fun creating with the dough and eating it too. Aren't our bodies wonderful!!! At the end of the day, I couldn't believe that five hours had passed so quickly. The kids and I really had a lot of fun.

While outside playing, the kids were encouraged to join in on making our "body puzzle". They had really gotten the hang of how a body is put together compared to earlier that morning. Painting with watercolors was an especially big hit.

Jaxson was really enjoying sticking his head inside this box! Love that kid :)

"The cute little guy" (that's what my four year old Ruby calls Elliot), hard at work at his body puzzle.

Ruby took the body puzzle very seriously and spent a lot of time painting and gluing.

After snack the kids enjoyed some free play time in the backyard. They loved playing with the moon sand by building and destroying sandcastles, being creative with cars and trucks and tractors, and exploring in the dirt and garden area. This was also a good opportunity for us to work on our sharing. :)

Elliot is very focused on figuring out how his train works.

moon sand

We moved to the backyard to enjoy the beautiful weather and a healthy snack of yogurt and apples and good company. :)

First day of Play Care

We started off our day bright and early by dancing to music and discovering all the different things we can do with our bodies. The kids were very creative with their movements and really enjoyed themselves exclaiming, "Let's do that again"! We continued by reading a couple of picture books that talked about the body and then made "bodies" out of play dough focusing on how all the different body parts are connected. The younger ones were clueless at first but caught on after a while. Most importantly they were having FUN!

Valentine's Day Baking

Makin' cookies with Kelly--I think I ate about 10 snickerdoodles that day--no control!

Miles has always been my little chef in the making. He loved helping Kelly and I make these Valentine's Day cookies, but eventually got kicked out of the kitchen because he couldn't keep his fingers out of the dough! :)

Ruby Ruby Ruby

These are just a bunch of random pictures of Ruby. She is always cracking me up with her outfits and her confident poses before the camera. LOL! Ruby has just started sleeping in her big girl bed (she slept on the floor for 2 years in the boy's room), but keeps falling out of her bed every night. Apparently she woke up UNDER her bed last night and came into my room all freaked out. Ruby is such a good friend to all her little girlfriends and is very good to Lily even though Lily doesn't always deserve it. We are working on not complaining when asked to do her chores and not whining and crying so much. The latter has actually gotten a LOT better because if she does cry excessively then she has to take a nap (doesn't like naps). She also lost a day of playing with her friends the other day for complaining when asked to pick up her room. That instantly cured her of that! :) Lately she has been asking me to straighten her hair. She thinks it makes her face look "so different", and according to Andrew, "Thomas is going to want to mary her now"! Kids are so funny. Ruby still loves her dog named Sassy and is lately very into her princess barbies that she got for Christmas. What's nice about Ruby is that she can entertain herself for hours, with or without friends. Today she asked me if I'd visit her every day when she was a mom! I said of course I would if she lived in my neighborhood! :) She looks forward to the day that she can go to the gym with me and get lunch afterward. I look forward to that too, but I'm definitely not wishing these days away. She is so precious at age four! I adore you Ruby!!!

Watch out Spice Girls!

She loves to wear Andrew's black cape (when he lets her).

Karate Kid!!!

The Bearded Dragons

Our cousin Max is positively obsessed with our beardie named Bob. He gives him lots of love and attention every time he comes over and cool adventures as well!

Bob taking a ride with Thomas the train. :)

The girls also have lots of fun with the lizards. They carry them around in baby carriages, push them in strollers, and attempt to put crowns on their heads. Don't worry, the lizards take it with gentility and I think really enjoy the attention.

Princess Peatrie.

Valentine's Day at Pacific Rim Elementary

For Valentine's Day I was able to go have lunch with the boys at their school. It was fun hanging out in the middle of the afternoon and watching them interact with their friends and on the playground. I wasn't very impressed with the school lunches however. I let them buy twice a week and was hoping they were getting a nice lunch for $2.75. Miles had a corn dog and a scoop of peanut butter and chocolate milk--random--Andrew had a fried chicken burger sandwich, a scoop of canned blueberries, some shredded cheese, and a scoop of peanut butter. Kind of strange lunches I'd say! The boys are thrilled that they get to buy twice a week however and it saves me the hassle of having to come up with so many different lunch ideas so....oh well!

Miles and Ruby have a new friendship that has been blossoming ever since Miles made the goal of being her friend.

Miles loves playing dodgeball and volleyball during recess. In fact he looooves anything that concerns a ball!

Andrew and his really good buddy Kyle.

Wondering what's up with Ruby's hairdo? She wanted to look like a "karate girl" and was practicing all her moves before we got to lunch. From "princess" to "karate girl"....I like it!

So cool!