Mardi Gras

Nolan's Kindergarten teacher is from Louisiana so she had a "Mardi-Gras" inspired class on Fat Tuesday. They got to try some homemade King Cake and she snapped this cute picture of Nolan wearing a Mardi-Gras mask!

He sure does have a fun teacher!

Blue & Gold Banquet

Landon had his first Blue & Gold Banquet for Cub Scouts on Friday, February 24th. He was supposed to make and decorate a cake for this event, so after scouring the Internet, we saw this idea which looked both yummy and easy...

He did a great job with the cake and it made a big hit at the banquet!

He also got to do the Color Guard that evening which he was very excited about doing.

Here are the cakes that the boys did. They all looked pretty awesome!

We ate a dinner of sloppy joes and some side dishes and then had several presentations about scouting from some of the leaders. The kids were going a little stir-crazy with so many talks, but eventually we got to the part we were all waiting for...

Cake Time!! Landon won the award for the most "Cub Scout inspired" cake. His was also the first cake to disappear that night since everyone wanted a slice. It must have been yummy!

Abby Turns 11!

This girl was so very excited about her birthday on Monday, February 20th. It fell on President's Day this year, just like it did on the year that she was born! This meant that she had the day off from school which made her birthday even more special. She woke up to find this new purple chair for her room. She has been asking for a lounge chair for a while and was very excited about getting one!

This girl is crazy about shoes and she got several different pairs...

She also got a Moana LEGO set, a painting canvas art set, some candy molds along with chocolate melts and some money!!

After opening presents, we did some shopping and then went to Panera and Sweet Frog for her birthday dinner and treat.

Abby is such a sweet girl and a pleasure to be around. She really does try to make good choices and she is an excellent student and friend to others. She is kindhearted and is such a good big sister to her younger siblings (most of the time anyway!) She is beautiful both inside and out. I can't believe she is now 11 years old! I keep telling her that she needs to stop growing up but she isn't listening to that very well!!

Moana Birthday Party

Abby decided to have a "Moana" themed party this year. We really love the movie and the music, plus it was a pretty easy one to pull off with a fun, tropical theme. We held the party on Saturday, February 18th from 4-7 p.m.

We borrowed a lot of the decorations from a neighbor since they had a "luau" themed party a few months ago...

Abby worked on these little cupcakes with Moana's boat on a wafer cookie and a beach umbrella on the graham-cracker crumb "sand."

Abby invited 11 girls to her party and they all came! We started off by making our own "Heart of Te Fiti" necklace out of polymer clay and then played a pretty fun game where we dropped balls ("coconuts") down from the loft area and the girls tried to catch them in a basket on their heads.

It was a gorgeous 70 degree day, a real rare occurrence for Abby's February birthday. The girls enjoyed playing on the trampoline and "capture the flag" before coming inside for some dinner.

We had "Tamatoa" inspired croissant sandwiches...

Some chips and Capri-Suns...

And some Kakamora fruit kabobs which were a huge hit!

The girls were all so calm and well-behaved which makes having a home party so much easier than it is with boys!

After a few more games and watching some YouTube videos of the songs from Moana (the movie won't be released until next month!), we headed upstairs to open presents and eat cupcakes.

Here is Abby making a wish before blowing out her candles...

It was a fun birthday party and the only disappointment for Abby was when it was all over!

School Happenings!

Some fun pictures of Mrs. Farris' 3rd grade class on Valentine's Day...

Landon's self portrait...

Nolan hard at work in Kindergarten...

And enjoying "cookies with cops" one day when police officers came in to chat with them!

Snow

This winter has been one of my favorites because it has been so mild. Unfortunately the kids have been very disappointed with the lack of snow. We were finally promised about 3-6 inches one night while we were asleep, but ended up waking up to less than an inch.

Nevertheless, the kids tried to take advantage of the itty-bitty snow amount and got the sleds out to make a run for it after school.

They got a few sled runs in before the snow was too worn out and they were just sliding on the grass.

Maybe Mother Nature will grant them a snowstorm before this winter is over!

Maylie Magoo

This girl...she sure gives us a run for our money!!

She is so full of life and cracks us up every single day.

She has quite the personality and knows exactly what she wants!

Don't let that cute little face fool you though. She has some major temper tantrums when she doesn't get her way!

She loves to make us laugh though and enjoys being one of the "big kids."

She is really into princesses right now, especially Cinderella. She also really loves to wear dresses or even flowy shirts that resemble dresses. She enjoys singing and dancing to the music from "Moana" which we listen to pretty much nonstop in our house these days.

Some of our favorite things she does are her unique dance moves. In addition to her "pop and drop" move where she jumps up and lands on her bottom, she has also has the "droopy flamingo."

She puts her hands and head on the ground...

And then lifts one leg up into the air...

It's a pretty sweet dance move that she has worked hard to perfect!