Race Cars

Pappy and Melissa flew in from Texas last weekend. The girls couldn't wait for them to get here. They had The Web on their list of things to do during his visit. They wanted to play the games and drive the race cars. 

Gracyn had Gus, the class fish along for the ride.

Cute Reagan waiting to race.

Gracyn and Daddy! True to Daddy's usual driving form, their car won 2nd place.

Reagan and Melissa. They drove slow and careful and scored last in the pack. They got crashed into lots of times!

Addison and Pappy scored in the middle. Pappy was a tight squeeze in that car. Addison wanted to to go faster than allowed!

We finished the night with tons of games, winning around 1,000 tickets and Greater's Ice-Cream. Fun times.

Mother Daughter Tea Party

Last weekend, we went to the 2nd annual Mother Daughter Tea Party at the church where Gracyn goes to preschool. They put together such a fun night for Mamas and their girls. They do a quick devotional, have a light dinner and then the girls move through several stations of crafts and desserts. We love getting dressed up, spending the evening with close friends and seeing all the faces we know and love from our small-ish town. I knew my girls would not consider tea-sandwiches and fruit to be dinner, so our group started with an early dinner at Red Robin before we headed to the church. I called ahead for a table for 15, with 10 kids menus. You know they were excited for us to arrive!

My pretty girls all dressed up. They are always disappointed every year that I don't  wear a dress, but one can only dress up so much when it is 20 degrees outside and you don't want to spend all night freezing! I promised them I would wear all the dresses they want in the summer time!

A rare night of coordinating outfits and hair they let me fix!

Our best Ohio buddies! Olivia B., Olivia L., Reagan, Chloe, Faith, Addison, Brooke, Gracyn, Tessa, and Elle. Baby Sophie wouldn't get in the picture.

Addison and Chloe. 

Reagan and Olivia.

My girls. :)

Gracyn's best pre-school friends.

Decorating butterfly cupcakes. Can you tell it is a butterfly?

Craft time!

We painted their feet for one craft. That is probably a great craft idea, when you have one or two girls. Getting all mine painted and cleaned up was a little crazy!

Gracyn loves glitter!

Valentines Parties

Holiday weeks are crazy, making the rounds to everyone's parties. But I love it and I wouldn't have it any other way. They will never remember all the sleepless nights I spent with them, all the countless hours spent rocking together and all the months of breastfeeding, but they will remember that I was a constant presence at their schools and that I never missed a party!

Last week started with Reagan's class. I love coming to her room. Kindie is such a fun age and she has some CHARACTERS in her class. I lead Heart-Candy-Bingo and I had a blast playing with all the kids and enjoying their little personalities.

The picture from the top is a  Grandma from Reagan's class. I have no idea where she got that costume, but she volunteered to come in dressed as "The Love-Bug" and bring the kids a singing telegram. She burst in to the room and sang them to love songs. The kids were speechless. The looks on their faces were priceless. By the end they were laughing like crazy. That is one fun/crazy Grandma.

 Gracyn's class was next. I can't say it enough times. That girl has the sweetest preschool class ever! I got to bring in a craft and make some Valentine hearts with them.

They did four stations with crafts and activities and they all brought in a food item to stir into a "Friendship Trail Mix".

They each stirred their item up into this huge bowl, and then each child got to take home a bag of the mix.

Finally Addison's party came on Friday. Her class is great as well. One boy even told me I smelled good? He tells Addison that all the time too, maybe he likes our soap?

With her class I got to lead a writing game. I took 6 to 8 students at a time and gave them each a conversation heart. They then built a story, each child adding one sentence at a time, using the phrase from their heart. The stories were hilarious! We had fun reading them all to the class at the end.

3 parties at school, some extra activities with friends, chocolate fondue at home and flowers from Daddy made for a fun and busy Valentines day! 

Winter Fun

If you are going to have temperatures in the single digits and lots of cold, wet snow, you might as well make the best of it. We had our bible study group over Saturday afternoon. We wrapped up our study, ate a quick dinner then bundled the kids up for some outdoor fun. It was getting dark and so cold, but we had so much fun. We came in red cheeked and chilly to finish the night of with some games. 

Little Gym

Reagan's Turn - More Surgery

Not to be left out of all the crazy medical procedures we have had going on in our house these past few months, last Monday Reagan had tubes put in her ears. She had tons of ear infections during her first year of life, but then just as we were about to prepare for tubes around her first birthday, they stopped. She only had a few over the last few years, until this year. She had several infections early in the year and then 4 in a row beginning in October. Her pediatrician and the ENT decided it was time for tubes. She and I were at the hospital bright and early Monday morning. She was in good spirits and not nervous at all. Addison had done a good job telling her all the steps to surgery and how everything would go.

One of the amazing things about the way Children's Hospital is set up, is that you are with your child until they are under anesthesia.  They put them under with a gas mask in a little presurgery room, just outside the OR. You sit with them and hold their hand until they are asleep. It is comforting for both parent and child, but also hard to watch. Reagan struggled against the meds and took a few minutes to fall asleep. She looked so sad and was squeezing my hand and trying to be brave. It nearly broke my heart watching. The surgery itself only took a few minutes and went great. Poor girl then had just as hard a time waking up as she did going under. She was disoriented, confused and she wanted to go home. Sometime during the anesthesia she also bit her tongue really bad, so she wasn't too happy about that.

Heading home with a balloon and a stuffed puppy, feeling a little better.

This is how we spent most of Monday. I had gotten my wisdom teeth taken out on Friday, so I wasn't in the greatest shape either. We had a restful day of snuggles and movie watching. Reagan woke up feeling back to normal the next day. Now, we are just saying many prayers that we are done with all the medical procedures. While we are thankful that they are minor and nothing serious, 4 surgeries for one family in 4 months in too many!

Snow Days