Snapshots

 Jack, Megan and Kylie before church one morning!

 We got to celebrate Mary Kate's 13th birthday with her at her house!

 Jack had to draw a landscape for school and he chose a farm :)

 Kylie was sick recently and fell asleep on the couch while I went to Walgreen's to pick up something for her - when I got back, Megan was sound asleep, too!

 We made mini Valentine's cupcakes for Jack's class party!  He finally remembered to bring home the container 16 days later :)

 Kylie recently took a test on Matter:  Solid, Liquid and Gas.  Here's her essay answer :)  When she got it back and I went over it with her she said, "Oh, I didn't realize I was supposed to give as much detail as possible!"  Her teacher is awesome for handling Kylie so well! :)

 Kylie made card houses one afternoon

And Dan and I finally got to see Saving Mr. Banks in the movie theater!  It came out December 20th and we finally saw it on March 1st!  The kids had given us money - and Grammy gave us a gift card ticket to use there for one ticket - so with the kids money, we were able to get Dan's ticket and a large slurpee for him!  It was perfect!

Valentine's Day

 

In our family, we have a tradition of doing a scavenger hunt on Valentine's Day!  The kids had off school, because of snow - and Dan took off work that day because we were going to go to Dan's friend Michael's grandfather's funeral.  It was so nice to be in the country and be able to attend the funeral, since Dan had so many fond memories of Michael's Bop Bop from growing up and spending time with Michael's family.  We drove over to Baltimore. Mom Mom was off and volunteered to watch our kiddos so I could go to the funeral with Dan.  It was so good to see Michael and Heather and their family - and Michael's parents.  They've always been so kind to us and genuinely happy to see us through the years and Dan was glad we were able to celebrate Michael's Bop Bop's life.  It was such a nice service and Michael did a great job speaking about his grandfather.

 For our scavenger hunt, we make up two clues for each kid and give Megan the first one - she has to read the clue, then lead them to the next clue and find it!  Then Jack gets that clue, reads it, leads them and finds the next one, etc.  

 The last one was under the blankets in the basement and had a book for Megan (Kisses from Katie, so good!), a basketball for Jack and a piggy stuffed animal for Kylie!

 Dan asked the kids to make us dinner that night!  Megan made pancakes, Jack made eggs and Kylie decorated the table so nicely!  It was delicious and looked beautiful!

 Kylie's cute napkins and nametags

 Eggs, flowers and valentine's clues!

The table set with sweet pink heart shaped pancakes and a delicious meal!

Snow Storm and CoCo Curries

We got a huge snowstorm the week of Valentine's Day!  It was a huge, fluffy, tons of snow kind of snowstorm!  Our friends in Blacksburg got it first, as it was coming up from the south and they made a snow ruler and put it outside to measure the snow!  We decided to do the same and put it on our deck to measure :)

Dan got a piece of wood, I marked it and the kids wrote the numbers :)

The snow got pretty deep!

We went out to sled that day and Kylie lasted maybe 20 minutes.  Megan lasted a bit longer but then Jack and I stayed out and went sledding together for another hour and a half!  We had planned on making Snow Cream - something we had never tried before and I had Megan make the base while we played out for a bit longer!  When we all came in, Jack got fresh clean snow for us to add to the base!  

What happens when I'm out in the snow and Megan's having Pumpkin Spice Chai Tea with my phone :)

The recipe

Mixing the snow and base!

We added sprinkles!

I borrowed Jack's cool hat from Uncle Bri and wore it all day - it was so toasty!

 Getting ready to eat Snow Cream!  We all enjoyed it!

 That night, since we knew Dan would be off from work, we made sure we had the ingredients to make a meal of CoCo Curries - our favorite Japanese curry with fried chicken cutlets and rice!  My friend, Carol, gifted us with 10 servings of CoCo Curries as a thank you for watching her son last May!  We saved it until now and still have 1 more meal left!  It takes a bit of work, since you have to bread and fry the chicken, but it was delicious!

 Getting ready to chow down!

 And we licked the plate clean!

Grandad's Dinner

 My Dad retired for the second, and I assume, final time on January 31!  He's worked for a long time and we've all been looking forward to him taking a break and taking some time to relax!  Grammy had a dinner for him at Bertucci's to celebrate!

 Brian and Mark

 Mary Kate and Megan

 Max and Kylie

 Hannah and Abby

 Me and Grammy

 Me and my Tweeter

 Me, Sarah and Heather

 Jack and Cole

 The table and the many conversations going on :)

And our whole family smiling for the pic!

Daddy Daughter Dance

Dan and Kylie got to attend the Daddy/Daughter Dance at our church!  It was such a sweet night - the signed up ahead of time and Dan received an email stating that he should take Kylie out to dinner beforehand to somewhere nice.  That Kylie should wear a nice dress and that the fathers should wear a shirt and tie, preferably a suit :)  He had a list of questions to ask her at dinner for their conversation, too!

Kylie borrowed a dress from Mary Kate, I did her hair in a waterfall braid and she wore her cute little high heels that she plays dress up in :)  She chose what shirt and tie for Dan to wear :)

They went to Applebees for dinner and had a yummy meal, then went to church for the dance!  I assumed this was a dance in the clubhouse kids room at church and I signed up to help decorate it the day before - but this is a much bigger deal (which is amazing!)!  They had the whole church decorated in a underwater decorations - They had a dancefloor in the sanctuary, the clubhouse set up for desserts, rooms decorated for crafts, a photobooth room where they did the above professional picture and more!  The theme of the night was "Enchantment Under the Sea!"  The girls were given a "treasure map" when they walked in with a checklist of all the things they needed to do throughout the night - like dance to a slow song with their Dad, get their picture taken, get their seashell corsages, eat dessert, make a picture frame craft...lots of fun stuff!

Kylie had a BLAST!  She called me on their way home at 9:15pm and I asked if she had fun and she said something to the effect of, "I had a super duper fantastic wonderful time!"  I think she liked it :)

 Her beautiful dress she borrowed

Her waterfall braid

 Looking beautiful!

 Me and Bugga

 Kylie and her Daddy

 So Sweet

 Love this picture!

 Walking out to the car - he opened the door for her and everything!

 Decorations in the dessert room!
Angelfish dangling from the ceiling to make centerpieces!

And still in the middle of decorating, but fun paper coral pieces!

 And coming back in the door at the end of the night!