Happy Half-Birthday J!

Today my oldest is 7 and a HALF! Isn't that amazing? I mean really... seven and a HALF is just so grown up! Happy half-birthday, sweetie!

(W's half-birthday passed last week without much fanfare... he is now two and a half, though he believes he is four and will be six on his next "birthday party")

mini-update

Wow, time goes by SO QUICKLY! I am not even going to try to catch up... I've missed posting about Valentine's Day, St. Patrick's Day, Easter... you'll have to take my word for it that we're all having alot of fun! Maybe someday I'll share with y'all what we did to celebrate... but maybe I won't :)

This week has been busy trying to prepare for J's Batizado for his Capoeira classes... the cord and ranking ceremony will be this weekend. Piao (J's portuguese nickname... it means "spinning top") is excited. But this will be the first Batizado that Owl Poppa misses. We're all a bit disappointed about that, but at least Owl Poppa made it to the class tonight tonight watch J do his testing (testing took place tonight, and cords are awarded this weekend).

K's wobbly tooth is still hanging in there. She is willing it to come out, but it just stays there, sticking out when she smiles. And she is smiling alot these days... she got her ears pierced on Monday! She has tiny glittery pink "diamonds" in her ears, and couldn't be more pleased with herself.

I'm hoping to get a new camera in the next few weeks... anyone out there have one they love and would recommend? I promise that I am going to keep this new camera far away from W and his big feet, and will hopefully have lots of new pictures to share. But just in case, please recommend cameras in the "this piece of equipment may possibly be stepped on by small children" price range. Thanks!

Wow, this might just be the lamest post I've written, but there you have it. Life for us has been fun and full and happy... but it doesn't make for good writing :) I'll save the good writing for another post.

Happy Half-Birthday K

Today my little girl is 5 and a HALF! And she has her first wobbly tooth!

sniff... they grow up quick!

Happy Groundhog Day!

Yes, I know this was awhile ago. And yes, I know today is Valentine's Day :) But this past week we finally had our Little Owl School Groundhog Day Party (and I'll probably have a Valentine's update next week or something... hey, that's just how I roll).

The night before Groundhog Day we read a few books about groundhogs (I put a list of books at the bottom of this post). Then on the morning of Groundhog Day, we tried to remember to say "groundhog" first thing to bring us good luck. We read a few more books, and made sure to check Punxsatawney Phil's predictions.

This week, we had a Groundhog Day/Six More Weeks of Winter Party. The kids woke up to a table set with our winter dishes, and little winter prizes at their breakfast spots... snowman notebooks, and a penguin project from OTC.

After lunch (soup, because that's a warming food for winter), we used white crayons on black paper to make snowy pictures. We decorated the pictures with snowman stickers.

This is K's:

And this is J's:

W was too busy playing to color!

We played shadow tag (one of us was the shadow, and chased the others). Then we did shadow silohuettes! This one was really fun (and much trickier than I remembered)! All the kids took a turn...

First J:

then K:

then W, who would only look up at the ceiling:

and then K traced my shadow for me!!

We hope everyone had a great Groundhog Day, and that y'all are staying warm with these six more weeks of wintery weather (especially our friends and family on the East Coast!).

And as a last thought, here is J's favorite Groundhog related commercial (if you didn't see this during the superbowl, you totally have to watch).

Here is a great list of Groundhog books for kids to check out! We found all of these at the local library:

Great Groundhogs!
Gregory's Shadow
Gretchen Groundhog, It's Your Day!
Go To Sleep Groundhog!
Groundhog at Evergreen Road

This is only a test...

I am trying to learn how to set things up to post at a future date... wish me luck in my quest!

Well, something is sinking in

Me: "How was the movie guys?"
K, age 5: "Great... I learned that if I really try, and I have a good attitude, I really CAN overcome any obstacle!"

Fashion Advice From Owl Poppa

"In my opinion, ruffles only belong on potato chips" -- Owl Poppa

Words to live by, indeed!