Sunday, March 8, 2020

Fantastic February 2020

February was super-fun!
While I was out in Oregon to attend my nieces' baptism

(I can't believe how big and cute they are! I also still struggle with the fact that my "little" brother is so much bigger than I am!)
Tyler held down the fort admirable!

He did have to recruit a Jedi Knight to help out with discipline.

And "Peek-a-boo!" was the password for FUN!

Right after I flew home, an epic snowstorm descended on Utah!
Clearly, we did want to build a snowman! But only the little kids got to, since the big kids had school.
They loved trying to roll the balls of snow and decorating their "guys."
Eliza kept hugging her snowman. I guess she listened to Olaf and realized that snowmen like warm hugs!
It was actually a mama snow woman, but I guess snow mamas like warm hugs, too!

Micah realized his snowman (who was the dad, clearly) also needed warm hugs.

Not to be outdone, Eliza decided snow people also like kisses.
I decided we needed to shift gears and learn how to make snow angels.

They got pretty good at making snow angels for the next 1.5 minutes.
Then they decided the snow people needed a snow baby.
Huh. I guess they really do like warm hugs!

The best thing about February is celebrating my oldest girls' birthdays!
On the 10th we celebrated Sheridan!
She decided on an Undertale themed cake, complete with heart souls and yellow flowers.
I really have no idea the symbolism, I just make dreams come true.
Sheridan chose a delicious dinner of ham and au gratin potatoes. The cake was chocolate with an Oreo cream filling.
She had her party with a few close friends and lots of tasty Oreo cupcakes and snacks. There was laughter and silliness in spades.
Her amazingly talented friends created beautiful gifts for her.
I neglected to get a picture of the wolf ears.

But one cute friend drew this classical-style picture of Sher.
Another friend drew this modern, silly, cartoonesque-style picture of Sheridan.
I think they did a great job of capturing both sides of Sheridan's personality!
Sheridan's favorite color is purple. Her favorite animals are llamas.
She loves ballroom dancing, which she started this year.
Sheridan is responsible, passionate, and has an answer for everything.
She loves to read, babysit, and bake.

Amelia turned 9 the day after Sheridan turned 13, and she requested a black dragon cake.
It was a flaming success!
For dinner she requested sushi and tater tots. The cake was a chocolate marble cake.
She had her birthday party the same day as Sheridan's. She wanted to decorate cupcakes, have a scavenger hunt, and play pin the mouse on the cheese. I don't know where she came up with that last one, but we rolled with it! It was even warm enough that the girls could play outside (which I've decided is really nice with kids this age!).

She loved piling the frosting and sprinkles on that cupcake!

She had such a fun group of friends come to her party.
Amelia's favorite color is black. She still wants to be a ninja when she grows up.
Her favorite animals are probably huskies, although she still loves bunnies and chicks.
Amelia is super-fierce, smart, creative, and affectionate.
She loves to help, craft, and bake.
She loves her friends and would spend every minute with them if she could.

One of her friends gave her a felt crafting machine, and she's loved making new creations with it all month long.

Sheridan's ballroom team at school participated in a local competition, and her portion of the team won gold! She is becoming such a graceful dancer.
This month, Henry participated in Battle of the Books at his school. His team won for the whole school! They went on to BEAT THE TEACHERS in a final round (first time in school history)! Wahoo!

For the girls' birthdays, Grammy and Pop bought them tickets to see Hale Center Orem's production of Matilda. It was such a fun, zany show! We had an awesome time and decided we should ABSOLUTELY attend more theater productions!
Afterwards, we went to a nice meal. We practiced good manners and ordering and polite conversation. A good time was had by all!
In other events, Henry's Battle of the Books team went head-to-head with the other charter school's team and THEY WON AGAIN! Henry was team captain and did a great job keeping his cool and taking all his team's input. 
Super-exciting for me, my friend of over 30 years came into town for a work trip. We got to steal her for 4 hours, and it was wonderful! We actually became best friends when I moved away and she kept me sane when I had no friends. And then we kept each other sane through those high school years. I'm so grateful for those few friends that you don't see for years, but then pick right up when you're together again. Her kiddo is fascinated by the idea of hanging out with our ginormous family, we hopefully we'll get to make many more memories together!
The last weekend of the month, Tyler had a work trip out to Philadelphia, and ended up getting to spend time with his parents and sister's family in New Jersey. Our cute niece was the title role in her school's production of Annie, and she SLAYED! We were so happy he was able to spend that time with family and get to see her in action!
And now, we march on to March. And hopefully, spring!