We're so glad when Daddy comes home

Sometimes the tickle monster. Sometimes the horsey. Always happy to have him home.

President's Day Party

I love family fun magazine. In the last issue they had some ideas for a President's Day party. It sounded fun to me so I invited the Petersons and Mike and Holly over for a raging fun President's Day.

When everyone arrived we worked together to open "the safe." The safe was a piece of cardboard painted green with a paper plate on the front. I had cut the cardboard the same size as the opening in our entertainment center. I listed the names of 10 former U.S. Presidents on the plate and attached it with a tack. I had some random presidential trivia and we worked together to answer the questions and get the correct combination to the "safe lock." When we cracked the code and opened the safe everyone got a pile of money to pay for their dinner and games.

Before dinner we made birthday year badges. I got five rolls of pennies and we all worked together to find a penny with the year of each persons birth. Five rolls did the trick. We got a penny for each birth year, ranging between 1974 and 2010. We glued the pennies onto a round piece of felt and put them on with a safety pin.

Our dinner had a presidential theme. Well, kind of. The signs read...

Dinner: Compliments of Grover Cleveland=Cleveland Reds=Indians=Navajo tacos.
Cost-1 Alexander Hamilton.

Drinks: The James Bu"can"an. Free with purchase of meal. (Can of juice)

Dessert: The John Adams=Adams Apple=Apple Crisp! Cost- 1 Abe Lincoln

After dinner we had a few games. The names of our games were the Lincoln toss and the Herbert Hoover. We set up the Lincoln toss with a big tub full of water. I had a few small tupperware containers floating in the water. Each person got 6 pennies to toss. The person with the most pennies in the containers won. Jeff P. won that one, but I was a close second. The Herbert Hoover was the best game of all. We dished up equal portions of jello and everyone had a straw to suck up their jello. You know, Hoover=vaccum=suck up jello with a straw. The Peterson boys were especially fond of this game, but Jeff was the winner.

Who knew that President's Day could be so fun.

Introducing...

the newest member of our family, Larry Bob Cook, the snail. Kyleigh found him outside. She named him, then wrote his name on his shell lest she should forget his name. Then she and Katelyn built a fabulous box house for him. Katelyn lost interest, but the neighbor girls (who are named Katelyn, Kyleigh, and Kelsey) arrived home just in time. They spent the next hour at their meeting spot, which is the cinderblock fence between our yards. Our girls stand on our old power wheels car hood in our yard and the neighbor girls stand on the grass in their yard (their yard is higher up). It is amazing what they think of to do together over the wall, like games with balls, a book club, and painting a house for Larry Bob Cook. We looked online to try and find out what to feed him. We ended up putting lettuce, broccoli, and a carrot in his house. When we checked on him the next day we found him with the carrot stuck in his shell opening. He must have liked the carrot. I'm not sure how long Larry Bob will be with us, but he is fun in a slimy snail sort of way, for awhile.

One of the things that is part of our school day is silent reading. We found that Kyleigh loves the American Girl series. She looks forward to reading every day. She has also been playing that she is an indian girl every day during her breaks. She gathers the nuts that fall from the palm trees and does other "indian things" that are straight out of her imagination. She asked for a snack that an indian girl would like to eat during her reading time. We decided on almonds. I can't help thinking that this is so much more fun than sitting in a desk.

Vegetable Man

We had a field trip to the Dr.'s office for preschool. I made vegetable men for each of the kids for their snack. They turned out cute, but I think the moms appreciated them more than the kids.

Valentines Day

What is Valentine's Day without a few parties? We started with a girls craft party. We made hershey's kiss rose bouquets, painted heart boxes, made candy rings (to put in the heart boxes), melted crayons to make heart crayons, and decorated sugar cookies. Kyleigh only had one friend show up for the first hour. The pictures show a nice, calm party. For various reasons the other girls arrived later. The house turned into a mad house. Especially after they finished decorating cookies for their families and made one for themselves. They all made cookies with layers and layers of frosting and candy. After they ate them they ran around the house screaming, "I'm so hyper, I'm so hyper." I just let them run and scream.

The day before Valentines we went to the Peterson's for a pink heart shaped pizza bar. Side dishes included strawberries with a pink dip, pink strawberry smoothies, and a green salad (go figure). We love all the Peterson family traditions and we're glad to be a part of them.

On the actual Valentines day we had pink heart shaped pancakes with strawberries for breakfast. At dinner we set the table all cute, complete with little token gifts for the kids. We gave the girls art project kits called Paperoni and Ridge his own zhu zhu pet to chase after. Nama and Papa had sent some gifts for the kids so we set them at their places also. (GG and Gpa had sent gifts that the girls had already opened and consumed). We had a steak dinner with twice baked potatoes and corn. After dinner we had a family home evening on love. For the activity we learned how to fold origami hearts. The girls went to bed happy. Rusty and I made a chocolate fondue with strawberries, bananas, and roasted almonds for our valentine desert. YUM! We had some leftovers and ate it again the next night.

So, Happy Valentines Day.

Curlers

Katelyn was looking at the curlers in the drawer the other night. I asked her if she wanted me to put curlers in her hair for preschool the next day. She was so excited. I put the curlers in. The next morning I went to take them out. She got really upset. I told her that you take the curlers out to get the curls. She informed me that she didn't want curls, she just wanted to show the preschool kids all of the colors of curlers she had. So this is how she went to school. When she came home she let me take them out.