February started out with lots of Legos, hallway soccer, Heads Up 7-Up and UNO (thank you, Papa, for the hours you put in to the games of UNO)!
We made lemonade...
...and went to the cousins' house to watch the Super Bowl.
Daddy got glasses (finally!).
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| Annual Super Bowl picture of Daddy holding Brooklyn (taken every year since she was 2 days old) |
Landon was the Star of the Week, where he made a poster with pictures he chose, a whole lot of stickers and a drawing of a cashew with an X. He also shared where he got his name, a Mystery share item (alphabet puzzle), an item that was passed down to him (wooden dolphin) and a family tradition (4th of July vacation). Mrs. Eventov said he spoke for over 5 minutes about the 4th of July before she cut him off and sounded like he would have gone on for 15 minutes. This makes my heart so happy! (It may have helped that we did research - watching the videos of the last 2 years - that morning.)
I love that Landon enjoys cooking. He really likes making breakfast for himself and Brooklyn and doesn't want anyone to help.
The kids have been super happy with all of the rain because they love using their umbrellas (and Landon's rain jacket & Brooklyn's rain boots)!
We even had a pretty good hail storm one day!
Brooklyn's speech is very good, but she has a couple of words that she still mispronounces, including the month of October as "Octover." Is it bad that I don't correct her because it (and she) is so cute? (Or Landon's pronunciation of both as "boaf.")
Landon finished his gymnastics camp and wants to do gymnastics again ("after soccer then MyGym). He improved a bunch and loved, loved, loved it! And his handstands, cartwheels & roundoffs off of the coffee table are fantastic!
I think gymnastics gave him more confidence in his body because (on his own) he started practicing front flips (which, before, we don't think he ever would have attempted) on our old mattress that was temporarily in the bonus room (and the dining room for a bit too). We might need to buy another mattress just for "quiet time" exercice. They loved having it there!
Each week(ish) we have a "family meeting." The kids get excited about the snack we have and fun activity we do at the end, and most Thursdays Landon reminds us that "it's almost the weekend, so it's almost family meeting." The kids love when it's their week to plan the activity or make the snack. They usually make the snack together, giggling the whole time. An example of one week's snack is a mix of Goldfish, dried peas and 4-6 different types of sprinkles with a fruit strip on the side.
Landon has turned into a little goofball these days.
Here they're pretending they're twin babies (I think in a womb).
Best buddies and their secrets!
Brooklyn's still attending MyGym and loves it when she's there, but she's had a couple of rough starts being anxious about going in on her own. Grammie came to watch one day, and Brooklyn didn't step foot in the play area the entire hour. :( But when she does go in, she has a great time!
She is getting better with reading. One day she read 3 books to me! She was so excited and proud of herself when she did! Other days, if the first word isn't a sight word she wants to give up right away. But she's good at sounding out words when she's in the mood.
Family science with magnets...
...and Ivory bar soap
Little girl wants to be a big girl with make-up and a bra!
She even helped me install hooks for her (many) headbands. She also decided to donate her "share" money to help purchase a wheelchair for someone in need and the other half to families of firefighters who have lost their lives on the job. (Landon wants to give half to Santa (yay!) ;) and half to "the box at the airport.")
Valentine's Day was fun! When we picked Landon up from school, Brooklyn told Landon she missed him during the day. :)
Daniel took Landon and Jacob to STEAM Night at the library, where they made slime and sewed tiny stuffed pillows (which Landon randomly called "Mr. Cutie Pie" before kissing it goodnight that night and putting it on his night stand with the other dozen trinkets he has collected next to his bed).
President's Weekend allowed for THREE sleepover nights! One day Brooklyn told me she wanted to surprise Landon after school by taking him to the bouncy park. (It was probably her manipulating me to take her to the park, but I thought it was very sweet that she wanted to plan a surprise for him.)
Before Daddy left for Netherlands & Ireland, we had a family day at the beach, first stopping by Dave & Busters for lunch and gaming.
Brooklyn asked to play this game on her own, but a certain someone couldn't just watch all the missed points. (She had to remind him more than once that she didn't want his help.)
The time at the beach was spent moving rocks from one area to another and digging holes. We finished up the family day eating yummy ice cream and visiting with the Maisen family who were visiting from NorCal.
Landon loves drawing...and dragons.
They dress themselves this way just to push my buttons.
"Surfing" in the backyard
Grammie came to visit with Daniel was away, and we took the kids to the Alpaca Hacienda. We learned about, fed and pet alpacas and llamas (and only Grammie got spat on...just a little bit). They were so cute!!
They had chalk at the Alpaca Hacienda, so Landon drew a reinactment of him feeding the alpacas.
They each took home a notebook with pictures of alpacas on it. Landon decided it would be his journal, and right away he wrote topics and a few sentences on each. The first topic was school, followed by about 20 superhero character topics.
Hello March!
