Lex turned into a snowman!

Sorry for the lack of depth these days. Hope the abundance of photos will suffice :) I know that’s what you’re really here for anyway.

I know I posted some of these pics already, but here are more. I’m excited about piping. It takes awhile to do though, especially since I rarely have solid blocks of time… and when I do there is usually something more important to be doing than decorating cookies. Anyway, I’m having fun with these hearts.

Let's bake!

Piped hearts

First piping, then flooding. Then eating!

The whole Johnson family was here this weekend. Grampy Don taught Eve how to waltz.

Lex had a busy weekend winning games and writing love notes.

Today was sunny and in the high 30’s! Crazy. A few days ago I froze cranberry juice ice cubes and today we went on a “juice cube hunt.” The snow was SOOO deep I had trouble making it around the house to “hide” the cubes. The kids did a great job finding them though and the game kept them entertained while I shoveled the driveway. We were going to play again, but they decided to eat the juice cubes instead.

Juice cube

Off they go on their "juice cube hunt"

Got snow?

Lex put his little bucket up in the tree. I want to leave it there and see if a bird moves in this summer. It would also be a fun reminder of how deep the snow gets :)

This afternoon we went to a birthday party at the indoor playground. The party was for Eve’s classmate so her and I joined them while Lex and Alan played on their own.

Running with the girls.

Candy, candy, candy!

Alan showed off his upper body strength by zipping right up this rope!

We had fun at the party until the very end when Lex decided to protest, very loudly, our departure. It was rough, but the evening ended calmly. Alan and I are now “watching” the Super Bowl (with laptops close at hand).  Happy weekend.  Tomorrow it all begins again.

What a beautiful day! Started with a happy boy out the door early for school, happy girl off to school, a tiny bit of Valentine’s day shopping (shh!!), WW meeting (down 2.8lbs!!!), back to pick up a happy girl from school, lunch with daddy, and an afternoon in the sunshine. Ahhh… I love sunshine! I even have sunshine bread (sunflower seed and raisin) in the oven right now to keep the happiness coming. Happy day!

At the bus stop, waiting for big brother.

I love this series of three photos.

Here comes the bus!

Lex was tired and went right inside, but Eve and I stayed outside in the beautiful sunshine. She was super helpful shoveling the driveway. She is a good worker when she wants to be.

Eve wrote her name in the giant snowbank on the edge of our driveway. Can you see it? Right between her and my shadow.

Aren’t they adorable?!?!  Lex was reading a birthday party invite to Eve.  Crazy thing, we have two birthday parties this Sunday, overlapping.  The kids are trying to decide which one they want to attend.  I’m not crazy enough to try and juggle both!

They melt my heart.

We started making Valentine’s Day cards today.  As I did last year, I laid out a bunch of supplies and the kids went to work.  I love how creative they are and how liberal they are in expressing their love.  I hope they never lose that!  I’ll post pictures of some of the cards they made later, but here is the work in progress.

Lex, hard at work. He got 8 done today! He has a lot to make this year.

Serious Eve, working the glue.

Silly Eve with her rudolph nose.

We have been talking about nut crackers in this house since before Christmas.  I’m not sure why, but it’s a frequent topic of conversation.  Last week the stars aligned (ok, really my memory and location aligned) and we found a nutcracker at the grocery store.  The kids were thrilled.  Sadly, we seem to have missed nut season!  :/  I found some almond stragglers at the grocery store, and a bit of remaining almond/hazelnut mix at the produce market, but it’s definitely slim pickings.  I bought a handful of almonds and hazelnuts, but the kids don’t really like them.  If anyone out there comes across walnuts in shells, could you send some our way?  Or tell me where I can find them?  I’m out of ideas.

I love the games that Lex and Eve have been playing lately.  We play lots of board games, of course, but recently they’ve started making up their own games.  The other day they invented “net tag” (which I would have called “blanket tag”).  The game involves them running around upstairs and “tagging” each other with their baby blankets.  There are complex rules that Lex explained to me, but honestly I don’t remember any of them.  What I do know is that it keeps them busy, and active, and upstairs, for a good long time!  Today they were playing “garbage truck” which involves each of them getting a pile of cardboard cards (that came with the toy garbage truck at Christmas) and then running back and forth between the living room and kitchen.  Again, lots of complex rules about safety spots and whatnot.  I noticed that on each trip into the living room they would tuck one of their cards under the end table.  Perhaps the winner is the first out of cards?  I’m not sure.  Actually, I’m not sure there even is a winner to these games.  It makes me happy to see them playing so nicely together and having so much fun.

Honestly though the “playing nicely together” is hit or miss.  They seem to spend as much time fighting (shrieking, yelling, running) as they do playing.  Sometimes I’m not even sure if they are fighting or playing!  Yesterday Eve came shrieking in to me and started crying about something, with Lex right on her heels.  I found myself saying, “I’m done getting involved!  You two can either play nicely together like siblings, or fight like… well, like siblings <insert giggle as I’m trying to stay serious> Either way, I’m done!”  The both paused, then Lex said “Hey Eve, want to go play net tag?” and away they went, best of friends again.  I love them!