National Pancake Day

Normally I am not a big fan of school closings, but when they were closed one day last week for freezing rain I was really glad it fell on National Pancake Day so I could take my pancake lovers to IHOP.  There was a long wait but I'm pretty sure the hostess got us in early cause she felt bad for me wrangling my wiggly, loud kids in the crowded waiting area;)  (or she wanted us out of there sooner, but I'll take it either way...)

It did not disappoint, though the actual eating experience probably lasted about 5 minutes- these kids can eat pancakes!

Crafty Girls

Marissa LOVES to do "activities"- what we call crafts.  Shane loves to do them now too but the difference between her at 3 and him at 3 is so different- I have many memories of trying to find sneaky ways to do them with him to help his fine motor skills.  With Marissa, she gets a big plan in her head of what she wants to do and goes and does it on her own.  When we didn't find any Frozen valentines in the stores, we came up with a plan B- Josh found a little coloring picture and printed them out in heart shapes- and after coloring them all very diligently she insisted on gluing them on blue hearts, and excitedly traced her name on the back of each one and taped on a candy.

 She is still playing "valentimes day" a month later.  She has probably colored and cut out 50 hearts.  This one is my favorite:)

 Sadie has watched her older siblings carefully and I gave in and let her use the scissors now.  She has done pretty well with them, and when she cuts off a little scrap of paper she will proudly bring it to me like a gift, "Here go!"  One day after seeing her bring me many "gifts" Marissa asked Sadie who she was making that for.  When Sadie answered "Mom", Marissa did a little pout and said, "Aw. Sadie you're not showing me you love me."  Then she asked again and Sadie said, "Marissa!"

 And she happily received her gift:)

Josh's Birthday

The kids are always playing "party" or "decorating" something or other so they get pretty excited when there actually is something real to celebrate.  We picked a Saturday to celebrate Josh's birthday since we were flying home from our flight fiasco on his birthday, and the kids went all out.  They wanted to make a banner, they told me exactly what they wanted it to say ("we all love you very much"), Shane wrote the words in pencil and Marissa tried over them with marker.

 Sadie of course wanted to be doing what the big kids were doing,

 and I thought it was so cute when I was taping their signs up she kept bringing me hers to put up (it's down below)

 Of course making/eating cake is one of the best parts of a birthday:)

 We went to the Home Depot kids' workshop that morning, and Shane thought we were soooo sneaky when we said we had to go to the bathroom and picked out a present for dad.

That night we went to Red Robin- we got there before 5:30 and the wait was over an hour- typical Fort Wayne.  But we waited it out,

 with a trip to the carousel thrown in there

and had a great night together.  We are sure glad Josh was born!

I Must Have Dreamed It

After a few fun days at my parents' house, we left the kids with them and drove down to San Diego for a few days for our first trip without the kids, ever!  Josh didn't get to have as much fun because he was in his conference til 5 or 6 every day, but I think my time there was all a dream!  I would drive Josh to his conference early in the morning, then go back to the hotel and enjoy a nice leisurely breakfast without sharing with anyone, do some reading/relaxing, then go for a long run with great views, and spend some good time at the beach.  The beach our hotel was at had a lot of cliffs, so there was a staircase with 7 flights of stairs to go down, and it made it really dramatically beautiful.  I love the sight of people exercising everywhere too, doesn't always happen in the midwest;)

Then I would go to the temple, which I especially enjoyed because we never get to go since ours is so far.

Then I would pick up Josh and we'd go to dinner somewhere.  This night was BJ's pizza, topped off with a gluten free pizookie!

It was pretty much a perfect week, and not hard to leave the kids knowing they were in such good hands with my parents and brother, and having the time of their lives!

Thanks mom and dad!!!

Ain't No Mountain High Enough

One day while at my parents' house, we were enjoying the nice weather at a new park, and Shane asked me if we could climb up the "mountains" there.  He is intrigued by mountains lately, because he is always asking me what is the tallest thing, etc. and since we don't have any near us, he was super excited to see some in California.  My mom won coolest grandma of the day award for remembering about a trail nearby some friends had told her about that wasn't too hard that took you to the top of some hills.  So we left the park and set out to "climb a mountain", something else on Shane's ever-growing bucket list.   

 We kept trying to say "oh look, we made it to the top," but he could not be fooled and insisted on going to the very top.  I was a little nervous about this sign partway up, but I think it excited him more than it deterred him!

 Marissa did pretty good too, with the promise of a Slurpee after and reminding her that she was Elsa climbing the North Mountain, and we had a good view of Orange County from the top.

 And Grandpa had the magic touch on the way down:)

He still thinks he wants to climb Mount Everest, but I'm pretty sure this was a lot more fun!