Our Week

Here are all the kiddos snuggling with James in his office--this is his desk chair and one of the reasons he likes to work from home :)

For fun fun Friday, the girls decided to have a water balloon fight. By the time Paige and I filled up all the balloons with water and we picked up Ashley from kindergarten, though, it was snowing. They broke a few balloons on the kitchen floor (it always needs mopping anyway), so James suggested they take them in the tub, which was great. Then they took a long, warm bath and pretended they were at the beach in Hawaii. Girls after my own heart!

The grand finale-we filled up two regular-sized balloons with water, but they were strong, so James had to come in and throw them as hard as he could before they broke!

Pink toothbrush, anyone? Michael is really into everything lately. He can climb on anything and open doors (and the toilet lid). He's really into playing outside and wearing shoes. This morning, he pulled me to the closet, got out my shoes for me, and pulled me to the front door to take him outside. He's also pretty good about knowing what he should and shouldn't be eating. If he finds something, he'll stick it in his mouth and then come grin at me with whatever it is between his teeth and then laugh when I take it out. Oh, and if I'm lying on the ground, he'll lift up my shirt and blow on my belly and laugh his head off. He'll sneak a few bites in, too, just to make sure I'm paying attention. He also loves to be messy--ripping up tiolet paper and throwing everything off his highchair tray are some of his favorite things. He thinks it's hilarious when I tell him not to do that. So all in all, he's a really happy, funny boy, but he's kind of destructive...

Valentine's Parties

The girls had a good day at school on Thursday for their Valentine's Day parties. Ashley's class had a food drive--they all brought in chili and cornbread and then did counting and graphing before the party. I'm the room mom for Paige's class, so we had a simple party with sparkly pink playdough, heart shaped cookies to frost, and jello jigglers.

Notice Michael trying to be one of the kindergarteners:
Paige was the helper for preschool opening exercises that morning:
She got to count all the kids.

Michael's all ready for preschool:

That afternoon, we had the Gillespie cousins (minus Shauna's girls because Claire was sick :( ) over for a party. I forgot to take pictures, but it was fun! Here we are after they left:

Hair and Haircuts

Here are pictures of the girls' hair for their school Valentine parties--I found a bunch of cute styles on different hair blogs and this was the easiest.

Nice expressions on both of their faces! What's that about?? Nice pose, Paige!

Paige:
Ashley:

We had so much "fun" doing hair that morning that I cut it that night!

Ashley before:

After!

Paige after--I didn't get one of her before because Ashley was so busy taking pictures of everything in the bathroom. I cut it about 2 inches.

Oh, yeah--I cut Michael's hair, too. James says he's going to take him to the barber next time he goes. :)

Here are the girls ready to go to a birthday party this weekend.

Normal Stuff...

We've had a fun week this week just doing our normal stuff. Ashley goes to kindergarten every morning and Paige goes to preschool two mornings a week. Michael is on a pretty good napping and sleeping schedule and eats everything he can get his hands on, so all is well. We went swimming at the Y one day and were the only ones in the pool for an entire hour, so we had the slides to ourselves. It was great! The girls were invited over for a playdate one afternoon with some sisters who are in their same classes, so I had a free afternoon (I spent it doing laundry--whoohoo!), and we went to our favorite children's play area another day. Today, we drove up and met Lauren and her girls halfway between our houses and played at a great park. We really enjoyed each other's company and the nearly 70 degree weather we had today! Crazy!

We signed Ashley up for soccer at the Y. It doesn't start until the end of March, but she is READY!

Paige could not go to school this morning until her chore chart was organized. She takes after James and I love it!

Here's what Michael does every time I tell him to say cheese! I think he may have seen one too many camera flashes...

Here's what he normally looks like! He's wearing his favorite sweater-thanks, Aunt E!