Over The Rainbow

  St. Patricks Day for some might be associated with drunken parades and green beer, but around these parts it's more about rainbows, gold coins and everything green!

And how can I forget, Leprechauns!
Since traditionally Mr. Leprechaun is quiet the mischievous little fellow, we did spend a big part of our day cleaning up after him.  Luckily he would leave plenty of gold coins as our reward.

Some more pots of gold for my little leprechauns!

Up to his little green tricks again.

How can such a little guy be so sneaky?

A breakfast of green shamrock pancakes! 

This must be one of those really rare nice Leprechauns!

This green milk isn't so bad after all!

2 weeks later and Lucas is still requesting a green breakfast : )

 

Ah ha!  So this is where the Leprechauns really come from ....

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Naughty Leprechaun

Sophia's teacher asked if I would come by and "trash" the classroom the Friday before St. Patty's day.  So while the kiddos were at lunch, me and another mom snuck in leaving a giant mess and a bunch of green clues.  From the little green foorprints to the toilet water and gold coins scattered throughout the room, can you guess who had come to pay them a visit? 

After the initial shock and frantic race to get the room back together, they enjoyed a St. Patty's day snack of green water and cupcakes as a reward. 

And to take home, their own little pot of gold : )

Daddy's BDay

 To celebrate Daddy being another year wiser, we went to a Japanese Steakhouse.  This was per the kids request (mainly the girls), since Joe will ALWAYS prefer seafood.  But being the great daddy he is, he happily agreed to celebrate Asian style!

There's nothing more entertaining than a juggling act, an onion ring train and some fire at dinner.

After our yummy and entertaining dinner, we sat back and watched as they sang 2 versions of Happy Birthday to Daddy. 

Then we headed home for some birthday cookie, the girls had graciously baked earlier.  

Hope your day was as special as you are Daddy!  We love you!

Family Dance

Sophia went to her first school dance Friday.  Well, kind of!  We were all there.  It was her school's Family Dance equipped with everything from the red carpet, photo booth, and refreshments.  It was a fun time for all and we definitely had blast! 

 On the red carpet, "mommy" seemed to be the most popular designer and stylist for these Mustang Kindergartners and First Graders.  But once inside, glow sticks were the 'must have' accessory of the night!

It was so much fun watching these kiddos dance to Katy Perry, Justin Beiber, and Taylor Swift just to name a few.  Not only did they dance but most were singing along too.  Honestly, I had no idea Sophia knew so many of these songs.  Her twice a week PE exposure has really made an impact.  "The Music Class" is heard in our car on a day to day basis but after tonight, I'm not sure how long I'll be able to keep it that way.

 

Sophia in the mosh pit : )

One happy girl dancing to her new favorite tunes!

 Lucas had a blast too!  He's got his daddy's moves : )

 

A VERY tired Alexandra joined in too!

 

But by 7:30 it was time for K-1 to head home and make room for the older kids.  Just in time before my little Cinderella turned into one grumpy sister.  The other two however seemed to just be getting started.  They would have danced the night away if it was up to them : ) 

L-O-V-E

As February approached and we started thinking about Valentine's Day we decided we would do something cute and useful rather than sweet.  After all, i knew there would be plenty of sweets for all our little sweeties : )

Alexandra picked out some valentines pencils and Sophia had her mind heart set on "love bugs".  So as a compromise we agreed to incorporate both ideas and came up with these.  Aren't they cute?  It was a process but like most things that take time, the end result was all worth it.

After patiently making and assembling each "love bug pencil," the girls signed and hand picked one for each of their friends.  Then they were all set to be delivered on Valentine's Day!

From breakfast to dinner and everything in between, the day was full of heart reminders letting my 3 little valentines know how much I LOVE them!   

Afternoon snack was no exception!  Hot chocolate with pink marshmallows, a pink popcorn mix of yogurt strawberries, crasins, dried strawberries and pink M&M's.  Along with some more heart shaped strawberries and jello.  Yum!!!  I had some happy little love bugs!

 My 3 sweeties! 
Thanks for making my life SO much sweeter!  I sure do LOVE you!

MLK Christmas

We've traditionally spent Thanksgiving with The Barker Cousins but with the arrival of Jon Anthony in early November, we made the trip to Dallas instead.

Then we had planned on having them over before Christmas for an early celebration and visit, but as you might know by now, (or not) we were all dreadfully sick over Christmas break.  All five of us had a terrible cold or most likely the flu.  All plans to see family and friends were canceled and we spent the entire break watching movies in our pj's.  Thankfully, we started feeling better just in time for school to start.  By MLK weekend, along with our way overdue Barker Christmas visit, we were back to our healthy self's and had a super time with all three cousins, Aunt Judy, Uncle Chip, Grandma and Aunt Elaine. 

Girls against boys in a tickle wrestling match!

Looks like Santa left one of his reindeer behind: )

Alexandra practicing some fine motor skills with her left hand.

Whoo hoo!  More trains!!! You should see all his tracks now!

Thanks Barker's for making the trip!  It was fun!  Can't wait to see you all again soon!

Blubber Blanket

Before Christmas break, Sophia got a flyer in her binder about the school Science Fair.  For those of you who don't know, Sophia LOVES science!  So naturally, she was very excited and of course wanted to participate in the fair.  After looking through a few books, she decided on doing a project about blubber.  The concept was simple.  Does blubber really keep you warm?  

Joe and I made it very clear this was to be her project.  Her thoughts and ideas, words and work.  We were there to help but not to do it for her.  And this is how it turned out!  Not so bad right?!?!?  She started by writing everything out before, during, and after each experiment and once she was done, we went back and typed it on the computer.  Being a true scientist Joe was opposed to the stickers, but remember this was her project and she wanted stickers : ) 

 Then it was time for the Science Fair.  Her project was a huge hit!  She had lots of spectators wanting to learn about blubber and trying out her blubber mitten.  The judges had also posted little comments and compliments on her work.  Needless to say we had one happy scientist on our hands : )

She was even able to give her science teacher, Mrs. Kaufman, a demonstration!

And then it was time for the award ceremony.  Each participant received a ribbon, which Sophia was already very proud of.  So as you can see it was hard for her to control her excitement when they called Kindergarten to the stage to award the top 3 winners. 

And she won 2nd place!

We were very proud Sophia won 2nd place but what she did after she won made us even more proud!  One of her classmates was quite upset that she did not get a medal.  So on her own, Sophia went over and tried to comfort her.  First with lots of hugs and then she did something pretty extraordinary.  She gave Marina her medal.  Initially she said she could have it but i guess she didn't realize how much it really meant to her because as soon as her friend put it on, she started getting teary eyed and said "maybe you can just borrow it until you feel better."    

 Sophia's nice gesture put a smile back on Marina's face and Sophia she was happy to get her medal back.

 Congratulations Sassy Scientist!  We can't wait to see what you'll come up with next year : )