It Takes A Village

To make a Pinewood Derby car!


Sawing with Daddy,sanding with uncle,

design from C,

and paint job by mommy!

The big race is tomorrow!

First Sleepover and First Proposal

Yesterday was a big day at our house. AP went to her first sleepover at a friend's house!

True to her independent AP nature, she wasn't the least bit upset for mommy and daddy to leave her.

My friend texted me a few pics while AP was there. They were probably delirious at this point!
AP went with them to a basketball game this morning. The girls wore matching shirts and bows :)While AP was away, we had some special "just C" time. He chose where we went to dinner.

He also let us know at dinner that he had asked his girlfriend to marry him that day! He also asked her to move with him to Hollywood, but they decided together that they didn't want to be that far from their families, so they would stay in our little town.

Lucky Girl

I've said it time and time again, but I have been blessed with the best girlfriends in the world, both old and new. Last weekend, I spent almost 24 uninterrupted hours with my oldest friends. The four of us have been friends since early elementary school. That's a really long time!

We stayed at a cozy, yet modern hotel south of Nashville. We didn't do anything fancy, just enjoyed each other's company.

We stayed up late, didn't put any kids to bed, weren't woken up by any dogs, and didn't fix breakfast for anyone the next morning ;)
By the time we actually made it out for breakfast, it was lunch time! We ate at Puckett's Grocery. Yum. We were actually seated on the stage.
Love you, girls!

Special Friends and Surprise Braces

Last night we had the opportunity to listen to the Wright family speak about their work in Kyrgyzstan with the orphans, the poor, and the elderly (basically, anyone who needs help!). They have made this their life mission and it was so neat to meet them in person. It was almost like meeting celebrities!

Another local Kyrgyz adoptive family hosted the event at their church.

The Wrights have 2 daughters that travel with them to Kyrgyzstan. One has learned Russian and the other has learned Kyrgyz. It was very neat to hear them speak. This is their daughter playing with AP and her friend E during the presentation.

3 Kyrgyz cuties wearing Kyrgyz hats that the Wrights had with them

Julie, John and most of the kiddos

John made reference to herding cats when we were trying to get all the kiddos to sit on the steps with them! But, you can tell that my two have a paparazzi momma b/c they struck a pose and held it for a really long time!

To read more about the Wrights, check out their blog at Acts of Kindness. You'll be glad you did.

In other news, C went to have his palate expander installed in his mouth this afternoon. He has been asking if he was getting braces and I have been telling him no. The appliance that he needs goes in the roof of your mouth and is turned 2 turns a day to make more room. The lack of room is the issue at this point. Anyway, I was totally surprised to walk back to the orthodontist chair and see 2 brackets/braces on C's front teeth! I guess I didn't think about what the palate expander would be attached to! He is now sporting one black bracket and one orange bracket! He said he chose UT colors. To be honest, I am a little intimidated by all the special brushes, special floss, special keys, and turning instructions. She said some kids even have to stay on a soft diet because it hurts :( Bring on the mac and cheese!

So Much Sweeter

The best thing about being cooped up for so long due to all the snow and freezing temperatures
is that it makes the days when you can play outside until the sun sets so much sweeter!

Hearts Day

Here are just a few snapshots of our Valentines Day.

AP shared cookies that we made with her friends at school.
We attached rock candy to C's rockin Valentines.

A few sweet treats waiting for the kiddos that morning.

They were caught red handed

in a sweet brother/sister moment!

In the meadow we could build a snowman

We measured approximately 4 inches of snowfall in our yard. I don't think it's the most snow we've gotten this season, but I think it created the most dangerous road conditions. I heard of situations where people had to spend the night at work and some that tried to get home spent 6 hours on the interstate. Crazy! Thankfully, we all got home safely.The kids and I got out and played in the snow for a while today.

I have to share why C is laughing so hard, even though he may kill me later for it. As he was making his snow angel, he tooted in the snow! He was cracking up at himself :)

Here is our attempt at a little snowman.

Yes, I am playing in the snow in pj's.

AP had a snow tea party.

Then we made some yummmmmy snow cream. We started with 10 cups of clean snow.

We added a half cup of sugar, 1 cup of almond milk, a little strawberry syrup, and a handful of white chocolate chips!

It was very good and ended up being our lunch for the day. We throw all rules out the window on snow days!
And I just got the call that we are out again tomorrow!

Science on a Snow Day

We were covered again yesterday in snow! We used our last official snow day of the school year, but I don't think it's the last of the snow.

It was a stay-in-our pj's kind of day, but we were very productive! This family puzzle time equaled one checked off elective in C's Tiger Cub book.
Then we decided to do an experiment from a Science Experiment Kit that C got for Christmas. The name of the experiment was Rock and Dissolve. The question posed was "Can something as soft as water dissolve something as hard as a rock?"

C labelled our 3 liquids and filled the glasses.

Then he put a piece of chalk in each glass.

Observe and observe some more.

Check out how the vinegar immediately ate away at the chalk.

The end result was that the lemon juice and the vinegar can dissolve chalk, but plain old water cannot. It's the acid in the other two that do the dissolving.

After science time, we worked a little on our Valentines.

Now it's time to come up with a few more keep 'em busy ideas because I seriously doubt we will be going to school tomorrow. We dismissed 2 hours early today and the roads are covered in white again!