Valentimes

My girls were very excited and also very opinionated about Valentines this year.

Here is what we came up with (copied from Pinterest and downloaded).

Macy made each of her classmates a bracelet. 

Polly made adorable hearts with her thumbprint.

 Macy came home from school the other day with a list of all her classmates and the animals they chose to do a report on.

The list was filled with deer, snake, eagle, cheetah, monkey, etc...

Next to Macy's name?  Skink

This made me laugh and it also made me happy.  I'm glad that in second grade she feels like it's okay to be unique.  It feels like maybe something is going right around here. 

I'm going to store that little piece of information in my parent brain for when I'm hearing about the MANY injustices of her childhood.  

What Abe is Up To

Abe continues to be the entertainment of the family, besides me of course.

If he wants your attention be prepared to listen to your name over and over and over at full volume.  Even if you are sitting/eating/brushing your teeth RIGHT next to him.  He would like both eyes directly on him until he is satisfied.  He usually doesn't even want anything.  

MOM!  MOM!  MOM!

Lately he has been baking/cooking with me up on the counter.  This usually qualifies as my undivided attention.  But not always.

 (Something is turning in here.)

His favorite foods are apples, noodles or whatever YOU are eating.

He also ate nearly an entire red pepper the other day.

He calls Macy-Maimy, Polly-Poppy and himself-Babe.

He enjoys a good toothbrush.  Preferably dad's (see below).

He is always putting on everyone's shoes but his own.  And your helmet if you leave it sitting around.  This reminds me of this post.

Dad is his all time favorite person.  (sniff)  If Scott is home, Abe is right next to him. He is a perpetual dad-shadow.  A Dadow! (You're welcome, you may use that.)

 He acknowledges me sometimes to say, 

"Dad, gibberish, recognizable word, gibberish!" and then he laughs.  Undoubtedly telling me something hilarious and awesome about dad.

He is available for parties, but goes to bed at 7!

My poor, poor children

My sister keeps telling me I should post about this.   So here I am.

All my children are well aware of the latest and most awesome technology.

We just don't have any.  ANY.

No ipad

No iphone (or any like it)

No gaming systems* 

No Mac for Photobooth.

Scott likes to say, we don't own an i-anything.

(He's wrong, I own the original ipod shuffle.  BOOM!)

Grandmas do. And aunts and uncles do.  Friends do.

They watch everyone playing Angry Birds and Plants V. Zombies.  They play too.

But when we are home alone, living the deprived and lonely low-tech life, Macy will sometimes take my phone to play "calender".  What?  You've never played it?  It's easy, really.  You pull up the calender on my Samsung and you shuffle through the calender year, looking for important dates, like your own birthday.

It satisfies her needs.  And so it does mine.

*Macy reminds me, we are like the only people in the whole entire world without a Wii !!!

Aprons!!

Hey friends!  Guess what I did?  

I opened an Etsy shop with a friend of mine selling kids aprons.

Don't worry, I didn't do the sewing!   

I left that in the very capable hands of Brittney.

My girls reluctantly modeled, and secretly liked it!

I think they turned out pretty cute.  It has been fun.

Take a look!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/DarlingSparrow

Like Father, Like Son

Although Scott hasn't fallen into the toilet.  

At least that I am aware of.

A Dollhouse Christmas

Christmas morning was a magical one.  Abe was very excited to open presents.   Here he is checking out his stocking contents.  Mini football, a pack of matchbox cars and a new toothbrush.

I have lots of cute pictures of him opening his dump truck.  He was very excited and all the pics are very blurry.    He spent the rest of the morning loading the dump truck with his matchbox cars and dumping them out, naturally.

The girls got some fun things including a new doll for Polly, but the all the glory goes to Scott for making this Christmas magical.  About a week and a half before Christmas, he decided to build bunk beds for their dolls and a giant dollhouse to go with it. They were so surprised and they haven't stopped playing with it yet...

Christmas Roundup

Christmas Eve we celebrated at Grandma Dedee's party and puppet show.

Macy and Polly sang "Mary Did you Know" during the talent show.

Abe got a cool hammer toy, Polly got a pig and Scott got a full beard.  Macy was never around for a picture.

The oldest and youngest members of the family, great-grandpa D and baby Moe. 

Aren't they cute?