Preschool Valentine's Party

So excited to pass out Valentines to her friends

Valentine snuggle for her beloved Miss Erika

Daddy Daughter Dance

Appletree has the cutest Daddy Daughter dance every year around Valentine's Day.  Megan has "aged out", but Hannah and Kyle have enjoyed the experience the last two years.

All dressed up and ready to go!

The dance featured a photo booth, which Hannah was particularly attracted to

Photo booth fun with Daddy

I don't know how they convinced her to take the glasses off, but I'm impressed

Fun with Morgan - rumor has it Hannah was a photo booth hog for most of the night

First grade Valentine's Day party

Pretty happy that Daddy got to join us

Mid-snack photo

Attempting to extract conversation hearts with chopsticks in one of our minute-to-win-it games

Constructing a conversation heart tower - game #2

Photo booth time with friend McKenna

One goofy lady

Posing with another first grade friend

Still silly

The kids quickly discovered it was just as much fun to photo-bomb as it was to be in the photo booth

There was a particular interest taken in photo-bombing their teacher, Mrs. Stehouwer

Class photo...with lots of moving parts

 

Grand Haven - Winter Weekend

We had a rare weekend where we didn't anticipate being trapped at home by an incoming snowstorm, and took advantage of the dry pavement to make the trip to Grand Haven for a winter visit with the kids.  The girls hadn't been to the house since the beginning of December, and were particularly eager to return.

We were greeted with an impassable driveway and an unholy amount of snow in the yard

Nothing says "welcome back" quite like 40" of snow at the foot of your driveway (we used Megan for scale - she is approximately 48" and the drift just behind her reached her shoulder blades)

We only had our shovels out for a few minutes before our new favorite neighbor came to the rescue with his snowblower

We eventually got the car in the driveway and the house warmed up.  Friday night went quickly, but we were up early the next morning and ready for adventure.

Out for a walk on the giant snowbanks

We walked to a nearby bakery, which only opens on Saturdays for a few hours.  Our objective was donuts, but we heard there were fresh out of the oven brownies, and left with a few of those too.

We got some work done in Hannah's future bedroom too, though I'm still not sure it was so wise to let Hannah help with the hammering...

Sneak preview!  We have to haul over her nightstand yet, and she's short a blanket and a set of blinds, but we've come a long way!

One more preview - final product to be unveiled in the near-ish future!

No more tubes!

This little girl has been a patient at the ENT's office since she was only nine months old - that's 80% of her life!  (yes, of course I did the math)  Her ears were twice as bad as Megan's were, resulting in tubes being placed earlier (9 months vs 15 months for Megan) and a series of ear infections after the tubes were placed that were very difficult to clear.  We've had no issues since she was 18 months old, however, and have been visiting the doctor only for her semi-annual maintenance appointments.  Last summer, we got the news that one tube had pushed it's way out and her ear was functioning well on its own.  At this last appointment, the other one was sitting on the surface and the Doctor easily removed it with a special tool called an "alligator".  Of course, Hannah thinks it's beyond cool that she had an alligator in her ear.

 

We're now in the clear for swimming without ear plugs and with no more ENT visits in our future (fingers crossed).  Yay!

 

Tube free and proud to be!

Why our pets need jobs

We are huge animal lovers around here, but there are three four-legged bums I know that take uselessness to a whole new level.

Did you know cats beg?  I was not aware of this until Jordan came into our lives.

The appearance of my trio of kitchen "helpers" can only mean one thing:  there is a turkey breast in the vicinity

Go ahead and settle in under the covers there, Lace.  Nighty night.

It is a little known fact that space heaters attract beagles.

Hannah Marie's World Famous Ketchup Burger

Disclaimer:  I did make her finish a well-rounded multi-food group lunch before I granted her wish for ketchup on a hamburger bun. 

 

Such enthusiasm for ketchup and bread!