Way back in July, at the U of I reunion, I mentioned to Amber that I would love to have her and Kaleigh come over some time since they both work 10 minutes away from us.... and yet we never get to hang out. And then life happened, and then I was sick for so long, and more life happened. I did finally get around to it and they spent a Thursday evening with us, which was so fun! The girls thought that they were great. And probably got to talk to them more than Bob and I did. ha. Cecily talked them into playing Mario with her... and Emmy had them both taking ballet lessons from her... which was hilarious. Good times.
Bob and Nathan wanted to talk game design so they had us over that Saturday with Mom and Dad for supper. And milkshakes.
Sometimes when you're tired of winter and tired of the same old, same old you just need to shake things up a little bit and have a picnic lunch on the kitchen floor. They thought it was the best thing ever.
Did you know they make Mr. Potato Head fabric?? And he needed a new storage bag.... Yes, I know I have a problem.
Cadence is fond of "To-wee" and likes to do "me piano lesson." She was singing "quarter, quarter, quarter, quarter, half-note, half-note, whole-note-hold-it" in church the other Sunday.
Hopefully this video uploaded correctly: Cadence, what makes you beautiful?
Bob is not impressed that her two favorite shirts are John Deere.... so he came home with CAT shirts for all the girls one afternoon. (She still likes the tractor shirts best though... shhh)
Cecily asked a "was Grandma alive when..." question and the answer turned into a brief history of the world starting at the Roman empire. They were up to the Korean war at this point and Emmy was not super impressed. hehe.
Then we got out the Timechart History of the World, which is one of the coolest books/timelines ever.
We hosted potluck at our house that night, so the girls got to go eat supper at Grandma Beutel's house. I cheated and made pre-seasoned cook-in-the-bag pork tenderloin and bought coffee at Eli's so I didn't feel like I did much besides setting the table. It was nice. The next day it rained, and rained, and rained and we were anxiously watching puddles. Our basement stayed dry, though!
The FFA sold strawberries and they just happened to be delivered the day we had potluck, so the next day I made a batch of strawberry jam. And of course, I ran out of sugar about halfway through the strawberries so I ended up just freezing a bunch too. Serendipitously, I had attempted to make bread bowls for soup the week before and they turned out super huge and I froze the extra to use as bread. There's nothing better than fresh strawberry jam on warm homemade bread on a rainy day....
After having been on my feet all day for practically three days straight I was tired and sore, but it was the soup supper, so we went to that. Cadence is fond of sleeping with toys and stuffed animals. I found her little Tupperware pitcher outside her door when I went to bed one night. Why, we'll never know.
Sun and slightly warmer weather calls for riding bikes outside! "Me blanky outside. In me coat." Whatever.
We knew he was brilliant... Bob's car was in the shop so he worked from home one day. He's using the equivalent of 3 normal monitors at once. I'm not sure I could keep track of all that.
Lazy morning in our pj's watching videos of Gideon and herself over and over and over on my phone.
It was windy. So windy. The poor playhouse blew over. Sadly, when we tried to stand it up today it collapsed. Alas, poor playhouse, I knew him, Horatio. Or something like that.
The first graders were supposed to build a leprechaun trap to take to school... insert eye roll from me... so we made one. Cecily drew up the design and it turned out pretty cute.
It was pi day so I made pie while the girls made a large paper and glue mess on the table. This is a cheeseburger pie from the Farm Journal Complete Pie Cookbook. It has a cheddar cheese pastry crust, and turned out pretty good. Although more than one of my adorable childrens' "tongue doesn't like the taste."
And of course I ran out of regular flour because I'm terrible at planning ahead. So the peach pie crust was made from mostly cake flour. It was a little bit more finicky than normal... but... I kind of liked the end texture a bit better. *gasp* Is that heresy? I may have to do more experimenting...
Our finished Leprechaun trap. Not quite as pinterest-y as some of the others, but definitely original and executed by her. It's a little tent shaped house in the woods with a paper couch, chair and table inside... shamrocks and a pot of gold... homey and inviting for luring in a leprechaun, only for the door to slam shut on the poor guy!
Isn't that an adorable woodland scene? They did not catch a leprechaun in class, but she remains convinced that they are real. *sigh* Seriously, first grade teachers?
And if this video uploaded... big sisters think it's fun to teach her all kinds of things. Brethren, pray for us, the two and a half year old knows how to "shake me booty."
