swinging.

Someone still loves her swing... 

more photobooth.

These are old. We don't really have Christmas tree paintings hanging on our walls in February.

photo booth.

I showed Lawson how to use the PhotoBooth feature on my laptop back before Christmas. 

He had a little bit of fun with it... 

Very nice...

A pig nose is always classic...

colorful snow.

It seems strange to be posting about this now... since we spent all afternoon outside without coats, the kids barefoot at times, enjoying the sunshine and spring like weather. We went from 17 inches of snow and temperatures of -15* to temperatures in the 70's. All in a week. Crazy Kansas weather. 

But the kids had so much fun with this! I can take no credit for this fun idea. I totally stole it from my friend, Amanda. I saw it on her blog and knew my kids would love it! I spent $5 buying these little bottles at Wal-Mart... then added some water and food coloring...

Gathered an assortment of dishes from our toy kitchen area (the ice cream scoop was the favorite)...

 and filled up a Rubbermaid tub with lots of white snow... (Corey had been asking me to "do something" with the Rubbermaid tub in the toy room for a couple weeks. But I'm pretty sure this isn't what he had in mind.)

I've discovered a trend in our Friday nights. Either we do something fun together, as a family (play games, watch a movie snuggled up on the couch, go somewhere together, etc.) OR mommy and daddy are so tired that I come up with some kind of fun activity for the kids to do that will keep them busy and entertained and let mommy and daddy relax. (valentines, decorating gingerbread cookies, etc.) This particular night was a "keep them busy" activity.

 Thanks again for these cute jammies, Jessi! Sophie loves them!! 

Two hours later, we were left with this... a very manageable clean-up. (And daddy thought this would be such a mess! I think Mommy's "keep them busy" activity worked perfectly!)

They each asked to do this several more times over the next few days. I'm pretty sure this is going to be a regular activity at our house each time it snows! :)

coffee.

It's been a busy week. 

Lots going on. 

Nothing fun, just stuff. 

I'm exhausted. 

Trying to cut back on pop. 

I'm getting lectures in the teacher's lounge about how bad pop is. Diet pop, especially. 

And here I thought I was being healthier when I switched to Diet Dr. Pepper a few years ago. 

I just have 1 each day. Sometimes 2. 

I love the taste and the fizz and the flavor. 

But I drink it for the caffeine. I need the caffeine. (and then tonight my neighbor tells me how bad caffeine is for you!) 

So I'm trying to learn to like coffee. 

I've had a travel mug full the last 2 mornings. 

I'm using french vanilla creamer and some sugar. 

I'm not loving it, but not hating it either. 

Any suggestions from coffee lovers out there? 

How can I learn to love this stuff?? 

And just because she's the cutest thing ever... 

valentines.

I saw these cute valentines on a friend's blog and thought that Sophie and Lawson would have a lot of fun making them. They spent a couple days coloring them (Lawson got some help from his best buddy, Ezra, one day) and then cut them out, cut out construction paper and stapled them together... all on their own. 

They are perfectly imperfect... and I love them! 

snow ice cream.

I don't know why I've never done this before. It was so easy! 

I did it with my students first. A total experiment. I kept telling them... this could be good or bad... we'll have to see. Luckily, it turned out really yummy! We even did some experimenting at school and tried it 3 different ways. It was really fun! One of those moments that makes me remember why I love teaching. 

I figured if I could do it with 19 kids, then I could handle it with these two. I sent them out with a couple bowls, spoons and instructions to scoop up lots of CLEAN snow! 

Mix together 1 cup milk, 1/2 c sugar and 1 tsp. vanilla. Add enough snow until it gets to ice cream consistency. (With my students, I planned this about 20 minutes before we actually did it. I managed to find sugar, but no vanilla. So we used chocolate milk instead!) The vanilla tastes a lot like homemade ice cream, we thought! So yummy!

Someone wouldn't eat any ice cream (who's child is this?!), but she had fun playing in the leftover snow...