Beating The January Blues

We have been SOOOOO pent up this month! Very cold temps on so many of the days I can't believe it! And our friends in Virginia Beach have now had more snow than we have!!! Wishing we could teleport over there and have a snow play day with them. :) But, since I have yet to invent my longed-for teleportation device, we have been staying busy and keeping sane as best we can.

Fun Snacks

Desperate for fresh air visit to the park since it was "feels like 37 degrees"!

Shaving cream fun!

Makin always loves playing cars!

We have done quite a bit with Lorelei's school work lately as I seem to finally be getting the hang of when is a good time to do activities. We now do it occasionally in the morning, if she has time, and then usually after her quiet time/nap before the other kids wake up. Hoping this plan continues to work. If there are ever any games the other kids can do, we do them as a group, but not often. For some reason she just cherishes "work books" so we do a combo of writing practice/workbooks and then the educational games I have built up. Of course, I try to go with my weekly theme. I have been blessed and amazed by what I have found via pinterest and super-thankful for the home school moms out there who share their resources for free.
A. Maze. Ing.

We were very thankful for the YMCA's bounce house Saturday to get out some energy! Both kids loved it.

And of course...it is a never-ending stream of crafts. At least 5 days a week! On occasion I just let them paint plain paper, but I have been planning a lot of special themed ones because apparently, I'm insane. I cannot believe how much I let them use glitter! One of my favorites was definitely the penguins we made this week. Cutting practice and lots of gluing! They all did great! (I deliberately do not get the other kids in the pics with my kids as I don't want to worry about them being online if their parents would rather they not be. Just to be safe. :) Just know, often they are on the other side of the table! :) )

 "Mommy and me on a ship going to Gigi and Pop's house to Florida. The fish are puffer fish with pokies on them and they were surprised by our ship so they puffed up."

The kids were super pumped to go to Evan's basketball game Tuesday night! :) They love anytime we go out at night, and of course, love anything to do with Evan! They sat really well for the game. Just had to get a pic of us in our Columbus Discoveries colors. :)

We got lost of practice counting to 30 putting on 5 tattoos for 4 kids one morning. We have done tattoos, nails, glitter hair and glitter/lotion prints on their faces. Its amazing how girly you can get when cooped inside with these little girls!













And one of my best memories from the last several weeks was our trip to Omaha last Friday. Brad needed to take an exam in order to be Magento Certified. This is something his boss discussed before hiring him and was on the "to do" list. He crammed with a practice exam several times before the test and did very well on his exam that Friday morning! (Yes passed, which means he is officially magento certified!...which none of you really understand but its good for his job. :) Magento is the software he uses to build the commerce websites, if that helps.) He had the all-clear for the afternoon so we made the most of it.

We had a celebration lunch at one of or favorite restaurants, Red Robin!

Then we headed to the zoo to the Desert Dome and Kingdom of the Night before the kid's first Imax movie! (They are included in our membership!) They learned a lot about penguins. It was so fun hearing their reactions. Makin, "Are we moving?" and Lorelei smiled from ear to ear through the movie and said, "It looks like I can just reach out and touch them. Can I?"

Our Sporty 3D Glasses

Brad also got treated to a haircut at Sports Clips (they don't have one in Columbus and he loves that they do a head massage) before our usual Sams run.

Thanks for all the encouraging messages and phone calls about Brad's test. He loves hearing it! :)

And to finish out January, we had a quick visitor to brighten our evening when Papa came to pick up their vehicle that broke down over the last visit. We got treated out to eat and Lorelei got a few books read too. :) Thanks for the visit Papa!