Mmmmmore Mmmmmonsters!

We stayed downtown after the science center visit and ate at Noodlecat (I loved it, Pat and Paige were not impressed and Owen scarfed everything down but then later said he didn't like it. What?!). Afterward, we joined Pat's parents at another Monster's game! They lost, again but it was still a great time! Paige tried cotton candy for the first time and it was tastier than I remembered!

Yum!

We have a large range of emotions happening here.

Paige and I went for a walk near the end of the game. She was exhausted from the day but also getting a little antsy. Not a great combination but she was a trooper!

Science Center

We met up with some more friends at the science center over the weekend. Two trips in one month after not using our membership much the rest of the year is pretty good! There was a new Mythbusters exhibit we wanted to check out and they happened to be hosting some sort of robotics fair which the kids were in awe of (and the adults, see below).

We watched a man get outfitted with some prosthetics and then try them out. 

The girls were testing the myth of whether toast lands butter-side-up or butter-side-down

No clue what they're doing here, I only saw from afar!

How long can Owen hang from a ledge? 30-ish seconds

Paige can hang for 20ish seconds. Also, Pat can hang for about 5 and I think I got to 15?

Dance Party

There have been too many snow days around here! We've been keeping ourselves entertained but really, let's quit it with all this cold. The kids can't even enjoy the snow/I can't send them outside because it's freezing! Yesterday the kids turned on some music and Paige did some dancing "on stage." I was reading on the couch while this was happening so it was fun to see all the pictures and videos later. 

Valentine's Day!

Perhaps I should have posted this on February 14 but...I'm doing it now. And it's still adorable. Here are some pictures from our annual Valentine's Day photo shoot:)

Class Parties!

I was asked the day before Paige's Valentine party if I could come up with a game for the kids to play and help out at the party. I was pretty excited because usually there are so many parents that want to volunteer they only allow you to attend one party a year (except for Owen's class where we didn't have enough!). I made a "heart healthy" game where the kids tossed a heart beanbag and had to do whatever exercise it landed on (jumping jacks, run in place etc.) I had a core group of kids that stayed with me and did it for the entire party so I think it was a big success!

President's Day!

The kids had another Monday off of school to celebrate U.S. presidents. So we did. In the morning Owen had a soccer tournament and somehow we all came home exhausted. We spent the rest of the day just hanging out together, playing games and reading books. At one point I spotted Owen reading through all the President cards while Paige worked on a lego set and everything was so...calm. Before bed we did some online President trivia which may sound like a crazy way to end the day, but for us it was perfect:)

Pumpkin Cookies

We're a little behind on things here which is why we're making pumpkin cookies in February. To be fair- I didn't make any pumpkin flavored items in October or November so I kind of deserve this. Also, I had a can of pumpkin that expires next month. So...cookies! (Be on the lookout for pumpkin bread, that's probably happening too.)

These cookies are very cake-like so they need the chocolate chips for some texture but nuts might also work. Also, we subbed in coconut oil for the vegetable oil and did not put in the full 1/2 cup or all the sugar, as per usual.

I should add some milk and eat these for breakfast! 

Sight Words Game

I put together this Sight Words Scavenger Hunt for Paige to play and totally underestimated how entertaining she would find it. We played in the morning for a long time and then she requested to play it again in the afternoon! You write the words on a board and then the same words on post-it notes. Then you hide them around the house and the kids have to find and then match them to the board and say the word. Paige saw me start to write the post-its and asked if she could do it herself and she also would count how many she had left every time she found one! I was super impressed with how many different ways this game worked her mind (counting, reading, writing!). It also reminded her of when we made the sight word parking lot so we ended up playing a few rounds of that too!

Mmmmonsters Hockey!

Owen was given some Monster's tickets for his birthday and Pat's parents were nice enough to get enough for all of us to go! The game went...not so well for our team so we're hoping for a better showing when we go again in a couple weeks and hopefully I'll be more prepared for the hockey fights. Couldn't we all do without those?

Before the game!

During the game...

Obviously this was at a more serious moment during the game...

Mmmmmuffins!

I've been surrounded by breakfast foods and talk of breakfast foods lately (bagels, doughnuts, pancakes!) but Saturday I needed to make these blueberry muffins. I don't remember why it was necessary but here they are! And they were fantastic.

I went in not intending to change much in the recipe but that never really works out because I'm so horrible at making sure I have the correct ingredients. Changes-cut out a tablespoon of butter in the batter, used frozen blueberries, subbed white whole wheat flour, cut down the sugar and omitted the salt. I made the crumb topping not intending to skimp on the best part but I don't think I even used half of it! I sprinkled as much as I could but it would have been seriously overdoing it to try to get all of it on, there just wasn't enough space for it!

Visitors!

We had visitors over the weekend! We met our friends from college and their four boys at the science center in the afternoon and stayed until they closed. Then we headed home for pizza and hanging out until it became obvious that we needed to call it a night. We also had brunch together the next day before the snowstorm forced them to be on their way. I love seeing the kids interact! If we're friends with the adults then the kids are automatically friends, no questions asked. They just jump right into it every time!

There was no sign indicating you weren't allowed to climb on here but still it seemed...not right...

My favorite picture!

All the kids!