For Valentines day, Allie and I took a bunch of old and broken crayons and recycled them into pretty crayons to give to classmates! We used a silicone mold to make cute heart shapes. It was a quick and easy way to make use of our excess crayon stash. We then made cards on the computer that said "valentine you make my world colorful" complete with a pretty heart in the center to affix the crayon onto. The pictures above show my assistant and I working on our project. I did learn (after the project was over) that if you soak your crayons in cold water first it makes taking the labels off MUCH easier! Something to remember for next time! :)
Jeff had a Basketball game in January and was unable to take Allie to one of the two daddy/daughter dances she will attend this winter. SO, grandpa graciously agreed to fill in as Allie's date for the first Daddy/daughter ball! Grandpa bought Allie a beautiful corsage and they both dressed in their finest dance clothes for the occasion! Grandpa even carried Allie to his car so she wouldn't get her pretty dance shoes wet on the snowy/moist driveway. Prior to the dance grandpa took his "date" to the local mexican restraunt for some chicken nachos and burritos. Then they went to the big Event! They both had a blast and Allie is still talking about it almost a month later. She and grandpa danced and although she was worried grandpa would dance funny, he kept his promise to her and danced and nicely as he could the entire time! They shared cookies and punch and enjoyed fast and slow songs. Grandpa even requested that the DJ play single ladies (a favorite of Allie's).
Where did January go! It has been a long time since I posted anything here!!! We had a busy month to start of 2010. Allie attended her first friend birthday party and had a good time, Jeff & Ryan went to MANY Red Raven basketball games and both kids had really great weeks at school. Both kiddos participated in the Catholic schools week activities and celebrations in January that included special masses at church, PJ day at school, lunch with families and a special concert by the students. Hoepfully I can post some more photos and details about the above mentioned January events and activities as well as some special activities our family enjoyed during the past month!
February has arrived and we have been blessed to have a Valentines visit from Grandma & Grandpa. The kiddos have enjoyed a few days with Grandma & Grandpa. Jeff and I got to sneak away for a nice early Valentines dinner on Friday while grandma & grandpa enjoyed a little Valentines celebration with the kiddos that involved a BBQ dinner and a movie! Today Allie attended a Junior dance clinic with the college dancers. She had to work really hard for 2 hours to learn the routine with the girls then they all performed at half time of the basketball game. She did a wonderful job at staying focused (which for a 3 year old can be hard) the ENTIRE time! :) She seemed to have fun and was did a wonderful job performing even though she was tired. She was the youngest girl there with all other girls being at least 1st or 2nd graders and older. Allie working on her Valentines at preschool
Imagine my shock when I opened Monday night's Coffeyville paper and saw Allie's picture on the front page! Ryan had his picture on the front page of the newspaper from the neighboring town on Sunday and then Allie gets her picture on the front page of the other paper on Monday. In the picture she is cheering with her favorite cheerleader.
Ryan spent a good part of Friday, Saturday and Sunday as a ball boy at the Jayhawk shoot out basketball tournament. In fact he didn't get home until well after midnight on Saturday. During halftime and between games he enjoyed shooting baskets on the court. Apparently he also enjoyed the hospitality room. Judging by the frequent visits he made to the Hospitality room check out goodies, he seems to take after his grandfather who was a former athletic director for so many years he knew which tournament offered the best food in their hospitality rooms!
This morning I opened the paper to find Ryan's picture on the front page. He and his friend were photographed courtside eating oranges while watching the game.
We have our own Gas well which has been a real $$ saver over the past 8 years BUT can be a real worry when we have super frigid temperatures like we are having now. Each winter we worry about the gas well pipe freezing up and preventing us from keeping warm. Jeff and our neighbor take turns maintaining the pipe morning and evening by putting a gas line product in the system. Despite the effots, sometimes the line STILL freezes and we get a little chilly until the guys can thaw it out. Today Jeff brought home a small space heater to use in an emergency. It was the only heater he could find at our local Walmart. Every other heater had been puchased ~ AMAZING!
Following a long safety talk with the kiddos that went something like this: Don't touch, don't knock over, stay back and don't get too close, don't plug in by yourself, don't turn on by yourself,don't leave it running when we sleep,don't leave it running when we are out of the room, house or town, don't put toys on it, don't cook the dog with it, don't try to roast marshmellows with it, etc. (We tried to cover as many don'ts as we could think of, but we are sure the kiddos will find some don't we forgot to mention.) In fact if we did forget to mention something safety and common sense wise, please feel free to e-mail me so we can include that in our daily don't message to the kids. We fired up the lil' space heater and gave it a test run even though our house is still pretty toasty with the big heater running. The kiddos were instantly attracted to the bright orange heat (kind of like a bug to a lightbulb. Apparently the kids felt like they were in the warm summer sun while sitting in front of the heater because after about 2 or 3 minutes of sitting in front the heater the kids got up and got their sun glasses. This is how they looked staying cool while enjoying the heat.
