How we spend our days!

Playtime with our pals!

And of course, the cute little baby buddies!

We checked out The Gingerbread Cowboy book from the library, which has been a family favorite for a few years, and even more so now that we made (from scratch) pumpkin gingerbread men. We even made them some paper bag apartment buildings to live in and a frosting pool and coyote. We were pretty happy with our craftiness!

Robert and I had an early Valentine's Day dinner at Distrito, which is Iron Chef Jose Garces restaurant. (We've also eaten Iron Chef Bobby Flay's food, which was the most pure deliciousness I've ever had, and Iron chef Kat Cora, but she gave me food poisoning, true story.)

Chef Garces' food was pretty hip. That is literally a piece of fried cheese with pomegrantes, nuts  and tomatoes and green stuff with some fancy sauce.

On actual Valentine's day we decorated cookies. We also went to Stanton's class party.

Then we handed out Valentine's at the nursing home with Grandma Mary and Grandpa Dan.
After that we had a nice family heart shaped dinner.

Michael and Tessa came to visit, which made us SO happy!

We had lots of fun with them at Tempe Town Lake. We found a dead fish and tried to hit it with rocks. That was level one. For level two we had to sink it with boulders.

We put on a President's Day puppet show for Daddy. Winston was a very believable Thomas Jefferson.

 Later that week we went to the park. First the park, then lunch, then the park again...

 then the train! It's the perfect way to spend a day!

Buddies at the Science Center.
I've practically earned a Doctorate in Science for all of the play time we have there. I should be able to do heart surgery or split an atom or something by now.

 Stanton and Grandpa went running in the desert together. They were gone for over an hour. they went 3 miles and did some exploring afterwards. They saw some dog graves stones and came home with cool rocks, some garbage. Stanton was so excited!

I took the kids to the Japanese Festival. It should be called the "Middle aged white guys dressed up as Pokemons Festival."
I had talked it up to the kids like it was going to be a peek into the window of another culture...not so, not so.

We hiked up the mountain and read lots of books. It was a fun idea, but I was a little jumpy that a snake would come up behind me and climb down my pants while I was reading, so I couldn't stay in character with my voices for the books.I'm like Indiana Jones. I hate snakes.

 In the middle of our read, I asked, "Who wishes we would've brought water?" They all said, "I do."

 We can still have fun on a mountain though, even if we are a little dehydrated!

 My little Noelle, barely 5, lost her first tooth...and swallowed it, just like Stanton did with his first tooth. Winston keeps pointing at her belly and saying, "Why you eat your tooth Well?" (He calls her "Well.")

We went to Stanton's track and field day at school. I still feel a sense of accomplishment from my 3rd place ribbon for hurdles at my track and field day, so I wanted to be there for his. They don't give out ribbons at his school though (probably cause of all that sensitive feelings mumbo jumbo) but it was still fun to watch him do everything.
They had a fundraiser run at school, and the kids were supposed to run as many laps as they could, up to 36 laps (each lap was 1/16th of a mile) and Stanton's teacher said she finally stopped him at lap 52. I asked him why he didn't stop at 36, and he said cause nobody told him to. He's my little Forrest Gump.

 We had a zoo day with friends. I always love the zoo!

 And no zoo trip is complete without getting a picture on the komodo dragon statue.

Winston and I go to the library in the morning while Stanton and Noelle are in school, and they just happened to be celebrating Dr. Seuss's birthday.

They had all sorts of fun games, themed after his books and a parade at the end all around the library. Winston smiled and waved at everyone. He was so happy! After he said, "that parade amazing."

And last, but not least, I can not even get enough of this picture! They're cutest little bunch of girls ever! I just love my kids and all of their adorable little friends!