Week 7: Valentine's Day etc

I/we have not been taking as many photos lately. There are exactly zero photos of Gabe from the week, who has been engrossed in a game called Kirby Triple Deluxe on the 3DS. Our activities included my attendance at Zach's school Valentine's day party, zumba (always a highlight), and a facial/makeup session with my Mary Kay lady. Charlotte is a big fan of lip gloss! Frank also took Zach to a cub scout banquet to honor those who will become boy scouts soon. There have been many ups and downs with Charlotte, who is still getting the hang of using the toilet, has been asking me "why?" over and over, and gets smarter and feistier each day.

Week 6: Getting over being sick

Not a whole lot went on last week. We thought Zach was feeling better, and he went to school on Monday. Then Tuesday we got a call from school that he'd had his head down all morning, and after my okay to test him he turned up positive for strep. So he was home through Wednesday, even though he was back to normal after a couple doses of antibiotics. Charlotte was dealing with a runny nose that got worse as the week went on, so we didn't do much but stay home and try to rest. After my zumba class on Saturday we went to Chili's for lunch and hung out at the bookstore.

They had a fun day of playing with all these boxes we need to put out for recycling.

Entertainment during a scheduled power outage: chess and video games.

In love with Valentine's candy.

Week 5: This and that and my birthday

It was a long week. Monday was an unexpected snow day, then Zach was home sick most of the week. Charlotte and Frank both had stomach issues on and off, so I'm really surprised I haven't come down with something.There was way too much screen time going on most of the days, but we tried to balance it with some family Lego time Friday night. Saturday I went to one of my favorite fitness classes at 7:30, then the Pinewood Derby was from 9 to 12. Zach got second or third in his races and ended up with a trophy for third place in his den.

In the video, Zach's car is the white one in the left lane.

Week 4: The new computer!

I spent all my free time last week working on a photo book (I had a free 12x12 that was expiring) and loving my new laptop. And moving furniture around in anticipation of the new laptop, because why not?

A recipe for chocolate cake mugs turned out to be pretty good.

Charlotte came home from day care with her hair braided, but apparently she was not impressed.

She LOVES these slippers from Target! I love that we found the last pair that are the perfect size and were 70% off + 20% off cartwheel. They were seriously like $3.

The new computer is so pretty.

The boys love that I let them put Minecraft on the other computer. They'd been wanting to try out Minecraft PC edition for a long time.

In celebration of the hundredth day of school, Zach was number 44. And this is how he wants his photo taken.

Week 3: Just warming up

It feels like only now are we starting to get into the groove of this new year. Winter and early spring months are typically the calmest around here, so I'm definitely strategizing how to make the most of this relative down time. The beginning of last week I was still at Jen's; the rest of the photos are from cub scouts, a skype call with Abby, playdate/babysitting swap, and yesterday's trip to a playground. We had to take advantage of the warmer weather!

Week 2: Charlotte singing

Last weekend I went to Jen's for a visit and Frank stayed home with the kids. She and I went out with some friends, visited with her and Andy's family, worked on the nursery for baby boy (no name yet), and got pedicures. Earlier in the week Frank and I had the excitement of ordering my new computer. Other than that, it's just school, video games, and Charlotte having a bit too much energy for me to keep up with.

Week 1: The family photo

We're not doing much since Christmas. It's cold, and all we want to do is sit by the fireplace and play video games or watch TV. It snowed a little, and there was no school on Friday. We are reminding the boys (over and over) that they don't need tablets everyday when they have dozens of new toys and games to play. The struggle is real, apparently.

I'm really happy with the photo we took this year. I only had to swap out one person! The outtakes are always really funny :)

We realized we took very few photos this Christmas, and essentially none of the tree.

So 2016. Silly photo = dabbing.

One of those images where your baby starts to look like a big kid.

Gabe stayed in. I don't blame him.

This was unexpected. I knew Charlotte had fallen asleep during quiet time, I just didn't know that she'd climbed into her rubbermaid tote full of stuffed animals.