A Little Bit of February

Yesterday Isaac's class took a field trip to see Annie at the KROC center, and that morning we'd had about 6 inches of snow dumped on us, so I was a little concerned about the roads. In response to my concern, Isaac says, "Oh don't worry, the bus we'll take for the field trip has first aid kits and plenty of supplies for bodily fluid clean-up."
I just stopped and said, "yes...thank you Isaac." Then closed my eyes and had to laugh.
My goodness how I love that second grader.


Bri is doing wonderful at Charter. She's been there 6 weeks now, and has already exceeded everyone's expectations. Even better, she truly likes it. She's definitely had to get used to the early mornings, and she does have some late nights completing assignments, but she's really getting the routine down, and I'm so proud of how self-disciplined she is with her work. Her schooling with Connections Academy at home has really prepared her well for this. The independence it fostered really taught her to be a self-starter and to own the responsibility of getting her work done. I'm grateful for how Charter is challenging her and the growth I'm seeing. It has been a good fit for her.


Lexx got lonely with Bri gone, and decided to head to school with the boys for the remainder of her 5th grade year. She is also doing wonderfully, she loves her teachers, and especially loves being a part of the advanced math class. She was doing 6th grade math with Connections, so I'm glad Skyway at least has a way to keep her challenged and enjoying it. She's also constantly bringing home beautiful artwork, so I'm grateful she has a good outlet for her creativity there as well.

In the midst of all their schoolwork, the girls have been finding a little time for some fun. They've been taking a fencing class (and are pretty good at it), and a cultural dance class. They did both have crew responsibilities for the CYT show Annie (still going on through this weekend, super cute show!), but we decided to back out and just watch this one, to not totally kill ourselves as we get used to all that the new routine has entailed.

The boys are doing great too, keeping me laughing, and keeping me crazy. I'm convinced all four of them have some African stomach worm, because I swear they are always hungry, no matter how much I feed them.
Braden and Deacon are my little shadows now with the girls both gone all day. Braden has been making me laugh lately, as he'll run up with his crazy energy, hug me with his face all scrunched up, take a deep breath, and then say with a huge smile, "Mommy, you 'mell 'wicious!"(Mommy, you smell delicious, lol).

Deacon likes to talk to me, and is at that fun age where he wants to know how everything works. When we drive places, he has so so many questions, which I love.
Though, the other day as I was driving, this was a conversation between us -

Deacon :  "Mommy, I need to talk to you about something."
Me : "Okay"
Deacon : "You know how whenever I tell you something, you say, "Oh, yeah?"
Me : "Um, yeah?"
Deacon : "Well, could you just stop doing that because it really hurts my head."
(example : Him : "Mommy, I saw a yellow slug-bug at the car wash." Me : "Oh, yeah?"

... I guess I do this more frequently than I realized?)


Mr. Levi just celebrated his 7th birthday in February. I took him out for lunch to get his latest Book-it pizza, he did a little birthday shopping, and he chose a doughnut cake this year, which he covered in m&m's since it was otherwise obviously too deficient in sugar.

Glucose coma, anyone? 

Happy Birthday Levi! We Love you!!

My mom was in town for a few days. The girls enjoyed a dinner out alone with me and Grandma at the Olive Garden, and they loved having her crash in their room for the night on Bri's couch under her loft bed. The kids and I also enjoyed going through a box of old photos with her that she found in my Grandma's basement. There were some super cute ones of my siblings and I when we were tiny.