February

February started with Maddie's 6th birthday party - it was a week late because of snow and a tummy bug but we finally made it.  It was so nice to see the Scholles again as well as Amy and Stella Dot.  We spent so much time with them when the kids were little and it's been a while!  Janet and Frank also did a great job planning the party.  They did a science theme and Frank (a professor at NC State) did several experiments with the kids.  The kids LOVED it!!

Happy Birthday, Maddie!

After cake, we went outside and did the last experiment which was exploding mentos and diet coke.  :-)  The kids thought it was hilarious!

After the last experiment, all the kids started playing and next thing we knew, Kylie was on the ground screaming.  Turns out, she cut her head on something (we think maybe the playset) and she really did a number on it.  Luckily, one of the parents at the party was an EMT so he really helped us out!  She was a trooper and was smiling by the time we got ready to go.

Here's what it looked like when we got it all cleaned up at home.

The next day, we went to get the mattress for Kylie's new bed!  It was delivered later in the month and she was so excited.  We managed to cram it into the van but the kids had to duck a bit.  :-)  They thought it was hilarious...

Happy girl!

These were the brownies I made for the superbowl party we went to that night!  I had to take a picture.  :-)

Silliness at work - these are my coworkers Deirdre and Sara doing some exercise in our office.  :-)

That week, I had a hair appointment and I decided, a little last minute, to go pretty dark!!  I'd been thinking about doing it for a while and figured, why not!?  It's faded a bit since then but it's still a lot darker than it's ever been!

Silliness with Kylie

Our crazy girl!

That weekend, we took a trip downtown to go to the NC Museum of Natural Sciences.  They opened a new wing and Noah had been there a few times with Grammy but the rest of us had never been so it was fun to go!  A nice family day...

Sweet kids!

A Sunday dinner with Nana, Grandad, Andrea, Sean and Savannah...

Check out all the kids having fun doing puzzles and playing iPads.  :-)

 Noah had a school project where he had an 'antique show'.  The instructions told us to send in something 'antique' -- from before they were born.  One example was a VHS tape (!!).  We found this walkman and he was thrilled to take it in.  Check out the paper he had to fill out -- the walkman teaches us that we didn't have phones back then (cell phones with music on them).  :-)

He was so proud

... and showed all his friends at the bus stop that morning

That Saturday was a big day.  I went skiing with two of my coworkers - Sara and Jenn.  We planned this trip several weeks in advance but the closer it got, the more nervous I became.  I hadn't been skiing in 12 years I think AND it was also a day bus trip - the bus left at 5am and was supposed to get back by 8:30 (although we hit snow and traffic on our way home and didn't make it back until close to 10!).  I had to set my alarm for 3:45 that morning!!  We had a blast but on our last run, Jenn fell.  She got up and managed to make it to the lift but felt like something wasn't right with her knee.  She went to the doctor a few days later and turns out she tore her ACL!!  :-(  We did a have so much fun though!

The kids and Waylon did really well while I was gone.  They hung out with Nana and Grandad and went to see a movie.  So much fun with Daddy!

That week, we had an impromtpu dinner with the Gebhardts.  They brought cupcakes with candles already in them so the kids wanted to light them and sing Happy Birthday to themselves!  :-)

Kylie picked her own outfit!!

We got the actual bed delivered that day - Kylie was trhilled! I think it's adorable!!  Once we get our bedroom finished (which will be soon and then I'll post before and after pictures), we are going to try to redo her room - new bedding, paint, etc.

That Thursday, daycare called and told us that Kylie had pink eye and couldn't return to school Friday.  She and I both were fighting a cold, so we took a 'sick' day together.  Neither of us felt horrible so it was a nice day together.  It did us both some good to rest though.

Picnic lunch in the house - she looks so sick, right??

She did take a long nap and wasn't happy about waking up to get Noah off the bus - how pitiful is that face?!

Smiling later though!

That Saturday morning, we went to watch our neighbor's daughter play volleyball.  She babysat for us on Valentine's Day - just for a few hours in the evening and her parents were right around the corner (she's only 11!!!) - but the kids LOVE her and she's such a mature young lady.  They were so excited to watch her play and she was really good!  We'll have to go watch again soon.

That afternoon, Savannah came to stay with us for the night.  The kids were so excited about that, also!  Last minute, our neighbors invited us to come over so we decided to go for a bit.  It turned out to be a huge gathering of kids and the kids loved it.  We had dinner there and ice cream sundaes for dessert.

We came home around 7, made popcorn and the kids watched a movie.

We weren't quite sure how bedtime would go with Savannah since it was her first time staying over at our house but she did great - went straight to bed and slept great.  Up only once in the night but went right back to bed!  We were so happy that it went well - this opens all sorts of new opportunities!  :-)

Happy kids at breakfast!

We had butterflies that had grown from caterpilliars that the Weavers had given us for Christmas so we decided to let them go that day with Savannah there.  It was a beautiful day so we played outside until Sean came to pick her up.

Noah has been doing so great with reading and writing - he's really come so far since he started Kindergarten - in fact, we just had a parent teacher conference today and he's either right on track or past where he should be at this point!  We are so proud of him.

"I love you Kylie and you Daddy and Mommy"

That next week, Grammy came to visit for a grandkid fix.  We enjoyed having her here and Kylie got to have a few 'Grammy-Kylie days' so she was really excited about that.

Grammy-Kylie day at Marbles

Noah was supposed to dress up as his favorite book character one day that week, so we borrowed a Harry Potter outfit for him to wear.  He was so excited and had so much fun wearing it.  Kylie had to dress up also - you might notice she has handcuffs on so I guess Noah was a 'bad' Harry Potter.  :-)

That weekend, Grammy took the kids to the lake to spend the weekend there with Papa also and we had a weekend alone and painted our bedroom!  It was fun to do a project like that together again - it's been a while since we've done something like that together -- but that was technically March so that comes up next!!  :-)