Feb. 18-24

I am so ready for Spring! I have been sick all week and I would love some nice warm weather. Most of the cold has gone away, but I have been stuck with a nasty cough and no voice. And every time I had to venture outside to take kids to school, it would take me two hours to recover, and then I would have to go back out to pick them up! I haven't been able to yell at my kids this week, which you would think is a good thing, but it's not. Sometimes you just need to "talk loudly" to get your children's attention. Like when your child walks right in front of a car! Granted, he was on the crosswalk, but I wasn't 100% sure that car was going to stop. Thankfully it did, but I sure felt helpless.

The kids made it to school this week, but otherwise we just hunkered down. My dad came mid-week and dropped off some Costco dinner supplies. It was nice to have some easy meals for a few days. Thanks Dad!

The kids "forced" me to play a lot of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild this week. P2 is always asking me when I'm going to play Zelda. I probably overdid it, so one day I decided to not play the whole day. I stayed strong and resisted the temptation, even though I had 3 little munchkins begging me to play. It really is a fun game though, and I'm glad I can enjoy it with my kids.

This afternoon, we heard sirens and suddenly we saw a fire truck drive by. I looked out the window and saw a fire hose in the middle of the street. I figured that was not a good sign. So we rushed out, and the house two doors down from us was on fire! The garage was in a full blaze. The firefighters were just in the process of turning on the hoses, so we got to watch them put out the fire. You could feel the heat from our driveway. They put it out pretty quickly, but the garage was a total loss. The whole neighborhood turned out to see what was going on. A few people had heard that it was a single level house burning and they were worried it was our house. It sounded like no one was injured though. But that was a pretty scary thing to see so close to home.

https://kutv.com/news/local/firefighters-on-scene-at-fully-engulfed-woods-cross-garage

P2 and P3 playing with Play-Doh:

I love watching P3 play with dolls and action figures. 

Dad made muffins for breakfast, and the kids loved them. P3 tried to eat his using the beater, silly kid!

Sunday dinner at grandma's house. P3 loved the ice cream and kept begging for more.

The kids were playing London Bridges with grandma, but P3 treated it more like Ring Around the Rosie. It was pretty adorable.

Feb. 11-17

P3 likes to sit on the counter while I make breakfast.

P3 reading and/or destroying books: 

We enjoyed a much overdue play date with our dear friends. When we became friends, we each only had 1 child. Now there are so many, with more on the way! We enjoyed decorating and eating heart sugar cookies. 

Poor little P3 fell down a whole flight of stairs while we were there. He does well with stairs at grandma's house, so I thought he would be fine. But then we heard the terrible sound of a child crashing down the stairs. Poor kiddo had at least 3 goose eggs, and he was pretty inconsolable.  After an hour or so, he finally started playing again.

P2 wanting to share her artwork with the world:

P1 and P2 were really excited about Valentine's Day! We printed off Pokemon Valentine's cards for P1 and Princess ones for P2. We attached fruit snacks to them. They both had a fun day at school.

The kids enjoyed getting cards and treats from grandparents. We gave them each a toy. A red-eyed tree frog plush for P1, a Jasmine lego set for P2, and a Transformer for P3. I even made heart pancakes for breakfast, heart PB&J sandwiches for lunch. I even cut up a few cucumbers into hearts. For dinner, we had our traditional Stouffer's lasagna.

P3 and I went to P2's preschool party. The kids sang some cute songs for us, and then we had lots of activities to do. P3 loves coming to these!

 

The next day, P1 woke up sick. I'm glad that it was after Valentine's day, or he would have been so sad to miss school. Poor kid was pretty miserable, even with medicine. His head hurt a lot, and he had a pretty good fever. Well, I came down with it too, and it was awful! I barely slept Friday night because my head hurt so much. And it continued all day Saturday. I have never had such a bad headache before. My brain felt like it was going to explode. 

We had Cream of Wheat for breakfast, and P3 loved it. But I am sure the 3/4 of it went on his pajamas. And then he started to just eat it with his hands. So messy!!!

I'm glad P2 didn't get sick, because she was invited to a birthday party on Saturday. She has been very excited about it, because it was for a friend we haven't seen in a while. P2 was brave, and stayed at the party without mom or dad. She had so much fun and was telling us all about the rest of the day.

Kids playing games together on Sunday:

SeaQuest

On Saturday, we went to SeaQuest with our friends. It is an interactive aquarium at Layton Hills Mall. It was fairly crowded, and the line to get into the aquarium moved at a snails pace. But once we got in, the kids had fun. P3 went crazy with excitement when we saw all the fish. He just keep squealing!

 

I liked the caiman (dwarf alligator). 

We feed lettuce to the iguanas. All of the kids even touched one!

The tide pool was P3's favorite! He loved sticking his hand in the water. He couldn't reach anything without my help, but he sure loved playing in the water. The rest of the time we were there, he kept trying to go back to the tide pool.

Petting the giant tortoise. P2 said she only likes touching animals that are asleep.

 

P2 wanted me to take pictures of specific fish she liked:

Feeding the stingrays:

 

Experiencing the doctor fish. They eat the dead skin off of your hands, and it was quite the sensation! Dad got a lot on his hand, and then he transferred them to P1's hand.

P2 got to meet a mermaid! And she got a pretty seashell from her.

 

We saw their little bird show, and afterwards they let people hold one of the parrots. None of the kids were willing, so Dad did it.

Last feeding of the day: a group of hungry children waiting to be fed.