Valentines

We went to the most fun Valentines party today!  I've put lots of pics on here, because there were just too many cute fun things not to take notice of.

 The spread: strawberries and pretzels to dip in chocolate and sprinkles.

 Patterns with Valentine Hearts

 Sweet buddies.

 This boy can guzzle some strawberry milk.

W trying to pop the balloon to find the prize inside.

The hostess with the mostess.  Seriously, there were so many more things to take photos of.  It was an awesome party!!

What A's been up to this week:

What W's been up to:

Opening and closing lots of doors.

Playing with trains, planes and automobiles.

100th Day of School

Today was our 100th Day of School!  E has been keeping a calendar of our school days on paper and with a jar full of straws.  Today she reached 100 and we celebrated.  The celebration was for all 3 kids, but I loved how the boys wanted to make it extra special for E because they "already had a 100 day celebration in kindergarten".  Then we went to CC.  The kids love CC more and more.  They were so excited to go today...I am so thankful. Later, we met friends at a park where we hunted for 100 Hershey kisses.  Then we tried to make Fruit Loop necklaces with 100 loops...didn't work out so well, but they were yummy.  I just think it is neat that at the beginning of the year I thought it would be a great accomplishment for E to learn to count to 100 by now.  I had no idea that she would also be able to skip count by every number up to 15, add, subtract, and find the area of a shape...pretty cool.

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

We found out why the Wildflower Center is free in January...there are NO flowers.  :)  We did have a great time with friends, though, and it is always nice to be outside on a beautiful day away from the city.  The kids loved "fishing" for minnows in the pond.  Grant even caught one!  The best part was the amazing pictures that my friend took of the kids. 

Happy Chinese New Year!

We did something this year that was a first for all of us!  We celebrated the Chinese New Year with some close family friends.  Their son was adopted from China and they are waiting to bring home their little girl from China in just a few months.

There were gummy fish representing the real whole fish that they eat on New Years, oranges, chocolate gold coins and other foods that represented something special. This Chinese New Year was the year of the dragon so the kids had a fun making their own Chinese dragons.

I love that our friends are being intentional about bringing Chinese traditions into their home and I hope to do the same for us with Ethiopia.

Happy Chinese New Year!