The women at my church were getting together to make fleece blankets for an adult hospice center, and another organization that gives them to foster children. I couldn't go to the activity, because I was working, but we decided to do them together as a family. Both of the organizations had specific specifications for the blankets. We made 2 adult blankets and 5 foster blankets.
Next door was a really cute candy store. It had all kinds of bizarre and fun kinds of candy you don't normally find in a grocery store. I read a book a while back that talked about learning to love and embrace where you live. One of the suggestions in the book was to support locally owned businesses. The author talked about choosing a local business and spending $50 in that store. It's a way to help your local economy and encourage love of your hometown. I was telling my kiddos about this idea, and of course my children were more than happy to spend $50 in a candy store. Hahahaha. That's not quite what I had in mind, but the museum is owned locally by the very 5 men who excavated the steamboat and the yes, the candy store is a locally-owned shop. They each chose something from the candy store, and we talked about all the cool artifacts we saw on the way home. The older kiddos wanted to try a bunch of crazy saltwater taffy flavors. The little boys chose matching foxes with lollipops. It was a great morning!
We've added two more instruments in the family! Little Guy has been begging to start violin for over a year now. We have a rule that they have to play piano for a full year and prove that they will practice consistently and behave respectfully with the teacher before they can add another instrument. Little Guy practices, but he was struggling in lessons with Mr. Scott for a couple of months. Little Guy finally pulled it together in December and all of a sudden he's doing really well with piano. He's reading his notes really well and making progress. It was time for us to hold up our end of the bargain.
Mrs. Alla is from Russia, and she's awesome. Little Guy is very serious at lessons. He REALLY wants to play. He has a quarter-sized violin that he's decided to name November (after his birthday month). He learned all the instrument parts and the string names at his first lesson. We need to get him a new shoulder rest though, because his neck is longer than your average five-year old. Alla can't get over how big his hands and neck are for his age. She keeps thinking he's in 1st grade even though he's not even in Kindergarten yet.
BB also asked me if he could start voice lessons. After he heard Little Man sing in the recital he decided he really wanted to do it as well. It's pretty wonderful to have my boys singing. I just love their sweet voices, and it's really exciting to me that BB has made so much progress on piano that he now can play his songs for voice when he's practicing. Little Guy asked if he could sing as well, but I told him let's focus on violin for now. I'd prefer to wait until he can read before he starts voice lessons.
It's a bit of musical insanity around here now. The music room is the most coveted and fought over room in the house:
Little Man: Classical Guitar, Piano, and Voice
Little Lady: Cello, Piano, and Voice
BB: Piano and Voice
Little Guy: Piano and Violin
It's sweet music to my ears.
This weekend our church had a worldwide conference for all of the kiddos. My kids loved it. They each made their own drawing of them praying. I love all the details they put into it.
Little Guy got to go to preschool for one day this week. You can tell he was pretty excited.
After a week of polar vortex-like temperatures we are finally back in the positive numbers. My children finally went back to school today for the first time in a week. Their Valentine's parties are a week late. I told them they should just hold out for another week and they can combine it with St. Patty's Day, but they didn't like my idea. We've mostly huddled inside trying to stay warm. School kept getting canceled, because of the roaming power outages in the area. We have been lucky and haven't lost power, but we know several people who have not been quite so lucky.
We're now 3 weeks into Luna's recovery. She still hates the cage. We still try to take her out as much as possible to sit on our laps or sleep on the couch. Some days she's content to sleep away the afternoon on the couch, and other days she's jealous of Stella running around and we're forced to put her back in the cage, so she won't jump around. The x-rays this week showed that the bone is starting to heal, but we probably have 3 more weeks to go before she's healed.
Nothing says love quite like a frozen tundra. The high was 0 yesterday. Every year I write a valentine to each of my children telling them things I love about them. I don't normally do gifts, but I caved this year, because I found the cutest magnetic plushies. Hallmark is based in Kansas City, so we have more Hallmark stores than any other place. Since moving here I've gotten into the Hallmark spirit, and these stuffed animals spoke to me. I laughed out loud when I saw the bacon and eggs and I knew it was perfect for Little Man. There are 4 combinations, so it fit nicely for my four children. They've been playing with them nonstop in a make-believe story ever since. That may be my valentine gift for the year - a peaceful day.
Little Man made a goal this year to learn more about Chinese history and culture. He decided one way he could do this was to research the Chinese New Year and throw a party for his family. He was particularly excited because this year is the Ox which happens to be his animal. He invited one family over to celebrate since we can't exactly have big parties these days. It was a lot of fun. He even did the decorating all on his own.
We've had a debate about two Chinese take-out places since we moved here, so Little Man decided to have us do a side by side taste test of dishes. Without knowing who it came from you had to compare dishes and vote.
The results were split almost down the middle. China Garden won for Chicken Lo Mein and Egg Rolls, and Bo Lings won for Beef and Broccoli and Pork Fried Rice. Sweet and Sour Chicken votes were half and half. So crazy! I was hoping for a clear winner.
Little Man asked Rebecca to prepare a craft, so she brought the supplies to make Chinese lanterns. They're easy to make and looked great.
The wind chill was so low today that school was moved to completely virtual from home. It's a bit of a bummer that they no longer do "snow" days, but it still was an easy day. BB had a sidekick the entire time. He may not have been all that helpful, but he sure enjoyed himself.
I'm down to 3 who need Valentines and 2 who need boxes. BB was super easy. He just wanted Star Wars, and I love Hallmark, because they have a box and valentines you can buy. Click!
Little Lady's class has food allergies, so we went with bracelets.
