January pictures

Neil is loves strings…this just made me laugh as he sucked on a tie from an apron while he patiently waited for me to get his rice cereal ready.  I convinced Jessie to taste some of the sweet potatoes and apples he got to eat the other day.  She was really surprised how good it was….”it tastes like pumpkin pie filling!” was her reply – lucky Neil.Abbie is so amazing with Neil and he lights up every afternoon when she walks in the door after school.  They were hanging out in the hall watching me fix Pasta Primavera for dinner and Abbie asked if she could share one of the carrots with Neil.  Neil loved it and was happy until I got dinner finished and could pick him up.Spencer, Neil and I got to go to the school and watch Mark’s grade show off their newly acquired Square Dancing skills.  He got to learn the Virginia Reel and one other dance.  He liked it way more than he thought he would.  Before they started learning the dances he was complaining to me about what they had to do, but then later when they had a couple of inside recesses because of the cold he convinced the teacher to let a group of them practice to fill the time.After the kids showed off the parents get to dance the Virginia Reel with their kids.  Spencer held Neil while I danced with Mark.  Unfortunately Neil didn’t really like this arrangement and started to cry.  Luckily one of the teachers came along and rescued both of them…that was so sweet of her!  After I danced with Mark they did one last one and Spencer got to dance with him.  Spencer was a little confused for most of the dance, but had a blast and Mark was so patient with him.  It was a great afternoon.We made a star of the week poster for Mark the week of his birthday and these were a few Calvin and Hobbes jokes that got included on the poster.  He and Jessie have so many of those memorized and it’s way more enjoyable to hear them retell them than to just read them yourself.Rachel was helping to entertain Spencer during his haircut by taking pictures of his silly faces….It’s pinewood derby time!  Luckily for us David was here and he helped Mark cut out a killer whale shape on the scroll saw and then they worked on sanding it down and he and I and Rachel painted it.  I’ll only mention the wood by the back wheel breaking off when Ken put the wheel on and the front wheel that wouldn’t quite get level for memories sake and say that overall it was a pretty good experience.For Mark’s birthday I made him a killer whale cake to match his pinewood derby car.  I think the multi-colored waves turned out pretty neat-o.We celebrated on Sunday with Ken’s family and then again on his birthday.  Because it’s ok to celebrate late and not really do anything on your birthday because you know you still have a party coming, but celebrating early and having nothing on your birthday is just depressing…not that I would know of course ;-).

Rachel made a LONG paper chain to decorate above his bed.  She even put it up without him waking up!  It kind of spooked Mark at first when he was waking up to see something hanging over him in the dim light.  But Spencer thought it was the coolest thing ever and has already requested decorations for his birthday too.