Happy 5th Birthday!

D went to her friend's birthday party on Saturday. These three friends, who all just turned 5 within the last month, have known each other since we were counting their ages in months and not years. I can't believe how big they are now!





After the birthday party, Steve took the kids to the Oval to see the Wild practice outdoors. D and M got to meet Nordy.



We celebrated D's birthday with my parents on Sunday. She was sporting all the bling and wearing one of the outfits she got from her shopping trip with Grandma. She had so much fun being a "big girl" and going out to lunch with Grandma.





Tiana is the princess du jour and D has been talking about having a Princess Tiana cake for quite some time now. I finally got smart and bought a cake instead of attempting to make one this time.





5 candles!



M loved the paint set he got from Grandma and Papa. He painted about five pictures after waking up from his nap.



I'm glad M has a "quiet" side to him, even though it usually doesn't last too long. After painting, he found every drum in the house and started "making music." His sister likes to dance to his tunes.



On Monday, we had a birthday party for D's friends at Davanni's.









All the kids got to pin the pepperoni on the pizza.



Pizza cookies. Okay, I did make these.









Gift opening.



More gift opening later in the day from Mom, Dad and Aunt Becky.



Happy 5th Birthday (officially)!

Doing some crafts and playing games.







Opening gifts from Grandma and Papa Stiehl.





Wearing several new birthday gifts all at once.



First Chinese lesson with Yinzhu. D and M learned how to count to five, say little brother, sister, hello, good bye, thank you and Happy Birthday.

Top 5 Things to Do With All This MN Snow

#1 Eat it
We made snow ice cream on Tuesday, February 1st. It wasn't very good. Only M liked it.





#2 Slide on it
The kids and I went to my sister's house Friday and Saturday. The kids had fun playing together and sledding outside.



#3 Escape from it
Saturday evening we went to the rodeo with Steve's co-worker Jessica and her two twin girls who are D's age.







#4 Sculpt it
We went and saw the St. Paul Winter Carnival snow sculptures at the State Fair grounds on Sunday after church. They are so fun to look at.





#5 Get lost in it
They also had a large snow maze.







Because of our new crazed schedules, M is now taking the bus to his speech class. It's a regular school bus with a driver and a helper. They only have 3 to 5 year olds on board and he has to wear a harness over his coat that they use to strap him into a seat so he won't fall off. He just loves it. His big sister is a little jealous.

Mish Mash

The kids and I made origami fry pods (directions here) to hold our Five in a Row activities for Grandfather's Journey. I just called the falafel "nuggets", but the kids kept calling them "chicken nuggets". They were delicious.



We went to the tropical rainforest exhibit at Como Zoo on Wednesday with some friends. It was great to be in a seriously warm environment and the kids loved seeing all the animals and plants. Here they are looking at an anaconda snake.



Watching the leaf cutting ants doing their work.



See the sloth?



Lunch time for the fish. We got to see them eat all sorts of different kinds of food--plantains, algae cubes, and other fish.



Off to the play area.



You could make it rain at this display.



The koi ponds held their attention for quite a while.



Last Saturday we went to a birthday party for the kids' friends at a bouncy house indoor play area. The kids (and us!) were wiped out afterwards.







My mom and dad hosted a birthday party for Steve and I on Sunday.







I still love pink cake. No wonder D is so in love with the color. Steve got his favorite, chocolate peanut butter ice cream (he's not so much into cake). Do I really look like that when I'm blowing out my candles?



Our attempt at an impromptu family photo.



This one goes into the "I don't get it" category. D had some mustard on her plate to dip her sandwich in for lunch. She requested more mustard to dip her banana slices in. Yuck-ola. She ate them all that way. This from the girl who refused to eat one little piece of eggplant (I tried to pump up it's lovely purple-esque quality) and chewed it all the way to Awana last Wednesday. (I know my mom and sister are laughing now...let's just say a similar food chewing incident involving me and some meat happened many years ago).



We had D's annual check-up with her doctor at Gillette Children's Hospital for her hips on Monday, January 31st. When she was about 18 months old, she had a spica cast on from her armpits to ankles to correct hip dysplasia that was diagnosed at about 17 months. Every year when we go back to visit the doctor, he says things are looking good, but that she will never have normal hips since she was diagnosed at over 1 year of age. This time, though, he said her hips looked about as good as you could expect for when she was diagnosed and the degree of hip dysplasia she had. In fact, he said he didn't forsee her needing surgery to correct the hips (which was always something he said she still might need at her other visits) and that we can come back for our next appointment in two years. What wonderful news! Here is a flashback picture of D in her cast.

Hear Ye, Hear Ye

D and M love playing Beauty and the Beast. Usually M is the beast, but today this was their version of dressing him up to be a prince.



We went ice skating again on Sunday. Even though it's frigidly cold out, the kids need to get outside and play. And they love it. I am excited for when we don't need an extra 15 mintues in our schedule just to get dressed and out the door. I'm dreaming of days of flip flops and no jackets, mittens, hats, scarves, boots, snowpants, etc., etc., etc.,...





D got her hearing aids last Friday. She loves them (they're pink and purple, what's not to love?) and even got to decorate them with special reusable stickers. She said she can hear better and scored in the normal range on her hearing test. She's been really good about taking good care of them and putting them "to bed" in their special cases at night.



Steve and I have both had recent job changes. He is working a second job a couple of nights a week and I increased my hours by one more hour per day. We are both so happy our workplaces are flexible with our schedules and that we can do this without having the kids in day care. It does make life a little crazier now, but we are adjusting to the schedule.

Steve now spends more time with the kids in the morning while I'm working and is responsible for getting them up, fed, dressed, and all the stuff that goes with getting kids out the door in the morning. He has been very helpful and probably even gets them out the door earlier than I did for their ECFE, speech and MOPS classes. Thanks hubby!

That being said, fashion is the definite casualty of this new schedule. Tuesday I met Steve at M's speech school to pick up D and we headed straight to Target. As I started unbuckling her from her carseat, I noticed for the first time what she was wearing. She had on pink crocs, black tights, a striped t-shirt, and a skirt...okay, it wasn't technically a skirt. It was the slip-like crinoline that goes under one of her dance outfits to make it puffy. Totally see-through. And short. Very short. At least the lady behind us in the checkout line told D that she loved her skirt and thought it made her look like a princess. We usually pick an outfit out the night before to try and prevent such a thing from happening, but D decided to concoct this outfit all on her own. Steve just thought it looked like a regular skirt. I hope he's not saying that when she's 15 and walking out the door in an "interesting" outfit!