Claire's Baltimore Day

Last Wednesday, Claire had her appt for an echo and visit with her cardiologist at Hopkins.  It had been more than 2 years since we were there!  And it should be 2 years when we go back again.

This time, Claire and I went alone, and we had a terrific day together. If I could erase all the nasty traffic and yucky weather in the morning, it would have been pretty much perfect. :)

Part of the fun of this visit was exploring the new Bloomberg Children's Center.  Lovely new building just for kids. 

This is Claire during the echo.  The echo technician had gone off to check on something with the dr.  Claire's head is tipped toward the tv on the wall (we watched Olympic curling and ice hockey-- Claire's choice), but it does look like she's sleeping in this photo.

Everything went well, and the cardiologist was very happy with the EKG and the echo.  We're checking on something with her blood pressure, but that shouldn't be a problem.

Hey!  It's a snipe! (We watched Up again recently!)

This pic is from the parking garage.  The Children's Center is the building with the colored windows on the right.

After the appt, we drove to the Inner Harbor.  Parked at the top of another garage and walked along the water to the Science Center.  The weather was about 60 and lovely!

Claire on a bed of nails!

The rest of our day-- Claire chose to stop at the new library in Hagerstown-- pick out books and read for a while-- and then go home for chicken noodle soup.  She had a great day: at the end, she said, "Mommy, thank you for today-- I really had a great time."  Yippee!

Grace Doors

Grace put in an extra set of security doors last week. 

Clifford

Micah's class does a really cool activity-- the kids sign up for a week with Clifford.  They come home with a bag containing this Clifford, a Clifford blanket, a notebook that the kids add their photos to, and a pile of Clifford books to read.  Micah LOVED this.  Here's Clifford sleeping in Micah's bed...

Proof that Micah still sucks his thumb, in bed, when no one is around.  

Here Chad pulled Micah's thumb out of his mouth.  Once he's asleep, he doesn't notice.  That's when I put lotion on his hands because he doesn't like having it on during the day.

Valentine's Snow

Surprise!  It's a photo of me once.  :)  The beginning of this snow was so light and fluffy that it worked best to sort of sweep the snow with the shovel first.  Later, it got icier and heavy.  In all, we got almost 12 inches from this storm.  

The Valentine cake we made.  Micah requested the color "violet" (because he has a friend named "Violet").  Does it look violet?

K and J played volleyball

Chad was the brains (and much of the brawn) behind this creation.  Pretty cool, huh?

And this is what Micah did on his snow day...

Olympics

This is the way we watched Olympics for the first several days-- until I realized that I wouldn't be able to go to bed until I kicked everyone out.  Then we moved the set up to the living room.  :)

Because we don't watch much tv at all, we only have one of those little converter boxes and we can get Maryland Public Television and NBC.  That's about it. Worked out well for the Olympics, tho!

They all got into it at different times.  Probably figure skating is the biggest favorite, but they enjoyed watching many other events as well. 

Eric, did we watch winter Olympics when we were home with Scarlet Fever or something?  Somehow that clicks in my mind.  Were the winter Olympics on that year? 

Map Progress

Here's how it's looking, Boden.  It's taking a while because Uncle Chad is busy and because he's so careful!  He said WV was the hardest so far.  

Jenna's Hair

This is Jenna's hair-- once in a while, it's like this when she gets up in the morning. 

Our kids' hair is somewhat fascinating to me.  Before we had kids, I figured they'd have brown or reddish hair, since that's what Chad and I had.  Neither of us were ever blond, but that's what all 4 of the kids got.  Katie's has now darkened to a beautiful light brown, almost auburn, but the rest are still fairly light, esp C and M. 

The texture of each is so different, too.  Jenna's is naturally pretty curly, Katie's has a very nice wave, Claire's is straight! and so it's Micah's.

Isn't it fun that God put so much variety into people? 

Beautiful Katie

Here's Katie with her 2 best friends, Ashley and Autumn, before the school banquet a couple weeks ago. 

Hand, Hand, Fingers, Thumb

Micah got to read a book to his class.  We didn't get to watch, but his teacher sent these pics. Looks like he had fun with it!

Funny Micah

At the dinner table a couple weeks ago, we were talking about Facebook.  Micah piped up with, "Two of my friends are on the Facebook!"  We laughed cuz it sounded so cute-- partly cuz he said "the' and partly cuz he was a 5 year old talking about Facebook.  Then we started wondering why his 5 year old friends were on FB.  He said, "I'll show you!"  He ran over to a yearbook from Faith Christian from last year-- that was "the Facebook"!  He showed us 2 of his church friends that go to Faith.

Another funny:  One Sunday, we dropped Katie and Jenna off at church for quiz practice at 4:30, then Claire and Micah and I went to the auditorium so Claire and I could practice recital pieces on that piano.  Micah mostly colored and drew pictures while he waited.  He was in the middle of something when I was ready to head to the other end of the building to get ready for Children's Choir, so I told them to finish up and then come together.

A few hours later, when Children's Choir was finished, we were packing up, and we couldn't find Micah's coat.  We looked around and couldn't find it.  I said, "Micah, where is that coat??"  He said, "I know where it is!  It's in the room with all the couches!"  Meaning the auditorium with all the pews.

Marble Run Fun

This is what Chad and Micah did on our ice day last week-- all down our 2 flights of stairs. 

Backwards Day

It was Backwards Day at Grace... so, of course, Chad had to get in on the fun!

Ice Storm

Photos from our ice storm last week.  This has been quite a winter!  We're starting to feel ready for spring. 

Tomorrow we get 6-12 inches more.  I think spring may be a long ways away still... 

This winter has also been colder than normal!

Snow!

We've still been longing for a Big Snow like my MI fam got, but we did get a nice 7-incher a couple weeks ago.  That, along with the cold, shut down school for 4 days!  We've had so many snow days this year that the kids will have to make up the days.  

Duct Tape

Jenna asked for duct tape for Christmas.  Grandma gave her several really cool rolls.  So, what does one do with this?  She covered some notebooks and made hair bows.  She and Katie have also covered folders, water bottles, trashcans, and more.  And even made wallets, etc out of the handy stuff.

Lovin the New Water System

Fun In a Box

Lovin the Hat Grammy Made!