February: The Party Animal Month

 February is always a freaktastically action packed month for us. We cram a lot into those mere 28 days. Kick-off was Valentines Day. I make cards for the kids every year, to set beside their plates at breakfast. They make cards for each other as well, and we set those out beside the breakfast plates. And if they were successful in memorizing their poem for the homeschool group poetry recital, they earn a chocolate heart, which they can also find alongside their breakfast plate. I thought the cards turned out so cute this year, even if they were a little out-there. (A rat valentine, really? Yup.)

Valentines was on a Wednesday, which is our co-op and music lessons day. So by the time we get back home I am beat. And I was out of ideas for V-day dinner. But Aaron came to my rescue. He brought home all the fixins for steak, steak fries, salad, and sparkling cider. And it was perfection.

Luckily, our homeschool group decided to do the poetry recital on the Friday after V-day, instead of actual V-day. Life-saver. I volunteered to host at my house so we wouldn't have to rent a space at the library. A lot of people came, but I thought we all fit just fine. All the kids did such a fabulous job with their poems and Valentine boxes. This is one of my most favorite activities every year.

Most but not all of the kids. PC: Arianne

We also hosted 2 family parties in February. One for Aaron's side of the family, a ping-pong tournament and finger food event to celebrate all the February birthdays, which I did not get any pictures of. And one for my side of the family, a joint birthday celebration for Ollie and I. None of my sibling had ever been to my house before. So it was fun to have them up and show them around. I got this one darling pic of Gramma Tam and Papa Kerry with some of the kids.

Gramma Tam, Papa Kerry, Adelia, Nolan, Abi, Ollie, Logan, Graham, Ivan, Lincoln, Sophia, and Ruby

Party on, Dude! Cal is all about the parties.

 Next major event was my birthday! Yay, happy 32 to me. The day before my birthday, Aaron's sister Lisa watched our kids so we could go see The Greatest Showman. And OH MY! The soundtrack alone is perfection itself. And the movie was great too. Clean, funny, well-acted, happy. Also, those luxury lounger seats at the Spanish Fork Movie Theater are a-mazing! The whole theater actually, I've never been to a theater that nice.

 So, day of my birthday we had BIG plans. Aaron had some overtime and needed to take a day off. Aaron's mom was available to watch our kids for the entire day......so we planned an epic snowshoeing adventure. We were going to snow shoe up Stewart Falls. We got as far as renting the snowshoes from BYU and grabbing a quick lunch at Cubby's on the way out, when we got a phone call from Aaron's mom saying that Ollie had a 102 degree fever and we needed to come get him. Poor Ollie! Poor ruined birthday trip! Why does that always happen when you're a mom? I would be lying if I pretended that I wasn't really devastated. Of course I obviously knew I needed to come home and take care of Ollie. But, man! We were so close! Aaron and I RARELY get out to do anything. The stars have to perfectly align and we have to jump through a million hoops and swear a blood-oath, just to make baby-sitting arrangements. Let alone for Aaron to have to take time off, and for none of our kids to have any events on the same day. *SIGH* Not meant to be I guess. I was so bummed. We picked up the kids, and Aaron spent the afternoon doing math with them. I may have cried and had a chocolate eating pity party in my bedroom closet. In the late afternoon, Aaron took all the kids but Ollie to Home Depot to buy supplies for my birthday present, and snuck in a quick stop to Costco to buy my favorite chocolate cake as a surprise. Then we spent the evening remodeling our kitchen island, which is what I had asked for for my birthday present.

BEFORE:

He had to slide it over in order to run the wiring through the floor, so that he could put an electrical outlet on each side of the island. But you can see how plain looking and white it is. 

We added beadboard, trim, and brought the ends out a little ways to give dimension, and added legs. 

Here it is partially finished. It still needs another coat of paint. And I'm still working on sanding down the cabinet doors to paint them. I also need new hardware. Then we are going to sand down and stain the butcher block and seal it. 

Good hair day. Love those.

 Five days after my birthday is Ollie's birthday! This kid is FIVE! I can't even believe it. He wanted a snorkel more than anything else in the whole wide world. He's been talking about it for months and months. Planning it all out. So, of course I couldn't resist. Cutest little snorkeler I ever did see.

We went to the Bean Life Science Museum on BYU campus to celebrate Ollie's day. Right now they have a Titan Boa exhibit on display that did not disappoint. Giant prehistoric, crocodile-eating snakes. What could be better?

Ruby was ALL over the nature journaling today. Isn't she precious? <3 td="">

Other cool things that happened in February:

I got my 23andMe DNA results. Yep, I'm about as European as you can get. Haha! I also don't have any markers for any of the diseases the tested for. I'm excited to spend a little more time digging through all the stuff. I'll keep you posted if I find anything interesting.

It snowed a lot. In one of the storms we got 14 inches! They canceled church, which is a first for me as a life-long Utah resident.

And because it's been snowy and cold, we've been creatively trying to let out some of our energy. We discovered Cosmic Kids Yoga Stories on youtube. Super fun. And poetry tea-time is always a hit, especially when a fire and hot chocolate are involved. And we dug out our At Home Art Studio DVDs for the first time this year and made a mixed media fish in a bowl project.

Although we've been fasting and praying for snow, and I know we need it, and we felt really blessed to get it, I have to admit that I was thrilled to walk outside today and see a small clump of daffodils emerging from the melting snow. I was so inspired I pulled out my nature journal, something I haven't done all winter. It was just a happy little spot of brightness welcoming us into March and promising warmer weather, and more outside time just around the corner.