Chinese New Year

In January we decided to celebrate Chinese New Year.  We realized it wasn't until February this year, but we were trying to find fun things to do in winter to break up the time before the baby came.  Sometimes Chinese New Year comes in January  so we pretended.  ;)  We made some Chinese dragons and lanterns and ate egg rolls and rice.  We made homemade fortune cookies with fortunes the kids and I wrote and we played games.  One favorite was a variation of a game they play in China where one child turns around and closes their eyes.  Then a person comes up behind them and touches them on the back.  They then return to group, the child turns around and tries to guess who touched them.  We had a lot of fun with this one and Ashley especially liked it.  We also put pennies in little red envelopes and hid them for the kids to find - another Chinese tradition.  They pu their money in their piggy banks when they were done.  It was definitely a fun evening.

Winter Picnic

We had an unusual warm winter day today.  The girls spent the afternoon playing outside.  At one point, Alexis came in and asked if they could go on a picnic.  So she packed a picnic into her new blue bicycle basket and they pretended to ride far away for their picnic.  Since Ashley was with them, this meant they only rode in the streets right around our house, of course.  They set up their meal and had a grand time eating and chatting with various neighbors passing by who were also out and about enjoying the 60 degree weather,

I'm a Christmas Tree

I was helping Alexis with a really hard math page and I look up to see Ashley standing perfectly still and quiet, like a statue, in the corner of the living room with her arms out and Emily putting play jewelry, clips, and play clothespin all over her. I asked them what they were doing and Ashley cheerfully replied, "I'm a Christmas tree!" And Emily added, "Yeah. And I'm decorating her."

A Typical Look for Don

Ashley and Emily love to dress up and that extends to dressing up us, as well.  I find Don every so often sitting casually in a chair looking something like this.  Notice the little shoes on his feet, complete with the balancing bird.  He's such a good Daddy.  :)

Bedtime Story

Emily offered to read Ashley a bedtime story.  (She is such a little mommy to her all of the time.)  She read her "The Giving Tree" but I don't think she got past the first 5 pages before Ashley was fast asleep.  I told Emily she could stop, but she told me she was enjoying cuddling with her, so she wanted to finish the book.  So she read the whole thing before Daddy carried Ashley to bed.

Ashley's Museum

Ashley played with her paints this morning and wanted me to see her "museum" she made.  It seems she is always creating something lately and it's so fun to see her imagination at work.

Frosty on New Years

Ashley had been wanting to build "Frosty" all month of December, ever since we watched Frosty.  Today we thought the snow was decent for snowman building - although it really wasn't - but we tried.  We only ended up being able to make this little snowman.  But Ashley was happy.  :)  The girls also ended up playing on their sleds. Alexis spent time pulling her little sisters around before she got too tired.  After they were done they came in to hot chocolate.  We love snowy, winter days!