We decided to make our own Mardis Gras masks this year. I kinda expected the usual "a kid made that" look to the masks. The girls once again surprised me though. They did a great job with coloring, putting sequins on, and placing the feathers. We tried to set the mood by listening to Cajun music, but we could only handle so much zydeco. We switched over to jazz with a lot more success.
Celee wasn't satisfied just making a mask. She decided to dress up like a "tourist" too.
This may be a "you had to be there" picture but it cracks me up. Lyla was being very much Lyla on this day. She insisted on wearing shorts and sandals complete with her Don't Mess With Texas shirt. We kept asking her if her name was Texas for the day. It certainly seemed to fit that day.
It was warm and sunny last weekend so the girls were able to get their bikes out for the first time in this house! Lyla decided she was too big for training wheels, so off they came. She is persistent if anything else. She kept trying and kept trying and she got it. There were some scrapes, but she's an official two-wheeler now!
The girls have been playing soccer, when the snow days don't mess up the schedule that is. They happen to all be on yellow teams this year. Gwyn and Celee play together though. We were getting a little upset about the mood of the two older teams. They felt very "stacked." And when there's only 2 teams that play each other week after week, little things that would normally be shrugged off add up. So I finally complained, in a nice way I think. And now their teams will be divided up each week based on who is there to play scrimmage games (is that the right term? I have no idea.) which seemed to be a lot more fun this week than previously just getting creamed time after time.
Lyla's team is just out there having fun anyway. This is her first time to actually play soccer so she's doing really well. As long as she isn't caught talking to people while she's the goalie and lets balls go by.
We've had some nicer weather lately, so we've been getting outside as much as possible. It all reminds me of this video
My lovely friend Rhea invited us to go on a field trip with her son's class to the Maryland Historical Society. The topic was the War of 1812, which we are getting to in about 2 weeks so it was perfect! I love love love getting to do hands-on history and giving kids a chance to examine primary sources. All the kids in the group were very observant and made a lot of poignant conclusions based on the paintings, tools, newspapers, furniture, etc. from Baltimore around 1812. Celee and Lyla even got to try their hand at caulking a ship! I love the Historical Society! And I love that we get to go there for much less than the usual price when we go with Lamb of God school trips.
We hadn't been into the city for a long time, so after we left the Historical Society we headed to Fells Point to explore. It was a little nippy, but we found a warm spot on a huge cement seat in the sun. We walked around and looked in all the cool little shops, the comic book shop being the girls' favorite. Then we channeled the hipster vibe of the area, got our "coffee" in a very low-key but trendy coffee shop and sat out to enjoy the sun. On a side note - the coffee shop actually had bacon-flavored syrup. The baristo assured me that it tastes more smokey than bacony, and was actually better than it sounds. Maybe I'll try that a different day.
It's been warm enough on a few nights to have a bon fire. Lyla had a friend over, so we broke out the glow necklaces and had a campfire.
Then it was St.Patrick's Day. I've been feeling guilty lately that I haven't done enough "fun" stuff with the girls. I feel like we always have to be somewhere or have some pressing thing that needs to be done. So I tried really hard to find something just for fun for them to make. Thank you Pinterest! We made fingerprint rainbows with pots o' gold at the end. Then the girls cut shamrock chains to decorate the house. Gwyn even made a green cake all by herself. I was supposed to work on the actual day, but we got another snow day, so the neighbors came over and we had a St.Patrick's Day party instead. We got no school work done that day. It was super fun to just hang out and spend time with neighbors though. And I'm comforting myself with the fact that I wouldn't have gotten anything done at home if I'd been at work that day anyway - so nothing was lost. I'm thankful for the impromtu margin that weather can insert into our lives sometimes. Even though I am tired of the snow.
No comments:
Post a Comment