March March March

Hi there. It's been a while.

We've been up to the usual. (In my family, we always shorten "usual" to just the first syllable, and it is always crazy trying to spell that. Euge. Yoozjsh. Yeuge. Any ideas?)

Ivy is just being cute as a bug's ear. A cute bug's ear, even. Whoever came up with that expression is bonkers. Ivy likes to wear skirts everywhere--to bed, to the store, outside in the mud.

She also loves to carry around my makeup bag for her purse :)

The other day Ivy took her bear into the bathroom and had him sit on the potty. Dan was spying on her and heard her say "Doh potty!" She is probably ready to potty train because she HATES having a dirty diaper. She'll often bring me a diaper and say "Poopy, Mom!" Sometimes she insists on being changed in the middle of the night when she's only a little wet. And it always wakes her up whenever she pees at night too.

When she sneezes, she says "Bess!"

Sometimes we call her Ivy Lula, and sometimes she calls Dan "Daddy Lula." It makes us all smile.

Luke is excited to turn 4 at the end of the month. He tells us he wants to go to Monkey Joe's for his birthday again. It's a big indoor play place with bouncy castles and such.

Sometimes he falls asleep in strange places. This time he was pretending to be a baby tiger in a box. I guess the tiger cub needed a nap.

One of his favorite activities is cutting up cardboard boxes to make robot costumes. I think he does it every time we get a box in the mail.

He and Violet still love digging in the yard whenever it is warm and dryish outside.

Violet is almost done with Classical Conversations for the year. Her last day of school is March 31st. Then we'll have a couple months to focus on all the stuff we've slacked off in :). She loves to listen to audio books. She lies down under her bed with the cd player and will stay there for hours listening to books :). She likes The Magic Tree House series, the Harriet Bean trilogy, and right now she is into The Princess and the Frog book by E.D. Baker.

Her friend Kyndall comes over about every day and Violet loves having a friend over. Here they all are, washing Dan's car with dishrags and the watering can :) :

We went to the fire station last week for a field trip. It was neat all the things the kids got to see. I especially appreciated that they let the kids see a fireman get dressed up in all his gear and emphasized that he wasn't scary, even with his mask on!

I am still struggling with keeping the house clean. Most days it is a disaster, and it is so hard to find motivation to clean it! I feel like we have way too much stuff everywhere filling up every closet, cupboard, shelf, and drawer. I need to dejunk every room in the house.

Dan is still working a ton but spends time with us when he can. He had fun building this bridge out of straws, rubber bands, and clay with Violet for one of her school projects:

We love to go as a family down to the creek a half-mile away.

Poor Webster was neutered yesterday and so he's pretty mellow today. He wanted to cuddle with me this morning though, so that was fun :).

We're all looking forward to spring time and hoping for no more ice storms!