February

Marmie comes for a visit.

We love and cherish visits from the Grandmas. Though with both grandmas with busy work schedules those visits aren't as frequent as we'd like. This time the travel gods were with us and Marmie was able to schedule a work conference in Charlotte. So with some work and some play we enjoyed her visit and to top it off we got to celebrate her birthday.

As part of the birthday celebration we left the kids at home with a sitter and enjoyed a quick weekend in Colonial Williamsburg. I love early American history. One of our favorites was visiting the artisan shops and watching how they made things back in the day. Among the favorites was the silver smith shop and furniture shop where they were building a harpsichord.

There were no prisons in Williamsburg. Apparently early colonists thought that spending time in jail was cruel and unusual punishment, depriving the criminal from working on the farm and therefore depriving he and his family of a food crop. However, spending a day or two in the pillory stocks was perfectly acceptable.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!

The Sunday night before Valentine's Day we had a panic moment. I had forgotten to get Valentines for the kids to take to school the next day. Being Sunday, we couldn't rush to the store. So, we pulled out the craft box and the leftover Christmas candy canes and went to work. Homemade is always better.

Our Valentine's Day feast. Heart shaped calzones and jello jigglers with salad and red punch.

An Early Spring.

I love North Carolina. Just when you think you can't stand the cold anymore, mother nature sends reprieve.

We decided to head to the lake and enjoy the unusually warm late winter weather. The groundhog was right. It will be an early spring.

So long. Farewell. Auf wiedersehen. Adieu.

Our month ended with having to say good-bye to our dear friends, the Bergstoms, who moved back to Ohio. Addilyn was terribly distraught and cried for a couple days. It's rare to find such good friends in the neighborhood with kids the same age as mine. We'll miss you Mark, Alison, Tori, Abby and Drew. Come visit soon.

January

January's pictures have a theme - Crazy Kids.

Maycie and Alex declared themselves the "Diaper Heads" and thought themselves quite funny.

On a different day, Addilyn and Maycie decided to see how crazy they could dress.

One Saturday morning the kids woke up early. Rob and I could hear them puttering around downstairs while we continued to snooze in bed. Before long, the kids brought us breakfast in bed and told us to stay there. For the next hour we were confined to our room (poor us) while the kids did dishes, cleaned floors and wiped down cabinets as a special surprise. So how does that fit into my theme of "crazy kids"? How many normal kids do you know that do that for fun on a Saturday morning?