In honor of TWOSday, I present you the following moments and memories...
Taken at 2:22 on 2/22/22
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Annabel at 2, because too cute!
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Ben at 2. Also, can we talk about what a clone Annabel is? She looks JUST like Ben at age two. Take a look!
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And just for fun...when you Googled Twosday that day, you got confetti rained down on your screen. I discovered this quite accidentally and it was a happy, fun surprise!
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Daddy turned 45 this year! (This also means Mommy does, too- ummm, no. No. I will pretend this isn't so. I have a few months left to pretend this.) Anyway, we celebrated with banana cupcakes with peanut butter chocolate cupcakes! Pretty darn good! Books and Lego sets rounded out the day for Ben. A fun small family celebration, for which I took just a few pictures to remember the day!
Valentine's Day was pretty low key around here this year, but Annabel did make a killer flourless chocolate cake. It was heart shaped of course! And it was delicious!! The kids each got Valentine-themed plush characters- Stitch for Annabel and Mickey for Daniel. These plush figures were just too cute to pass up!
Daniel had his recent winter band concert at an actual concert hall! It was pretty darn cool!
We were all pretty excited about this change in venue- better seats, better sound, and just an all around awesome experience for the kids. What a treat for them! I'm duly impressed with the music department at Daniel's school and their efforts to make this happen. Annabel hopes they do this again next year so she can play here, too! Fingers crossed! In any case, this opportunity was just fantastic and it was such a fun night all around! Just to be in that space, with cool music and cool people, to feel the enthusiasm of the band directors...it was mighty contagious and uplifting. I would have gladly paid per seat to attend!
We just have a couple more concerts left as our school year winds down (which feels very weird to say!)- Annabel has one early in March, and both kids each have one more in April, too. I know I'll enjoy them all- these are sweet days. We recently listened to videos of the kids' early instrument playing days (which of course embarrassed the kids so much!) and it's just so cool to see how far they've come! Like I said, sweet days. This concert, though, it was one to remember for sure.
I didn't get great pictures, but you can get a sense of the place with what I got. In the second picture, Daniel is whitewashed in the center of the picture just under the black bell cover there in the middle...that's the best I got as he was right under the light's glare- in any case, he is there! The last picture is a group picture of the entire 7th grade band, which they were doing for the yearbook.
On to the spring concerts soon!
Random January life...these are our days.
Cosmo steals Daddy's chair. When he's not hogging Daddy's desk.
Trying out the new Mickey cat bed.
The new year immediately slammed us and not in a good way...our car was hit on January 2nd while we were driving to Grandma Mary Kay's for dinner. Luckily we are all okay- it was the way back end on the driver's side, though we later realized Annabel's door was also pretty scraped up. Much too close for comfort and very scary all around. So we were down to one car for just a couple weeks and then our van was back, good as new (well, almost good as new...remember, this was our new car, sigh).
Love when Google makes collages for me!
Snuggle time with kitties.
Annabel's friend Zeynep celebrated her 11th birthday early in January. We were supposed to have a day of fun celebrating, us four girls (the two moms and the two girls)- mani/pedis, lunch out at a really nice lunch place, and we were all so excited. COVID numbers were pretty high right about then though, so our date was cancelled, to Annabel's dismay, though I understood completely. Instead, Zeynep brought cupcakes to share with us in celebration. We decorated our garage for her drop off and had our presents ready, too! So fun!
Ziggy just has to sit ON people. So cute!
Instead of the above-mentioned mani/pedi outing, I painted Annabel's nails myself and she was delighted to use her new nail stickers found in her stocking from Grandma Cheryl!
We got new furniture specifically for the cats. Yes. I did that. The cats LOVE to sit in front of this window in the dining room and I was tired of always seeing one of the dining chairs set up there for them to sit on, so I had been wanting a nice bench for this spot for them. After debating doing this in the first place (I mean, c'mon, this was just for the cats...), I finally sprang for this cute dark blue storage bench which is just perfect. And guess what? The cats LOVE it and they use it ALL the time! Now they don't have to fight for seat space either- this bench is plenty roomy for both.
Ben snapped this cute picture of the cats mid-chase. They are waiting to pounce!
Cosmo was getting into everything in Daddy's office one day (well, actually, this is the case just about every day!), so Daddy delivered me a cat. Said cat didn't stay. I wasn't doing anything interesting of course.
Kitty spot while we read at night.
Ziggy is enjoying his new cat bed.
A puzzle finished!
Lego fun- Daniel loved this new red car and then of course he had ideas to modify it more. He was looking for specific pieces to add on the car, so we took pictures and headed to Bricks & Minifigs.
The kitties love the winter comforter on my bed!
Ziggy tried really hard to sit on this game box while Ben and I played a game one night.
Hannah is "SO BIG!" And so super cute and fun!
She LOVES the poke-a-dot book I gave her for Christmas! It's amazing how good she is at it, too!
I think Cosmo might want to go out into the garage. (We don't let him, but that doesn't stop him wishing or trying!)
Sunny spot for Ziggy!
I snapped this picture as an example of a Shutterfly mug for a friend and I just love it so much I'm sharing it here, too. It's one of my favorite mugs because this is one of my favorite pictures!
Another Google collage!
More kitty company!
And that wraps up January!!
