Our Life: March 2022

Time for another batch of LIFE...it's a life well lived. :) Enjoy the pictures!

Annabel wanted to try making eclairs, complete with piping the filling. They were pretty delicious!

Daniel got braces this month! He's doing really well and we're already seeing improvements!

Hannah turned one on March 7th!! Such a fun party for this cutie pie!

Daniel and I began the Great Lego Sort. We got two plastic drawer units (6 drawers in each) and sorted the Legos basically by size, thickness, or type into the various drawers. Now when he decides he wants to rebuild certain Lego sets he took apart ages ago (something which he's appalled by- "WHY'D you let me take that apart?!!" Umm, this is my fault how?!), we can find the pieces a little bit easier. Our system is already working and it's so rewarding! It's been fun to rebuild the sets.

Daniel is still having fun with the stop motion, too. His creativity is just awesome.

We're thrilled to share that Daniel has his own YouTube channel now: Dangerbricks. This way he can easily share his videos with you and all of his friends, too. Enjoy!

Kitty company.

Shutterfly memory one day...what a hoot!

Ziggy was determined to sit in that puzzle box on top. He didn't really fit and he couldn't get comfy. He tried and tried, turned and turned, sat, turned some more...on and on. You can see he doesn't exactly look happy. It was too funny!

Ziggy staring at Annabel...why doesn't this box work?

Cuddly kitties.

Ben and I did this puzzle. Very cute.

Annabel has been tearing through our Querkles books lately. (We discovered these back in March 2020 during our quarantine and they sure kept us busy!!) She finished the cat book and moved on to the animal book. I wish they still made these. They're so fun. I stopped doing them with her, so she would have more of them to do since she was working so quickly and having a ball! These were sure fun while they lasted! We might have a couple left... Anyway, I loved the colors she'd used and this made a fun picture.

Here's a blast from the past for Ben and me! In a weird twist & turn down memory lane, Annabel had a birthday in this building and as I looked it up on the map and then finally pulled into the parking lot, I instantly recognized it. This was once an inn, the Wheaton Inn, and Ben and I stayed here on our wedding night (the night after actor Chris O'Donnell stayed here, too, we were told- I remember that very clearly). It's now a bunch of separate offices, such as financing and so forth. But in the basement of the section on the left, there's a small new cooking class business that does parties and Annabel had a cupcake decorating party there. She had a ball! Anyway, while I was there, I couldn't resist taking pictures, because I sure as heck doubt we have any from 2003, let alone know where they would be if we did! AND Ben passed the test...he immediately recognized this place when I showed him the picture. Good man. :)

Daniel's school did an All School Read (like One School One Book, the librarian just doesn't call it that there), complete with a scavenger hunt again, just like last year, only this time it was much warmer. The book was Mr. Lemoncello's Great Library Race, which was a fun read for Daniel and me (Annabel and Ben had read a few books in this series a while back). Then we spent an evening solving the puzzles in the app and then the next day going out and taking the pictures required to complete the puzzle/scavenger hunt challenge. It was fun enough, though some puzzles were just plain confusing. There was a grand prize for the family/group that finished first and then other raffle type prizes for groups that finished beyond that. We were finishing up on the last day the event was open, so we were definitely last minute on this, but had been so busy before that it couldn't be helped. And guess what? We won the grand prize!! We were the team that got the most correct and did so before any others! Woohoo!! So fun! The prize was a sizable gift certificate and the kids were very excited to dream up ways to spend it! We had plans to do this during spring break, but spring break had different plans for us, namely, wiping out the parents of this household with a very nasty not fun not-COVID virus which zapped all our energy for nearly two weeks. Needless to say, we didn't go shopping yet. But we will, oh yes, we will! We have big plans to spend this prize and I have a feeling it will disappear very fast, too, haha!

Annabel's class finished up a study about immigration and she had the opportunity to do extra credit and learn our family's story about coming to our county. It was so fun to hear the stories from Grandpa Gary and Grandma Mary Kay about their families and when they came, which we learned could be traced all the way back to 1766 and 1741- so wild! I love family history like this, so I soaked it all up. Annabel decided to make posters about what she learned and they turned out great! She worked so hard on this. Interestingly enough, Daniel also had a family history project that same weekend, so we tag teamed quite a bit- great timing all around!

Annabel's Girl Scout troop had a field trip to an escape room one afternoon. They had a blast!!

Ziggy fits. It's a garbage can (empty, don't worry, although to be honest that probably wouldn't stop him), yes, but he fits.

Another fun birthday party for Annabel- this time a tour of the local Ben & Jerry's complete with making up their own milkshake recipes and dishing up their own ice cream for sundaes. Super fun!

Annabel and her friend Aggie were on a team together!

Kitty company. They love this bench.

More kitty company.

Daniel's friend, Quinn, gave Daniel all his Legos, since he knew Daniel would love them and enjoy them and use them for his stop motion videos. So we spent more days rebuilding sets and finding and sorting pieces and so on! This kept Daniel busy over spring break!

Mint chocolate cupcakes made by Annabel! Yum!

The kitties kept me company while I was resting and so sick.

We had an interesting weather warning one Friday. The forecast called for graupel. Now that's a new word for me! I had to Google it. Water droplets frozen onto snowflakes. Who knew?!

See? Not COVID. No idea what it was I had, but it wasn't COVID. This was good news though. (I don't think it was flu either, we were not flu-ish at all, just really coughing and tired. Oh and it lasted two weeks! It was insane. We're finally all better now, I'm happy to say!) Still, very not fun. And slow moving whatever it was- Daniel started it way before break, very mild, also not COVID, 5 days later I started, 5 days later Ben started, 5 days later Annabel started. None of it was COVID.

Aha- here's one spring break activity we planned on and still got to do...Annabel and her friend Aggie (and Aggie's sister, Elise) went to a library program to make Kitty Coasters. They turned out SO cute!! The girls were featured on the library's Instagram, too- very cute!

 

 

Another puzzle completed! This was a fun one!

 

Ziggy loves to lay in Annabel's lap any which way!

This picture cracks me up!

Essie Comes to Stay

Annabel's class pet, Essie the Tortoise, spent spring break with us! (Essie's name was inspired by the book Esio Trot by Roald Dahl.) His visit was the one highlight of our break since both of us parents were knocked out with a major not-COVID something that was just awful. We had minimal plans, thankfully, none of which we could do however since we had zero energy and were coughing an insane amount, not so thankfully. Anyhow, Essie was SO fun to have around. He doesn't do a whole lot but it was still cute to pop into Annabel's room now and then and say hi to him- yes, I totally did this. We took him out once to wander our playroom a little and he walked around briefly and then went to find somewhere to hide, at which point we decided his tank would be better suited for him. It was fun to watch him- tortoises are different creatures, that's for sure. 

Annabel was a good tortoise mommy- giving him his lettuce and fresh water every day. The cats got to meet him once, but were more interested in his tank and the light on it and so forth. Annabel was so excited to have Essie here, so it was definitely something we looked forward to (we had booked his stay with us on the second day of school!). And as it turned out, Essie's visit with us was extended when we learned, on the very last day of Spring Break, that Annabel caught the same bug Ben and I had all during break. So that Sunday night I was emailing her teacher saying Annabel wouldn't be coming to school Monday and did she want Essie back anyway, to which she said keep Essie until Annabel returns. Annabel returned on Thursday of that week...making Essie's visit a total of 12 days. A very long visit! We're glad he came to stay and we could do our part in taking care of the class pet!