February Adventures

So, it seems like we've been out and about a lot (and in a LOT more), and done a lot of things I haven't posted about, so I thought I'd do a catch-up catch-all post. So, we went to a Clifford day at the Mall of America and then got to meet Dora (John didn't want to hug her).

We did some painting one day for school, and I noticed that Sara was using both hands at the same time. Is that normal? I thought it was cute.


We went to Minneapolis a couple Saturdays ago to visit the Swedish Institute of America, which is housed in a cool castle, right near Jared's work. It was pretty interesting, and a truly amazing building. Kind of a sad story of the family, because they were "new money" so they were never accepted into society, so their lavish mansion was basically never used. I guess they invited guests once for a party and no one came, so they never did again. Guess money can't buy everything. Anyway, the kids liked this fun room where they could design things. Sara made the thing on the black wall behind her, and John was having fun with the snap blocks. Truthfully, so was I....


I've already forgotten what these cool Swedish horses are called, but Brady and Jessica brought us one as a souvenir from their trip there a few years ago, so we thought it was cool to see this giant, toy one, and of course the kids loved the ride.


And the outside of the castle...

And a few days later, this is the scene that welcomed the day. Doesn't that make you want to go outside and play? Ha.

Jared thought he better get some of that snow off the balcony, and also get rid of some of the icicles, so the kids loved that.

Oh, and Jared has decided to go for the beard thing. I actually think it looks pretty good, and I might grow one myself if it'd keep me warmer around this joint!


And for Valentine's day, we made some fruit loop rice krispie hearts for our Joy School party.

And in honor of the Olympics starting, and to see how my kids stacked up to cousin Maggie, who is quite the gymnast, I found an open gym to go to last Friday. I've got to figure out how to get a video on here, because I took some that were pretty funny, but let's just say that my kids were not flipping off the end of the trampoline into the foam pit like Maggie was. Sara kept saying, "I'm frightened!" I even offered them money, and they really were trying, but just a little too scared. I tried to help them, and they were improving, and anyway, we had a lot of fun, but I think Maggie wins. That was fun, though, and Sara especially keeps asking to go again. I'll have to look into classes, but this one was kind of far. There are probably some closer.




And one more picture to show what a lovely winter we've been having. A few days last week were especially foggy, and so in the morning we woke up to this:

I guess it's called hoar frost, which is a bizarre name if you ask me, but it's pretty cool looking. Every square centimeter is covered. Every twig, every everything is covered in this white frost. It actually was beautiful, but just looked COLD!

So, there you have it. You're all caught up. Oh, one more story. I took John to the doctor for his shots for kindergarten, but it was just for him (they had an opening for just one that I took so I could get the shots done by the registration deadline). I'll have to take Sara in soon, too, but this time it was just for him. He was very brave, and told me he just needed to take four deep breaths and then he wouldn't cry. So he did. Then that night they were telling Jared all about it, and Sara said that she didn't get shots because she had tights on! Isn't it funny the way things make sense in their minds?

Sara desperately wants to type: sarazxcvbngojohnpoiuytgfrrrrrvvvtcdevbhgyiopzzasjuitreszxq1