More March

We had did a babysitting swap with another family; here we are having s'mores on our evening to host (girls only; boys were playing Legos inside)

Green oatmeal for St Patrick's Day. The girls were into it, but Monkey said: "It looks like throw-up" (fair point, especially since he had, in fact, spent the whole night prior doing exactly that. He and I were the two victims of stomach flu this month; Roo had pinkeye and strep and the littlest two had pinkeye. Quite a run of illnesses in these parts this month)

Roo's reading has really taken off. Here she is reading Biscuit books to Mouse:

The kids entered an art show in Federicksburg at the encouragement/organization of their teacher, Miss Debbie.. The number of entries was much smaller than usual because of all the snow days. Happily, this meant that all three of our oldest kids won ribbons. The goose was actually the only contestant in the 'pencil and pen' category for 4- and 5-year-olds; thus she won first and second place for her contributions.

In conjunction wit the art show they held an 'expo' with art/craft stations on Saturday, so we went back and participated in that. The girls were in heaven.

Monkey made several new friends this month, and we've benefited from having them come play. Here's a friendly chess match with Jack:

This and that from the week

We hosted some friends - two boys ages 7 and 5 - overnight last Saturday night while their parents went to DC for a naval ball. Only the second time we've had a sleepover; bigs news around here. Here Monkey plays with the 5-year-old at the playground after church:

The weather got deliciously warm mid-week and we went out playing in our swampy creek one afternoon. So nice (and muddy):

 

[Snow is forecast again for Monday. Rrgh!]

It hasn't been our finest week health-wise. Roo appeared to get pinkeye last weekend; by Monday afternoon her eyes were normal. But her sore throat and nausea remained. We eventually realized she had strep throat (so weird that it started with pinkeye symptoms?) and she's now much better. In the middle of that I came down with a quick and intense case of the stomach flu, which was quite a bummer. But good news- no one else got it (at least to date).

 

HF's childhood friend PJ is an air force officer stationed in York, VA, two hours away. He came and visited for the day today. Here they are making some s'mores for dessert:

Sheep and snow

On Sunday HF and Monkey set out to bring home our three new sheep - one ewe, one buck, and one lamb. They were sufficiently small for him to elect to bring them home in the back of the van (with the seats taken out). Evidently the ewe, the largest one, was extremely loud in her bellowing, earning her the name "Bellow." Both men wished they had ear muffs. Otherwise the pick-up went well. HF told the kids they could pick whatever names they wanted - Roo was at the helm of naming, I believe - so long as their last name was "Whom We're Going to Eat." So that settled it. We have Bellow, Checker, and Snowball Whom We're Going to Eat.

Eighteen hours after they arrived, it started snowing. HF had set up a shelter/pen for the sheep under the carport so they could stay warm. They're tough; they were fine. Here they are with Roo toward the end of our snow-day (we got four inches):

Today is (of course) another snow day because our town has a one-step snow removal strategy for its roads - as I believe I've mentioned before. That is: 1). Wait for the snow to melt. Which is what we - and our town - are doing today. Here are two of our snow-happiest kids outside making a snow blob:

Here's Roo working on her homeschool work (we got ample this time from our teacher, as the quantity of snow days is meriting this) with a colossal pencil:

And the happiest part of our snow hiatus this time around is that we borrowed the entire set of Star Wars movies from a kind friend. Monkey - who has been extremely anxious to see them - was ecstatic. We have watched nearly all six movies since we borrowed them Friday. I have to say, the've saved the day this time around!

Friends and parties

Kind of a run-of-the-mill week around here, which was very welcome. Our neighbor friends with the horses have twins, and one of them broke his collar bone. (No fun!). So when Goose and her class had an "extended-day" class to begin making up for snow day-missed-time, I picked her up this week instead of our babysotter. And I got to bring Goose's friend Elliott home to help out his mom, who was still nursing her injured twin at home. They had fun in the back of the van with their Valentine crowns:

The mouse was invited to her first ever birthday party (princess theme) - little Ari who is the nursery with her at church. The challenge was that the timeframe was at the exact same time as Goose's best friend from preschool, Abby, was having her birthday party (fairy theme). So. We had dueling girly preschooler-parties to contend with.

I took Goose to Abby's fairy party with Roo in tow. HF took Mouse to her princess party. And Monkey got to go to his friend Bryce's house and avoid the whole thing, happy for him.

The highlight of the party (in my mind) was an amazing makeup artist who did phenomenal fairy face painting on the girls -- though Roo elected to get a Hello Kitty on her hand instead to match her dress.

No photos of Mouse's party, since I wasn't there. But she was ecstatic to have her own party to go, came home with her nails painted and a party bag, and was the happiest kid in the world. And the tiredest too - the party's 12:30-2:30 timeframe precluded her nap, a first for her. She was in bed at 6:15 tonight!