February fun

February was very mild in terms of weather, but we did get a little snow dusting one weekend.

I bundled Clayton up to go out--he sort of enjoyed sliding down the hill on the sled. That same weekend, Michael had taken Robbie, Henry, and Benjy to Snowshoe, WV for their annual ski trip (Benjy's first time), so Clara and Clayton and I hung out. It was wonderful to be able to get some extra things done, like taking a ministering sister out to ice cream, taking Sana (a refugee friend from Afghanistan) to the library, and having less mess to clean up. Of course, we missed the boys, though! 

Our Valentine's Day was still our traditional heart-shaped pizza, chocolate milk, etc, but it was a busy evening so I didn't grab any pics. The kids enjoyed handing out cards at school and bringing home loads of goodies.

Robbie is still sticking with piano (I'm at his lesson right now as I type, hearing him play with his teacher, Ms. Kama Miller), and I admired one Sunday evening both Robbie's patience in teaching Henry to play the left hand of "Heart and Soul" and Henry's persistence in working at it. Plus I thought this image of Benjy sliding under the bench and Clayton wandering around was a fitting glimpse of our life these days. 

As the RS activity committee chair, for the February activity I was prepping various kinds of chocolates for a chocolate testing that we were doing that evening. I looked over to see that Clayton had somehow gotten his hands on some while I wasn't looking. 

There was a fun "mom and son" activity at the elementary school (to complement the daddy-daughter February dance they always have), and we enjoyed some minute to win it games (I won the Oreo on the forehead contest, haha) and some pretty intense dodgeball games.

Robbie and Henry participated in an intense three-night a week swim clinic for the month of February, so some of our traditions like our Plan of Salvation celebration were a little more low-key this year. Michael dug out his old mission bag and found the teaching tools he had used as a missionary to talk to the kids about the plan of salvation.

Of course we managed to still enjoy our traditional Klondike bars for our celestial dessert.

Another packed Thursday evening between dropping Clara off at dance (also while Michael was out of town at a conference in Las Vegas), we zoomed over to Cub Run to participate in a first grade STEM night where the first graders got to sample liquid nitrogen ice cream and make things at various stations. Then we hurried to swimming, then took kids back home, then picked up from swimming, then picked Clara up from dance. (I had to hire a babysitter that evening to stay with the younger kiddos). Phew! 

I wanted to take some photos of older posters I made as part of my record of my parenting efforts ;-).

Having a growth mindset is still hard for me sometimes--I feel like I'm learning along with the kids much of the time.

Somehow even this list was insufficient at times.

We're trying!

Had to keep this shot of Clayton's crazy staticky hair. Haha!