Fun with friends

We had some friends over last night that we haven't seen in a while and it was lots of fun for the kids to play and for the adults to catch up.  One family brought their Wii Rock Band game over, and we had a great time playing that too!  Here are some pictures of the kiddos and their friends:

Kuperus Olympics

Last weekend our kids had their super-fun babysitters Allie and Jeff here for the evening.  They always have a great time with them and love having them babysit.  Peter especially thinks it's really cool to have a "boy" babysitter!

They decided to have their own Olympics.  Esther chose to be team USA, and then Peter had to pick a country, so he picked Calvin.  :)  Here are the events and results:

Mickey Mouse Pancakes and Snow Forts

Laura had to attend a conference today, so I opted to take a vacation day and stay home with the troops.....putting me in charge for the day.

I started the day by bribing them with breakfast out if they got dressed right away....wow did that work. I'd do this daily if I wouldn't go broke. We went to the Real Food Cafe....how can you go wrong with a restaurant where a guy named Frank makes Mickey Mouse pancakes for the kids? And I don't mean small pancakes either, Esther pointed out that the pancake was bigger than her head....and then proceeded to eat almost the whole thing. (Frank uses blueberries for the eyes, a strawberry nose, and orange slice for the mouth - so I get credit for giving the kids fruit today.)

We then proceeded home and got ready to go outside and play in the snow. We began on our snow fort and made some good headway before we had to go run an errand. Daddy had to look at someone's basement for a quote on finishing a room for them. Bribery worked once again to keep the kids in order, and we picked up a movie on the way home (I highly recommend Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs).

After the movie we went out and finished the fort. Actually, Daddy got to build it twice since a certain little boy doesn't understand the meaning of the phrase "don't lean against the wall until we are done". Oh well, twice the fun.

All in all....a good day, with tired kids who are now fighting with each other while I write this....I better go get dinner on the table.

The Challenge

1. I can build a house
2. I can build a fire engine bed
3. I can build a dollhouse
4. I can design a fire alarm system.
5. I can even cook a pretty great pot roast

Today, I decided to see if I could figure out this whole "braiding" thing.
The two year old was pleased.
The 5 year old gave me pointers for next time.......

Life in February

Just some random pictures from the last couple weeks...

Casey put a swing up in the basement--

the kids have been having lots of fun on it!

Tattoo Parlor

Well, that's not a blog post title that you'd really expect from us, is it?

Today Esther decided she wanted to put one of her temporary tattoos on, so then of course Peter remembered that he had some, and naturally Miriam had to have one as well.

Esther applying Miriam's tattoo:

Peter's fire truck:

Showing off the final products:

Sister Fun

Esther and Miriam have a new routine.  They go down into the basement where the dress up clothes are, and I'm not allowed to come down there.  They get all dressed up, and then tell me to sit on the couch.  Then they make a grand entrance and do a ballet show for me.  It's so cute how Miriam just goes along with it and totally lets Esther get her dressed up and then follows whatever she does!

Cousin Cuteness

Esther and Miriam LOVE holding their cousin Cassie! 

Florida!

We were blessed to spend a week in Florida with my parents and sister.  We left Christmas night and drove straight through... 23 hours!  The kids did great overall, besides a little carsickness episode from Esther.  As smoothly as the trip went, I was very thankful to get on a plane and fly home on Saturday!

We had a great week of playing and relaxing together.  Here are some highlights:

*Celebrating Christmas beside a palm tree
*Several trips to Dairy Queen
*Bike rides with Peter or Esther on the tag-along
*Swimming in the pool
*Time at the beach
*Catching up with an aunt, uncle and cousins
*Casey and I visiting some good friends in Orlando for an evening
*Making fresh orange juice from the oranges off the friends' tree
*Seeing a cool crab on the beach and collecting shells
*Playing lots of card games and board games
*Working on a 1700 clue crossword puzzle
*Celebrating Peter's and my birthdays
*Not seeing snow for a week!

It's hard for me to narrow down the pictures, so there are a lot!  As you can see, it was a wonderful week!