Happy Valentine's Day

A friend gave me this outfit for Ezra.  His other outfit was wet, so I tried it on him.  He looked so cute I just left it on.

Planning for August

Elsie handed this to me in the car after being picked up from school the other day.  It's the list of children she would like at her party.  Apparently some are on the invite list, while others, whom have somehow made her angry, are on the do not invite list.  It is unbelievable to me how different she is from her brother.

Say hello to our new friend

This is Olivia.  She lived with a little boy who ended up being allergic to her.  She was headed toward the pound if she didn't find a home by Friday.  So here she is with us.  She's kind of an experiment in our house.  So far the kids think it's Christmas.

Sometimes on a Saturday or Sunday morning,

this is what life looks like here...

Taming the wild beats

Yesterday we had a yard sale.  It was not a large yard sale.  We thought maybe Ezra would enjoy being a part of it, so we brought out his friend, the giraffe, and stuck him on it.  The sign for the sale was $8.99.  We made $10.  Victory.

Bug

A girl selling ceramic curling irons in the mall stopped us the other day and offered to give Bug a princess hairdo for free.  The top picture is the result.  It would have lasted longer, had Bug not been rained on that night.
Also in an attempt to lessen the number of things I do and give the kids more responsibility, about once a week I let the kids pack their own lunches.  Here is Elsie packing her lunch: sandwich, juice, spaghetti, feta.  Excellent.

Lately

Elliot had to complete a diorama for 1st grade.  It had to depict a wild animal in its natural habitat.  Of course he chose Siberian tigers.  We learned a lot about them in the process.  Here you see the label for his project and the tigers themselves.  I think Michael had as much fun helping as Elliot had making.  It's good that we have a creative papa in the mix.  I'm not much for creating things, unless they're songs.

Yesterday Elliot and Elsie decided to make this tower of cups for Ezra to knock down.  Isn't this what big brothers and sisters do?  Ezra liked it...