Fast Forward February

In no particular order, here are some of our February highlights: (1) Owen turned 3! Owen wanted a water balloon party with a  purple dinosaur cake, so we did our best to deliver! We spent one Saturday prepping all of the water balloons, which led to a few impromptu water fights I quickly settled with the hose :)

Purple dinosaur cake!

Owen had a bunch of his energetic little friends over to help him celebrate. The boys were absolutely crushed I was holding the party on a school day, and used their puppy dog faces and future diplomat skills to convince me they should stay home from school and help out with the party. They were actually a really helpful addition!

They wanted to make the water ballon toss more fun, and made signs volunteering their faces as targets. Trust me, way more fun this way!

Mac and cheese - the lunch of champions

Present opening with the family. We sure do love our spunky little Owen!

(2) Jogathon! The school held its first ever jogathon, and the boys were super excited about it for the weeks before hand. Ken went to watch Tyler run, and I got to watch Will. They had the kids do some Zumba to warm up for the race - watching all that energy and excitement was pretty cute!

Here comes the first grade!

Owen wanted to join in, so he completed two laps with Will!

Finish line - Will ran 8 laps in 10 minutes, and Tyler ran 24 laps in 20 minutes.

And don't forget the cheerleaders! They got popsicles along with the jogathon runners - cheering is hard work :)

(3) Colby learned how to smile for the camera! Any time a camera appears, he immediately "smiles."This means we probably won't have another picture with his eyes open for at least a couple of years, but he still looks pretty cute :) And Owen has decided if it works for the Colbs, it works for him:)

(4) Picnic at the park! Some evenings, life is just better if you pack a picnic dinner (or order one from the Indian shop close by…) and go eat it at the park! We're lucky enough to be blessed with friends who make sure we remember to stop and enjoy life, even in the midst of living our busy lives. This was the perfect evening for a picnic and soccer. Thanks Jess and Dan!

Colby thought long and hard about jumping into the fountain. His boring mom foiled his plans each and every time. Man, that boy is fast!

Hailey keeping an eye on the 1 year and under crew. She'll be ready to babysit for the general public anytime now :)

The famous Robertsons - our partners in crime in any adventurous thing we do!

(5) Tyler turned 9! Hard as it is to believe, Tyler is now 9, one step away from double digits! The thing he most wanted to do was watch the new Star Wars movie with his dad. They were fortunate enough to catch it on its last weekend in theaters, and had the ENTIRE movie theater to themselves!

They wrapped it up with a gourmet dinner at Subway, the boys' latest favorite place to eat.

Tyler also had a couple friends over for pizza and cake one afternoon. It was pretty low key (hooray for me :) but they had a great time jumping on the trampoline, running around, and making up games. Thanks Abby for helping me complete this beauty!

(6) Ribbon store! I finally went to the ribbon store I've been dying to go to downtown.

All kinds of fun ribbon shoved onto shelves and shelves. Anyone need some ribbon??

(7) International Day! Hands down my favorite school event of the year. When I got to the field, Tyler & his buddies came running to greet us, bursting with info on which booths had the best food and funnest things to do. It made my heart melt to see how excited Tyler was to see me at school - I know this may not always be the case. I'll take it!

Will and his gang. Hailey pretended she was a 1st grader for the day! I chaperoned for Will and his friends.

Making cookies in Palestine - good times!

(8) Will perfected his technique as a master architect! We've been growing a collection of these magnetic toys, & Will comes up with really fun designs. He's also pretty forgiving when his destructive younger brothers, Thing 1 & Thing 2, promptly destroy most of said creations within minutes of their completion...

(9) Colby learned to nap on the go: This talent means I can stay at the beach/park/friend's house all day! Thank you Colby.

(10) Real life continues to be happy! Sure, the kids fight sometimes and the days can get hectic, but overall life is good. And I stumble across moments like this, and everything seems fine again.

Owen likes to share my breakfast. No matter how much he's already eaten. Even if he's just eaten. I've started doubling my breakfast amount to take this into account.

(11) We got rain! The little bit of rain we got led to some magnificent sunsets,

and lots of water trampoline fun! If only we'd known how much rain was coming, but that is a tale for next month…

For one day, we had rainy weather in both Sterling AND Abu Dhabi. This never happens!

(12) Preschool rolls on: Earlier this year, I started a co-op preschool with some friends, for Hailey. 

She LOVES it. This particular day, she was sick and I told her she couldn't go. After seeing her curled up by the stairs, with her backpack on, crying giant, silent tears, I basically promised her I'd get her the moon if she just wouldn't look so sad. She promptly negotiated the terms of her happiness - me preparing a special preschool lesson, complete with snack and an activity, at one of her favorite parks. Done! Anything to stop those reproachful tears. Best part? Colbs slept the whole time :) The best part of the month however, was a trip Ken and I got to take BY OURSELVES! It deserves its own post, so stay tuned :)