February happenings:
*Chloe's teeth are in a crazy transition stage. She had a tooth on the bottom get loose and fall out, another one on the bottom loosened up at the same time, and her top teeth are slowly moving in.
*Robots is the kids' new favorite movie. Everything is robots, the chop shop, upgrades, Aunt Fanny .... It's all Evan thinks about and talks about. He's always asking us questions like it's real -- "Dad, why is Fender's nose so big?" "Mom, how did the new street sweepers get out of the chop shop?"
*The kids both enjoyed a fun valentine card from Gramma. They took a break from building towers for their Jeeps to feel the love :-)
*This domino set from my childhood is so fun but so frustrating, but occasionally there is victory like this one for Chloe! She is so precise with those tiny fingers.
*We had to buy our cats a stash of new toys since it's even too cold for them to go out! A good portion of our days is spent taking turns entertaining the cats as they fly through the air chasing fake birds and killing fake squeaky mice.
*The crabs are all still alive and well. We spent this month setting up a 20 gallon tank and moving the hermies in. Thermostats, tank warmers, humidity gauges.... this is a science project!
*There is a family of squirrels that's been playing every morning in our front yard tree, so we have taken to watching them. Chloe said one day, "This is so much better than TV." (It was then that I knew we were officially weirdos. That and the night I added leftover liver to some leftover stew and all of us thought it was delicious.)
*Evan is fully 10 now and very much exuding his ten-ness all day. He is LOUD and WILD. He makes noises with his lips, mouth and throat all day long. He jumps around like a ping pong ball. He laughs even louder. He talks loud. He plays loud..... Ten is loud. And cute.
*Todd has still been home but staying busy here. He cleaned out the basement storage room of so many things, moved the hot water heater, dismantled and moved our pellet stove, and now he's building new drawers for the built-ins in the hallway.
*Marble chutes under the coffee table -- a new variation on an old favorite game.
*Who needs store-bought Hex-Bug tracks when you can build your own? Evan loves making these set-ups and sending his little robo-creatures through a fun house. (This is Evan's favorite shirt so he is wearing it in every picture!)
*The box of Sculpey clay has been dwindling as the kids always seem to find something new to make and bake. The latest is frisbee crabs. They also made accessories for their Coyote + Roadrunner game -- cactuses, firecrackers and such.
*The table in the basement has been home to Jeep Town for the longest time. They love this little space that's just for them.
*More Chain Lightning. Also the stilts are out all the time.
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| Don't you love how Chloe is looking at Evan to see what to do? |
*Evan and Chloe both have been making more progress on their (ongoing) paint-by-number sets. Chloe's is a horse, of course, and it's nearly done. Evan's is a dog in a flower field. He never wants to paint or draw on his own, but as soon as I set him up and sit down with him, he says "I always forget how fun this is."
*I found these old MicroMachine accessories on ebay that the kids were really excited about. They built Tiny Town and played with it for days on end.
*We've been to Hobby Lobby half a dozen times since Christmas to buy pipe cleaners in every color and more gems for the kids set-up in their room. They are such artists with the pipe cleaners, especially with their hermit crabs and the rainbow-colored shells they make. And the gems -- those are for when they play Christmas with Chloe's swan and Evan's little transformer thing named Roller. They play Christmas a couple times a day :-)
*Evan has built every Lego set he owns (I think he has 15??) and set them up in the living room. Anytime he builds the t-rex, Chloe gets her dinosaurs out to join in.
*So, we are wrapping up February with flying dinos that have robotic upgrades -- rocket booster contraptions that attach to their tails. For more power.
