Pigtails

Molly's hair is finally long enough for pigtails!  I had to fight her to put them in, but once I got them in, they actually stayed in for most of church :)

You Can't Win Them All

I just want to cook dinner and have both of my children eat it.  Why is that so hard?  We have two options for dinner here.

Option One:  Molly eats everything, Miles runs around.

Molly is eating bacon as fast as she can.  We had breakfast for dinner and she ate everything.

Miles, however, spent his time running around.  At one point, he went upstairs to check on his tower.  He also went over to Molly to show her how to eat her food.  (She was not amused) Eventually, he ate the food, but mostly he didn't want to be bothered with dinner.

Option Two:  Miles Eats Dinner, Molly Really Does Not

Miles is a big fan of soup.

                                      

Molly is a big fan of pushing soup around with her fingers.

                                      

Molly is not of fan of eating her dinner when you ask her to.  I tried to crumble some biscuit into her soup so she would try some.  She put out her arms and yelled "Catch it!"  When I did not, in fact, throw a biscuit at her face, she started sobbing.

Rare option three:  I make smoothies, they both eat.

Smoothies are probably the only food that they both eat consistently.

Father-Child Bonding

Gerrit is a pretty popular person around here :)  Time with Daddy is really high on both kids' lists of favorites.

Miles and Daddy love to play games of all kinds.  Gerrit is teaching Miles chess, and they also play computer games, baseball, math games, you name it.  Gerrit took this picture when they were playing side-by-side computer games.  I don't know what Miles is doing exactly, but he is very flexible.

Gerrit is also teaching Miles "engineering" things.  I was hesitant when Gerrit bought Miles these K'nex for Christmas, but they had the best time building this little carnival ride together.  They also build towers, read stories, and learn addition.

              

Molly LOVES Gerrit.  She runs up to him every day when he comes home.  They read stories, run around the house, build blocks, and put off bedtime for as long as possible :)  Gerrit is also trying to teach her things like letters and addition, but she usually is able to convince him that he would rather do things like eat cookies together or cuddle up and watch Curious George.

They also do fun things like take selfies while Mommy is shopping.

              

Yo Ho Ho and a Bottle of Water

The Pleasant Grove library puts on a pirate party for little boys, and this was the first year that Miles was old enough.  It was a blast!

Dressing up like a pirate.  Unfortunately, he has grown out of his hat.

Luckily, they made new hats at the party.

They also got to shoot pom-pom cannons at the other boats.

Picking up the ammunition,

This was adorable…they got to go on a treasure hunt through the whole library, and volunteers dressed up like pirates and threw "cannonballs" at them.

Digging for buried treasure,

Miles was particularly excited about walking the plank

They also read pirate stories, sang sea chanteys, learned how to speak pirate, and ate cookies.  Miles also got to sit in the "lucky chair", so he won a pirate book of his own.  I love the library!

Cake Monster

Molly loves cake more than just about anything.  I made a chocolate cake the other day, and the instant she saw it, she wanted it.  She asked for cake about every thirty seconds.  When she finally got cake, she demolished it and asked for more cake immediately.

The next night, we were watching something on TV when she turned around to me.
Molly: "Cake?"
Me: "Sorry, honey, no cake."
Molly: "Chocwit?"
Me: That's some persistence!
Molly: "Crackers?"

I convinced her it wasn't time for treats.

Five minutes later…

Molly: "Cake?"  "Chocwit?" "Crackers?"

Me: "How about some soup?"

Thankfully, she took me up on the soup, but that's her personal food pyramid, right there, in order.

Happy Valentine's Day

Holidays are much more fun with kids.  They can also be a lot busier!  Case in point: Valentine's Day.  Before we had kids, we would just go out on a date for Valentine's Day and possibly buy each other a small present.  When Miles was little, it was basically the same.  Now that he is school-aged?  Much busier.  

He had Valentine exchanges in two different classes, so I decided not to make anything too complicated.  Miles loves mazes, so I designed these on the computer.  We printed them off, taped some candy to them, and handed them out.

Not too complicated, all things considered!

I wanted us to do something fun as a family for the holiday, so I made crepes.  Molly basically just peeled hers open and licked off all of the Nutella.

When Miles saw me taking a picture of Molly, he wanted me to take a picture of him hiding behind the couch cushions.

I also took the kids on a little field trip to a local candy factory.

The candy decorators were making Easter candy.  Miles and Molly were fascinated!

Beautiful lollipops!  Thankfully, they sell factory seconds for 50 cents.  Miles got an orca and Molly got a princess.

I also made these cookies, but technically these were for a Mutual activity.  I'm just happy that I finally figured out the right consistency for sugar cookie glaze.  Every other time I've tried to make them, they've been way too runny.  Yay for progress!