My Valentine's

 My funny, sweet, loving, kind, smart, all-around-wonderful valentines

 Scott and the girls enjoyed a heart-shaped pizza for dinner -- with a side of roasted brussels sprouts!

 heart-shaped strawberry "ice cream" for dessert.  I love that something so simple (and healthy -- it was literally pureed frozen strawberries and pomegranate juice poured into heart molds) can be considered such a treat and bring such big smiles to everyone's face.

my gifts from the kids -- a homemade heart box imagined and created by Millie (with a little help from Scott) and a pretty flower that opens up when you push a button.  I couldn't think of anything sweeter.  Except maybe the mixed CD Scott made me :).  I am so blessed to be so loved.

Determination

Army crawl complete with battle cry!

6 Months -- The Pictures

A few of my favorite pictures from the past few days

 

Seeing Stars

Millie and I enjoyed our date of star-gazing and hot chocolate tonight, despite the chill in the air.  The sky was clear and we were able to see several constellations (I had a hard time pointing them out to Millie, but she spotted a guitar in the sky :).)  Millie repeatedly exclaimed how much she loved gazing at the stars and how much she loved our dates -- it made the night all that much better.  We talked about falling stars (but didn't see any), star-gazing out in the country, going to the moon, Valentine's day (Millie brought out Valentine's she had made for us to trade).  Such a sweet night and one I hope Millie remembers for a long time.

Six Months -- The Videos

At six months Teddy...

Still thinks his sisters are hilarious

occasionally gets some forward movement -- he SO wants to crawl

likes to pivot on his belly and roll around to get where he wants

appears to have outgrown the rock-n-play ...

Wait, What's That Line?

Some hilarious (mis)interpretations of songs, storylines, and sayings by the girls

• Fee Fi Fo Fum (or thumb, in Merrill's version) I smell a little boy to put in my english muffin gum! (and of course Merrill snuck in a "poop" as soon as we turned on the video camera...).  I like Millie's accent
• uh oh sga-betty-o's :)

The actual words to this song from Mary Poppins:

Cast off the shackles of yesterday

Shoulder to shoulder into the fray

Our daughters' daughters will adore us

As they sing in grateful chorus

Well Done!  Well done!  

Well Done!  Sister suffragette!

**and no, I did not have to look up those lyrics ... we listen to a lot of Mary Poppins!

An Art-filled Date

Merrill and I headed to the art museum on our first date today.  Our date was to explore a museum together and I chose the art museum knowing that they do family activities on Sunday afternoons, and that Merrill had not been there yet.  We enjoyed making art, looking at art, learning about art, and at times, being the art.  The theme for the month at the Art Museum's family days is African art, so Merrill got to make her own textile art as well as view some African art and make African inspired snakes (inspired by the fact that today is the Chinese New Year and marks the beginning of the year of the snake).  Merrill enjoyed just exploring all of the different galleries and looking at the different styles of art and getting to be in charge of where we went.

 It wasn't a very pretty day, but even so, I just love this spot in the park

 My little dancer with Degas' Little Dancer -- I love sharing this statue with the girls

 Merrill found this spot under a stairwell and thought it was the perfect place to do a little living art

 learning about African art -- at least Merrill was more intrigued than the little boy behind her ;)

We are so lucky to have such a wonderful cultural resource available to us.  Forest Park is just really a treasure and I'm glad we are able to expose the girls to all that it offers.  I'm looking forward to my date with Millie tomorrow night -- star gazing and hot chocolate.  I'm hoping the weather clears up (and maybe warms up just a tad)!