This One's For Dad

 It takes too long to send these pics via email so I decided to put them in my blog.  I went to a car show today and saw a few Chevy nomads and some other cool cars too.  
My dad has a Chevy nomad that he's restoring now.  His will look better than these when it's done.  My dad does an amazing job with restoring cars! 

Brad is really into looking at car engines.  I frequently pop the hood so he can gaze at the minivan engine.  And Sky has been really into learning the different kinds of cars and how much they cost, etc.  I guess they got the car gene from their Pepere!   

 I know this red one is not a Nomad but it was really pretty...and a convertible. 

 This blue one looks like a coup that my dad already has restored.

 Dad, I'm really liking the surf board look and the beach stickers on the windows.  Pretty fun! 

  I really like the food tray out the window that listed what number the car was. 

 Side by side Chevy's:

 This was my favorite Nomad at the show.  It was pristine.

 O.k., I got carried away taking pictures of it...

 There were a few woody wagons too...

Gymnastics For Lila

 After all of the hours we spend bringing Sky and Brad here and there for different activities, we thought it might be nice for Lila to have a class of her own. 

 She did pretty well for the first 1/2 hour but things went pretty sour for the last 15 minutes.  Lila really enjoys jumping and tumbling but not really listening and following directions...  Well, at least it's something she can call her own. 

Laura Ingalls party

 A few weeks ago Sky got to go to her friend Natania's birthday party.  It was a Laura Ingalls themed party and she had a blast.  Each kid got to make their own butter in baby food jars, create a "Little house" with a shoebox, popsicle sticks, etc., create characters with clothespins, and each kid was given 10 pennies that they were able to use to buy things at a little store.  We have since added to the furniture in this house, making bunk beds, a ladder, and other things with popsicle sticks and wooden shapes.  So fun! 

Discovery Science Center

 Yesterday. we went to the Discovery Science Center with our friends the Denhams.  They have 4 kids and I had my 3.  Below is a picture of us eating lunch together (Baby Kathleen is not in the picture).  People do stare at times. 

 They had a cool Star Wars exhibit which we enjoyed. 

We also got to take a 5 minute "ride" in the Millenium Falcon.

 Lila likes Yoda...small but very powerful and not to be underestimated...kinda like her!

 Upstairs they have a cool exhibit where you get a digital shopping list and have to roam around a store to find the items on the list.  Sky completed the assignment and got her picture up on the wall of shoppers (top right). 

 Sky and Lila worked on a dinosaur puzzle outside.  Lila really liked this!

 Then we spent some time in a VERY fun Dora and Diego exhibit. 

 Lila's favorite part was Tico's Nuthouse where you had to gather nuts (balls) and load them into various vacuum suctioned tubes.

 Brad ate  his weight in grapes while outside in the dinosaur area.

 R2D2 and C3PO were a big hit.

 More Dora fun...  The kids enjoyed loading plastic coins into the piggie slots. 

 Lila loves Baby Jaquar.

Valentine's Fun

 Valentine's Day was such fun!  It started out with pet day at Sky's co-op and Sky shared her cat, Peanut.  Seriously, that is one good cat.  She came out of the cat carrier and let all of the kids hold and pet her!  Sky was so happy to be able to bring her to show her friends.  Sky had a party at her co-op class. 
Then we met Ken at BIOLA for an all-school Valentines lunch.  They even had a chocolate fountain.  It's funny that I took a pic of Brad in front of it because he doesn't even like chocolate!  But he sure looks cute, doesn't he? 
Ken got me pink tulips and chocolate covered strawberries for Valentine's Day.  I shared with the girls and Lila definitely approved.

 Another gift that Ken gave me was to take care of the kids alone for a weekend while I went on a retreat to the mountains with the Talbot Wives Fellowship.  It even snowed about 1/2 inch which was just enough to make everything beautiful and not enough to strand us or cause any trouble. 
My friend Esther and her husband are from Nigeria and this was her first time ever seeing snow!  She was so excited. 

 We had a group of about 18 women and had lots of fun doing nails and facials.  The theme was soul spa and it really was a refreshing time.

 Beautiful!!!  We spent 3 hours of solitude with the Lord on Saturday morning and it was great to have that uninterrupted time!  A few years ago I wouldn't have seen the necessity in something like that but I sure appreciated that it was built into this weekend away. 

 The nature was awesome!  Sometimes I forget just how nature starved I am and then I get to place like this and remember how awesome God's creation really is.  The house we were staying in is a renewal/retreat center and it was decorated so nicely!  I got to room with another faculty wife and we had a lot of fun staying up late and chatting. 

 So I have found this new website that I am totally addicted to!  It's called pinterest.com and it's a place where people "pin" ideas that they like to their various "boards".  You can make as many boards as you want and label them however you want.  I have a board for Christmas ideas, recipes, home improvement/decorating ideas, gift ideas, etc.  And it is so much fun to see other people's ideas!  Here are a few ideas that I used from pinterest.  Above are peanut butter cookies with dove hearts for Valentine's Day.  Below is a headband holder for Sky that I made from an empty oatmeal container (I put other hair stuff inside the cannister). 

 Below are brownie bites that I made into heart shapes by putting a marble on the edge of the cupcake liner. 

 Pinterest has TONS of fun stuff for kids.  One idea was to make creations from sticking pipe cleaners in different formations into a collander (see above).  Another idea was to use a big magnet with pipe cleaners.  Brad played with these for a long time!  Below Brad and Lila are making their own snow globes by filling empty water bottles with sequins, glitter, beads, etc.  Then we hot glued the caps onto the bottles. 

 This was another idea where you can stick a skewer into play doh and then put Cheerios on the skewers.  We added some popsicle sticks to this project.  Very fun!