A Nice Surprise...

Mother Nature provided us (along with a good portion of the United States) with bitter, bitter cold weather.  Because of that, we have been out of school for the past two days.  The girls spent a good portion of their days completing their e-learning activities, but they were able to take a pause to spend some time with some very special visitors passing through Indy....

Grandma Jane and Margaret were on their way back to Ohio yesterday and stopped by to spend the evening with us.  We were able to get a quick card game in before they hit the road this morning!  Although the time was not very long, it was great to see them and we were willing to take what time we could get!

Yearbook Contest...

A couple of years back, Sullivan entered a yearbook cover design contest for her school.  She did such a nice job that her picture actually won the back cover.  You can check out her design HERE.  

Fast forward to the present... Sullivan came home with this year's contest form last week.  She set her mind to creating a great design and instantly got to work.

When all was said and done, Sullivan did a BEAUTIFUL job!  I might be bias, but it is definitely cover worthy in my eyes. 

 Let's just hope it gets chosen as the winner...time will tell!

International Fair...

Quinn's school held an International Fair on Friday night.  It was a night to celebrate the different cultures and different backgrounds that make her school so unique. 

Each student (or pair of students) essentially chose a country out of a hat and was assigned to do research on that country and make a visual display of their findings.

Quinn and her friend chose Syria.  It's probably not the most uplifting country to have drawn, but definitely a teachable moment for Quinn.  It truly showed her how very blessed we are to live where we live and to not take our freedoms for granted. 

We attended the event Friday night so that we could see Quinn's presentation and see all the other great presentations as well.

The night did not disappoint...it was a great celebration of diversity!

Little Old Ladies...

Check out these little old ladies who were insistent on putting their hair in curlers before bed...

Aren't they the cutest things?!

A Good Read...

Quinn and Sullivan made a cozy sleeping spot in our closet a while back.  They filled it with a million blankets and pillows and such.  Each curled up with a good book to read before bedtime.  Apparently Quinn must have really been hooked by her book and couldn't put it down.  After some time, Sullivan was ready to go to sleep and the light in the closet was keeping her awake.  I went up to go to bed a couple hours later, and this is what I found...

Quinn was reading by the light in our bathroom.  She just couldn't put the book down - just enthralled by the happenings in the book!  Love, love, love it! 

Another Lost Tooth...

Gosh, somehow these pictures got lost in the shuffle of all the Christmas pictures and I failed to blog about Quinn's lost tooth.

Quinn lost one of her molars back on December 23rd.  The tooth fairy tried to visit that night, but wasn't able to find Quinn, with us being back in SD and Quinn actually staying at the hotel with Gigi.  

So as it turns out, the Tooth Fairy actually visited Christmas Eve night and Quinn woke up on Christmas day to Santa's presents and the Tooth Fairy's treat.  The Tooth Fairy was so worried she was going to get in Santa's way, but she was able to sneak in and get her job done!

The Tooth Fairy left her usual note, along with her money fittingly folded like a Christmas tree!

As she mentioned in her letter, her time visiting Quinn is coming to an end.  Only 3 more teeth to loose. 

Winter Shminter...Yuck!

Anyone that knows me, knows that I am not really a fan of snow or winter or cold.  I much prefer to be indoors snuggled up in a blanket by the fireplace.  Mother Nature was a bit (or a lot) unkind to me this past weekend - dumping 8 inches of snow on us.  Yuck, yuck, double yuck!

The girls went sledding with the neighbors over the weekend and soaked up all the snow time they could.  Sullivan must not have gotten enough snow time this weekend though because she was determined to build a snowman after school today.

Sullivan set out and started to build the bottom layer of her snowman.  After seeing Sullivan struggle for what appeared to be a century, I just couldn't take it anymore.  She put so much brut force and shear determination into making the largest bottom layer of a snowman.  The darn heavy, wet snow was making it hard for her.  She wasn't giving up though.  Sullivan was in it for the long haul. 

So I laced up my boots, got on my coat, and headed outside to help her.  Together we built the best darn looking snowman that we could.

Or at least I thought so!!  Sullivan still thought it was missing something, but couldn't put her finger on what.  She ran off to the garage and came back with some snow paint.  Duh!  The snowman was missing some color!

A few minutes and a thing of snow paint later... the snowman was PERFECT!

I have to say, building a snowman was a perfect way to spend the afternoon. I much enjoyed the snow.  I much enjoyed the winter weather.  I much enjoyed my time with Sullivan. 

Mother Nature is set to dump another load of snow on us this weekend - a repeat of this last round of snow.  Let's see if I am still have the same jolly, loving attitude toward snow on Saturday!  Any bets?!?