Hard to believe there's only one week left in February! We've had a busy month with more to come.
Ukulele:
The fifth graders have been learning to play the Ukulele. This was the first song Rowan learned to play. He now knows a bunch of chords, strum patterns and has the ability play more complicated songs. He has loved learning this new instrument!
Cruz:
Cruz mastered Cracker Barrel's IQ puzzle this month.
Baseball:
The boys are still working hard at baseball. Cruz is still doing hitting lessons and Rowan is in hitting and pitching as well as team practices.
Valentine's Day:
We recently cleaned out all our giant floor puzzles so we have been adding several harder puzzles to our collection. We love to have a puzzle going on the dining room table and everyone works on it as they have time.
The kiddos got a few surprises from us!
They also got lots of fun surprises from Grandma...
....and something special from Grammy & Grampy as well.
The kiddos celebrated at school the day after Valentine's Day. This was Rowan's very last year doing a Valentine's party! I can hardly believe it.
This little sweetheart enjoyed a popcorn bar at his party. We also got to make prayer jars!
Bingo was the highlight of Cora's party. She watched as her two best friends got a Bingo and she had not. I could tell she was working hard to compose herself. She managed a "good job" to her friends too. I was so proud of her but also thankful that she did get a win by the end.
Chicago: President's Day Weekend:
The Chicago Auto Show was a bucket list item for Roger and the boys so we decided to take advantage of the kids' days off of school and head up to the freezing cold city for the weekend.
We stayed at our favorite Chicago hotel, The Blackstone.
Grammy and Grampy surprised the kids and met up with us for dinner!
After dinner, we met up with Uncle Randy & Aunt Nicole who just happened to be in the city for something else. Looks like Cora is going to maintain her only girl cousin on the Baum side status for now!!! We can't wait to meet our little NEPHEW in July.
We had some time to wait before Uncle Randy and Aunt Nicole met up with us at Starbucks so the kids sipped drinks and we chatted and played games. Every age and stage just keeps getting more and more fun.
Sunday morning we woke up to SNOW!
I love this picture! Everyone has the biggest smiles.
Supercars first, of course! My favorite was this Rolls Royce Phantom- the Queen has one.
This Bugatti is Cruz's favorite car.
The McLaren is Rowan's favorite.
The best part of the show for Rowan was getting to climb around in so many cars. He got to sit in the drivers seat, push buttons, climb around in the back, etc.
The best part for Cruz was the simulators.
The boys went off roading in a Land Rover.
Cora was too young so she and I watched from the side lines. The kids each got a model Land Rover at the end. Cruz and Daddy also enjoyed the Jeep simulator while Rowan, Cora and I looked at more cars.
The boys were excited to score these Jaguar hats as well.
Cora found her favorite car! At the beginning, she was a bit skeptical about this whole car show thing but in the end, she LOVED climbing in all the cars. She wasn't ready to leave.
We finished the trip with dinner at Portillo's and lots of chatting about our favorite cars.
Ben:
Just our sweet Ben in some pretty light.
Football:
The boys and Roger love to move all the furniture to the sides in the playroom and play football. The boys have a jock jams inspired playlist that they like to listen to while they play. I caught this funny Cruz video the other night.
James K. Polk:
Rowan was assigned James K. Polk for his famous Tennessean biography in a box project. I love watching him do projects now. He knows exactly how he wants to set up his project, he's able to do his research on his own, type on his own, print on his own, etc. I get to stand by and watch. So proud of him!
Okay, that's February so far! We are still finishing up World Impact Month at school so I will share more about that soon. The kiddos have field trips coming up, a dodgeball tournament, exciting orthodontist appointments, neurologist appointments, loose teeth and in just 23 days, SPRING BREAK! Thank you Lord for all the ways you've blessed us this winter. We are ready for the warm weather!
