Valentine's Fun

Helloooo? Who's there?

Peeky-boo!

Hi Hi Hi! It's us!

Bah-Byeee!

Hi! Peeka! Hi-yeee!

A little fun and games with our little sweeties - Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's crafts - mailbox to hold Sean's Valentines

And the craft Clare made at school:



Fire & Ice Festival

A couple of weeks ago, we took the Sooy Babies to the Mt. Holly Fire & Ice Festival - an ice carving contest and chili cook-off.  A little bit of snow had fallen the night before, but the morning was warm and clear.

We got to the High Street just as the festival kicked off and stopped to watch a ice carver get to work:

After watching the carving for a little while, we moved down toward the center of town and caught a demonstration by the Jersey Sands Sled Dog Racing Association. Before the demonstration, we were allowed to meet the dogs:

Next, we walked over to the Relief Fire House on Pine Street - the oldest continuously operating firehouse in the country.

Inside the firehouse were lots of firefighting equipment and ...

Chili! Clare had a good time sampling dozens of chilis with us, and Sean liked nibbling on the chips, cornbread, and veggies on display with the chili.  She liked all the chili except, ironically, for the winner's chili, which was a bit too hot, temperature-wise for her.

After we'd had our fill of chili, we went over to the Burling County College building to see which animals the Philadelphia Zoo brought - a bunny ("hop! hop!" said Clare) and an elephant's ear, among other things.

The Garden State Children's Museum brought some fun things - a big bubble hoop that went over Sean and ...

musical PVC pipes! Sean had fun with these!

Then we headed back out to the street to see how the ice carvings were coming along.

Sean was delighted to walk through the slushy puddles without getting all wet, thanks to his boots and snowpants :-)

We checked in on the first carver we saw that morning - it looks like he was making a design featuring an eagle:

Across the way was a woodcarver getting busy, as well.

Little lamb in front of a wool shop:

We headed back up to our car so that we could get home in time for naps.

Sean was not happy about leaving for naps - he wanted to stay!

Siiiick

Yesterday I got a call from the kids' daycare - Clare had a fever and seemed pretty miserable. So I picked her up and we settled in for a nice afternoon of hanging out at home - just us girls - when the phone rang again ... Sean had a low-grade fever and said he didn't feel well either. So, we put our shoes back on and went to go get Seanybear.

Sean also said that his throat hurt, so his favorite teacher gave him a popsicle:

The kids suddenly had a burst of energy, so we decided to cook up some fun in the kitchen. Sean wanted to bake SUGAR COOKIES for VALENTINE'S DAY! Luckily I chose a low-sugar recipe since the lack of sugar in the cookies was more than made up for with the insane amount of sprinkles on top :-)

While the cookies baked, we rested and watched "The Jungle Book" on DVD:

Yum!

The next morning, I took the kids to the doctor for a joint sick appointment.  We ended up in the jungle room and Clare chattered on about 'nanas nonstop. Sean was so helpful at the appointment - he didn't even flinch when the doctor tested him for strep throat!

The doctor determined that Clare had an ear infection and Sean just has a bad cold, but we'll keep an eye on him.  After the appointment, we went home for some rest.

"I tired!"

 After resting, we did a Valentine's day craft, colored, and made a blanket fort:

After lunch and naps, we went to the "medicine store" (CVS) to pick up Clare's prescription and to the library to get some new books. We spent the rest of the day resting, playing, and snacking. And Clare showed us that just because it's a sick day, it doesn't mean we can't dress up in our finest:

The kids seemed better this morning and were back at daycare today. However, this afternoon Sean's teacher noticed that Sean felt warm and took his temperature - another low-grade fever!  Sean was acting his normal self, so hopefully a couple of days at home with help him get back to 100%.

This week

We had a fun and busy last week of January. Lots of playing, crafting, reading, and general silliness.

 

Pretending to nap on the kitchen floor - Clare would make snoring noises and then abruptly shout "Waking time! Waking!"

Playing "photo time" with Mommy's phone:

 

Clare is getting good at spinning this top on her own:

I got flowers from work to celebrate 5-year anniversary on the job!

Mommy had a hard time getting the kids to come home with her one night - they were too busy playing on these mats:

We were cat-sitting for our neighbors' cat, Ninja, last week. I guess Ninja missed us since I found him waiting for me when I got home from work on Wednesday:

We made a trip to the library this week. The kids watched the fishies in the fish tank, played with tons of puzzles, and then settled down with a couple of books:

 

 Snowman crafts:  Sean's is on the left - he cut the shapes and glued the decorations all by himself!

More cutting and pasting:

And some painting:

On Saturday, we took a little trip to see the Babies' Corcoran grandparents - Daddy needed some peace and quiet at home to work on some schoolwork - it's his last semester!!