ME!!!!! I am ready for the snow to be gone for good. Last week at this time the snow had almost completely melted and the sun was shining outside. Ben even got to ride his bike around on the weekend. Now, we are back to having snow everywhere and I am depressed about it since last week teased me with warmer temps. Ben had fun playing outside today with some neighbor friends. While he did that, I got to shovel the driveway. I hope I don't have to do that too many more times this year. Besides the weather, we've had a pretty good week around here. I had my Mom2Mom group on Wednesday, which is always a good time and Ben enjoys playing in his class. Yesterday, Ben and I got new books at the library and stayed for Storytime. After that, I surprised him with lunch at "Old McDonald's." I forgot to bring the camera along, so I didn't get any pictures. We've also been working on the letter "K". He did a couple projects, looked for K's around the hou...

Curt's parents came to visit us for the weekend and we had such a nice time! They left this afternoon to head back home. When Ben woke up from his nap, he was so sad that they were gone. He said, "Why did Grandma and Pop have to leave? Why can't they live here with us?" It's hard that we can't live close to our families, but we really enjoy the times that we spend  together.  Ben rode the carousel with Pop on Saturday after we ate some lunch in the food court.  Ben got out his favorite Go Fish game to play with them. We had Despicable Me from Netflix, so we decided to watch that together on Saturday night. Ben loved sitting close to Grandma during the movie. After lunch on Sunday, Ben picked out several books for Grandma to read to him. Come again soon! :) 

We are down to our last few letters and this week I chose "V" in honor of Valentine's Day.  Upper and Lowercase V's.  On Valentine's Day Ben made a cute caterpillar and fish out of hearts. Before he glued everything onto the paper, I had the letters for L-O-V-E and H-U-G-S laying on the table. I did not tell Ben yet what the words were. He looked at LOVE and sounded it out and then said, "Love!" It was the first word that he's read on his own, besides his name. I was so proud of him! Yesterday he also sounded out BABY when he saw it in a magazine. He is learning so fast!  We did a volcano experiment yesterday. Ben was so excited to see "hot lava." I put 1/4 cup of baking soda and red sprinkles in the glass jar. Then, I put the top on and shook it to mix them together. After that, Ben poured 1/4 cup of vinegar in the jar and watched the eruption. We had enough baking soda in there for probably 5 eruptions.  The volcano erupting...Ben tho...

Curt, Ben, and I had a fun afternoon decorating sugar cookies. I haven't made sugar cookies in a while. Every time I make them, it seems like things go bad after I try to roll them out. It turns into a dough nightmare. Usually I can figure it out and make it work, but then I vow not to make them again for a long time. Today I tried a new recipe I found online and it also shared a tip that I thought was awesome. They said to roll the dough out immediately between two pieces of parchment paper, then lay it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes. Then, I could cut the heart shapes from the already rolled out dough and I didn't even need to use any extra flour. It changed my world...I think I might not hate making sugar cookies after all!  The cookies and decorating supplies  Ben took his sprinkle artwork very seriously.  Curt did a fabulous job with the pink frosting.  Our work is done and we are ready to enjoy a couple cookies! Anyone want a cookie? ...

This morning, Ben and I met our friends Adrienne and Austin at Science Central. Ben was so excited to go and play with all of the fun stuff there. Here are a few pictures from our visit.  Ben and Austin playing in the water.  Ben trying to squirt me with water.  He used a magnet to move a marble through the maze.  Astronaut Ben  Having fun on the slide.  Making a ramp for a little golf ball to roll down. Sticking numbers and pictures to a window. We had a really fun time this morning! We'll definitely need to make a few more trips to help get through the winter months.

This morning we met our friends Bekah (Tiana, Isaiah, and Amarah) at Bounce Mania. It was our third trip there this winter, so I was prepared for the cold temps (it is set up right next to the ice rink)...or so I thought. I don't know if the really cold temperature outside (it was -3 degrees according to the Jeep) somehow affects the inside temperature, but it was way colder in there than the last two times. The kids had to keep their gloves on the whole time & their little hands were still getting red. We let the kids play for about an hour, then decided it would be fun to go out for lunch at Wendy's. I think Ben and Isaiah could have stayed there all morning. The freezing temps didn't seem to bother them at all!  Ben had a little trouble climbing with his gloves on. I had to give him a boost a few times.  Ben going down the slide with Isaiah. They would laugh so hard at the bottom, then run to climb up the ladder again. Having fun in the bounce castle.

Here are a few of the things Ben did this week for the letter M.  Mountain and marshmallow M's...He liked the marshmallow one best because he kept eating them out of the bowl! Ben got some special Cars valentines ready to send in the mail.  One of the days we read this book. We love all the books in this series!  Then, Ben made a moose like the one in the story.  He also practiced measuring. I used the wooden cubes from his block set as our unit of measurement. Then, I had him pick out a few things from the kitchen to measure. I got a chart ready and had him make a prediction before he measured each item.  Seeing how many cubes he needs for the Cheerios box. I thought he did a great job with his predictions. The first one he measured was the chocolate syrup. After that one, he was either one off the actual amount or right on the dot. He was really into the measuring, so after the paper was full we just kept pulling stuff out of the pantry to measure.

Being from Michigan, it has been interesting to hear everyone freaking out this week about the blizzard. Thankfully, I got groceries this weekend and did not need to be a part of the madness that was going on at the area grocery stores. On Tuesday, there was probably only about three inches of snow outside and all of the schools were cancelled. It made me laugh. Growing up, I remember spending many mornings digging my car out of the driveway, so that I could get to school. Memories like those are a big part of the reason I am NOT a fan of winter. :) This morning we had maybe a foot of snow. Curt did not have to go into work, but has been working from his computer at home. He took a break this morning to help me shovel the driveway. When we were out shoveling, it was funny to watch Ben try to walk through the yard. It was pretty deep for a three year old! It seemed like all of our neighbors were out with snow blowers and one came down to our house and finished up our driveway....