Some of March

I finally loaded some pictures to the computer so I thought I'd try and catch up a little. We had fun this month but it was also a long month. There was sickness on and off and I'm feeling pretty worn out from it all. It started the end of February when Anna picked up pink eye somewhere and caught a nasty cold and it's been a rocky road since.

A lot of television was watched this past month.

We did do a lot of crafts this month too. 

Anna working on her pot of gold.

 Jane caught the cold too and a WEEK after Anna had pink eye Jane had it too. Eye drops on little kids is not fun although they got pretty good at it by the end of it all. 

The girls have moments where they play really well together. Of course there are other times when you hear Anna yelling things like "just leave me alone Jane!" or random screaming over a toy. Jane wants to do everything Anna is doing and sometimes they just need alone time.

Anna giving Jane a check up

 It is so wonderful when they are getting along though.

Sister Love!

Anna ended up with an ear infection after her bad cold lending to another trip to the doctor. At that point I think it was only the second trip of the month. We didn't do antibiotics at that point because we thought it was viral. A few days later Jane had an ear infection too. We skipped antibiotics again but it was another trip to see the doctor. She ended up getting over it on her own. During this time Anna's cough was just getting worse despite the inhalers so we eventually made our way to walk in clinic again. At this point the doctor thought her ears still looked infected so we finally gave in and put her on amoxicillin. Anna finally started getting better but trouble set in from this which I will get to later. 

We celebrated several birthday's this month and also meant several trips to Topeka. One weekend it was in Topeka for a HUGE Copp family birthday (I think there were 10 or more people being celebrated that day). I managed to get zero pictures of this. The following weekend we had our friend Ethan's 3rd birthday party.

The party was the week before Easter so they had an egg hunt in the back yard which the kids LOVED. It was Jane's first hunt and she was thrilled every time she found an egg. We had a great time.

After that party we were Topeka bound again to celebrate Grandma's birthday. James and Michelle set up a bunch of 'Minute to Win It' games and we had a blast playing. It was fun catching up with everyone and being silly. We even managed to get a family picture in!

Right after this Kevin had a trip to Germany and was gone 5 days. This ended up being a rough week for me and I have never been happier to have Kevin home! I will give more details in another post (most of my pictures are on my phone so it will be easier to just make a separate blog entry) but Anna ended up with Serum Sickness Like Reaction from the amoxicillin she'd taken. There were 3 doctor's visit this week.

Anyway, there was one day in particular where Anna got to watch a TON of television. On the other days we tried to do Easter crafts and science experiments to keep busy which were a big hit.

A lesson in color absorption

 Anna made her first hypothesis and we talked about what that meant.  

We also put a couple of eggs in vinegar and both girls loved looking and holding the eggs without a shell. 

I thought everyone was healthy this last week but now Anna has another cold and a nasty cough. I hate that every cold she gets leads to terrible cough. We are really hoping she outgrows this asthma/reactive airway. 

January and February Fun

I feel like I've been trying to work on this particular post for a month. It was originally going to be a recap of January but since it is now March it is going to be a recap of February too.

It's been a busy couple of months so far. We've had a few nice days here and there but lots of inside play. I think we are all ready for spring but we've managed to stay somewhat busy indoors. I finally found the time to make cupcakes with the girls. 

They loved helping. This is really the first time I've let Jane help with this sort of activity and she was thrilled to be taking part. I can't really stop her since she can climb up on the learning tower by herself now.

We decorated a box one day which was a big hit.

Table dancing!

The girls helped Daddy put together a shelf.

We did lots of Valentine crafts including heart-shaped crayons!

Jane is very into play dough so we've doing a lot more of that lately.

We've also been trying to do more science experiments lately. This one was pretty cool. It was a snowstorm in a jar. Baby oil, white paint and alka seltzer = Big Hit!

Olathe East High School was putting on a performance of Mary Poppins and I decided to take Anna to it. It was her first musical and she did amazing for her age. After almost every scene she would ask me...is it over? She also had lots of other questions throughout and was always concerned about where the kids went. She was a little restless during Act II and wanted lots of snacks but for how long a musical is I was impressed. A matinee would have been better but we couldn't go that weekend. 

Anna's first musical!

Cousin fun with Hailie when she and Grandma came to visit.

We went with Thomas, Serena, and Adell to the zoo one weekend. It was a gorgeous weekend and it was fun getting together. 

I just love these pictures. Their butts are so cute!

The best I could do at a picture of everyone.

I need to load a bunch of pictures from my phone but we'll see if I ever get around to that. 

10 Years!

Celebrating 10 years with this guy today. Much has changed over the last 10 years but we still make a great team. I sure do love you Kevin!

Zoo trip

We had a Saturday that wasn't crazy cold so we decided to make a trip out to the zoo. It has been nearly a year since we've been to the KC zoo and it was time. We renewed our Friends of the Zoo membership that we had lapsed on last year so there will definitely be more trips coming up. They were bringing out ice for Berlin, the polar bear, to play in and the girls were excited about it. 

Waiting while they brought the ice out

 Anna had learned all about polar bears and penguins during one of her Young Explorers classes. She started going to these last December. They are in 3 week sessions: 1 day a week for 2 hours and each session has a different theme. The first one was North Pole, South Pole, then W is for Winter, and she just started one called Mad Scientist. She loves going and seeing Miss Kelsey who does a great job leading the class. They read books, do arts and crafts, and experiments. All things Anna loves! Anyway, it was fun to get and see both a polar bear and a penguin after her class. She even remembered that polar bears "live on top" and penguins "live on bottom" referring to the North and South pole!

Anxiously waiting for Berlin.

Finally!

Pretty happy.

The polar bear exhibit was right by some picnic tables so we set up there and we were able to eat and watch the polar bears after the crowd scattered.

Then we went inside to warm up a bit before checking out the penguins and small aquarium. They had an old piano in there for the kids to play on.

We also got to check out the Orangutan exhibit which opened last summer. 

We're excited to go again soon. The Africa loop is 1 mile long so we haven't been in quite some time. There is so much to see at that zoo!

Activity School!

The biggest thing to probably happen in January was that Jane started going to Activity School with Anna! I'd been looking forward to the prospect of 2 1/2 hours to myself every Thursday for a couple months but I didn't want to get my hopes up. We did a walk-in the first day before enrolling but it went AWESOME so she is officially enrolled!

On the first day she was eager to take off her shoes and finally get to go into the gym. She's been watching Anna get dropped off for months now and sometimes stands at the door saying things like "ball" or "balloon" depending on what they had out that day. There were some tears for about 5 minutes once she realized that Mommy wouldn't be joining. The staff there is great about getting the kids walking and distracted and Anna was also a HUGE help. She was thrilled that Jane would be coming and stayed with her until she stopped crying. She's only cried a couple of other times since then. The third week of drop off and once when she saw me in the window right before class was over one day. I stayed the entire first class but now I have some kid free time!

Anna walking with Jane at the start of class.

I had intended to post about this earlier but I was waiting until Jane's shirt came in. They look so cute! 

 Anna really thinks she is hot stuff now that her little sister is in class with her since she knows the ropes. She will report back to me if Jane cried, didn't eat her snack, had to go with the little kids for a bit, etc. 

These two silly things make me smile so much and I'm so glad they have this class they can do together. 

Christmas 2015!

We were in Topeka a lot between Christmas and New Years and we had such a nice time being able to spend so much time with family. Both sets of grandparents had time off and Uncle Joe was in town and we had a wonderful time.

Adell was over and this girls had fun decorating felt gingerbread men and playing with play dough. 

Anna sure loves those doggies. Especially Buster. 

Helping Daddy with Christmas treats.

Gift opening was a little crazy with both kiddos running around. Anna had a hard time with waiting to play with things much like she did at her birthday but this was even more tough. There was more time in between each gift since everyone was opening presents and it made it tough for her to keep focused. 

Daddy with his girls

It was so fun to see how excited the girls got when it was their turn or they were helping someone else open a present. 

Jane just ran around the room and rolled around on the floor. She was pretty cute!

The girls were all happy to be able to play with the new toys once we were all done.

Jane giving Aunt Serena a checkup.

I really wanted a picture of all of us this Christmas even though I knew it would be a challenge. They aren't perfect but I love them and they pretty much capture our goofy family perfectly. 

On Christmas Day we went over to my parents house before heading out to Auburn to see the Copp family. Managed to get this awesome picture while opening presents over there. 

Once again Jane spent some quality time on the floor.

I never got a good picture of the girls in their Christmas dresses but they looked adorable (I know I'm biased).

Lovely in red!

A reluctant snuggle with Mommy.

Jane took to Aunt Loa's husband, Paul, and practically climbed in his lap to read books. She may have made her Great-Grandmother a little jealous.

Jane hadn't napped and was getting a little goofy. she was so happy to be running around outside!

Anna loved it too! 

I wonderful Christmas and some much needed time off for Kevin. We kind of like having him around ;) We hope everyone else had an amazing Christmas as well!