Snow and life

Well it continues to be a challenge to blog regularly. I miss it and will continue to work to do it more often.

Two snow days in the past week. Ally has had fun sledding after each storm and one day Becky took her and Olive to our local hill. 

 

 

 A recent snow day Ally went over to Sophocles house and played monopoly with him and another classmate Lizzie. Ally beat them!!!

 

Sophocles has dwarf hamsters. They are tiny and he has a lot of them. He started with 2, then there were 6 babies and then 5 more babies. Yes 13 hamsters. He has since given 1 away and 1 died a tragic sad death so there are currently 11. 

 

Ally baked cookies. 

 

And did the dishes after. She did about 90% of the baking and clean up.

 

Cookies got a thumbs up.

 

We have been coloring. Hopefully you have received a valentine from us by now. 

Ally wanted to write a note to her English teacher, who has recently experienced some family tragedy. 

 

It brought tears to Becky and my eyes that Ally wrote such a thoughtful note to her teacher. She did it all on her own, with no prompting or discussion from us on what to say. 

I admit it felt like a parenting win.

Valentine's Day 2017

It was a fun afternoon! Ally did bring Valentine's for her class today, emoji theme of course! After school Becky had a meeting so Ally and did Valentine prep. 

Ally decorated cookies while I made some paper decorations. 

All decked out for our family celebration!

Then it was time to make chocolate covered strawberries.

Ally had fun making them too.

But of course she liked eating a plain strawberry best.

I was impressed with how easy it was. 

It was also a lot of treats. So we asked Sophocles and his mom if they wanted some. They stopped by later on on their way home to get some cookies and strawberries.

Finally Becky came home and it was time for cards and gifts. 

Ally created a scavenger hunt for Becky to find her card. It was adorable. Above Becky is looking for the clue by Cloey's dinosaur (circled above).

Feeling sheepish because she could not locate the dinosaur. 

Next clue was "with the tinker rate boxes"

Over by Cloey's crate.

Finally she found it!

It was from Ally and Cloey (aka Cupug) 

I hot a nice card, flowers and some candy.

Ally got the same Cupug card from Aunt Martha. I guess great minds think alike. 

Ally picked out my card herself. I LOVE IT.

Especially how she underlined things. 

I don't think I could love her more. 

Ally was thrilled that both sets of grandparents sent her money. Thank you.

The last things opened were gifts for Ally. A pillow. I always call her cutie pie.

Some fun candy, thumbtacks and a hamster card...

A waterproof camera!!!!

She was pretty excited. Now she can take videos underwater and at the pool when we are in Florida next week.

At dinner Becky showed off the heart shaped loaf of bread.

Heart shaped pasta!

Fun night.