wooptedoo

I'm not great at doing big fun, thoughtful things for holidays like Valentine's day. I did pull through with some sugar cookies. They were Lauren's special request in our newly alotted 15 minute increments. Every day after school for each hour, I give each girl 15 minutes to decide what we do (but all of us can partipate in the activity) - then I get 15 minutes to get stuff done around the house. We've done it for 3 days now and I wouldn't call it a perfect system, but it has made me focus more on what the kids are doing. I sort of figured that I wasn't seeming to get anything done anyway, so at least I might as well be having fun with the kids in the meantime. Brooke and Ashley have picked basketball, soccer and studying for a test so far. Lauren picked making the cookies, which of course meant she thought her name should be on ALL the cookies.

But her sisters thought it would be better if everyone got their own cookie. Brooke actually put the "I love U" part on her own cookie (and it probably looks better than I would have done - don't tell her that)

It was such a beautiful day it seemed tragic to spend it all indoors, so we went to our favorite wandering spot over in the canyon. It was really wet still from the rain, and we could totally see where the water had risen substiantially higher and rinsed the whole area out. Lauren's favorite part was the new grass that was growing all over - it was still pretty short so she liked to lean down and feel it beause it tickled her hand. Fox' favorite was either the running water or this leaf that he was trying to reach while we were taking their picture. He was so psyched when he got it (of course, he immediately tried to eat it)!

Happy Valentine's Day.