A Visitor from the Great White North

A few weeks ago Grandma Brenda came for a visit. (Grandpa Paul had a work trip to Georgia planned and couldn’t make it, much to Will’s dismay.) She ended up coming a day earlier than planned to escape a massive snow storm headed toward Wisconsin, and seemingly brought with her the freezing cold temperatures and snowy weather of the North, i.e. the snowpocalypse.

We had a great time with Grandma, despite the chilly weather keeping us indoors for much of the time she was here. We visited the Brazos County children’s museum for the first time (not much to write home about, but at least the county has a children’s museum), went out to lunch and to play at the indoor playground at McDonald’s, baked and decorated Valentine’s Day and Packers cookies, shopped at Target for new games for the kids, watched movies, and cheered the Packers on to a Super Bowl victory. Come back soon, Grandma!

Hallie and Grandma enjoy "My First Book of Numbers".


Hallie enjoys train tables, not so much for the trains, but because she likes to walk around like a giant on them when she thinks no one is looking.


Hallie works on an art project, and Grandma and Will play a game of chess. (Actually their game was more like checkers, but with chess pieces and VERY loose rules.)


Part of the cookie assembly line - Grandma rolled cookie dough, I helped the kids cut out cookies, I baked cookies, Grandma frosted cookies, and then the kids put sprinkles on cookies while I tried to contain the mess.


TOUCHDOWN PACKERS! (Note #1: yes, Hallie is wearing a nightgown over her clothes. Note #2, Aunt Sara, I think Hallie's winning the contest. :))

Wordless Wednesday

Fort Lunch

While I wait for Tom to upload my pictures from the last three weeks to Picasa (my computer doesn't have the software, so I'm at his mercy when it comes to this step in the blogging process), I thought I'd post a couple of posts on rather random topics for which I already have uploaded photo documentation. Hopefully by Thursday I'll be back to "catching up" - next up are Grandma Brenda's visit, Hallie's 22-month-old bath pictures, and our recent vacation to Orlando!

I'm all about coming up with clever ways to encourage Hallie to eat well-rounded meals, so a few weeks ago I tried feeding the kids lunch in a fort in Will's room. Will and Hallie thoroughly enjoyed the experience, but Hallie ate her typical one-cracker-and-one-bite-of-apple lunch just like she would have if she'd been sitting at the kitchen table.

Say and/or eat cheese!

Genius?

We're going out of town tomorrow morning (we're headed to Orlando for a conference of Tom's and to visit AJ, Grandpa Mike, and Grandma Susie) so I wanted to get in one more post before taking a brief leave from blogging. See you next Tuesday!

Could we have a genius on our hands?

Experiment #1
Erin: “Hallie, can you count to ten?”
Hallie: “YES! One, two, sree, four, fise, sis, senen, eight, nine, sen!”
Erin: “Very good! Let’s try something else. Hallie, what’s one plus one?”
Hallie: “Purple!”
Erin: “And what’s two plus two?”
Hallie: “Banana!”

Result #1: It’s safe to say Hallie is NOT a mathematical genius. At least not yet.

Experiment #2
Tom: “Hallie, what color is your dress?”
Hallie: “Football!”
Tom: “Hallie, we JUST talked about this. Tell Mama what color your dress is.”
Hallie: “Piddy!” (Pretty)

Result #2: So, Hallie’s not a genius with regard to her colors either.

Wordless Wednesday

Piano Hands

Tom is a very good piano player, especially when it comes to playing by ear. The kids love this about him, because they can request a song and then hear it performed live just a few minutes later. Some of their most frequent requests, at least these days, include I Want to Hold Your Hand, Elmo’s Song, Life is a Highway, Little Einsteins, and Poker Face (they have eclectic tastes). When Tom takes Hallie’s requests she insists on sitting on the piano bench and tickling the ivories along with him, making for some interesting duets.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day from Texas, happy birthday to Aunt Chandi, and happy anniversary to Grandpa Paul and Grandma Brenda!

And a little Valentine's Day Will-ism...

"Look Mama - this Valentine that Sophie gave to me has X's and O's on it! It's a tic-tac-toe card!"

(Important note from the photographer: It took 177 pictures to get this one - one where both Will and Hallie are smiling, looking at the camera, and holding their signs the right way. The picture would be better if Hallie weren't holding a pretzel and the kids hadn't inched their way onto the dirt patch in the corner of the yard, but after 20 minutes of picture taking Tom was pretty tired of dancing behind me and trying to get the kids to cooperate. :))