Project Life 2013 | Weeks Seven and Eight

Finally caught up from all the birthday craziness, and tonight, once the kids are in bed, I'll order pictures for this past week and get started on it.

Week Seven February 11-17.  Covers Ian's birthday, Valentine's Day, and birthday parties for both kids. 

The left page and insert.  I included the Valentine's Ian and Annaliese gave their friends, as well as Annaliese's writing on one.  I added some love stickers to a Seafoam filler card to jazz it up a big.  The insert is a birthday certificate from Ians' teacher.

Right page for the week and insert. The insert contains all Ian's birthday cards.  I used two cards from Simple Stories for journaling cards on the right page.  For the birthday spread, I just chose a few pictures, some of which I know I probably won't include when I make actual layouts of their birthday parties for their albums.

 A closer look at the pictures for the week:

Ian had 21 Valentines to address this year.  He wrote "my friend" and "Ian" on all of them himself. By the end, he knew how to spell friend without looking.

Enjoying a cupcake on his actual birthday.  He took Batman cupcakes to school to share with his class and had enough left over for us each to eat one after supper.

Friday night we headed out to Kobe Steakhouse. It was our first time taking the kids to a Japanese steakhouse. Ian loved it, but Annaliese did not.

Food spread for the Star Wars party on Saturday night. We had "han" burgers, Jar Jar links (hot dogs), grape sabers, Vader veggies, Bow-ba Fett pasta, Jedi Juice, Yoda Soda, and Dark Side beer (a local brewery produces a beer called Dark Side).

Rapunzel spread for Annaliese's brunch. Donut tower, fresh fruit, and scrambled eggs and ham served in a frying pan.

Two of my favorite pictures from the party- all the kids in their Jedi robes with their light sabers, and our family before breakfast. 

Week Eight: February 18-24. This was an interesting week in that we had Monday off for President's day, and then had Thursday and Friday off for snow days.

No inserts this week. The right side is entirely devoted to the snow days and playing in the snow.  The left page is mostly devoted to Annaliese and her week of firsts.

A closer look at pictures for this week:

Left picture: I've been bringing home books from work for Ian to read. Annaliese found this one, though, and played school with it constantly. She'd sit and "read" it, saying what she remembered I had said when I read it to her. She'd tell us, "Come sit close if you want to hear a story." Must be what her teachers say.  Right picture- Sunday the diapers came off and the underwear went on, and she's never looked back. She's holding out her hand waiting for her reward for going in the potty.

Sunday was also her first day of swimming lessons ever. You'd never know that because she was completely comfortable in the water; loved jumping in and floating. Such a little fish!

It started snowing Thursday around lunch. With no snow on the ground to play in yet, the kids spent much of the morning at the table coloring in their books. They spent at least an hour straight just sitting there.

While the snow was falling and they'd grown bored of coloring, they watched Peter Pan and Cinderella.

Friday the snow had stopped so we headed outside to play. Ian called me over so I could get a picture of him making a snow angel.

Annaliese wasn't into snow angels or sledding. She likes to be on her feet. She loves to say, "I'm balancing!" and show off her skills.

I saw on pinterest where you freeze food coloring and water inside a balloon, then unwrap them for something cool in the snow. Thing is, they take forever to freeze. I made them with the kids while we were home on Friday morning, but by Friday night they were still water. Saturday morning they seemed frozen, but when we unwrapped them, only the outside was frozen. The water sloshed around on the inside.

So glad in the winter our backyard is a hill so we can sled right here. Ian loves sledding (Annaliese actually did go twice...).  On Saturday, the sun was out, there was no breeze, and it was the perfect snow for building a snowman.

It struck me as a bit ironic that while the kids were busy playing in the 8 inches of snow on Friday, our trees were filled with robins. Guess spring is coming!