Building our Snowman

Keep Austin Weird...

Sunday was 75 degrees. Tuesday we have snow sticking to the ground. Now that is WEIRD!

The New Playscape

We purchased a playscape from Costco a couple weekends ago, and after a few false starts with other potential people, we had two firefighters come this past Sunday to put it together. There are a few remaining items Bill will put onto it to complete it, but it is assembled and safe enough for the kids to use. Sunday night, after bath, we let the girls go out and try out the swings. Tonight, after work, they went out there while I prepared dinner. Not a single issue and all I heard was laughing and "push me higher"! Love this playscape.

Emma's I Can Teach Night

Emma hosted Bill and me last night at her school, and taught us Montessori lessons she's been mastering at school. We were so proud of her, but better yet, she was so proud of herself for showing us so many of her lessons. She was a great teacher!

Lesson #1 - Continents. Based on the color, Emma knows the name of the continent (it matches both a flat puzzle and globe in their room). She lays out the names of the continents on her mat, then matches various animals living on each continent, and calls out all the names of the animals as she matches them to their continent.

Lesson #2 - The pink tower. Emma taught us about matching the different size cubes to their 2-D squares on each card. Then, she created the tower from biggest cube to smallest cube.

Lesson #3 - Screwing Work (what a lot of people would like to do I'm sure with their jobs...and try not to giggle when your child brings this over and says what they are working on). This is working on gross motor skills and Emma finds the correct size nut to correspond to the bolt, then connects them all. They make it tricky because they have extra bolts that do not fit any of the nuts, and she is able to quickly figure out which ones go with each other. I just loved watching her concentration on this lesson.

Clean-Up: Here is my future engineer hard at work, ensuring her mat is perfectly rolled up. She was so serious about getting this perfectly aligned.

Lauren Ran a MARATHON*

*26.2 miles, 1 mile a week for 26 weeks

Lauren started running a mile every Monday just shortly after school started through a program at school called Marathon Kids. Last week she completed her 26.2 miles and Monday received her awards medal for such a great accomplishment. She went up to get her medal from the coaches, and her first response to me when she came back was "When can I start my next one?".

Outside Play

This past weekend was beautiful, well until the cold front came through Sunday afternoon and dropped the temperature about 20 degrees, but before that we spent a lot of time outside playing. The girls found mud in the backyard and made all sorts of delicious muddy creations. My jasmine vines have already started blooming fragrant yellow flowers, so the girls could not resist picking some and smelling.
Lauren decided to set up school for Emma and their friend Carter. I like the use of all our carseats as classroom chairs, and how intense Lauren's students are focusing on whatever lesson being taught.

Emma Hard at Work

Some of Emma's favorite stations at school are in the home living center. Here is a picture school sent to us this week. Now if we could just copy this at home...

Scout Sunday

Today was Scout Sunday at church, and Lauren participated by handing out bulletins and passing the offering plates in the balcony, which was her favorite part since we don't ever sit up there. After church, we headed downtown for another Scouting event, watching UT Women's basketball play against Texas Tech. I was wondering (hoping) that Bevo the UT Longhorn mascot would be there, and that the girls would get over their phobia of large stuffed animals. At first, they didn't want to go, but I finally got them to get a picture. After that point, Lauren would not leave Bevo alone. He was up in our section of stands quite a lot during the game and Lauren kept following him around, and he would rub her hair for good luck. They were also tickling each other and laughing. Emma was at first nervous, but before she could really think about it, Bevo reached out and touched her nose - she was "hooked" too.

A Post for Emma

I realized the recent posts are all centered around Lauren, so a post dedicated to Emma.

Roller Skating with Troop 411

Lauren's January event with her Daisy troop was a service unit level roller skating party. We had so much fun and Lauren got the hang of it really quickly. I hadn't been on roller skates since junior high and took me a little longer. I loved that the roller skates were still "old school" tan canvas with orange wheels.

Lauren's First Bowling Event

Lauren was invited to her friend Cameron's 6th birthday party, which was held at a bowling alley and arcade place here in town. Lauren was so excited because she is awesome at Wii bowling. I told her it'd be a little different, but she did really well. It helped that the bumpers were up and she used the ramp thing to guide the ball right down the center. I can't wait to go back with Emma and Bill.

Lauren's First Loose Tooth

So, this actually occurred Monday, Jan 18th, but it has been a whirlwind last two weeks, that I'm just now getting to all our activities. I was in St. Paul, MN when Lauren called to tell me she'd yanked her own tooth out and was really excited for the tooth fairy. Fast forward to Tuesday morning, and I received a call telling me the tooth fairy had left a dollar with a 5 on it under her pillow. The tooth fairy asked for advice on Facebook on the going rate for the first tooth - clever.