Second half of February

On the 18th the kids tried on crazy St. Patty's hats at WalMart.

That night, I tried a new Pioneer Woman recipe: Corn & Cheese Chowder. It was sooooo yummy!

The 20th was President's Day and Faith didn't have school. The kids had a sleepover in the family room with a tent made of blankets over chairs. Here, they took a picture with the timer feature on my camera while they ate oatmeal.

That afternoon, we made berry hand pies (which we hoped would taste a lot more like the tarts at Utah Shakespearean Festival than they actually did) and pretzel log cabins.

The next morning we started off Mardi Gras with a Pancake Tuesday breakfast--purple, green and gold mini pancakes!

Faith had to dress up for her oral book report on Betsy Ross and I had sewn her an old-timey bonnet for the occasion. Her "shawl" was the baby blanket I crocheted for her blessing over ten years ago!

I found this cute printable paper Storm Trooper and Christian had fun making him a gun out of sparkly paper and playing with him that day.

I made jambalaya in the crock pot for our crazy small-holiday celebration,

and decorated mini King cakes (which were actually brownies baked in a muffin tin).

On the 22nd Faith lost her last baby tooth. That girl is growing up way too fast!

The 29th was Leap Day. We wanted to celebrate in style, but I had my personal trainer appointment in Ogden that threatened to put a kink into our plans. Luckily, we worked it out for me to pull Faith out of school about an hour early, then drop off the kids with Joy and her kids at Kangaroo Zoo in Ogden. I met up with them after my appointment and the kids "leapt" around all afternoon! We left just as a big snowstorm moved in, but we made it home safely. For dinner we had Cornish hen (just because we couldn't think of a special "leap" dinner, but it sure looks leggy on their plates!) but I made a new twist on Frog's Eye salad for dessert. I used Lana's "Orange Dream Salad" recipe (similar here) which already has tapioca, but I made it with blue jello and blueberries. It was okay, but it's best with raspberry jello and raspberries, I think!

I had them fill out an "every four year time capsule" paper of questions, do a frog maze and gave them rainbow gummy frogs.

They even made origami frogs! Lots of leaping for us on Leap Day :)

Here is some artwork that has been up on the wall. This is a Valentine card that Christian made for Faith at preschool. I love that the dinosaur is a pocket which holds the heart!

Here's the inside, he sure loves his sister!

This is a panda climbing some bamboo. Again, he made this for Faith because she loves pandas.

And a beautiful design he drew with a rose for me ❤ 

This is a thank-you card drawn for me from my niece Alaura. She had gotten a "assemble it yourself" crocheted panda kit for Christmas, but it came missing one arm. I tried to replicate the included one and she was glad to have it completed.

We sure had a fun month of holidays!