On to 2015!

Here we are... 2015!  On a personal level, I am hoping for a much better year this year!  We had a pretty low-key New Year's this year.  The kids and I went to the Children's Museum, which was fun.  Not only do the kids get to blow off a lot of steam, they had fun New Year's activities there too!  After baths and some funny pictures, we had a family movie night complete with snacks and treats.  Jack chose to watch "Stuart Little."  That boy loves his mice (books, movies, you name it!). 

We made a couple trips to the Children's Museum in the past month.  The first was on New Year's Eve.  Jack and Maddy spent a lot of time playing in the traveling exhibit which was all about farming and agriculture.  We went back again mid-January for Star Wars night.  It was crazy busy that night, but the kids still got some good quality play time in.  Although the picture with the storm trooper doesn't appear that way, Maddy was significantly more excited to see all the characters than Jack.  Jack enjoyed it, but just not to the crazy level of his sister.  Maddy gave every character multiple high-fives throughout the night!

We've had THREE days off from school since the New Year from cold and snow.  The first one was a cold day, which means lots of indoor time together.  We played games, danced, colored, dressed up as pirates, you name it!  Jack has found a new love for Monopoly so we have played it many times!

We had some pretty nice weather leading up to last week and Lily and I took advantage with many walks!  Last week we had two more days off, which were both snow days.  The first one was Monday after a big batch of snow on Sunday (about 6-7 inches).  We started the morning with pancakes (always a snow day favorite).  We tried playing outside in the morning, but didn't last long as it was frigid!  We ended up having another snow day two days later when another 3-4 inches fell right during the morning commute.  Daddy anticipated this snow day and brought home donuts for the kids.  They were psyched!  Wednesday's snow day was much nicer weather, so the kids actually played outside twice that day and loved every minute of it!  Now the weather is warming up and the snow will likely be gone within in a few days.  :(  I don't like the driving, scooping & messiness of it all, but I sure love the kids' enjoyment of being able to play!  

To end our snow day fun on Wednesday, Maddy started complaining of an ear ache right before supper.  It was a really rough night of sleep (for all of us) because she was in so much pain.  I ended up sleeping with her in our bed and Bryan slept on the couch.  Bryan took her to the pediatrician the next morning to find that she had a double ear infection with her right ear so bad that it started draining.  Poor babe! She had a cold the week before, so I wish she had told us that her ear was hurting sooner!  She played all day long and never acted like anything was wrong.  She's on the mend now and the worst is over (except the ear drops... she HATES them!).  With that, I wish everyone a happy and healthy 2015!!!