Hannah's Open House

Hannah was super excited about her school Open House.  She loves pretending to be a tour guide and leading us around.  And we love seeing all the things she made at school.  I can't believe next year we'll have two kids at school.

This is her personality t-shirt.  She typed all the adjectives to describe herself.  SOAR relates to the school discipline model because she "always follows the rules."

They used an app to add things to her picture and create a new "relative."  It took me a long time to find hers because she looks so different!

Another app made their pictures look old.  She makes a beautiful old lady.

You can tell she is Steve's daughter.

The class spent a week being design engineers and building projects out of junk.  Of course Hannah LOVED it because this is what she does in her free time at home.  Her group made this water bottle holder so they wouldn't have to go to the water fountain so much.  The water is stored in the "tank" above and then you pour it into your water bottle below.

She writes in her school journal every day.  This was her entry about open house.

Random Pictures From My Phone

Here are some winter pictures off my phone:

My Olive with olives.  She has turned into my shopping buddy this year.

This is definitely from awhile ago because we haven't seen snow in months!

Olive and I volunteer in Hannah's school library every other Tuesday.  After Hannah picks out her book she does a story time with Olive.  I love seeing Hannah with her class because I get to know the other kids that she talks about.  I've also learned a lot about the Dewey Decimal system. :)

A ferris wheel is always a good cure for the winter blahs.

Olive and I spend a lot of time in the pick-up lane waiting to pick up Hannah from school.

I volunteered to help the first grade Jump Rope for Heart day.  

Jumping + cell phone camera = not very good pictures.

We have not seen much snow this winter because it was 70 degrees in February!

I volunteered at Olive's pre-K for Dr. Seuss Day and I helped the kids make some hats.

Hannah in Black and White

Hannah has been looking so grown up lately.  She is only six, but I think she could pass for ten.  But one day she requested her hair in two french braids and then she wore a headband, too.  I'm not sure why, but it made her look young again.  I asked to take her picture and she gave me this sweet smile with no teeth.  It looks so HANNAH.  This is how she always looks in my head.  She had that same sweet smile at age two.

Gymnastics

So we are doing gymnastics again.  The girls really liked it when we did a trial month in October.  We started back up in January at a new gym that is closer to our house with smaller class sizes, too.  The girls love the gym because there is an indoor playplace to use while you wait for class and every class ends with time in the bounce house.  Besides having fun, they are really learning a lot!  It is really fun to watch how much they have improved.  Hannah is becoming more graceful and Olive is getting stronger.  I tried to take some pictures, but they are through glass so they aren't the best.

Olive waving to Hannah

Library Fun

We don't get to go on my adventures with Hannah anymore since she is in school all day, so we were very excited that she had Presidents' Day off.  We went to Tinkering Tots at the library.

Mc Valentine's Day Take 2

The McGuires visited us on Valentine's Day, just like last year.  On Friday the girls had their school parties, which was a little complicated because they are at different schools.  I picked up Olive a little early so I could run Hannah's classroom party.  It was very simple with just BINGO and a craft.  And I am so thankful that she decorated her sack at school so we didn't have to do that.  #Lazymom

making fingerprint bookmarks

Olive read in the corner during the party...

until it was treat time and of course she wanted to join us for that.

And the best part of Valentine's Day is looking through all the valentines when you get home.

 I have very few pictures of the weekend, but it was mostly spent playing games.  Adults included.  We played so many games of Settlers of Catan.  And I actually won one of them!

Since the McGuires were visiting we invited some other Rolla friends over for a party.  We ended up with 12 adults and 9 kids...and all I have is this one picture of the Baileys.  We said everyone should dress up for a fancy party and Dad didn't disappoint.

Olive Quotes

(it is barely sprinkling outside)
me:  More rain please!
Olive:  Mama, the clouds can't hear you.
me:  They can't?
Olive:  No.  You would have to be in an airplane and open the window and then say it.  Then it would rain.

Olive: I have kids.
me:  I don't think that is possible.
Olive:  Yes.  I am a very young mom.
me:  Yes you are.  How many kids do you have?
Olive:  Three.  One really old one and then two others.
me:  How old is your oldest?
Olive:  Three years old!  The others are two.
me:  And how old are you?
Olive:  Four.

Olive:  Knock knock.
me:  Who is there?
Olive:  What did the eggplant say to the banana?
me:  What?
Olive: Can I cook you?  That's funny because there is no such thing as an eggplant banana!
me:  (laughing)
Olive:  Mama, why do you laugh so easy?  It wasn't that funny.

Olive (chanting to herself):  Life is good.  Life is good.  You know that, you know that.  Life is good.
me:  I like that.  Why are you saying it?
Olive:  Because life is good.
me:  Why is it good?
Olive:  Because of all the good things that happen to you in your life.  It's good.

Olive loves to FaceTime Grandma and walk around with the phone in her hand showing her all over the house.
me:  Olive, it's time to say goodbye.  Let Grandma get off the phone.
Olive:  Bye, bye! (hangs up)  Why did I have to hang up?
me:  Because you have been talking forever.
Olive:  No I didn't.  I didn't talk for a whole life.  I'm not even five yet!

Toy and Miniature Museum

My parents were in town so we took them to the Toy and Miniature Museum.  It recently reopened after a renovation.  It was the first visit for both girls and grandparents.  Hannah really likes miniatures so she was excited about going.  Olive did not think she was going to like it but she got more excited when she was there, although it was probably more for the grandparents than the museum. :)  It was fun to go with my parents so they could reminisce about toys of their childhood and also toys of my childhood.  

My childhood toys are now in a museum.

Favorite Activities

The girls still love playing together and they spend about 95% of their free time doing the following:

Lego

 Mostly they build all sorts of vehicles and airplanes for a "war" that never actually takes place.

Science experiments and making potions

 Building things out of paper and cardboard.  On Earth Day in kindergarten Hannah made "toys from trash" and the obsession has grown from there.  Olive has told me, "Check with us before you throw anything way.  I can probably use it."  I think Olive creates something with paper just about every day.  Below are "flying things" they made out of things in the recycling bin.

And almost every night they request "wrestling with Dada."  It mainly consists of jumping on his back (Hannah), some ninja kicks (Olive), and lots of tickling (Steve).  In this picture they are all trying to attack me.  It might be my favorite picture ever.

I don't have a picture, but they also love playing cards and board games.  Every week we have family game night.  I should probably take some pictures and do a post about that sometime.