On The Sunny Side with the Williams Family

Well, somehow we survived another February in Ohio. I refuse to believe this month has a mere 28 days. It seems like the month that never ends. Anyway, it did miraculously come to a close and here are the memories it left behind.

My little Morgan has a summer birthday so her teacher wanted to celebrate her half birthday at school. She was very excited and made a yummy birthday treat to share with her friends. She even practiced wearing her birthday crown by donning this burger king crown she scored on a lunch with Grandpa.

Little did we know that due to illnesses and snow, Morgan would have a THREE WEEK hiatus from preschool! On her half birthday, Morgan had a fever so I kept her home. When her brother and sister came home they went straight to work making her a scavenger hunt for her birthday.

The hunt led them to the basement and Charlie's present- two dollars.

They then headed upstairs to locate Taylor's present.

Taylor also have her two dollars and a fairy doll that was once hers.

I like this photo because it proves that Taylor actually did go to school this month. Although not much!

Some of the most fun I had this month was watching Taylor play volleyball. They improved with each game.

Charlie and Morgan were good little spectators, too.

They even came in first place in a tournament!

Taylor's cousin is a year older than her in school and had lots of games immediately following Taylor's games. We had fun watching her and seeing what one can expect to see from Taylor's team next year.

We didn't have many outings in February aside from Volleyball games, but we did manage to get haircuts for all three kids.

As I mentioned, Morgan and I spent a LOT of time together this month due to her time away from school. She was a good little sport and let me take some photos of her while playing with window light.

We also discovered a new activity which involved dressing her Minnie Mouse up like princesses using playdoh for hair and dresses.

I actually think this photo was from January, but here's Morgan at her preschool Bear Hunt.

We spent the first part of Valentine's Day at the Wells house for dinner before Mark and I headed out for a date. We saw a play together.

Charlie's cub scout den arranged a trip to see a professional hokey game. We decided to take the whole family.

During the first intermission Charlie got to go out on the ice for a friendly game of broom ball with some local mascots!

This was just a photo I had to capture. Here's my cartwheeling, summer clothes wearing daughter. This is a very accurate depiction of her all winter long.

Okay, so remember President's day? February 16th. The kids did not have school so I used the day to pack in as many fun activities as possible. First we made Charlie's crafts from his monthly subscription.

During this, the girls made up some sort of winter princess game.

Then we smashed some of the geodes that Charlie got for Christmas.

Then we played with the rainbow light that Taylor got for Christmas.

That night it started to snow so I attempted some macro shots of snowflakes. I've tried this many times this winter and have yet to get a shot I like.

After dinner the whole family played UNO.

Then I made some hot chocolate and we headed downstairs for some karaoke.

Little did I know that this was the first of NINE DAYS off of school! Yep, they had the entire week off due to snow days after their monday off for President's Day.

I wish I could say that every day was like that Monday, but I am not super mom.

We did have fun, though.

Mark even squeezed in some Math challenges with the big kids.

And when the weather finally warmed up enough to play in the snow, we played HARD.

If you remember our snowmen from past winters, you'll know that this is by far the biggest snowman we've ever accomplished. Thanks to Dad and his wonderful snow packing abilities.

We then finished off our last of Taylor and Grandmama's hot chocolate.

Once we could dig ourselves out, we headed to Grandpa's house for a visit.

Charlie earned his tiger badge at school and celebrated at the Blue and Gold Banquet.

Then after a measly four days of school, the kids had a Friday off. Charlie's cub scout den used the opportunity to tour the PBS station.

It was extremely interesting!

On our way home, the kids had some money burning holes in their pockets and begged me to take them to Target for a little shopping.

They bought some blind bags and blind boxes like the ones they see being opened on youtube.

We came home and made our own little video of them opening their treasures.

Finally, we enjoyed a Fish Fry at church with the Wells family.

(The next night we met them at Frisch's for another family dinner. No photos from that, though.)

Well, that was our snow-bound February. Hopefully next month's Lion phase will be much shorter than it's Lamb.

I don't have many photos to share for January. We've been hibernating this winter.

Taylor did start volleyball this year. She was so fun to watch!

I instituted a no electronic rule for Charlie and Morgan and they had fun cheering her on. Although, if you ask Morgan she'll tell you that she does not watch the game- just the scoreboard.

Mark did a great job teaching her how to serve.

Charlie has been receiving fun craft boxes in the mail (the subscription was a christmas present from his Grandparents). We've had fun constructing them together.