What's Cookin', Good Lookin'?

My girls making cookies together

Wow, have we been busy with activities around here?! The first week of March we celebrated Steve's 46th birthday. Jacob's scholastic bowl meets began that week as well. That weekend was the high school spring musical. Mikaela played a mission band member in "Guys and Dolls", singing and playing her flute.

Cast and Crew

Mikaela, Chelsea, Kristin, Hope

Mikaela, Chelsea, Bethany, Seth, Abby, Kristin, Hope

Mission girls showing a little leg

That Saturday morning, Steve and the boys participated in their first Sumo Robotics competition. It was fun to watch them compete, and they came away with 2nd place overall. In addition to the 2nd place certificate, they won 2 robot kits and lunch out with Grandpa and Grandma.

Can you tell we are Mac users?

Last weekend the kids enjoyed the school carnival. Gus and Margie came over to play with Maimie one day this week, and we took advantage of the beautiful weather by eating a picnic lunch on the lawn. Thursday Mikaela participated in the Heart of Illinois Chorus workshop and finished with a concert that evening. The workshop consisted of several area students from various school districts. Joseph missed three days of school this week from a high fever that turned into a positive strep culture on Friday. Thankfully he's feeling better now.
Tomorrow begins a week of spring break. Even daddy is off of work. We are looking forward to a relaxing week.

Lovin' the hairdo ( Yikes, don't look at the kitchen counter in the background!)

Smile-off

Is there anything more adorable than a toddler?

Maimie just makes us all grin. Her little feet, her Curious George-bandaged fingers, her crooked-parted pigtails, those big deep eyes, the fashionable ensembles she wears, and the new pink sparkly princess shoes (which, it turns out, actually match any outfit--handy!). The beauty of a toddler, in my opinion, is that everything they do is cute. Even if they are doing average things that any toddler can do, it's just special.

Time to clean out the fridge

Maimie has a long way to go in being understood well verbally, but she is making a lot of effort. We generally know what she is saying or can approximately get the idea. She is doing toddler skills such as: counting to 12, recognizing 1-10, recognizing all 26 letters (upper and lower cases), colors, shapes, drawing lines and circles (and an occasional letter or number), etc. She has begun to know the sounds that letters make and can say 11 of the 26 now.  In addition, she can say 1-10 in Chinese after watching one of the Jade Chinese tapes.  

Is that a match?

She loves to sing and dance and pretend she's doing tai chi. She sings the ABC song fairly well, some praise songs, and a few others. A couple of weeks ago in the church lunch line she broke into a little "We Will Rock You" by Queen. A proud moment...especially since it came out as clear as a bell. She still loves anything by the Newsboys (especially In Christ Alone) and sings with exuberance and emotion. Maimie's all-time favorite song...--drum roll, please--"Away in a Manger". Yeah, she should be pretty fantastic at it by the time Christmas rolls around again.

I'm going to need some serious orthodontics

After playing the Winnie the Pooh honeypot game about a gazillion times, Maimie now "matches" everything. Colors, numbers, objects, you name it. She especially likes to quiz me as to whether something is a match or not. If I get it right, I'm rewarded with a "Great job, honey! You're so super at matching!". She calls all of us honey alot. It sounds so funny coming from her little miniature body!

Making valentine handprints--"Mudder, I love my paw!"

Maimie insists on praying by herself at meals now and can pretty clearly say,"Dear God, thank you for food. Amen.". She also tells me that God made her and that God made me, too.

A rare February porch picnic

One of Maimie's favorite things to do is reading books. She has been partial to "Seven Chinese Sisters" lately, but anything will do. Last night she told Jacob," I'll huff and puff, and blow you house down". Then she blew at him real softly. Jacob just cracked up.

Jacob dressed as a lawyer on career day at school

Joseph as a scientist on career day