Both girls worked with Grandma to sew swim bags. It was fun to think about summer, the pool and swimming!

Lily’s bag is a beach towel folded up with a pocket and straps.

Sylvia made a large bag with lots of pockets to hold all the things she needs to take to the pool.

We made lots of baby food for Aliyah. Sylvia’s cutting up apples for applesauce.

Aliyah loves it!

Both girls had so much fun playing with their cousin.

Sunday morning, after the baptism.

Reading on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

Last weekend was Valentine’s Day – one of our favorite holidays. We made Valentine bookmarks to give to our friends.

The girls practiced their sewing skills before starting in on the bookmarks.

We ate at the counter pretty much the whole time Jon was in Tanzania because our table was covered with our crafting!

February 14 – Valentine’s Day and the Pleasant Valley Valentine Party.  We love this party!  The kids just finished exchanging Valentines and now they are looking through their boxes.

We play fun games, like the Valentine Suck Relay (the unofficial name). The kids have to suck up hearts with straws and transport them to the other side of the room.

We sing songs and dance, too.

And here’s Lily in the cookie machine!

Not quite as exciting but fun nonetheless was our participation in the Great Backyard Bird Count last weekend. We went to Lake Meyer with some friends to count birds there – 11 different species!

We counted 8 different species at home.

At this time of year, our thoughts turn to spring. The days are getting longer (but certainly not warmer) and we love looking at the seed catalogs. We finally got our order together and Sylvia happily ordered our seeds on line.

Science Fun. The goggles are a must – you never know when the yeast will explode. 🙂

Or when a bottle will erupt with “elephant toothpaste.”

And moving right along from science to pretzels. Kitchen chemistry takes all forms!

“You mean we have to clean up now?!”

Remember the mushrooms I started earlier in January? Here they are, popping out of the box.  They were fun to watch and good to eat!

More kitchen chemistry. Again, safety first.

And more cooking. We made food for 2 families – it was Sylvia’s idea to bring meals to our friends. Lily is cutting up spaghetti for the Spaghetti Pie.

Sylvia cutting veggies.  Or something like that.

Spaghetti Pie! Oven ready.

Lily made cookies to go along with the meal. She’s not that into cooking, but she’ll make anything that has sugar in it!  🙂