While we were gone in VA for two weeks, the kiddos got to spend a lot of time bonding with their older relatives and each other. When we got back, Catherine was pretty distraught and kind of lost when Matthew headed off to preschool without her. Luckily a promise of a tea party remedied that!
And then in true Montana fashion, the older kiddos tiptoed around through a crazy snowstorm looking for a sneaky leprechaun that left some clues around the house and yard.
Once tea parties became a "thing" in our house we had many, many more and even included big brother in the fun.
And in funny things kids do, Catherine has taken to describing everything as teeny-tiny and holds up her pinkie as she demonstrates.
March is a very weird time in Bozeman with kiddos desperate to break out the bikes and scooters even with lots of snow on the ground! This impromptu neighbor playdate started with jeans and chalk scribbling on the sidewalk but ended with the kids in full snow gear as they played in the snow!
Around this time we had intended to go to Grandma Elsie's house but the weather prevented the trip. Luckily we had good friends coming to visit for a few days and I got to celebrate at a friend's baby shower while we waited out the weather. We headed to the museum with friends to check out the geckos again:
And we worked on sending care packages to some Montana troops serving in Afghanistan.
The weather cleared as we got closer to our destination and when we arrived I was able to hand off the kids to two well trained grandmas for storytime.
We snuck away on a few of the nicer days to one of our favorite parks:
The kiddos had a great time taking pictures of each other with Amma's camera:
Then Matthew offered to take one:
And finally Catherine took one! I'll pretend it was so each of the kids has their own 4 generation picture :-)
We took a few days to get situated, get groceries and get back into the swing of things and then I was scheduled to run my first 10k. The kiddos got spoiled by the ladies at the check-in table and were showered with shamrock fun!
James and the kiddos were waiting near the end of the race with this awesome sign!
We then hosted our own little St. Patricks Day party and potluck for our MOMS Club friends. The kiddos made rainbows crafts and snacks
They eventually combined the best of both worlds and set up the snow "cones" and then mowed them over with their bikes. Over about 3 hours they had tried just about every winter and summer activity they could think of!
Amma Dot grabbed some Thomas pajamas for Catherine which she adores. Surprisingly, she was only even more excited when she realized that she and Matthew had very similar pairs
35 of these adorable bunnies were the final products!
Our next big excitement in March was our trip to Grandma Elsie's. Last time we went I was spoiled as James got to join us but this time it was another solo trip. I waited out a storm and ice in the morning, and enjoyed a good 4 hours of sunny, beautiful road trip weather. However, in the hills outside Meteesee we ran into a crazy hail storm, coupled with very, very close "light up your car" lightening strikes. The kids were not particularly phased by all of this, except when they felt the need to cover their ears and shout about how loud it all was, which as you can guess was super helpful to the situation. I was not impressed.
We mostly just hung out with grandma around the house with the kids reading and stealing some time on her kindle.
Grandma Elsie helped me fill in some gaps in my genealogy, while Amma Dot played tiddlywinks with the kiddos:
And we checked out a new park. I even got to be that crotchety old lady who yells at the middle schoolers for being jerks, and all be darned, they were totally intimidated by me. (And by intimidated I mean that at least 1, maybe 2 of the kids' parents were doing it right and had instilled the fear of being reprimanded by a stranger into them. Or, you know, maybe I am scary enough on my own.) Meanwhile Matthew had one of those awesome big brother moments as he helped Catherine down the slide:
Which worked out well because my 12,341st tech glitch of the month was the fact that my nice camera would not read my "nice" memory card while I was at grandma's so I unfortunately just had my phone camera the whole trip. The 12,342nd glitch is the fact that my computer imported all the photos from Mom's camera as occurring June 16, 2010 so none of my smart albums and slick blogging/organization tricks to process things quickly have worked well (and truthfully I couldn't find most of the photos for a week or two in any of my searches). However, now the photos are found and we were at least able to get a group photo or two! First I took one:
Before we left we also made some Gingersnaps with grandma. Sticky hands and all, the results were certainly delicious!
We eventually said our goodbyes (a day later than planned due to another snowstorm) and headed back to Bozeman. I'm still ironing out tech glitches and addressing new ones (thanks heartbleed!) but it certainly isn't boring around here with these two crazy ones! And speaking of not boring, it's been a while since I shared some videos. Here's one of Matthew helping Catherine pack for this trip to grandma's. It's pretty much a spot on example of the good side of his daily big brotherness and "helping" with Catherine:
Then there's this stunning example of the kids and their "exercises". Somewhere in the past month they've picked up the idea of these pseudo-push-up type exercises while hanging off the couch. Truthfully, they kinda look like dogs awkwardly humping the furniture but it's hilarious nonetheless. Also, in athletic feats, Matthew got new tennis shoes that fit and he firmly believes they make him super fast and that he'll be able to outrun his friend next time he comes to town.
And hanging out in my video queue is this one of Catherine singing Happy Birthday to Uncle Matt as we were logging on to Skype:
And my kids' in-depth discussion of what they would like a robot to do (please pardon the videography - I didn't want Matthew to know I was filming because he then turns into a crazy ham so there's a lot of awkward footage of Catherine kinda eating):
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