Jack's Overnight at Addi's

In February, Jack had his first overnight at somewhere other than the grandparents' houses.  We had a trivia night to attend and both sets of grandparents were out of town, so we asked the Ashers if the boys could come to their house for the evening.  Then poor Mr. Charlie threw a wrench in the plans by getting sick Friday afternoon - he vomited a couple times Friday and then again Saturday morning.  He seemed fine after that, so we decided to still go to trivia.  Melissa so graciously volunteered to come to our house with Addi so Charlie wouldn't contaminate their house or Ethan, and then Jack and Addi could still have their play date.

All was going well until after dinner when Charlie threw up again!  Yes, you can say it...Jason and I are not winning any parent of the year awards for leaving our sick baby with our unsuspecting friend.  We really thought he seemed better!!  Anyway, after that episode, the Ashers did some rearranging and Melissa got Charlie into bed at our house, then Greg came down and sat with him while Melissa took Jack, Addi and Ethan to their house (up the street).

At bedtime I talked to Melissa and she said Jack and Addi were reading books in Addi's bed, but Jack wasn't sure about spending the night.  I asked her to tell him we would pick him up on our way home and he seemed satisfied with that.  The next time I talked to Melissa they were sound asleep so we decided to just leave him there and she would explain to him when he woke up that since he was sleeping we just decided to let him stay there.

Turns out our big shot didn't make a peep all night and when they woke up in the morning, he didn't act at all surprised to still be there.  He happily ate breakfast with them and played until I picked him up (when he begrudgingly went home with me).  I'd say his first sleepover was a success!!

Happy Valentine's Day

Every year I try to think of something a little different for the boys to give their friends on Valentine's Day.  Luckily with the help of the internet and specifically, Pinterest, there is no shortage of ideas!  This year Charlie's class was kind of mixed - about half brought nothing, a few brought store-bought character-type cards and we brought these:

For Jack's I was hoping for something he could help me with so we went with this idea.  The night before Valentine's Day, he helped me put food coloring into the play dough and stir it all up.  I couldn't find a mini heart cookie cutter, so they ended up being a little bigger than I'd have liked.  Oh, and I've lost all ability to plan ahead for stuff like this, so I used paper bags that we had on hand for the packaging; not as cute as I was imagining, but it did the trick.  My favorite part was having Jack sign his name on all the recipe cards.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Snow Days

We had a few snowy days in February which made for some fun (though short-lived because it was so cold!) times outside.  The first day of snow was on a Sunday so we got all bundled up and went over to Aunt Cyndi and Uncle Todd's house to go sledding with Mia and Lily.

Charlie looked like Randy, the little brother from A Christmas Story:

 I think he was afraid to turn his head

We got outside and Charlie immediately wanted his gloves off, so needless to say he wasn't outside very long.  Luckily Grandma Clayton was there to hang out with him inside.  Jack, Mia and Lily had fun going down the small hill on the side of their house, and then later playing on the snow-filled neighborhood playground.

We tried to send Charlie down the hill once but he didn't get the concept and immediately rolled off the sled.

Then last week we had another day of snow so we got all bundled up for a few minutes to watch Daddy shovel snow.  Of course, Charlie and I had to go right back in again so his little hands wouldn't freeze off.  Jack, Daddy and neighbor Tony shoveled our driveway and theirs.

This video isn't all that exciting, but I love how Charlie walks with his millions of layers.  Good stuff.