Coloring

 This girl loves to color. She's also a fan of taking stickers off a sheet and putting them onto her coloring pages. 

Sometimes it's a good activity for her to do this while I work with David at the table on school work. 

It's especially nice that she'll engage in this activity while we try to sit quietly in church or any other time that requires her to be on my lap for an extended period of time. I can squeak out a good 6 or 7 minutes of entertainment with this activity. And with the attention span of an 18-month old, that is light years of entertainment!

Experiment

David laid claim to a few of the Valentine's flowers he and Daddy gave me, and we tried to see if any of them would turn green with dyed water.

It didn't happen this time, but don't tell the boy. He claims that the flowers turned green all over. However, my eyes could only see tiny traces of the green water among the pink petals. We'll have to try it again with a fresh white carnation sometime, and I think this boy will be amazed at the way veins in a flower stem work. He's amazed at how everything works. 

Hats

 Oh, this girl is bursting with personality. One of her trademarks is that she loves to accessorize. She loves to have a "pretty" in her hair (although she pulls them out right after I put them in), she loves to use hair spray, she'll put any type of clothing over her head to wear around her neck, she squeals with delight at the sight of a fluffy skirt, and she has recently discovered a necklace or two the she happily wears.

Occasionally she'll find a pair of shoes to try on.

One of her funniest accessories is a hat. She finds whatever hat might be within reach and adds to her feeling of being beautiful. 

Off to conquer the world with a smile, a sippy cup and a hat--now there's a girl that will go places!

Dishes

 When David was Alina's age, we went without a dishwasher for a few months. David would happily ask as dinner finished to "Hewp Daddy dishes!" So he and Daddy spent some time at the sink washing the dishes. It's one of our favorite quotes to repeat from the days of Baby David.

Now fast forward, and we are again without a dishwasher. Since David's chore of unloading the dishwasher is on hold for the time being, he gets to wash a handful of dishes each morning. He insists on having help from his sister--and lots of splashing, laughter, and happiness ensues. Sometimes even a few clean dishes come out of their time together at the sink.

Oh, I love these kids--especially when they laugh together while they work.

Iditarod 2015

We broke tradition this year in where we watched the ceremonial start of Iditarod 2015. We went to the finish line, which happens to be about a mile from our home. Because of this, we gathered up our gear and our stroller and walked in to the event. We were the pedestrians on the road with cars and buses going past us, because our stroller needed the firmer pavement under the wheels. The pedestrian pathway had soft, mushy, wet snow--and we couldn't kick it in to 4 wheel drive well enough until we moved to the road.

This was the first year that we splashed through puddles (instead of over snow banks) to find the mushers. In fact, the race start has been moved North to Fairbanks, and the organizers are hoping that the new location is far enough North that the ground and rivers will be frozen for the mushers. While the rest of the country seems to be having a winter apocalypse, Anchorage has had "the winter that never happened."

The glistening on the ground was puddling water, not ice as one might expect. But it was in the high 30's and windy, so we were dressed for the duration of being outside.

Alina loved seeing "uh-dah"--which is Alina speak for any animal, particularly "a dog."

David liked our adventure--he was hanging back and running to catch up with us until I insisted on being the caboose on our single-file-walk in. He found a great walking stick for his size, and used it to get him to the race finish line. Once we got there, I think he realized that his feet were wet through his boots (what, may I ask, is the trick to finding boots that don't leak with a 6-year old boy wearing them? He seems to be hard on boots, and I find out that his socks are getting wet when we still need them to keep his feet dry for several more weeks.)

Anyway, once David figured out that his feet were wet, his mood turned sour (understandably so, poor guy!). He really wanted to ride in the stroller, but settled for a short time of being lifted up by Dad instead.

We ended up taking the shuttle bus back to the school across the street from our house, so the walk home was not as tiresome. As soon as we sat down, my little Sweet Pea closed her eyes, and didn't wake up even when we got off and it started sleeting on her little face. 

We made it home--with just enough stamina for one more smile. 

The ranger on the bus told us that the Campbell Creek Science Center was hosting a special exhibit to learn more about the Iditarod. As soon as he heard "Science Center" David wanted to get off at that stop. But we convinced him to go home first, get dry shoes, and right after a bite to eat, Daddy and David went back out for another adventure. David was proud to answer a question about the Iditarod, so he was given a wooden plaque.