The porch.

We have been wanting to do this for a while and we finally went for it.  A back porch!  Here are some photos from along the way.

The before!

 We came home from work to find this....old porch, in a trailer.

 These are pictures of the process to get our porch.

We are in love.  Now we just need it to get warm.  

Oh, and maybe get a couple chairs or something.

Back yard make over!

So we have been busy updating the back yard.  We cleaned the fence and playground and restained both.  What a difference it makes!

BJ got a little bored cleaning the fence and made it more interesting.  

Maybe just shows how bad it really is.

Ahh.  So much better!

Seriously, it's like we got a new playground.  The picture doesn't even do it justice.

Lesson learned - 

I am not very good at taking before pictures!

Kids can help. This was actually a pretty fun couple of days working together.  

Things look better when they are painted cedar naturaltone.

Other shenanigans - 

Smurf village. 

Potty break.  (BJ has some teaching to do in this area). 

Making potion.  Harry Potter spells in action.  No cauldron - no problem!

Governor's Cup

It was cold.  I decided we shouldn't go.  It was still cold.  We bundled up and went anyway.  It was cold.  Who moves a road race from April to February?  Clearly they didn't ask me my opinion.

But we all ran the entire thing, as a family.  Go team!

Pre-race.  We are ready!

Racin'

Big Finish!

Achieved.

Post race - hot chocolate and popcorn.  And a playroom sleepover.  

Glad we went.  But it was cold.  They should move it back to April!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!  Andrew scored some sweet glasses from the treasure box this week!

Grandma and Grandpa had us over for some meat loaf (requested by the kids!) and treats.  

Grandpa helped with the tower building contest!  Tallest tower EVER!

We did do the yearly scavenger hunt!  Grant was slow to start, but did get the hang of it by the end.  He had his own set of clues, but was content just following Andrew around.  

Yes, they are still in their Christmas PJ's...we are getting lots of good use out of them!  Yes, they even wore them to dinner.  We have a bath policy this time of year that right when they get home they strip at the door and go straight to the tubs.  Every school day.  No questions.  They don't like it.  I don't care.

BJ had the kids help make some chocolate covered strawberries too!  Yum.