Grateful for the sunshine

So far, our new year's goal of having more planned family fun is going well. In February we started out parent-kid dates back up again, went to Tilden Park, and celebrated Valentine’s Day with a “we love to be a family day”. Adaline is loving dance class and homeschool. She is becoming more responsible and more helpful every day. Matthew is fiercely independent and curious about everything. He still loves to take things apart, peek inside, and figure out how everything works. Michael is very much two right now. He is finding his voice and where he fits in among his siblings. He’s the one who makes us all laugh. Baby Alex (who is ten months old) is everyone’s favorite right now. None of us can resist picking him up and giving him a little squeeze. Right now we love getting him to nod his head at us, high five, or make his “stink face”. Alex just took 3 independent steps the other day ( so technically that was barely March) but he doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to try again. 

It breaks my heart whenever I have to wake up this sleepy little angel. 

All my little yogis

The biggest thing I'm loving about home school (besides just having Adaline home more and not having to be somewhere every single day) is that we can go more places. We went to the Bay Area Discovery Museum for free first Wednesday with a friend and had such a blast! It sits just next to the north side of the Golden Gate Bridge, so there are spectacular views when you're parking and heading in. 

Adaline waited soo patiently for this entire board to dry so that she would have a fresh canvas to paint. It was a little bit cloudy and chilly and so many little kids kept coming by and putting water on it. 

Andrew and I went on a date to Ikea and then got gyros and a literal hole in the wall restaurant nearby that was delicious and served the best lentil soup. 

The three older kids love to take their lunches outside and have a picnic. On this particular day, it was just a little too chilly. 

Andrew is so cute! We never get to eat breakfast as a family because Andrew always leaves before the kids are awake, but on Valentine's Day I found him in the kitchen turning every breakfast food into a heart. It made my day. For dinner that night, we tried out have a "love dinner" where we used the fancy glasses and wrote love notes to each other that we got to read during dinner. I think the kiddos loved the attention. Then a couple days later, we had a "we love to be a family" day. I made a little scavenger hunt of family activities and we had fun going through each one. We went for a bike ride, played games, made cookies, had reading time, and a couple others that I forgot. Shout out to @SimplyOnPurpose for all the fabulous ideas for celebrating Valentine's Day!

These are some of the school activities we like to do: sensory bins, dot sticker math, ten frames with princesses. I'd say we have a pretty good time. Thanks for the ideas, @busytoddler !!

This is some of the current baby gang during Sunday school.

Adaline picked this recipe out of a book from the library and made it almost entirely by herself. You go, girl!

Another week, another park...

This was mine and Matthew's date. We went to the store and got ice cream.

On one of Andrew's Fridays off, we went to Tilden Park to see the animals, have a picnic, and ride the train. We had gone there before, but this time we stopped and enjoyed the views on the way there and riding the steam train was new for us. Apparently it is only open on the weekends, BUT there was a conference going on and this was the only week that it was open on weekdays also. So lucky!

Best buds

FHE treat with my favorite little goobers

Andrew and I have been trying to have more dates in general this year, whether that's out of the house, or just an activity we do together after we put the kids to bed. For one of Andrew's turns, he chose to do a puzzle. Even though I love doing puzzles, I was a little annoyed with his choice at first. We ended up having so much fun working on it together and the kids were so excited to see all of our progress in the morning.

A couple other things I don't have pictures of:

Card games date night

Ward pancake breakfast

Retirement party for Sue!

Stake activity days