Slow Week that Ended with a Weekend PACKED with Fun and Friends

This week started off like any other week with the same routines, but we had some fun planned for the weekend.  Let's get started with the "routine" stuff.

Well, I guess this isn't so routine, but what do I know?  This week, just randomly, Tay asked me to cut her hair.  I told her if she wanted a haircut, maybe she should wait until the end of the month when she's back visiting her cousins to get it cut there at a salon.  She said, no, she wanted me to cut it.  So...I did.  I probably cut off about three inches.

So, since I was cutting Tay's hair, Ri had to get in on the action, too...so I just trimmed her hair.  I know, it looks crooked, but I promise it's just the photo.  Now they have the same hair, except one is brown and one is black.

This sweetness happened this week, too.  Well, technically it happened last week, but I got to see it this week.  My sweet girl wrote a book of "Love" for her friend.

It included beautiful pages like this:

We walked to school a few days this week, as usual.  I had to get them out the door with a little more time to walk than usual because they kept getting side tracked by the snow...

Sometimes, we ran into other little friends also walking to school.

We actually just had this little boy and his family over for dinner at our house last week.

As the weather warmed up a bit this week, we saw some "strange" sights like this on the snow under some trees.  The girls enjoy noticing these sorts of things...luckily, so do I.

On another day of walking to school, this little gal decided she was going to carry this giant snowball all the way to school to show her friends.  She picked this up about 10 yards from our house, and probably carried it about a quarter mile before she dropped it and said it was too heavy.  

Then, she picked up a new snowball to carry to school...one that was not quite so heavy...but then this one was too tempting to throw, so she threw it within a few steps of picking it up and that was that.

Now that the sun is no longer setting at 4pm, the girls get a little more time to play after school, too.  Here's a pic of them stopping by a playground on their walk home from school.

The girls did a little more sledding on the leftover snow on our side yard.

We made some hummus.

Had a tea party with "Kitty Cat" (and made sure she said her prayers before eating).

Took some naps with "Kitty Cat."

Made some art - Tay's really into weaving these days because they started a weaving project at school, so I taught her how to cut strips of paper herself to do some weaving at home.  She has been weaving and making art non-stop.

This one, one the other hand, has been "pretend swimming" almost every morning.  She gets dressed in her swimsuit and runs around all morning "swimming" around the house.  Here, she is a superhero mermaid.  I told her to strike a superhero pose, and this is what she gave me.

Then she thought that wasn't right, so she started adjusting her fingers...

...and ended up with this.

Then, she wasn't sure what to do, so she decided to do a face plant on the floor.  Superhero down.

Superhero away!

She likes to run around in circles.

I also had a visit from a beautiful Princess Shinah Belle.

Oh no!  She forgot her Beast.  Her Kitty Cat.

A little more sledding and outdoor play.

Some Baggo/cornhole...

She's getting pretty good!

A chilly outdoor picnic.

And the poor baby, stuck inside.

Nighttime antics...lots of climbing on top of each other and tumbling...

Now on with the little's update.  She's been working a lot on standing this week.  She likes to practice trying to stand up from the squatting position.

She has only succeeded getting all the way up a few times.  She'll usually just squat there and bounce up and down until she plops back on her bottom.

She's mastered the squatting position, though.

Self feeding is going okay, and she's very much into finger foods these days.  Here, she is trying out her first "cookie" that our guests brought over for us when they came to dinner.

Here she is testing out the bow.  After she did this, she pushed her face through the bow and string, so I had to help her get her face out.

I just wanted to include this picture because it really shows her hair color really well...she's my little red-head.  Strawberry blonde.

She and I spend a lot of time on the floor.  She is quite a busy body, so I can't leave her in a "stay-in-place" spot for too long because she gets frustrated.  She likes to explore.

I told you she was getting much better at standing on her own.  She still doesn't have much confidence yet.

She continues to love bath time.  It's much more exciting when sisters get in with her...just more stressful for mommy...

Remember when I mentioned earlier that she shoved her face through the bow?  She likes shoving her face into things lately...like this Playdoh bucket.

She sleeps in some of the strangest positions:

Here, she actually sat up, turned, and leaned back into the pillow and continued to sleep.

The duck face continues.

I'm not exactly sure what she is doing here, but she was standing, then leaned over...then she stood there like this licking the pillow...

She smiles like this when the flash goes off on my camera.

See?  It's adorable.  Also, she has started climbing things on a more regular basis.  I have to be really careful now...she's getting more and more attracted to the stairs.  No more washing dishes while she plays in the living room...

Another shot of her red hair.  And funny face.  She's working on winking here.  Although she hasn't figured out how to only close one eye yet.

I took this "selfie" to send to my friend in Korea that I was Kakao-chatting with...I caught her mid-bite during snack time.

Working on standing again.

Climbing on top of me while we were playing on the floor.

Then she slipped off, so I had to grab her, but she thought it was funny.

Babies can be superheroes, too, you know.

She loved the texture of the cape.

Adorable.

She found her belly button again this week.

She still thinks its funny.

On to the weekend.  On Friday evening, we had a family over for a barbecue.  We grilled out some steak and salmon (and I forgot all about the vegetables, so we had just meat).  Friday was also Lunar New Year (the year of the Blue Horse!) so we had some rice cake soup, too.  The kids were watching a  movie together while the adults started to eat, so I got this shot because they were all sitting so nicely looking at the television...and when I take photos of kids, I usually take a few in a row, just to have a selection to look through before picking the best one...

...and in the timeframe of three photos, this happened.  Do you see the littlest one's face?  The music on the television had gotten a little loud along with an action scene, and she got scared.  Poor thing.  (Please don't lecture me on how bad television is for babies).  Anyhow, I picked her up and she was fine, but her little face is so cute.

On Saturday, we had planned on visiting a new city with some friends, but we ended up hitting two instead due to some traffic delays.  Driving along in the car...with ever-patient travelers...for the most part...thankfully.

First, we visited a lovely little antique shop in Schweinfurt (I think). I've never been much of an "antique-ing" person, but this was quite fun...although I feared my kids might break the many breakable things there!  I picked up a few little things there...will post photos when I get them in the house.  In the meantime, they are still freezing in the car.

Then, we drove on to Würzburg.  The folks we went with said this was absolutely their favorite city because they had lived there and just fell in love with it.  Although it was a chilly day for sightseeing, we had such a lovely time!  What a beautiful city!

We parked right in front of this lovely palace.  The Bishop's Palace, I believe it was called.  We didn't explore inside, but I suspect we will come back and do that one day.

Smiles.

Then after some wandering the city, we got to the "bridge" that locals (and tourists) would stand on to admire this beautiful castle and nunnery while enjoying some wine.

Isn't the view lovely?

Here's Ri trying to get a peek through the viewing scope.

A view of the castle (right) and the nunnery (left).

Don't throw her over!

I was just playing around with an app and made this...it was the free app of the week last week.  Pretty neat.

On to Sunday, we had brunch this week with another family at our house.  I failed to get any photos, but all in all, it was a fun-filled, friend-packed, exhausting weekend.

Here's some of the salmon we made this week.

Chopped vegetables about to go into chicken soup (we're all coming down with the sniffles this week).

A beautiful letter written to me by my sweet girl after I attached their tents atop their beds (the tents came with the beds when we got them, but we didn't attach them at first because they wouldn't fit in the other room (due to the slanted roof).  "Dear Mom, I love the beds and I love you. And Mom, I hope that this letter is enough to thank you. I love you."

And she made me a box with flowers and a star.  I was very impressed with her use of the pipe cleaners!  She actually twisted them into leaves!  That girl's got some crafty hands...

Since Tay's been writing so much, Ri has also been "writing" and drawing quite a bit.  This was what she gave me this week.  Her "writing" above her "drawing" of me.  

Well, that's it!  Hope you enjoyed your Sunday update, and I will write again next week.  Gute Nacht!