Beach Bums, Winter Edition

With the invention of a "mid-winter break" for the schools in our district, Katie's preschool had no choice but to follow suit and close down for a week in mid-February. That closure just happened to coincide with a slow week for me at work, so we packed up and headed to the beach with my mom and Jessica and her girls. We had no real agenda but to enjoy being away from Columbia for a few days.

Katie and Maddie enjoyed their 4 day marathon slumber party and loved getting to watch television snuggled up in their pajamas together.

So, I sort of lied when I said we had no real agenda. There was one thing on my agenda. I wanted to take Katie to the Disney Store at the outlets. I've been plenty of times and bought her little things here and there but she'd never been there herself. She had a blast - totally enamored with everything - the music videos, the larger than life stuffed animals, the dolls, the cars - everything! I told her she could pick out one thing and she was led to this stuffed Bolt. He's from the movie, Bolt, which Katie has seen (over and over) and loves. The best part is - he was on sale! $6! A total steal compared with the hours of enjoyment he's already provided!

One afternoon we headed over to McLean park - just a few blocks from where we were staying. I grew up going to this beach and this park is always on our list of places to visit and have a picnic. We had some bread and spent time feeding the ducks and the geese. Some of them were very cranky and didn't understand why our supply of bread was so limited.

The rest of our time was spent playing on the beach for a while each day. The weather was pretty warm, but definitely breezy. We ran around on the sand chasing each other up and down the beach.

We played in the sand and tried to make some sand castles. We dug for shells but weren't too impressed with what we found. We found a few stray crab legs and hermit crab shells.

But the highlight of the trip for all of us was running in the waves. The girls could've done this for hours if the water wasn't so cold and if their moms had endless supplies of energy. We ran and let the waves catch us just a little and then shrieked all the way back to the dry sand, just to catch our breath and do it all over again.

 

Love is in the Air

For Valentine's Day this year, Katie helped make a Valentine for each of the friends in her preschool class. We got some bible verse magnets from the church and colored some cut out hearts and put them in a little cellophane bag with a sticker on it. She seemed pretty proud of them and loved getting valentines from the other kids in her class too! Her favorite valentine came from her Elf on the Shelf, Pete. He sent her a special card and gift all the way from the North Pole. She was thrilled to "hear" from him and was excited about a new little stuffed animal too!

We had some special "heart" clothes saved for Valentine's Day so Katie was excited to finally get to wear the jeans with the heart pockets. She looks so grown up and tall in this picture!

That night, we had a special family dinner in the dining room. The 3 of us have never eaten in there together. I guess it wasn't really just the three of us...Katie invited several of her stuffed animal friends to join us at the table. She also helped pick out the place mats and napkins and nice black plastic cups. 

Valentine's Day dinner was nice to spend time together as a family and Doug and I had a fun date a few days earlier thanks to some babysitting swapping with friends!