February

 The kids got to do all-day ski lessons with school so Mom came to keep me company since I had the whole day off from teaching. She must have misinterpreted where we were going because she was quite underdressed.

 They had so much fun and learned a lot.

Griffin scrolled through Pinterest for a really long time before deciding he wanted to make a snake for his Cub Scout cake auction.
He had to make rice crispy treats and then mold the head and tail out of them. The extra rice crispies got made into snake eggs. Brilliant.

Then everyone wanted a piece of the action. He dyed coconut flakes green for grass, crushed oreos for dirt and used M&Ms for scales.

 This is probably the most elaborate thing that will ever come out of my kitchen.

 Finishing touches with the coconut flakes

 emery often draws the short straw as the oldest. She was in charge of getting this snake to church in one piece.

 Griffin has a large birthmark thing under his retina so he will be paying the retina specialist some visits to monitor it's growth. (the birthmark is the dark bruised-looking area in the middle of this scan)

 Quinn loves falling asleep on my side of the bed and getting it all hot and sweaty before I get in for the night.

 He tried 3 times to get this basketball jersey on

 Long Sunday walks save my sanity

 Griffin's last year doing Pinewood Derby. His car did much better than last year's car. He wanted to do well enough to get a medal but not good enough to get a trophy. 1st, 2nd and 3rd get trophies, 4th-6th get medals. He got 4th place. Phew... nicely done.

 The theater in Walnut Creek puts on some pretty great plays/musicals for the little schoolers. We went to Dragons Love Tacos and The Emperor's New Clothes.

 We went to Lawrence Hall of Science with friends. This concrete whale has been lying outside the museum for decades. I didn't think we were even going to get IN the museum- the whale was so entertaining.

 School had a STEM day and Griffin got to make a few different projects- his favorite was a circuit board.

Track season started again with Campbell, Griffin and Quinn all participating this year. Campbell always runs the 2 longest distances and Griffin always picks the 2 shortest distances. Quinn is going for a special award that you get if you compete in at least 7 different events over the season. She doesn't pay much attention to the announcer who calls out the events so it'll be a miracle if she somehow makes it to all 7. We love doing track and a lot of their friends are at each meet so it's a big party.