Be Mine

The kids came up with their own ideas for valentines this year - after looking through my craft stash.

Here is a sampling of their creativity:

 We attached a tiny bottle of sparkly nail polish to this one.  

To give you an idea of the scale, the card is about the size of a business card.

 This was Lincoln's idea - the little Lego men are actually crayons that we made using broken pieces.

 And this was Leah's - she is fascinated with paint samples and is always looking for ways to use them.  Here, we stapled a stack of mini Post-It notes inside and folded it over to make a notepad.

This was my Valentine to the kids when they woke up this morning.

And this was the valentine I received from my love.

We hope your day was as LOVE-ly as ours.

Tree Talk Winter Walk

 Today we headed over to the Wildflower Center again for their first annual Tree Talk Winter Walk.  The new arboretum trail has given them a huge space to showcase native trees in conjunction with their plant sale.  And they also had lots of fun activities for the kids.

We built forts out of bamboo and deadwood

 Leah made a friend who helped her build a bamboo tepee while the boys made some sturdy fortifications and camouflaged it with the low-hanging branches of a live oak.

We also roasted marshmallows and completed a scavenger hunt in order to claim an American Beautyberry sapling.

 And of course, there were lots of trees that needed climbing.

Just the ticket to ensure a good night's sleep!

Family Reunion

Time for the annual Mersiovsky family fish fry...

always a fun time with good company and lots of cousins to play with.

 With swings for the little kids...

... and the big kids :)

The weather cooperated with lots of sunshine and I scored a Willie Nelson autobiography in our white elephant book exchange - who could ask for more!?!

Sick Day

Lincoln managed to catch a bad cold sometime during the first week back at school.  On Thursday and Friday, he was running a fever so I couldn't send him to school, but he didn't really have any other symptoms so he was pretty much going stir crazy and taking the little boys with him.

What do you do in a case like this?

  You take advantage of the beautiful weather and head out to the Wildflower Center.

Where you find tree swings in the new arboretum!

He looks like he's feeling sick, doesn't he?

We'll just call this Vitamin D therapy.

Even though the flowers aren't in bloom, we really enjoyed walking around the center.

This was my favorite tree - it's a live oak that fell over during a storm and just kept on growing!

Talk about not knowing when to give up... but I'm glad it didn't!

It's the perfect place to learn how to climb a tree.

Gingerbread Creations

We couldn't let the holiday break end without at least one gingerbread house experience, but since I don't have a working oven right now we opted for the graham cracker variety.

Leah invited a friend over and they went to town!

They were super creative, adding licorice bushes, a fish pond, and even a dog house!

Can you see the puppy sticking his head out of the little dog house?