Decatur Island Adventure

We had a fun and cold weekend up at Decatur with our friends the Sebastians (Henry is a friend of Leana's from preschool).  The kids got along so well, had lots of adventures in and out of the cabin, and Leana had her first slumber party sharing a room with a friend.  Both nights they were so exhausted though that she fell asleep within minutes of us saying goodnight.  Julian had Henry's little sister Evy to play with, but he was probably more excited about the impressive collection of trains that Henry brought with him.

We also had quite an adventure getting off the island, it was windy and snowing and the boat got a rope caught in its propeller.  Took half an hour and lots of men to cut the ropes loose.  Then we powered back one engine back over some bumpy water.  The kids thought it was the best!

 Finding  beach treasures.  Leana found a washed up sea star.

 Buddies.  Warming up by the fire.

 Henry let me know that he was Captain Hook and Leana was the pirate ship kitty.

 All geared up for going out in the cold

 early morning artists

 Hanging out on the mainland before the boat was ready

Happy Valentine's Day

Leana was very excited about Valentine's Day this year, and spent hours working on various Valentine's for people.  She did, however, remind me multiple times that Daddy was her Valentine because she loves him so much.

We had heart shaped pancakes for breakfast, heart shaped pizza for dinner and heart shaped brownies for dessert!

 Valentine's Dinner with Buddies!

 Leana's tiny Valentine for Baby Dutch (above) and the other for me, Jeff and Julian (below)

Leana: 4.5 years old!

This was a big weekend for Leana: turning 4.5 years old, a snow day, and the tooth fairy!

Leana's biggest interests right now are: dinosaurs, interior decorating (making things "fancy"), scissor and tape type of arts and crafts, learning about what letters words start and sounding things out,  making cookies (especially with Nana Kathy), building forts, and spending time with her two besties (Kaiya and Zia) and with Julian (teaching him new words, playing chase, and generally trying to boss him around are some of her favorite things to do with little brother).

Leana (forcibly) lost her first tooth at the dentist office, she had an abscess which meant the tooth had to go (one of her first year molars).  The tooth fairy brought her a plesiosaur (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plesiosauria) which she was thrilled about.

We also had an exciting snow day here, including sledding and making a snowman (Leana originally wanted a snow dinosaur but settled for a simple snowman in the end).

checking out the snow through Leana's Valentine's decorations

 Leana and Kaiya

 Leana and Zia

 Took Juju a while to be willing to go out in the snow

 Leana makes her dinosaurs and her room "fancy"

Watch Week at Ballet

Leana finished her first session of Creative Ballet and family is invited to watch the last class and see what the ballerinas have been up to for the last 16 weeks.  4 and 5 year old girls all dressed up in tutus is so cute, and I was impressed by all the different things they did and how the girls followed directions so well.  Julian was a very enthusiastic watcher - to the point that he was trying to participate the whole time.  Nana Kathy came along too which made Leana very happy.