The Week in Review

This past week was a change from the norm, mostly because Mike was gone in Vegas for a few days for a conference.  It was a long four and a half days, but we made it, and Zach, Drew, and I all still love each other.  A big thanks to Grandpa Kevin and Grandma Cynthia, who came over twice to watch the boys so I could go work out.  Here's a little bit of what we did while Mike was out of town:

Zach and Drew did some dancing.

Zach and I mixed up sugar cookies, and I baked them while he was at preschool one day.  That afternoon Zach decorated them.  I did a few, but mostly I needed to entertain Drew, so Zach did most of them on his own, which was fine by him.  Any time I tried to help, Zach would say things like, "Mom, you really should play with Drew," or "Mom, you've spent all this time with me, you need to give Drew some attention now."  Hmm, has he heard that one before?  I never expected him to turn it around on me!  

We ended up sending the majority of these cookies to Aunt Katherine as a little Valentine's Day surprise.

At first it was difficult for me to give up the control of making the cookies pretty, but since Drew needed me and Zach didn't want my help, I decided to just let go and let Zach do his thing.  He did a great job, and though the cookies didn't look the way I like to decorate them, they did remind me of the way my sister Sandy decorates cookies.  Just kidding, Sam! :-)  (Whenever my sisters and I decorate cookies together, Becky and I take a lot of time to make them intricate and very detailed, and Sandy is more, um, laid-back about her cookie decorating.)  Here's what one of Zach's typical cookies looked like.  

Zach and I also decorated a bunch of valentines.  It started with making valentines for his preschool class, and just sort of snowballed from there.  For the most part it was fun, but we had to break it down to a few each day.  I think we made over 35 valentines.  Why didn't we just buy them, you ask?  Well, I asked Zach if he wanted to buy valentines for his friends at school or make them, ad he decided he wanted to make them.  So, we bought some glitter and some stickers and went to town.  Zach wrote his name on all of them, and did a pretty good job.  We're working on writing his letters correctly, and sometimes I really have to remind myself that he is just 3 and that his letters don't have to be perfect.  Maybe it's the teacher in me.

Drew did some playing,

helped rearrange the tupperware cabinet, 

and looked into his crystal ball to see what the future holds.  His verdict?  "Mamamamama."

While Mike was in Vegas we mostly had really nice weather.  Actually, it was warmer here than it was there a couple of days, which kind of cracked me up.  Mike still managed to get one round of golf in, even though it was only in the 40s that day (it was 62 here that day!).  He returned Thursday afternoon, just in time for the snow to start on Friday.  So after dinner Friday night, Zach and Mike decided to head outside to do some shoveling/snow-blowing.  After that, they decided to go play in the backyard.  Zach enjoyed clearing off the slide and getting buried in snow.

Saturday  Zach and I played in the snow some more, while Mike, Drew, and the dogs watched.

We dug a little tunnel, and Zach's first try through it didn't go so well.  It wasn't big enough, and he got a bunch of snow in his face and was unhappy.  I made it a little bigger and he was able to squeeze through it, though.  After that, he was ready to go inside.

We celebrated Valentine's Day by taking the boys to the mall for some delicious food court food (Mike and Zach had Chick-Fil-A and I had Panera, so actually, it was all pretty tasty), and then some time in the play area.  This was Mike's and my 10th Valentine's Day together, and a lot has changed in 10 years!  It was a fun night, though.

Today there was more playing in the snow.  We never got the chance to go skiing when we were in Colorado for Christmas, but at least Zach's getting some good use out of his goggles here at home.

This afternoon we got together with our church friends, and here's the dessert I made.  YUM- these were DELICIOUS!  I may need to make some more.

Now I must get to bed.  Why do I always start blog entries at 10:00 at night?  If there are a lot of mistakes in here, it's because it's too late for me to proofread, but I just want to have this post done.