June's party- March 1.

June had big plans for a birthday party.  BIG plans. Like starting at Chuck E. Cheez and ending at the inflatable bounce house.  And inviting all 26 of her classmates.

Luckily, we were able to scale it back into a tea party for 8 friends.  Much easier on your mom who only got around to planning your party a week in advance.

We even got out the nice tablecloths and the party set I bought at a garage sale when I was in college.  (I don't know why I've held on to them this long and I certainly didn't anticipate in college I'd be using them for a 6 year old's birthday party.  From Georgie, we were joined by Helen, Ellie, Andy, Alyssa, June, and Maddie.

Papa led a brief etiquette lesson, which included trying to get the kids to drink with one pinkie in the air, which proved to be a little difficult for some.

The theme of the tea party was "Dress however you want."  Helen had an awesome feather fascinator and her mom's wedding gloves.

Grams even brought extra bright flowers to adorn the table.

Andy really came through on the theme.  As the only boy at the party, he and his brother James fashioned an awesome knight costume- complete with a milk jug helmet.  It was a huge hit with all the princesses.

And here's a video of the action, with June looking super pleased, mama looking huge, and Georgie being loud.

June's birthday- February 28th.

Can you believe this sweet little Huggy Babe is 6 years old already?

Because we're sure June has taken the opportunity to tell you about it!  This year's birthday theme?  Rainbows and unicorns!  (Thanks for the cool poncho, Aunt Jenni!)

Grams came to visit and took June on a special trip to the Build-A-Bear, where she chose to make Twilight Sparkle.

Of course, there was cake!

Happy birthday to our sweet, imaginative, creative little girl who sees everything in rainbows and dolphins in bowties!  We hope you continue to follow your own path!

Escape to the mountains- February 20-23.

After all that time off school, we parents were very dismayed to realize the kids had more days scheduled off for teacher work days.  Not being able to bear the thought of more time at home with kids, we hatched a plan for a weekend getaway.  As it turns out, you can rent a big cabin very cheaply in February.  Even better, we came up with a plan where we took the 3 youngest kids up with us on Thursday night and left the 2 oldest home with the dad until they came up Friday afternoon.  That's right- 3 kids can seem like a vacation.  

 After a mostly lazy (and cold and windy) Friday, we were determined to get these kids out hiking.  We found a close trailhead and made the precarious drive up a mountain to reach it.  

 I'm not kidding.  This vista was probably about 200 yards from where we parked.  

And you might not be able to tell from the picture, but the edges dropped off pretty quick.

We hiked a ways up to another gap.  

 This pregnant lady did not think we could get any higher up.  She was starting to feel all 7.5 months of belly.

 The boys made it first and threw rocks off the side, as boys love to do.

 The hike down was much easier.

Victorious!  Where's our lunch?

We also jammed some gem mining into our afternoon- probably the best time the kids had the whole weekend.  But it did mean the kids were good and tired by that night.  Georgie even fell asleep during a movie.

On Sunday, we took a slow trip back, makig sure to stop at all of the scenic overlooks and waterfalls.

There are a lot of waterfalls up in the mountains, and they were spectacular after the heavy rains we'd gotten that week.

32 weeks!

Papa, no!

Up next, Dry Falls, because you can walk right underneath them. 

Except today, because the falls were so strong.  

I don't think I would have taken the chance to go under.  That water was strong and loud!

A unicorn and her dad.

A view from the overlook.

They even had falls you could drive under!  

Add on the best fried chicken ever from the meat and three in Walhalla and you've got a perfect weekend!

Parties!- February 15-16.

Georgie was invited to her buddy Fynn's birthday party.

I don't know if Fynn's mom was ready for all those stir-crazy kids, but she threw a great party!

Complete with homemade dinosaur tails.

And loud dinosaur roars.

The whole bunch!

And now the tails.

How cute are these kids?

The party was a success, because we both came back exhausted.

Thanks to a little bit of bad attitude, Henry got himself a week free of screen time during the big storm.  As it turns out, Henry had a bunch of fun when he didn't have to worry about askig when he could have screen time again.   Henry set up a grocery and sold apples from his store-front.

June sold custom works of art.

And Georgie stamped papers.

June entered the elite world of Daisy Scouts. She is very excited about her Monday meetings and we think Miss Debbie, her troup leader, is a saint.

 We weren't covered in snow too long.  By the next Tuesday, we were back outside in light jackets- or in Georgie's case, no jacket at all.   

Magda came over for the afternoon, and I took advantage of a burst of energy and the girls playing to rake some leaves out of the side yard.  Good times for everyone!

Snow!- February 11-14

It only happens once every few years, so when there is a chance of snow, it's a big deal.  You might remember that while I was in China, a quarter inch shut down the state for 2 days.  Well, this next storm was going to be the BIG one.  So as soon as a weather forecaster said "up to 10 inches" (ha!), they immediately dismissed schools early and cancelled for the rest of the week.  (I'm not kidding.)

Well, we did get a little snow.  On the first day, it snowed about two inches but as very warm and wet.  I dragged the kids out to Kite Hill.  Don't let June's happy face fool you.  She cried the whole time.  That girl hates snow.  She was only happy once she hid under a row of pine trees and was joined by Maddie to pretend the were fairies.  Georgie liked kicking down a huge snow wall that was not intended to be kicked down.  She then got to help that little boy rebuild it.  Then we built a snowman.  Henry couldn't be pulled away from sledding to be in our picture.

The next day, the temperature dropped considerably (actually below 35) and since we didn't get the 10 inches of snow, maybe we'd get ice!  And power outages!  We all cooked a bunch of food and put the milk in the garage (so we wouldn't have to open the refrigerator), but the ice didn't come.  We did get an earthquake (and not just from big pregnant me sledding down a hill.)  It was a 3.2 earthquake and really rounded out our week of natural disasters well.

Miss Kerri is always coming up with something fun and on the 4th day of being snowed in, she hatched up a progressive scavenger hunt.  Each family came up with their own hunt and prize.

Our hunt led to a craft of flour paints that rose when you cooked then in the microwave.

It was fun for a few minutes. The older boys liked the hunts. June and Andy just wanted to be left alone to talk about Pokemon.  Christopher only wanted to be where John was and Georgie cried that no one was inviting her to do everything with them.

The frigid weather broke and I took the chance to shovel the wet snow off the driveway before it froze into solid ice.  Nothing makes me feel more alive than shoveling snow.  Except in this case I had to change into a short-sleeve shirt so not to die from heat exhaustion.  

Since school was out for days before Valentine's Day, all the kids had plenty of time to work on their cards.  We got an email from Mac's mom concerning Mac's valentine.  It says "Mac June Married."  Up until that moment, June said she was going to marry Jayson, but now she was giving Mac serious consideration.  June wrote special notes to each of her classmates that were hilarious.  For example:

"Dear Araya, I like your boots.  Love June."

"Dear Nate, You sit on the purple circle and purple is my favorite color.  Love June."

And the best:

"Dear Mrs. Upchurch, You are pretty

old.  Love June."

Lucky for June Mrs. Upchurch has a good sense of humor.

On Valentine's Day we did venture out to buy our traditional Bojangles BoBerry biscuits.  We brought home extras for Maddie and Katie.