Stir crazy- February 17-19.

The first day of the ice storm (but the second day off of school, remember) was fun.  But the ice all melted by noon and there was just a bunch of mud outside.  Then we got word in the afternoon what school was cancelled AGAIN on Wednesday!  Ugh!

Even though all the ice had melted, the girls still had to huddle together under blankets to keep warm.

Everyone is huddled under blankets because they refuse to wear socks, or shirts.  But shirts might get in the way of trying to move a cookie from your nose to your mouth without your hands.

Bea has mastered how to get food into her mouth with no hands too.  She's got a mom for that.  And she LOVES miso carrot soup.

Miss Kerri constructed another #icedin scavenger hunt.  This one was fun because what she was looking for was open to interpretation.  Plus, the first task was to do a chore and the last task was to put everything away.

Georgie thought it was so fun, the big kids designed another hunt for her.

No one let Beatrice go outside.  Instead she stayed inside and kept warm eating homemade beignets.  Mom made a big batch of dough and kept the fryer handy to fry up a few at a time all day long.

We've got to keep those cheeks chubby!

Bea got some alone time with mom and dad when they pushed her around on the bed, which is sooo funny.

Clearly, bedtime is a very calm, soothing time in this house.

Mom pulled out Bea's quilt and finished more lattice-work.  Maybe she'll get her newborn quilt done by Bea's first birthday.

June decided she wanted shorter hair.  Mom was more than happy to oblige.

Not too bad!  Mom was really in a hair cutting mood, but Henry still wouldn't let anyone close to his hair.

Winter is coming!- February 16-17.

The kids made it to school and we dropped off Gerogie at preschool just in time to find out that all of the schools were closing preemptively due to the threat of bad weather. 

Come on, South Carolina.  The bad weather isn't even supposed to start until 3p and you're dismissing schools before 10?  

But I will admit, it is pretty cold.  Southern furnaces just can't keep up when it gets below freezing.

At 5pm, we were a little bummed that it hadn't started snowing yet, so we snuck off to clothe the cold- specifically the statue in front of the elementary school.

We know we're dorks, but Juliet and I did feel a little dangerous.

The weather did eventually start (after they'd already cancelled school for the following day), but it never really made it to snow.  No matter, because I do enjoy a good ice storm.

And the ice was really thick!

June and Georgie headed out to check out the splendor.

And to eat icicles.

And to pelt their mother with them too.

I really liked it when it warmed up and started to thaw just a bit.  

You could slide the ice off the magolia leaves in one solid piece.

We started a fun collection.

Georgie tried to toll a snowball, but didn't get past this.

Next we headed over to pick up the Davis girls. 

 I love snowdays.  The whole neighborhood comes out.

The ice was really good on the long hill, so the kids decided to sled on that.

You can pick up some speed over ice on a smooth surface.

But after a few times down, I decided that sledding quickly down asphalt without a helmet was a bad idea.  Lame, mom.

This group was not happy about my decision.  

But we moved to the front yard, where the slope was steeper and you have to overcome a huge bump to get up on the road.  I'm not sure if it was that much safer.  You can tell at this point it was really starting to warm up.  We'd all cast off our hats and unbuttoned our coats.  And Georgie had to give Henry and Katie a kick to get them going.

The circus!- February 15.

Even though it was really cold and windy (and not even just for our thin southern blood), we all packed up the car and headed to Atlanta to see Sister Mary.

And the circus!  How cool is it that our aunt travels with the circus as a spiritual leader?  

The rest of the kids didn't want to go, but Georgie and I went down to the floor of the show before it started to meet the performers.

Georgie already has the right tights for the circus. 

We all got red clown noses and started getting excited.

 

The circus really was three rings of fun.  And Sister got us really great seats so we could see everything!  Including the 10 motorcyclists inside the sphere!

And we ate cotton candy!

This show had everything.  Including a pretty lady hanging from a motorcycle on a tightrope!

I sweat June had more fun than she let on.

The fun ended up being too much to bear and Georgie fell asleep on Sister's lap.

Thanks for sharing your birthday with us, Sister Mary!

A nun, a camper, and a moonshine store- February 9 to

Bea, Georgie and I were lucky enough to catch their great, great aunt Sister Mary as she traveled with a pickup truck and a camper through the upstate on her adventures with the circus (more on that later).  She asked for an easy place to park as they came off the highway. So we met at the moonshine store.  Easily the coolest paragraph you'll ever see on this blog.

Coolest octogenarian ever.

In a desperate attempt to be half as cool as sister, we won a ukulele at the preschool silent auction.  Still not as cool. 

Bea doesn't worry about cool.  She just worries about filling those cheeks with oatmeal.

And then taking long naps without mom waking her up to go pick up someone.

Henry's school sponsored a healthy eating contest.  He found a recipe for a chicken and rice dish and made it his own.  It was pretty good, but of course we missed the deadline to submit it.  Classic us.

Georgie has decided that she is going to read.  And she's really been working hard!

Her first Bob Book!  And she made it through almost the whole book before she got frustrated and almost gave up.  But she pulled it together and made it through.  4 is looking great on Georgie.  But she still can't sit still.

 It is pretty fun to read with her and watch her as she makes the connection between sounds and words. 

All that hard work deserves a balloon break.  What a goof.

Bea is also making some big advancements too.  If we can keep Georgie out of the shot, you can see Bea crawling!

Georgie wanted a video too, so here's a glimpse into what life is usually like at our house.  Lots of "booty-shaking" and zombie babies.  That is one baby is has grown accustomed to having 3 siblings.  I don't even think she notices that he's being hauled around.

On Valentine's Day, we have one tradition- heart-shaped BoBerry biscuits from Bojangles.  They never disappoint.

I think I'm going to have to add an extra box to our collage.  I think Katie has been with us on our biscuit run for the last two years.

Since we don't go out on a busy restaurant holiday, we picked up a few more girls and watched Frozen.  

When she's not crawling, Henry is trying to get Bea to bounce on her elephant walker. Even if her legs are a little short and we have to keep pillows on either side in case she falls.

Finally, I plugged in Georgie's LeapPad and found some really magnificent pieces of art.  So I know that the blue girl is Georgie and the green and red balls are Christmas lights.  I guess the blue lines are a stage?

And it looks like this rainbow is wearing a lot of crowns.  The girl likes crowns.