Let's Go Princeton

We had a fabulous winter break last week. It was so fun to have this girl around, we decided to keep her around a couple extra days to play with our friends who came to visit.
Our first day off we headed south to a great museum where we met a friend we used to know in our old Provo ward. She lives in NJ a couple hours away and also has three kids similar ages. Great times! Sadly I didn't get any more pictures with how busy we all were.Then we were so lucky to have the Miles Family come and play at our house. I'm always so impressed with how well they all get along. They enjoyed lots of time playing outside in the dirt, painting and creating inside, and just using their imagination.Katelyn is acting so grown up latelyMaria celebrated a special birthday with us here and we had a great girl's night out in the city! I loved all the hours we got to spend talking. I'm so glad we live close enough to visit each other, but I do wish we could live in the same city again. Friendships like that are rare.
Day trip to the Crayola Factory. I love that place.
One of their new exhibits is making your own personalized coloring pages.
Cute.
The kids got to spend $5 with money they got from Grandma for Valentine's. Tommy got some fun window markers and it really inspired Kate. Uh oh.With some great weather we took advantage of a day at the playground. These two big kids are such great older siblings.She thinks she's such a big girlBig day for Rachel! She learned to do the monkey bars. And she pumped on the swing without a single push. Maybe she's known how to do it for a while, but it's the first time I've seen it.
I just love it! Rachel is obsessed with picnics and this day I could actually say yes. What a crazy winter!
And he thinks he can't do 4 kids
Side by side play. They remind me a lot of Rachel and Andrew. It was so fun to watch these two and the little fights they would have over a toy or something. Of course now as parents instead of sending the kids to time out like we used to, we just stand by and laugh at how cute it is.Rachel participated in the Science Fair at school. Her friend Alai from across the street invited her to be her partner. It was on wildlife in the backyard. They took countless nature walks, took pictures of animals and found things like deer antlers and caterpillars. They also plastered some animal tracks. I took a backseat in this project...all I did was help Rachel check out some library books. They had a great time working together.These two were cute walking through the halls holding hands
Jake has been wanting to take more advantage of living so close to Princeton University. He learned of this girl's basketball game last night where you could get in free if you wore pink. So we jumped on it and had a great time! Don't you love how Tommy joined in on the fun.And free pink cupcakes
Life this week will be pretty dull comparatively

The Groundhog

As mild as our winter has been, I've still had the winter blues. Every place we live has its pros and cons, lately I've found and been focusing on the cons. I really attribute it to the weather. I feel like we've been hibernating either at home or in the car, and we never see anybody. We're still new and I don't know too many indoor places to go either. I know spring will cure me as it does for all of us though, right? Fortunately, in the past week I had a few reminders of how cool it is to live here. Last Saturday we did a day trip to Philadelphia, and then this week I went to NYC twice. Once for a girl's night out goodbye party for a friend and once for the temple (long overdue!). It was all so rejuvenating for me.

Anyway, here are some random pictures of the last couple of weeks:

One of our 60 degree days (it has reminded me a lot of Charlotte! Yes, I still miss it)Cartwheels, somersaults, and running in front of Independence HallTag, you're itHis face may not show it, but Tommy really likes the Liberty bell. It was his favorite part of our trip...that and the giant chocolate cookie he got after lunch. That's even on top of the fun free playhouse we went to earlier that day.
We do try and make it outside on the "not so cold" days as well. Katelyn's loving her new realm of walking and playing with the big kids. She used to have to watch from the window because I didn't want her crawling on the cold ground. In the midst of our mundane routine we have been able to get some things checked off the list. We went to the dentist and the kids LOVED it. Tommy was hesitant to go, but then was so proud to report he didn't even cry. How could he, the place was full of cool toys and video games.Then something I've been meaning to do for a long time...a playdate with Rachel's school friends. I've felt very disconnected to Rachel's experience at school and I wanted to get to know some of the girl she talks so frequently about. There's Sophia, Jyotika, Sanjana, and Kiko...Rachel is one of two white American's in her class. They all seem to get along great. I hear from other mom's at the bus stop about lots of drama that happens in their child's class. I think we've lucked out two years in a row. Just today Rachel was telling me her favorite day of the week is Tuesday, not Friday. She likes school better than the weekend.And, I guess the groundhog did not see his shadow this year, so let's hope it's an early spring!