Saturday could have been a real Cinderella story here. We started off the day working around the house. Then dropped the girls off at a princess birthday party. They wore their princess dress ups to the party. I really wish I would have taken a picture. Then they had a choice.........go to the Daddy/Daughter dance or go play some soccer/baseball/football across the street. Derek and I were both super surprised when the girls chose the soccer option. We thought for sure they would want to go to the dance. They really did have a lot of fun playing sports though and I think we should take advantage of the field across the street at least once a week for stuff like this!!

I guess I only got pictures of us playing baseball. Now here are some random pictures:

Allie's first love letter......Derek was quick to throw it away after she went to bed.

Checking out the surprises that Daddy brought back from Africa.

A few of Derek's trips

I wish I (or Derek) had been documenting some of his trips along the way. It has been a big part of our life lately. Unfortunately, we can't go into a lot of detail about most of his trips and he's always so busy he hardly has time to take any pictures let alone blog about it. He has been to SO many places throughout the WORLD. He's so lucky and told me recently that he has kind of taken it all for granted because he's been to so many places. It's just not that exciting for him anymore because nothing is new.
Anyway, we were finally able to sit down and go over the few pictures he had and I got permission to post a few of them. So here is a peak into a few of the places Derek has been......

Dubai -- Palm Islands

Dubai -- The World

Himalayas -- Afghanistan

In cold Afghanistan

Dust storm in Afghanistan

Africa - he said everyone was carrying everything like this

This was this lady's house

Africa

Africa

Africa -- w/ General & Chief

Africa

If you look closely this guy has a pile of black "stuff" on his lap. Derek said almost everyone, at least at the markets, were chewing this stuff and getting high from it.

This picture really makes you proud to be an American!

Derek, Gen. Otto, Chief and the other African trip crew

Rodeo Party

The San Antonio Stock Show Rodeo is going on the entire month of February. I didn't even know this until a couple days ago. I would love to go to a rodeo at some point while we're here. This weekend is really our only chance because I don't want to get out with the kids by myself for that.....and I don't think it will happen this weekend anyway because it's going to be a wet weekend. Oh well, it looks like we'll probably have THREE more years here to have that chance. {insert sad face}

The other room parents and I, for Allie's class, have been planning the Rodeo party for about a month now. I wondered why they were having a rodeo party instead of a Valentine's party but I guess I figured that out! I didn't get any pictures at the school because I was busy giving everyone a Sheriff's badge and branding them. I did get a few pics of the kids before and after though.

I had to post this picture because of the cute bracelet Avery put on Blake while I was grabbing him some clothes.

Valentine's Day Happenings

The girls (and Blake) were excited to get a package from Mony and Papa because they "never get any packages" (yeah right!)

I forgot to take a picture of their baskets before they got into them. They both colored some of their velvet valentines first thing. Avery devoured her cookie and Allie just took a few bites. Avery went on to eat her entire box of Jelly Bellies....and a bunch more candy and a cookie at her playgroup Valentine get together.

The plate of cookies I sent with Derek to work (thanks for all of the cookie cutters Grandma!!)

Blake with his new bath toys

Thanks, GG!

VIDEO -- Blake playing with his Valentine's gift

Preschool Days

On top of Derek being gone for nearly 3 weeks we've been having preschool here.....for the past 3 weeks. Perfect timing right? Not so much. Lots of extra work, especially clean up, and more rowdiness instead of a quiet 3 hours of just me and Blake when Avery is away at someone else's house for preschool. oh well, it's done and over with. And really, despite the clean up and the bad timing, i enjoyed it. The prep work and planning was a lot of work but something I like to do.....it would have been SO much easier if I had a Cricut or something along those lines for some of the things I did.
Our theme for the past 3 weeks was ALL ABOUT ME. I figure kids like to talk about themselves so what better theme to have. We had show and tell, lots of crafts, coloring, read several books, made their own books, circle time with pledge of allegiance, calendar, weather, singing time, lots of playing, lunch and we even tried to sneak in some learning.

They used the different shapes to make a house and then we glued their address to it

Helper Chart

Calendar

Hard at work on their houses

Lunch time.....probably their favorite time!

making play-doh faces

Look at Jared's concentration. I love how his Mom had him wear a Cardinals shirt after I wore my Cubs shirt. haha

This is when I really wished I had a Cricut. The original plan was to go up to 10 for each of them (6 kids). that would have been 60 shirts and 60 pants all hand cut and then I had to draw on them all and punch out the dots and glue them all on. I ended up just doing 0-5 for each child.....but up to 20 for Avery.

The weather puppet

Taking advantage of the nice weather and making their life size person

Tristan showing off his balancing skills

Daniel, Jared, Avery, Peyton, Tristan, Evelyn

Blake wants to be held all of the time. Trying to entertain six 3 and 4 year olds while holding him the entire 3 hours is nearly impossible. You'll notice his alligator tears if you look really closely. I finally made him a bottle and that kept him happy for a little bit.