Ponytails and Hippo Teeth

Anna is growing up so fast! She is 7 months old, and she can now sit up all on her own really well. (Her sock monkey can too!) And she has two little hippo teeth that just poked through on the bottom. Her hair is also just long enough to pull it into the tiniest little ponytail. I made her a new bow to mark the occasion. I used this tutorial that I found on pinterest, and even though it didn't turn out anything like the example in the photo (likely because I didn't follow the directions very closely), I think it still turned out pretty cute.

Baby Anna and her sock monkey.

Splashing in Muddy Puddles

When you are 3, there is really nothing better than putting on your rain boots and splashing in some muddy puddles. So when it rained last week, that's what we did. Well, not we. I stayed on the porch and took photos from a distance. It was really cold, so we didn't stay out long, but fun was had by all. Then we went inside, got dried off, and had some warm cocoa. Not hot cocoa. That would burn us. (That's an Erik quote).

Happy Heart Day

The Harris family had a very happy heart day. Anna was sick (it turns out she is really sick, but doing much better now that she is getting the medicine she needs), but she was still in a pretty good mood. And just cut her very first tooth! She also got her first taste of strawberries.

David and Erik went to a Valentine's Day party with some friends from church. We had such a good time making cookies, passing out valentines, and playing with friends.

They loved making their valentines too. Thanks to pinterest, we had tons of great ideas for gifts. We decided to make homemade (well, more like recycled) crayons and kool-aid playdough. I found some cute boy cards and then modified them a little to make them into treat bag toppers.

For the crayons we didn't have a heart shaped mold, so we used the square one I had on hand, and they turned out great. Taking the papers off took a really long time, and I ended up with crayons in all my fingernails. We divided the crayons up into color groups, and the boys really enjoyed deciding where each crayon went. Before filling the molds, I put the crayon pieces in plastic bags and let the boys hit them with a hammer. They thought it was extremely awesome. And it made for great looking crayons.

We followed the playdough recipe pretty close, though I added some cream of tartar (to help it last longer) and some glitter for fun. I think we added more kool-aid too to get the color brighter too. The pink lemonade didn't turn out as pink as I wanted, but both flavors smelled great. The fruit punch was so good, I'm certain I'm going to need to remind the boys not to eat it. David and Erik love cooking with mommy. This recipe didn't really require any cooking, but they consider any time at the counter "cooking" time with mommy, so they enjoyed this project too.

The boys even enjoyed stuffing the bags. We work assembly line style, and it was really fun. I wish we had more time to decorate their boxes. I wanted to let them cover them with stickers, but we ran out of time. They do love their boxes though, especially now that they are filled with cards and treats.

Anna enjoying her 1st valentine's day.

Look closely and you can see her hippo tooth!!

David and his valentines box.

Erik with his treats.

Our homemade crayons.

And our homemade playdough.

Steve and I both agree that ridiculous puns are the best part about valentines.