Staying Busy

Well, while Daddy's been enjoying the peace and quiet, we've been busy around here! On Friday night, some friends came over for a little early Valentine's celebration. We made these cute pizzas...

and also decorated heart cookies and brownies and played some fun Valentine's games, but I don't have pictures of any of those things. 

Then, this morning, the kids had a big surprise: Mom made pancakes! Daddy is normally the maker of all things breakfast at our house, but this morning I was the substitute chef. The kids ate all their pancakes, so I must have done all right. What I learned, though, is that even when Daddy is making pancakes, and I'm in the other room, I play an important role in the breakfast prep process. Today, with only one parent in the game, I got to handle not only the pancakes, but also the potty emergencies and burst balloon tragedies and all the other excitement that took place during the pancake making. It was exciting, and it's a wonder any of the pancakes turned out all right.

Later, we headed out to my favorite run-and-climb-and-get-yourselves-good-and-worn-out-so-you'll-take-a-nap-when-we-get-home spot. We took a picnic and ate it when we first got there, then we tackled the mountains. We climbed and climbed, and when we finally got to the top, we could see the city again.

We walked and climbed some more, played "Moses parts the Red Sea" (Lee Anna's idea), enjoyed the sunshine, shielded our eyes from the dusty wind gusts, and walked and climbed some more until I was convinced that they were tired.

We took several important breaks to sit on big rocks...  

 and play with small ones...

 and when we got to the bottom...

we had cookies waiting for us!

We brought lots of desert home with us, but it's nothing that a good bubble bath and a few loads of laundry won't take care of. I'm sure we'll be back soon!