spring is coming!

Wow, have I really not posted anything since January 8th? Since spring is almost here it's probably time for an update! The past few months have flown by, even though we've pretty much spent them hibernating. The biggest thrill for Olivia and Violet was Valentine's Day. Other than Christmas, it is probably their favorite holiday of the year. They love making valentines for their friends and having a party at school. We made their Valentine cards this year, they both decided to go with a Star Wars theme. We punched a hole in the cards and inserted a glow bracelet to look like the light saber. The girls were pretty happy with how they turned out, although we kept accidentally snapping and activating glow bracelets when we were putting them together! Oh well, good thing we had extras. This is what their cards looked like without the glow bracelets.

Olivia's Valentine Card

Violet's Valentine Card

A few weeks before Valentine's Day, we were looking at some old pictures of mine. The girls found one of me and my sisters with the valentines boxes we had made that year, I was probably about 10 years old. They asked why we made boxes, I explained that we used to do that for school and that's what classmates would put your valentines in when they were handed out. Well, Olivia and Violet thought it was a cool idea and decided they wanted to make their own valentines boxes. They came up with several ideas before Olivia decided to make a soccer field and Violet decided to make a toilet (yes...as in the flushing kind). So one Saturday we got our supplies together and they worked on their boxes. Olivia cracked me up when she made a scoreboard for her soccer field, the score was Minnesota-92 against Spain-38. I don't think there will ever be a soccer score that high! They had a valentines party at school on Friday, February 12, and both of their teachers said they could bring their boxes in. They were beyond excited!

Olivia with her "Soccer Field" Valentine box

Violet with her "Toilet" Valentine box

I took the day of February 12th off work so I could help with their school parties, which has been our tradition. Luckily, it worked out perfect that Violet's party was in the morning and Olivia's party was in the afternoon, with lunch in between. So I spent most of the day at school with them, which was fun. In each party, the kids rotated between four or five different activities - a game, a craft, a snack, a special activity, etc. I really enjoyed meeting some of Olivia and Violet's friends and getting a chance to see them in their daily school routine. It was a fun day!

Olivia and Violet also enjoyed playing soccer in the month of February. Violet was signed up to play lacrosse which took place at the same time as soccer, but the class was cancelled because there weren't enough kids signed up, so she moved into soccer class with Olivia. This was their first time taking a soccer class, and they both enjoyed it. Olivia actually asked to try soccer because she played it at school and (in her words) she is really good! :) And modest too...

The girls also participated in Junior Great Books at school. It's basically a book club that meets once a week to discuss what type of life lessons they can learn from the story they are supposed to read each week. Even though they have to get up extra early one day a week to make it to the meeting before school, they really love it and look forward to going each week.

On February 20th, we went to the Minnesota Timberwolves basketball game as a family. It was Olivia and Violet's first time at a Wolves game. They had a lot of fun, but the definite highlight for them was meeting the mascot Crunch! He walked up into the stands near where we were sitting so the girls really wanted a picture with him. They told me later that he was pretty soft and furry!

At the Timberwolves game with Crunch

The weather has been pretty lovely here for March! Another sign that spring is on the way was having our spring conferences at school last night. We are very proud of both of our girls, they are doing well in school. Their biggest challenge is to improve on the more social side of things - Olivia's teacher challenged her to try to be more patient with others (not too surprising) and Violet's teacher challenged her to talk less in class (also not too surprising). Otherwise, they are both doing well academically and appear to be on their way to moving up to third grade!