Valentine's Day and 15!

February has been good so far. Lily has been trying to get in all of her driving hours. She could technically take the test as of tomorrow but she still needs to have two more driving sessions and then finish 11 hours of driving so she will probably take it the second week of March. I am equally excited and terrified. She is a very cautious and good driver but she also almost ran into a parked car the other day so it is a bit scary to send her out on her own. I am glad we have a few more weeks. 

This has been a quieter time with no sports for Curtis now that track is done and Brandon is playing basketball but it is only a one-hour practice once a week and then a game on Saturday. Compared to baseball, that feels like almost nothing. He is really into basketball right now and his team is playing well. He has one more game Saturday and then the season is done. His play practices have ramped up a bit and we are now only a month from the show. I am super excited to see him be King Triton. I love watching my kids do their thing and he has really been enjoying this show experience; it is going to be a fun weekend in March. Thankfully the show ends right before baseball starts. 

It has been a very snowy month. After three years of no snow, we had a big storm in January that got us three days off and two delays. Then last week it started snowing Tuesday afternoon so they called an early dismissal and we got Wednesday off. It didn't really snow that much but it was still pretty and Emma and Brandon and Lily went outside for awhile. 

Valentine's day was very nice. Josh had the day off, which was wonderful, so he offered to do the morning driving, which was even more wonderful. He let me sleep until 7:45 when I got up with Brandon and then he brought me roses and made me a broken yolk sandwich with the most amazing sourdough bread. We first had these sandwiches at our hotel in Miami on our 20th anniversary trip so it was nostalgic and delicious. We had a lovely morning together and then spent the afternoon cleaning out our closet, which has been needing to be done for months. It feels so good to have that done and finally have all of Josh's stuff organized. Meanwhile the kids had early dismissal so they were coming home and I took the girls to dance. Every year I get the kids chocolates and this year I cut out a bunch of paper hearts and wrote messages on them and left them all over the table. They also get a book and then my mom always sends valentines so I leave everything on the kitchen table for when they get up. I had also gotten them toaster strudels for breakfast, which they love and I hardly ever buy. 

I had decided I didn't just want to sit around that evening so I had gotten us tickets to the LHS vs GM basketball game. I thought it would be fun for the kids to go to a school sporting event and being rivals and all I thought would make it more exciting. Needless to say, two of our crew were decidedly not happy about going to the game but in the end they came. I thought it was super fun. The GM crowd was super energetic and the student section was all wearing black and there was a definite energy in the gym. I was wonderfully surprised though at the sportsmanship of the players. It was super close the whole game and there were a lot of people watching and they still were so polite to each other and helped each other up off the floor; I was really impressed. It was a good game and so close until the very last few minutes when Leonardtown pulled away and won. I'm glad we went and it was fun to do something different. Then we got pizza for dinner and Crumbl for dessert and went home to eat it and watch the Jeopardy Tournament of Champions. I love Josh and my kids and even got a few nice valentines from friends and our parents so it was a lovely day.

 

Monday was President's day and we decided to have a family fun day. Emma needed new pointe shoes so we decided to head up Annapolis way. We first stopped at Barnes and Noble because we all love a bookstore and Curtis had a gift card to use. Then we went up to the dance supply store and Emma picked out new shoes. Then Curtis had wanted to go miniature golfing but there was only one indoor place and it looked weird. I had found a place close by that was outside but I wasn't sure if it would be open. We drove there and yeah, it was open! It was 40 degrees, sunny but windy and Lily for some reason didn't bring a coat but we played miniature golf and had a good time. It was fun to do something different and the kids had fun and we did some coat sharing so Lily didn't freeze and it was all good. Then we had an early dinner at Cafe Rio and headed home. Lily did all of the driving so she got in a good four hours, which was awesome. Unfortunately, on the way home, Josh had us pull over and then he spent half an hour violently throwing up in a field. Luckily it was dark enough that we couldn't quite see what was happening and we kept the car running so we couldn't hear either because the last thing I needed was for Emma to lose it too (she's a sympathy vomit-er).  I felt terrible for Josh but he finally settled down and we were able to make it home. He didn't eat for two days though and we're still not quite sure what the problem was since he didn't eat anything unique at Cafe Rio and the rest of us were all fine. He's been having gastric issues for months now so I'm thinking it is time to visit a doctor. Anyway, it was a fun family day and I'm grateful we got to do something together. It feels more and more rare that we have days where nobody has anything so that we can go on adventures. 

 

Tuesday was Curtis's 15th birthday! I drove him to seminary and the teacher very kindly made him caramel popcorn for a birthday treat and then I drove him to the bus. He was very mellow and didn't seem very excited about his birthday this year. Maybe a teenage boy thing? For dinner I made french toast, eggs, hash browns and bacon and then he requested pumpkin pecan pie for his birthday treat. He opened his presents and we got him some new ping pong paddles and a couple of sweatshirts, Lily got him a gift card to Bob Evans with a promise to take him as soon as she gets her license, Emma got him Lucky Charms, Brandon picked out a sled for him and then we got him a new bike. He has never had a new bike, always hand me downs, so we got him a nice one that hopefully should fit him for life. He is excited for the bike trip this summer and we are hoping that it will be useful to him. He didn't seem totally jazzed about it but I am hoping he is happy with it. Usually we prefer to do something more fun but since he was getting an expensive gift, we kept our celebration low key. But we love our boy and how responsible he is and funny and how he's just a good kid.