February highlights: Super Bowl, Valentine's Day, Grammie's visit, basketball

 1) the Super Bowl. we don't follow football much, and I actually had no idea who was in the running for the Super Bowl until some mention of Taylor Swift's boyfriend popped up on some news feed. apparently, it was a subject of intense conversation at school, and the girls came home on Friday full of hope that, indeed, "Taylor Swift's team" would win. (I know, I know -- we are those people that actual football fans hate.) Cece in particular was well versed on the details, having been indoctrinated in KC Chiefs fandom by the boys on her bus, and waxed eloquent about Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce all weekend. so, on Sunday night, I turned on the game, expecting the girls to lose interest after the first quarter or so. but they were totally into it, trying to figure out the strategy of the game. Greta fell asleep by 9, and I finally had to send Cece to bed at 9:30 PM (at the end of the third quarter), when the Chiefs had not been able to make any headway. the next morning, I lured her out of bed by promising to show her a video of the winning touchdown, and her gleeful screams and victory dance powered her down the hill to catch the bus. "I knew it!!! I knew they could do it!!!"

we had no elaborate Super Bowl snacks, just popcorn and pirate booty 

2) Valentine's Day. Ash Wednesday fell on February 14th this year, so we celebrated a day early and just rolled the Valentine's festivities into our traditional Fat Tuesday breakfast-for-dinner feast. a few weeks prior, Cece had gone to the dollar store with a friend and came home having purchased little Valentine's gifts for everyone in the family (a little vase for me, a jar of peanuts for Nick, a basketball for Greta, bathtub finger paint for Elizabeth, and a little toy for Victoria). I always get a small gift for the girls but we don't usually do a full family gift exchange on Valentine's Day, but it was just so sweet that she had that thought, and so of course then Greta picked out something for her (a set of play food and pajamas for her American Girl doll). 

a few dollars spent on Valentine's Day plates, streamers from my box of party supplies, and our crystal candlesticks was enough to make our dining room feel festive!

mostly heart-shaped pancakes. all you do is drag one end of a chopstick from one side of the pancake to the other before it fully sets! some of them turned out prettier than others...

she asked for shaving cream, with which to refresh her slime collection

matching PJs with headbands and sleep masks. (Amazon for the win)

our littlest Valentine!

sleeping beauties

Cece decorated her calm-down corner for Valentine's Day (I will write a full post about this soon; it's been genius!)

Cece's motto for life. I can get behind all of these things

Nick and I exchanged flowers and chocolates -- I suppose I've been brainwashed by the industry, but there is something so romantic about a gorgeous display of roses. he also got smaller, beautiful bouquets of pink roses for the three older girls. Elizabeth was beside herself with joy to be included and kept happily pointing to "my fowers, my fowers!". 

3) February vacation/Grammie's visit. my mom and aunt came to visit for the week of President's Day -- it's always so much fun to have them! and I also put them to work as activity chauffeurs/babysitters ;) on President's Day itself, the girls had no school, so we went to Urban Air, a trampoline/adventure park they're always begging to visit. most of the time when they happen to ask, Nick is out of town for work, so I always say no -- it's too hard to manage a toddler and baby along with keeping an eye on the older girls. with two extra adults along, it was perfect! 

Elizabeth's first time on a trampoline -- she loved it! (then an employee came over to ask that Greta move to a separate trampoline since only one jumper is supposed to be on a mat, which I appreciate for safety purposes.)

can you find Greta? (look up!)

Cece climbed to the top of this twice

Auntie Kris brought Christmas crackers that had these adorable windup snowmen who could "race" each other down the track. they weren't very good at it, which added to the hilarity

we had lots of downtime at home, too, playing games, reading books, and playing the piano. the piano was a major focus of discussion prior to the visit, because Mom and my aunt had brought up the topic of replacing our piano multiple times previously. the current piano originally belonged to my friend's aunt, and has been used and abused over the last ten years in our home -- scratched up by pets, kept next to an exterior window for a few years, then moved against an interior wall and re-tuned once but not again since then. by this point, the music stand was broken and multiple keys didn't strike. as Cecilia has continued to plow ahead through beginner music books, we wanted a better instrument -- both for her to learn, and for the rest of us to play (Nick and I both play, as do my mom and aunt). Mom did a lot of research and visited her local piano store to play some different options, and then on one day of her visit here (which coincidentally happened to be her birthday!), we went to the piano store to test them out. we settled on a digital hybrid piano, which has a standard acoustic keyboard and action, with digitally produced sound, which means it will never need to be tuned. it has the option for two different grand piano voice sounds, a synthesizer, jazz organ, and a harpsichord, which makes it quite fun to play Bach! this was an incredibly generous gift that we will all enjoy for many, many years to come! 

well done, good and faithful servant

a mini lesson with Grammie (who was a piano major in college, taught private lessons for a while and now regularly accompanies the school choir!) Cece soaked up every little tidbit!

after sitting down to play a few different options, Mom and I agreed... this is the one! they were able to deliver the piano later that week, so Mom got to play it before heading back home. 

4) basketball mania. Greta had two weekend tournaments in February. they lost both games in the first tournament, which was even more disappointing because we were the hosts! but they really brought the fire for the second tournament and ended up finishing 3rd overall, winning the very first trophy for any of the girls' basketball teams since the school opened three years ago. there was lots of celebration! it will be a lot of fun to watch the 4th grade girls next fall when they are on the JV team. 

pardon the amateur editing (the ref was standing right in the center of the frame and making it hard to see Greta's shot -- but one of the other parents got a video of the whole passing sequence, which you can see below along with her foul shots!)

right before the swish!

our girls were in white for this game -- Greta's got the kung fu move

after the first game -- Nick came right from playing for mass, hence the dapper look

when the coach told them they won a trophy, they screamed. when he told them it was the first girls' basketball trophy in the history of our school, they lost their dang minds!!

celebrating the payoff after they actually listened to their coach and worked together as a team!

Greta got a little emotional leaving the tournament and told the coach she's going to miss him so much next year when she plays JV (under a different coach, who just happens to be his daughter -- we also love her!). the coaching staff truly gives so much time, attention and their own money to support our kids and we are so grateful.