Things I Love. Part 10

Well, my initial reasons for doing the 'Things I Love' series were two fold.
First, I wanted to really work on my photography. Which I haven't really done much with. There is still a lot of February left, right???

The other reason is that February is usually such a dark, dreary, and long month. (Even though it's actually short, the weather makes it seem long!) Reminding myself of people and things, big and small that I am thankful for helps the deep winter doldrums. (Is doldrums a grandma word?)

Well, today was full of reasons to be thankful. Such a packed, fun day.

First, this little guy started Pre-pre-school today. The preschool that G attended is offering a parent-child 'intro to preschool' class. Carter dropped the first 'pre' and told anyone who would listen that he was headed to preschool! It was a dream come true to him- getting to go to school for him (instead of Madeline or Garrett), I stayed with him, and he had a friend there too! My friend Allison is taking the class with her little girl, Abby. Carter and Abby were two of the oldest kids in the class, but they were happy and busy. So cute.

We had some snow for our 'first day of school' photo this morning!

And then, this afternoon . . . still looking for words to desribe our house from 4:30-6:45ish. I've mentioned before my 'it-takes-a-village-to-raise-a-playgroup' group. These are moms that started out as acquaintances years ago, but have become my closest friends. When our kids were much younger (and we had so many less of them) we'd meet weekly for 'playgroup.' Now I think there are 17 kids total. And between our sheer numbers and our crazy schedules, we just don't get together as much. (But us moms never miss a Mom's Night Out!) Out of the 17 kids, 15 were at our house today for a Valentine's Party! I was a little worried that the kids would have fun (and not get mortally wounded) since it is such yucky weather and they couldn't spread out in the backyard. I planned a few little activities, but as usual, the kids had a great time on their own. (Although they were really cute and nice about my hokey activities.) Then all the mom's pitched in and we fed the whole crew tacos and got a few people out the door for the PTA meeting. I am so blessed to have this group of women who have my back, and have my kids' backs. Plus they are super fun. Whenever we're all together you can hear laughter, conversations that change on a dime (sometimes our hubbies can't keep up), and of course reminders to our wild kids.

With this many kids- some one is always picking a nose or blinking!

I had to get a shot of these kinder guys. We have many similar shots from their baby days.

And then (I have no idea why this is in italics and I can't get it to stop), after our house was quiet again, Joel and I decided to go pick up my Valentine's (and Christmas and Birthday, if you ask Joel) present . . . a new cell phone! I was in dire need of a new phone . . . and long story short, I ended up with a new iphone! I'm so excited!