St. Patty's Day

 Watching Irish dancers at Navy Pier.

 Shamrock shakes!

Ellie doing her own Irish dance after the show.

Happy Birthday to Clara (and Daddy!)

 Ellie helped me make a banana pudding cake.

Opening one of Daddy's gifts.

Ready to go to the Disney Live show to celebrate!

In the car on the way to the show, we asked the girls what songs they thought they would hear at the concert.  Clara answered, "Call Me Maybe."

Holy Cow!  Dinner at Harry Caray's after the show.

An unwelcome March blizzard.

 Our largest snowfall of the winter - 10 inches.

 I couldn't force myself to go outside with the girls to play in the snow, so we brought it inside this time.

 Can't say she looks disappointed in that decision!

First Haircut

When your baby girl doesn't have any hair for the first two years of life, it's hard to admit when she's ready for her first real haircut.  But ready she was, as her brush told me each morning as it tried to fight its way through her hair!

 The before shot.

 Waiting in style!

And after.  Much better!

February

Ellie's Valentine's Day party at school.  That's her favorite teacher, Miss Matus, behind her.

Class pic.

Their expressions here are priceless!

I think we had more chocolate in the house for Valentine's Day then we did at Christmas!

I've had to get creative in my thinking for indoor uses of the water table this winter.  I saw this activity on Miss Donna's (Ellie's teacher in Cincinnati) blog and thought that it was a great idea.  The girls played with the animals in the water one day, and then I put it out on the deck overnight to let it freeze.  Here they are the next day trying to figure out how to get the animals out of the ice. 

  

Building a snowman with friends. Clara is of course eating the snow while everyone else is busy working!

Proud of their finished product!

Ellie had birthday parties at Pump it Up on back-to-back weekends this month!  Here she is at her friend Caroline's party.

It has been nice to see some family this month!  Rob and Nikki were in town over Presidents' Day weekend. Then, we made a quick trip down to South Bend the following weekend to celebrate Aunt Dianne and Mom's birthdays.

Marshmallow stamping.  Keeping busy and trying to stay healthy!  We have had a lot of runny noses in the house this winter, but fortunately have managed to dodge the flu.  A 24-hour stomach bug for Ellie has been the worst of it for us so far this year.

Here's to hoping that the sun and spring are right around the corner!

Ellie and Sue!  She's been learning about dinosaurs at school for the past couple of weeks, so we took advantage of a free day at the Field Museum and got up close and personal with the dinosaurs!