February In Review

I loved reading your comments, I think I'd like to come gaze out y'alls windows!  Scene 1 was my current view... And by the time I had finished writing, it had changed to scene 2:

 

The winner of giveaway #4 is Karen, who commented: "I see my bird feeder  (which is empty) I'll fill it up yet before leaving my classroom... blue sky, brown field, an astute brick southern mansion up on the hill beyond the field that separates our little white school house from them. "

Karen, email your address to christopherbethany@juno.com and I will get "The Ministry Of Ordinary Places" sent your way!

I really enjoyed doing this month of giveaways; thanks for participating and making it fun! The only thing I don't like about giveaways is that I can't make everyone a winner. I'd love to. ☺

February held more than just giveaways and more cold days. I thought I'd give you all a little review of the highlights with pictures....

On February the 4th, I turned 40.

That's a big number.

But the celebrating made it almost worth it   -- there were no less than six different celebrations, each one special and unique. It made me feel humbled and tearful. 

My youngest came home from kindergarten reading words and little stories!

There was a school open house with a powerful speaker and fun exhibits. Lillian's classroom made this little town...

Complete with so many fun details...

She was proud to point them all out. 

Jasmine turned 15 on the 8th.

Yes, she's that much taller than me. 

Current favorite game. 

This particular time his first question was

"Does your person have a mustache?"

You can imagine his glee 

when the answer was yes!

My birthday surprise from Chris was scribbled on a napkin at the restaurant...

After consulting my children, everyone wanted to go back to Florida again!

As I told a friend 

who asked about our trip afterward --

"It was good, in a 'very-much-not-how-I-envisioned-it' kind of way".

We got an Airbnb in northern Florida this time and the weather didn't cooperate very well -- not so much lovely sunshine and blue sky as we were hoping for, the promised pool not open... but we really did have a good week together. 

We have a science museum membership right now, so we enjoyed two museums!

The first one had lots and lots of hands on projects we all loved. 

This was a challenge to hang 10 to 12 nails on one upright one. 

Chris and I managed to get

 20 nails on there!

This fellow showed up one day to check out our picnic. Came right up and snatched a tidbit off of the picnic table!

The second museum was a Naval Aviation Museum. Simulated flying with The Blue Angels and watching a video about the space station had to be the highlights here. 

Blue skies and sunshine though we may have lacked, it was still a lovely far cry from the snow and cold of Ohio!

Putt Putting was a big hit. 

Twice. 

And the most fun of all was having our own little house to hang out in. It meant cooking most of our meals but that was actually kind of fun too, to see how efficient we could be with using up every little bit of food by week's end. 

Scum was the game of choice, 

even while traveling home. 

I also had discovered an app that allows me to borrow audio book through our local library so we enjoyed "Cheaper By The Dozen" and "The Phantom Tollbooth".

And then it was back home and straight back to real life the next morning!

And this was my view on March 1

And now I really must run along and take care of laundry and get something else done. Happy Monday to all!