February Happenings

 So February was all about getting settled into the school routine.  I think all the kids have had some adjusting to do.  I didn't think Will would have so much trouble adjusting, but he really misses his sisters.  Some days after drop off, we'll be driving away from the school and Will will say, Oh no!  The girls, they're lost!  Or he will ask if we can go to friends almost every day, because he is lonely.  Poor guy!  I really do wish that Ava was still home part of the time.  They get along so very well.  And I'm sure I will really be wishing she was around more when I have this baby too!  Will could really use a mate!

Anyways, here are some pictures of some of our activities in February.

The girls adopted Aunt Shelece is always spoiling Lily and Ava.  One Sunday, they came home with some awesome outfits for Ken.

 If you recall my awesome handiwork for apparel for Ken when all he had to wear were swim trunks.  Well Shelece saw this and was prompted to buy new clothes for Ken!  Hahaha!  His hair still hasn't improved, however.  :)

I finally went to my first appointment with the gynecologist here in town when I was 28 weeks pregnant.  It was a bit different than a doctors office in America.  First of all, there was a dog in the waiting room.  And no, it's not this lady's dog.  It's the doctors!  Besides the dog, there was some very interesting decor around, mainly pregnant women and babies.  Some were nice, but some were just down right creepy.

 Here's the strange statue out front of the office.  A little on the creepy side, I thought.

 We went to back to school night and Ava's painting about what she did during the summer was very interesting.  It says that she saw a unicorn in Perth.  Not only did she not see a unicorn, but we didn't even go to Perth.  But that is okay...I love it!

 Ava got her very first Goldie.  Which is a little certificate for good behavior.  The teacher will mark which category the child did well in and usually put a little write up about how fantastic your kid is.  She was very excited.  You get to write your name on the bottom half and return it to go into a drawing for prizes.

 Lily received a Merit Certificate at the very first assembly of the year.  So Will and I stayed to watch, but Will thought playing in the somewhat muddy dirt was more fun.

 There's Lily holding her certificate at the front of the assembly after receiving it.

 She got the award from her teacher for her great effort in sounding out words.

 Valentine's day was really low key this year.  I really don't have much energy for things like that this year.  But lucky for me, if the girls want something special to happen they usually make it happen themselves.  Lily and Ava set up a restaurant for themselves and got dressed up in fancy clothes.  Al I had to do was take their order and serve them their food.  They enjoyed it and it was easy!

 Here are the girls all fancied up, eating their awesome dinner.  Haha, we had like no food in the house that day.  It certainly wasn't anything fancy, but the girls liked it so that is all that matters.

 I should have got a picture of Will.  The girls didn't think he could behave at a fancy restaurant (and they were right)  So he became their pet dog!  Haha!  Cory came home from work in the after noon and took me to lunch, which was a super nice surprise that never happens, but Will had to come too, and yes, he kind of did behave like a dog!  :)  Just kidding, he was alright, just very excited to be out of the house, like me!

Here's the beautiful and very Valentiney table set up.

 They don't do Valentines here at school like in America but we did make some Valentines for the kids teachers.  We made chocolate heart suckers and chocolate dipped strawberries and oreos and some homemade heart cards.  I should have taken a picture of all our chocolate making. It was quite professional if I don't mind saying so myself.  The girls also made Valentines for each other and everyone in the family.  This was my favorite one I found around the house.

 It says, To Ava From Lily You are one big character.  Hahaha!  What a crack up!

Like I said earlier, Will has been lonely with out his big sisters.  So we have been setting up play dates quite often.  Here we are at Hammond Park, and this is the closest I have ever seen the kangaroos to the fence, ever!  So Will got some petting action in.

 It's a cute little thing, isn't it?

 After school one Friday, I had to go pick something up in a part of town we hadn't been too before.  We spotted this park and decided to stop and try it out.

 The kids had a great time!  :)

 Ava got invited to a birthday party for one of the boys in her class.  It was at McDonald's so of course Ava wanted to go, since I never ever take them there, and if I do it is just for a 30 cent ice cream cone, never for a meal.  Turns out that Ava was the only girl there!  She didn't seem to mind one bit.  I'm not sure if she knew what Star Wars was before the party, but she does now.  That's all those boys seemed to play on the play place.

 For some reason lately, Lily has become obsessed with cats.  She keeps telling me how much she wants a pet cat, and lucky for her there happens to be a stray cat that just won't take the hint to go away. So it hangs out in our back yard often.  But, of course, that isn't good enough for Lily, she wants a cat that can come inside.  Well too bad for her, that will never ever happen.  I'm sorry, but I do not love cats, and I definitely don't want one in my house.  She was devastated when I said she would have to wait until she had her own house or apartment to get a cat.  Anyways, the point of all that is the girls made this crazy cat cake at the end of February to say happy birthday to Gabby (it was her birthday that day), Angela and McKall.

 So at the end of February, my nesting instinct started to kick in a bit.  And unfortunately for Cory and our bank account, it kind of went into over drive.  Since we had never really settled in when we moved here and we have just been using free furniture and what not, I started nesting whole house wide, instead of just a baby's room.  One new thing that I purchased on this rampage, and have been feeling really anxious to get for a while was a piano.  I have been wanting the girls to start learning for a while and when that nesting instinct kicked in, I thought why not.  The girls have been loving it!  Now, if only I could actually get all that sheet music I need printed off.  Lily has been taking lessons off of you tube, and then she teaches them to Ava.  It's worked out quite nicely.  But we definitely need music that we can start reading as well.

 On the first Monday in March, it was Labor Day here in Australia so that meant, no school!  And it just so happened to be really warm also.  So we had a few friends over for a swim.  There is Lily in the water with Lach and Annabelle.

 Here is Ava and Will all done swimming.

 This is Ava in her classroom at school drop off.  She always loves to play with the baby dolls.  I hope that is a good sign about what a great helper she'll be with the baby.  :)  Sometimes Ava will even put the baby up her shirt to be pregnant like me.  Oh dear!

 Here's another bit of Ava's school work that I was noticing at school drop off.  They were being tested on how well they listened to the story of the Old Lady who Swallowed a Fly.  They were supposed to retell the story to the teacher and she wrote down what they said. Well that is Ava's retell in the middle there.  Look how much longer it is than all the others?  Hahaha!  Ava pretty much retold the entire story, sometimes word for word!  Oh, she sure is one big character.  ;)

That is about it for February.