Valentine's Day and Green Belts!

This month was Valentine's day and will be Sterling's 34th birthday.
We are trying not to obtain more "stuff" as we get ready to move. And I am trying to learn to live Trim Healthy Mama (which includes eating no sugar). So it's tricky.
The preschoolers did give me some awesome chocolate (containing sugar) which I did cheat for. So worth it!
The preschooler's had a wonderful valentine's party on Vday. Luke and Ty had valentine class parties. Ty's class was a pancake breakfast and party at the beginning of school. Athena and I attended that before our own preschool class. We stopped by Luke's class too but their party wouldn't happen until the end of the day.

Noah gave me a chocolate rose. I gave my preschoolers all little plush animals:

Athena and her classmates got to experience their first Valentine's party with: heart themed party games, decorating a valentine collection bag, handing out valentines, enjoying the received valentine treats and having a themed snack. I gave them a healthy but fun snack because I knew they would be eating a lot of candy by the end. Valentine robots containing organic apple juice, apple sauce and stickers. Hannah had helped me create the robots while she was here.

Sterling had given me two Cadbury caramel eggs while Mom was here. I thoroughly enjoyed one immediately and saved the second for Valentine's day.

Sterling had to work all day (which never happens) on Valentine's day. But we had cuddled in bed before getting up that day. And he fixed my van's lack of windshield wiper fluid. Then I spent the day with kids and no husband.

On Saturday the 16th Luke and Ty received their green belts in Ju Jitsu! It had taken a long time! Longer than most kids take. And for Luke especially it was a truly difficult achievement. Luke is not coordinated or athletic. But he practiced and practiced until he earned, truly earned, his green belt! For Ty is comes more naturally but...he doesnt love it. So he is unmotivated. And so it took a long time.
I video taped their tests and all their great moves.

It was such a relief to me to have them receive it before moving! A weight off my shoulders!
We celebrated that day by going to Cold Stone's for ice cream. There was a small blizzard outside as we drove there. We wondered if we were going to get in trouble out there on the road. But it turned out fine. The blizzard ended before we returned home. Desyrae came to celebrate with us. She is also in ju jitsu.

The Coldest Month of the Year

 
Sterling's mom and Hannah wanted to come visit to see if they could help us prepare to move. Unfortunately it is the coldest month of the year in Rapid City. Too dangerous to be outside. So we are stuck in doors.

We don't have stuff for Mom and Hannah to help with. I put them to work as much as I could: had them help me finish all the preschool preps for the rest of the month. Cutting papers mostly. That was helpful!

Sterling took them to see some sites such as Mt. Rushmore and Wind Cave (which was warmer than anywhere else you can go ...50 degrees in the cave).
We went all of us to Sickie's Burgers. So much fun!
Here are pics from a time we went to Sickies before our visitors came:

And with visitors here:

 They ate burgers in Custer:

 Wind cave:

 The railing going down into the cave:

Downtown Rapid City:

We planned out a road trip between leaving SD and flying to Japan. We wanted to see how many family members we could visit before we leave. We couldnt squeeze Josh's family in unless we visited them before we out process. So we ended up meeting them halfway between our homes for an overnight hotel stay.
We did it while Mom and Hannah were with us February 9-10.

On the way there we stopped at the Corn Palace. Unfortunately their fun kids play room was set up for basketball instead. Basketball season.

We met in Sioux Falls and had a blast together at the Butterfly house and aquarium. So cool! A magical experience for all of us. We loved feeling the water creatures , putting our heads in a dome in the middle of an aquarium of fish and having butterflies land on us!

 Sterling took a lot of beautiful butterfly portraits:

 A boy taught Athena to put her finger in front of butterflies and coax them onto her! It seemed the butterflies loved her once her scent was on her. She had many butterfly experiences.

 The butterflies thought my dress was a real garden:

Visiting Ster at the tower on base:

 I got this cool kit ...a craft to decorate your own puppy. Grandma and Hannah helped the three kids make them:

It was great to get reacquainted with Aspyn, Anya, Ayla, Janette and Josh! It was great having Mom and Hannah with us at the same time!

We checked into the hotel and went swimming! The kids had a blast!
We brought pizza to the hotel to eat and watch a movie. The kids played video games together and went swimming some more.
In honor of Sunday we had a spiritual lesson in Grandma's room taught by Grandma herself.
We all sat on the beds and learned about the Savior.

Sunday morning we had breakfast together in the lobby. The kids went swimming one more time.
We ate leftovers for lunch at the hotel then said goodbye. The weather was bad outside. But we all traveled safely back to our destinations.

Tiberias practicing his balance...haha:

 Tiberias was giving Athena piggy back rides in the pool! Great brother:

We kind of celebrated Sterling's birthday early...at Fuji's Steakhouse (Tepanyaki):

Mom and Hannah flew back to Utah and the next day...was warm here! But that was the only warm day we've had in like a month! It was in the 40s that day and I wanted so much to take the kids to play at a playground but...Athena and Luke were both sick! We even had a house showing that day. I had two sick kids and Ty was at school so...I couldn't really take them anywhere fun during the showing. So I took my big basket of clean laundry, my sick kids and drove down the street. For an hour we sat in the car. We parked at the nearest small playground so Athena could play if she wanted . But it was too cold for her to last long. I folded laundry in the car and Luke read a book.

There is an indoor playland that opened up in town recently. It was not far from my house (a 7 minute drive I would guess). But it costs money. With a cafe and kid snacks for sell, plenty of adult seating and free wifi it costs like $10 a child per day. Too much! But if you purchase a membership you only pay $35 for all of my three kids per month. You do have to commit to a three month membership. But I did it. January, February and March. I knew we'd need a place to go to get out of the house during walk throughs. And Luke needs to do more physical movement. So getting him to walk around and play there is better than being at home.

It is a smaller playland than I had hoped. But it's bigger than BK and Mcdonald's playlands. Here in Rapid that's all we have: 1 BK playland, 1 Mcdonald's playland and the mall (which is meant for small kids).
I also wish the Outside In playland we joined had a little track for adults to walk around the outskirts of the room. But sitting is our only option. I'll take what I can get, I guess.

And with limited indoor playlands locally a ton of people have joined this establishment. Which means it can be pretty crowded...no fun for us. Saturdays are crazy, we avoid those.
It seems that immediately after school is not bad. So when we go we go right after school.