Three days after Emilee's birthday she got an not so happy birthday present - chickenpox!!
She went to bed with a couple suspicious spots on her neck and had a whole family when she woke up!! Oh no!
One of the doctors we had confirm Emilee's chickenpox felt very strongly that the other girls should stay at home for the next 3-5 days. So we had a few days to fill!! We did some homework, played games and made some caramel popcorn - yum!
Emilee did absolutely fantastic not scratching her chickenpox. When she got really itchy she would ask Mom for some "itching cream" to make it feel better. One day was especially hard and so she got a nice coating of the pink stuff!
Dad promised Emilee a trip to the ice cream store when she was all better if she didn't scratch herself. That must have been some good motivation!!
Emilee was covered! She had chickenpox all over her body, in her mouth, on her tongue and even got one on the white of her eye!! We are so proud of how well Emilee handled being "sick". She had a couple days where her fever was high and she just laid on the couch all day but for the other days she got homework done, relaxed and didn't scratch. Good work Em!
As Elizabeth and Cera felt great but were stuck at home, they tried to make the most of it. They headed outside a few times to play in the snow and get some fresh air.
They found some big icicles to chew on. Silly girls!
Our sweet Emilee turned 7!! We enjoyed celebrating her special day with her!
She has been saving her money and hoping to get skylanders swap force and was surprised with it for her birthday. We loved to surprise and excitement on her face when she opened it!
After enjoying the morning we packed up and headed to Red Deer for a night away as a family. While Dad went to dinner for his friends birthday, the girls enjoyed some burgers and fries before returning to the hotel for a couple hours of swimming before bed.
Mom loves spending time with her girls!
We woke up the next morning to enjoy breakfast, swimming for 3 hours, visiting with friends and a wrap up to our weekend by having a birthday dinner at Montana's. The girls loved being spoiled by our waiter with unlimited shirley temples and then Emilee loved wearing the horns while they sang happy birthday. It appears we have a new birthday dinner destination!
We are so grateful to have Emilee in our family. She is sensitive, loving, kind and wants to help everyone. She tries to make sure everyone is happy and included. She loves to play minecraft, animal jam and skylanders. Her favorite foods are broccoli, crackers and cheese, tacos and anything with sugar. She is a great reader and becoming a great speller! We are so proud of Emilee and the hard work she puts into everything!!
The older girls had a week off school but Elizabeth still had to keep working hard! Okay she got to have a little fun while working with Amber this week. One of her favorite days involved making monster cookies. She got to write her recipe, make a bakers hat, mix the ingredients, do the dishes and share her cookies with everyone. Doesn't she look super cute!?!?! She now tells Mom all the time that dishes are fun and she can help. She would also tell everyone that her cookies were "smooth". (We think she got that from the smooth peanut butter that was in them but we aren't 100% sure.)
We are also enjoying some great spring weather a little early!! We've made a few trips to the park. Emilee and Mike decided to play hide and seek under the bulletin board!
We are continuing to enjoy more family time after a great family day.
The girls wanted to participate in the challenge to unplug for family day so we planned some fun things to do together. We started the day with putting nail stickers on each of the girls. They thought they were pretty fun.
After we finished our nails, we headed out for a surprise with the girls. We went to Ken's (one of Dad's friends) property to explore and feed his horses. We explored the river shore. This picture was funny because as Mom was about to take it Ken's cat came running by at mock 10 and ran up a tree.
After that the girls couldn't stop giggling for a picture. Such a funny memory!
We then threw some rocks onto the ice to see how solid it was. The rocks barely made a dent so we decided to carefully venture out on it. We also felt pretty safe as the water where we were was very shallow even if we fell through it would only be up to our calves.
It took lots of convincing and Mom and Dad stepping on the ice first before Elizabeth would try it. She is a very cautious girl.
Em took a big stick with her to help her balance and to pretend to play hockey with the rocks with threw.
We then headed up to feed the horses the treats we brought them (apples and carrots). There are 3 horses - just perfect for each of the girls to feed one.
The carrots were a lot easier to feed them.
We then went exploring around the property. The girls sat in a pile of hay and Cera said, "I can see why they used this for baby Jesus." It must have been some pretty nice hay!!
They climbed up on the tractors and Mom and Dad both shared tractor/combine stories from when they were growing up. Dad said he was thrown into a tractor and told to drive and that is how he learned. Mom remembered Great Grandma Richards driving her to find Great Grandpa driving the combine from one field to the next and Mom getting to ride along in the combine. Mom thought that was pretty awesome!
Ken then invited the girls inside for some juice and cookies. He then took them downstairs to check out their toys. While the girls played (including Mom who got to be princess peach) Dad and Ken had a nice visit before we headed for home.
We had a fun, very unplugged family day together! We are sad Dad has to go back to work tomorrow while we still get to relax for the rest of the week.
Mom thought it would be fun to surprise the girls with a minecraft valentine (thanks to the internet for the idea). They really liked the surprise in their lunch kit the day before valentines day.
Dad likes to spoil his girls on valentine's day. We had some sickness this past week in our house so Dad had to enlist Mom's help to pick up a few items for him.
The girls were so excited to find their goodies from Dad when they woke up!
Who doesn't love some chocolate, legos, flowers, online game memberships and skylanders!!
Dad wrapped the great day up with doing a little chemistry with her girls. Cera got a kit for Christmas and they have been waiting for a day to work on it. They had fun playing and learning with Dad.
What a fun day filled with love and time with family!
We put Cera's hair in rollers one day so of course the other two girls wanted a turn. Elizabeth was first.
It was a lot of sitting but she was excited to have foam rollers in her hair for the first time.
She was excited to take them out the next morning to see all of the crazy curls.
She thought she looked good but "kindof like a clown".
Mom thought she looked pretty good with her curly hair and sunglasses. But Elizabeth was ready to have a tub that night to wash the curls away.
Next was Emilee's turn. She wanted her hair a little less curly so we used bigger and less rollers.
Emilee's hair turned out pretty cute and she enjoyed it.
Girls can be lots of work but so much fun to have around!!
To start the month Elizabeth had crazy hat day at school. She really didn't want to participate until Mom showed her a picture of this hat - then she was super excited and wanted to take some kisses to share with her class. It was a fun day for her and we all think she looked pretty cute.
We had some cold weather return this month. We didn't love the cold and snow but the hoar frost certainly made the trees pretty.
Elizabeth wanted to play doctor with Mom one afternoon. She has this funny way of wanting to do things (like play doctor, do your hair, rub your back) but she only does it for a minute and then says, "Can you do me now?" Then she wants you to go forever on her. She's so funny and sly!
She did find out that Mom was pretty sick. The doctor said Mom needed some glasses, a mask and told her she had a fever. Good thing she made Mom all better before it was her turn to see the doctor!!
Mom is super grateful that she is able to be at home to enjoy moments like this with her girls!
