Random extras for the month of December...

I am far behind...yet again.  Thus is life of a homeschooling mom--who happens to also be prepping house in case we decide to sell.

The kids finished up a semester of WOW with a Wednesday night performance.  So proud of my little singers-who even knew the motions!  Mr Serious and Miss smiles.

E had another breakfast date with Daddy--this time at Panera.

D had a haircut at Mr. Handsome.  Here's my Mr. Handsome:

E decided to get dressed and complained that her leggings wouldn't stay up.  Hah!  Anyone know what this is?  (hint: it goes in a very different location and keeps your neck warm)

What a boy looks like when he dresses up...

Photo ops at church.  Wow!  When did my son get so old!!!

E really is a careful Mommy, except when she relegates her baby to eat by herself in the other room.

Chewbacca was reaching for a midnight snack.

 Snuggle time

Poor A did not get hardly any photos in December.  Hopefully we will change that next month.  In the meantime, I will leave you with some funny logic as produced by a three year old.
Abigail is the only one of my three who picks her nose.  Many months ago, we told her not to do that and warned her that if she did, she might end up sick (we have family who have gotten sick from that).  Her little mind turned it into this:  "Mommy, my tummy hurts...or my nose is running...or my finger hurts.  I'm sick.  I picked my nose!"

if you pick your nose, you will get sick.
if you get sick, you must have picked your nose.

It is now a common joke among the adults and David.  A is still clueless.

birthday with butterflies and big screen

We spent the 28th at the Houston Natural Science museum.  After a rush to get down there on time for our ticketed IMAX showing, we discovered massively long lines just to get to will call.  We were late and Coles were even later.  God did the miraculous though and despite very clear rules to the contrary, they offered to trade in tickets for a later time.  We headed to the Cockrell Butterfly Center first.

After very warm Christmas day and following, the temperature had dropped 40 degrees.  It was freezing cold!  Once we entered the butterfly outer exhibit hall, we immediately started feeling toasty.  There were all sorts of cool pinned bug and butterfly displays.  Also quite a few live bugs.  And a mapping of the ant tunnels that really made me think after talking to Dad about it.  Ants, simply "dumb" creatures, create a design that is so sound structurally that it could have been designed by the brightest engineers.  The tunnels are all at an angle rather than straight down (no collapsing) and the caverns are all offset one from the other so there is not as much load bearing.  This and the space between the caverns increases the lower you get.  Wow!  Only God could have created little insects with these engineering instincts!

We went on into the actual butterfly habitat.  By this time, I had stripped as much as I could and was still sweating!  (40 degrees outside, 95+ inside and close to 100 percent humidity)   There were butterflies everywhere.  Last time I went, it was on "meet the parents" weekend with M early on in our relationship.  And his parents and Susan came then too.  This time five kids in tow between Sue and I...one of which who was practically screaming because she was so scared of the butterflies.  (E) She deals with fear a lot so I was not surprised, but it dampened our fun a bit.

Eventually, we headed out again after checking our backs for stowaways.  And time for a quick drink to cool down and don our jackets again before heading into the IMAX.  We went to see a 3D ocean life showing.  Pretty fascinating and A kept reaching out to shove the fish out of her way.  :)

We finished off Michael's birthday evening back at the Coles house with Chicago-style stuffed pizza and a few gifts.  Happy Birthday, Michael!