Beauty and the Beast in Bloomington

Over Christmas Break, Kristina and I purchased tickets to go see Beauty and the Beast on stage in Bloomington for Emerson and ourselves.  So we were really excited when March 7th finally came!  All week Emerson had a countdown going to help her keep track of the days.  Matt and Landon joined us too on the trip to Bloomington.
Emerson is pretty big into picking out her own clothes.  So she was super excited to get to dress up like Belle for the show!

 They had all kinds of activities for kids to do before the show.  Emerson got her picture taken, threw tea bags into Chip's teacup friends, and even made her own invention (a magic wand).

Then it was time for the show to start.  I was a little worried that she'd be scared of the Beast, but we were far enough back that she couldn't really see his make up.  She did a great job during the show but was getting really tired.  She moved all over trying to keep herself awake.  She fell asleep right at the end when Belle and the Beast were dancing in the ballroom and I had to carry her out of the auditorium.

 On Saturday, Nate drove up and went to a gymnastics meet.  We checked out the library and park.  Then we all met up for dinner to eat bbq ribs and pulled pork.  It was delicious.

We ended the night watching "Catching Fire" (2nd Hunger Games movie) because the boys hadn't seen it.  We had such a great weekend!  The kids did really well on the four hour drive.  And I'm sure they'll do even better next time when we get our DVD player fixed! :(  It was quite a let down for everyone when the kids couldn't watch any movies.  Thanks Steven and Kristina for your hospitality and good cooking.

Super Bowl, Snowman, and Valentine's Day

As I sat down to write a post about our weekend, I noticed that I didn't post any pictures last month so here's a quick recap of our February (besides the cold weather and more days off school)!

Super Bowl

The Frye's came over for the Super Bowl this year, where the Broncos got totally crushed by the Seahawks.  Amos and Grace made tie dye shirts for the kids and Jess and I happened to wear our Matt Forte jerseys (even though the Bears weren't playing :))

We had a lot of fun watching the game and the kids always have fun playing together.

Snowman

Emerson and Matt built a snowman and she wanted to name him Olaf, after the most adorable snowman in her favorite movie, "Frozen."  He turned out pretty cute and lasted about 3 weeks since it was so cold and snowy.

Emerson, the pink snow girl!

I know these pictures are almost the same, but this last one reminds me of the two of them hugging so tightly that they fell down in the snowbank, without snow pants or boots on of course! :)

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was a big deal this year.  The kids were very excited to write out Valentine's for everyone in their class.  They each did a great job!  At preschool, they had a party and pajama day.  It was pretty exciting.  Mom and Dad had us over for dinner and Steven and Kristina came up for the weekend too.  The kiddos and Mom made us a scavenger hunt to find our gifts.  It was really cute.  This poster was the last gift.