Happy Balentime's Day!

Mabel really liked this holiday.  We got out our decorations

early and she helped me arrange them around the house.

All month long she loved wishing everyone she saw a 

Happy "Balentimes" Day! So cute.

We made sugar cookies for daddy that week:

(PS: Sugar cookies with frosting are my weakness.
I think I ate a dozen.)

Mabel got a special Valentine package in 

the mail from Nana and Grandpa Kraig!

The best part was her VERY OWN tape!

She always wants to use my tape dispenser to

get tape to "fix" things but she gets so frustrated because

she has a hard time tearing the tape off and it gets

all stuck to itself.  So this was the perfect solution 

from Nana! The tape pops up in perfectly cut

sections and it's super easy to pull out and use.

We Skyped with Nana and Aunt Kels when she opened it.
(Gotta love that cheesy squint smile!)

There were also a bunch of balloons in the package
that we had a lot of fun blowing up and bouncing around.

Nate made his girls a special Valentine's breakfast:

Pink heart shaped pancakes...

with pink milk for Mabel and

a purple smoothie for me! 

Mabel gave daddy his Valentine:

Mabel got two cute Valentines from 

her friends! I should have thought to help

her make some to pass out because she would

have loved that! Next year.

     

We went to Zupa's for dinner, put Mabel to bed,

and had some friends over to play games! 

Museum of Ancient Life

Mabel isn't too crazy about dinosaurs
 but we still had a great time exploring the 

museum a few weeks ago!  

Pretty accurate imitation right?

Digging for fossils:

Sand, water, and plastic dinosaurs to play with
at the Erosion Table. 

The closest we can get to the beach, 

in Utah, in February.

She thought it was so great that they had

a little hand dryer at just the right height!

She has been talking about this 

BIG SHARK for days.

It's pretty intense don't you think?

My budding photographer wanted

to get a picture of me by the shark:

Pretty intrigued by the Wooly Mammoth...

She asked, "Mama, why the woahee mammoth 

stepping on that skeleton?"

The space vortex tunnel...I think 

we went through this 20 times.  It is seriously

 SO DARK inside and I was surprised she loved

it so much and wasn't afraid.  The echo from 

our voices was pretty cool and you can't

tell in the pictures but we are surrounded by stars.

One of my favorite parts of the museum was their

Tinkering exhibit.

It was full of interactive activities and she 

loved being able to build, create, and 

experiment. Perfect for this active

little body and brain!

I can't get enough of how cute her little

bum looks without a diaper.

(oh yeah, she has been going in the big

girl potty for over a month now - hooray!)

I think we are going to have to get one 

of these marble gadgets for her birthday...

my building skills were a little rusty but

it's a pretty fun toy for adults too!

Working on her fine motor skills:

This was the station where they provided

different building materials to make little parachutes

that you could test out in this wind tunnel.

I use really scientific terms like "yellow stuff" in this video.
I swear my vocabulary has almost completely deteriorated
from being out of school.

Adios Mr. T Rex, see you next time!