month o' march

It's been another busy month at our house, and my camera has been busy, as well. :) On the 8th of March, we celebrated Mardi Gras a little... first with some donuts for snack time: And then with a silly parade through our house. The kids and I dressed up, and Ben led us around each room. Ben thought it was a blast!
Emm and Nick were not that thrilled about it, but they humored us. :)

Nick and his makeshift drum:
Me and my peacock mask:
That night we had Creole Black Beans on rice with cornbread for supper, yum:
The following day, after choir and handbell practice, we attended a special Lenten dinner at church, then went to the Ash Wednesday service (I took this photo when we got back home):
While we were there, the kids received little pots to plant wheat grass seeds in, and popsicle sticks that said "Grow forgiveness". (Forgiveness is our church's theme for Lent this year.)
On the 11th of March, Emmalie had an early birthday party with some friends at our house. We ordered pizza for supper and then the girls worked on an art project for awhile. Emmalie and I bought some boxes with lids and monograms for them to paint and decorate:


Then we had some devil's food cake and ice cream:
and Emm opened her gifts:
Riya had to leave soon after that:
and so did Annie:
But the other girls stayed overnight, watching movies, eating snacks, etc.
The next day, they gave Emmalie a makeover:

They painted some more and chatted until noon, when their parents came to pick them up. Here's Emm with Amy:
and with Tori:
Later that day, I took Ben to his buddy Jasper's birthday party at Monkey Joe's. Ben had so much fun!!


On St. Patrick's, Lucky the leprechaun left 2 different treasure hunts for the kids... one for Emm to do before leaving for school at 6:30am:
and then one for the boys to do when they got up:
The boys found the pot o' gold in the bathtub!
They were happy to find their treasures: a box of Lucky Charms, M&M's, the game Skip Bo, a shamrock garden kit for Nick, and a Lego helicopter for Ben. (Rainbow colored socks and a sparkly E necklace for Emm.):
That night we had Irish Penicillin (potato soup), shamrock biscuits, and then green foods... peas, honeydew melon, lime Jello parfaits, and Green River floats for supper:
Ben lost his very first tooth on St. Patrick's Day! He was SO excited!
He was even more excited when the Tooth Fairy brought him $5 for it, LOL:
On the 18th, I drove to my friend Jeanne's in northern Indiana for a scrapping weekend. It was so fun to see Jeanne and our friend Katie again! (And to meet some of Jeanne's other friends.) I worked on 70 pages over the weekend (though didn't complete them).

Katie volunteered to make a lip print on one of the other women's pages (it was an ABC book for a baby, and K was for "Kisses")... Katie used acrylic paint since lip stick would smear:
Katie, working feverishly to scrap faster than me, LOL:
Jeanne did scrap, but by the time I got out my camera, she had moved on to crocheting:
Me, Katie, and Jeanne (I look so short!):
I came back home on the 20th, Emmalie's 15th birthday! (Can't believe she's that old already!!)
We all went out to Stir Crazy for supper, to celebrate:

When we got back home, I took a few shots of Emm with her brothers (Ben insisted on wearing a tie ~ he loves them!):

then we watched her open her gifts (not all of them have arrived in the mail yet, unfortunately). So far, she's received a Webkinz dragon from the boys, and 2 fairy ornaments and a golden sneetch from George and me:
Plus tickets to see Glee Live! in June. :)
Then we had some angel food cake with Cool Whip, chocolate sauce, strawberries, and ice cream... mmmm....
The birthday girl:
Today our crocuses were blooming! Welcome, spring! :)

And now there are only 9 days left of March... how can that be?