Barr Lake State Park

The past few weeks here have been unseasonable warm--it actually got in the low 70's one day this week. Crazy! We are trying hard not to be lulled into a false sense of thinking Spring has arrived though. Considering that March is typically the snowiest month of the year we know there is bound to be more winter weather in the near future.

On MLK day we decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather since Aidan and Sarah didn't have school. We picked Jeremy up from work at lunch time and had a picnic at Barr Lake State park which is about 15 minutes from where he works and about 25 minutes from our house. So here are some pictures to commemorate the day.

Jonah was trying so hard to keep up with the other he had one arm swinging just as fast and hard as he possibly could while he was running. It really had Jeremy and I laughing.

Stuff and Things

I know it's been a week now since Valentines Day but I haven't had a chance to post since then. We had a great weekend here at the Craft household. Aidan and Sarah had parties at school on the 13th and both had a blast. Can I just say that Valentines Day has gotten to be almost as bad as Halloween with the amount of candy they got! (Of course-our kids gave out cards with candy attached so we are guilty in contributing to this!) We gave the kids a few little gifts mostly from the dollar spot at Target--love that place! But they also got candy and gifts from other family members and were definitely on sugar overload by the end of the weekend.

On Friday Jeremy came home with two bouquets of flowers-one for me which were my favorites-tulips! He hand picked an incredible mosaic vase and then chose the two bouquets of tulips to complement the vase and he did an amazing job. I LOVE this vase!

The other bouquet Jeremy brought were white roses for my mom. He's brought flowers to my mom on several occasions and it was especially sweet to remember her this year since it's her first without my dad. My brother had also brought my mom roses earlier that day-his were a variegated pink and I have to say that the combo of the white and pink together were stunning.




On Saturday my mom took all the kids over to my sisters for supper and play time. Jeremy and I got to have a date! We went out for Hawaiian BBQ--yum! This was my second time for Hawaiian BBQ and Jeremy's first. I am sooo hooked! I'm already craving it again-less than a week later. Since we got to the restaurant at 4:00 and no one else was there we were out of there by 5:00 and headed home to watch a movie in a quiet house. We had about four hours at home before the kids returned and it was bliss! I loved being at home without the kids and I loved watching an entire movie in one sitting without three kids climbing all over me. It was a perfect date!

At one point during the weekend Sarah asked me what a Valentine is-or why do we call other people our Valentines. So I explained to her that is a term for some one that we love very much and is very dear to us and her response was, "Well then, Jesus is my Valentine!" I love hearing things like that from my kids.

I feel like I haven't given fair time to Katie on my blog and I guess it's partly because a lot of times I can't relay in typed words the joy she is to our family. Her command of grammar and language at the age of three is amazing and I wish I would take more time to write down some of the incredible things she says but then again I'm not sure how they would translate while being read. My hope is to have an all about Katie post in the very near future.

I have been holding on to this next information for over two weeks debating whether I should share it here or not. Basically my hesitation is because this is purely a bragging moment but here goes...

As I have mentioned in a previous post Aidan is currently in 1st grade and has been placed in 3rd grade math this year. In third grade math they pre-assess every student before they begin a new unit. For every unit so far Aidan has been place in the "Challenge" group which is the highest level--basically they are working at a fourth grade level. Every few weeks I will ask Aidan how he's doing with math--is he feeling overwhelmed, is he understanding it, is it too hard? He always says he's doing fine but sometimes it's hard to really tell with him. So, a couple weeks ago we had a parent-teacher conference with his 1st grade teacher and she told us that Aidan currently has the highest math grade in the entire third grade---I guess he was telling me truth when he said he's doing OK. His teacher also shared with us a ten page story he had written during his free time in class about a couple men that had lived in the Antarctic and then traveled to China. It was incredible! The plot was well developed and the names of characters and places were very realistic and well thought out. He is currently reading at an end of fifth grade reading level and continually blows us away with his academics. During the conference Jeremy and I continually just looked at each other in unbelief and wondered where this Whiz Kid came from. We are so proud of Aidan and know that God has amazing plans for him!

More on Jonah

Jonah thoroughly enjoyed his birthday this year and seemed to understand there were presents and happiness just for him. He will happily tell you he is two when asked and seems to understand that he is bigger now.

The day after his birthday we took down his crib and set up his toddler bed and he is loving it!

We had his party a week after his birthday and even though we'd talked about the party I don't think he really grasped it until he walked downstairs after his nap on Saturday and saw all the people and balloons and presents. He was thrilled! He saw the presents and immediately said, "mine!" We had been talking about his bus cake for weeks but I guess he didn't quite get the concept at first. I made the cake the day before and he watched me put it together and apply the initial layer of frosting and then I finished it when he was napping. I showed him the finished product when he woke up and he was excited and said bus cake but then immediately thrust his fingers into the top of it-I think he was trying to pick it up like a toy. When he saw his frosting covered fingers and realized what he'd done he was broken hearted and sobbed and sobbed! I easily repaired it but wish I'd taken some pictures of the cake and his sobbing while holding out his messy hand.

Eating a chip at his party and looking cool at the same time!

When we sat him down with his cake and put the candle on he started tapping his fingers on the table saying, "happy, happy, happy" because he realized what would be coming next. He seemed to love being sang to.

I'm excited to see what Jonah adventures await us in the coming year!