March has come!

Weve had a bit more sun this past week and have tried to go out and soak it up when it's not too windy.

It's inevitable that the second the girls get outside they run straight for the snow piles, even in church shoes.  I've never been so happy for rainboots, wet socks destroy family outiings.

One of our greatest creations thus far this winter have been the can shoes.  We built these beauties one cold day and the girls were entertained for about 4 hours straight.  Alex has gotten quite good at balancing in them, and the clangy thumping noise has stopped bothering me so much.  As for the neighbors, I don't know.

Quinn loves being outside, but hates mittens.  With cold humidity this is a problem.  She fits into Heidi's 2 year old coat, which we made Heidi give up for her sake since she no longer fits into any of the baby coats.  Heidi got bumped up to Alex's orange coat and Alex graduated to a hand me down purple coat.  Every one is generally happy, although I can see seeds of unrest in Heidi as she is starting to feel the frustration of getting big sister's old things.  This is mixed with her jubilation when she finally gets to wear something she's been lusting after that Alex has finally outgrown.  Heidi is cathing up to her sister for sure, and if Quinn keeps up this rate............

Heidi is full of suprises every day.  She begs to do school and have Mom time, while Alex would rather sit in her room playing dolls and listening to books on tape.  I'm amazed with the things Heidi is picking up in "school" and we have decided to start her in homeschool Kindergarten next year.  She has already begun to read Alex's beginer reader books and LOVES to sound out letters and words and do math.  She is completely self motivated when it comes to academics and it astounds me.  Motivating her to clean up her toys is an entirly different thing.

Saturday we went to the zoo. It had been awhile, and it was a sunny, warmish day so we couldn't miss the opportunity.  We generally only do the zoo on school days, so when we arrived and saw that the rest of Pittsburgh was there, I was a bit taken aback.  One thing I love about homeschool is that our schedule is our own.  We visit all the museums in the afternoon when the little kids are napping and field trips are over and we have the place to ourselves!  I never thought that in a big city like this we could experience such an intimate experience with such amazing places!  I don't know that I will be able to return to Utah, because there are just SO many children that you can NEVER experience anything alone. Anywhere.

We took the crowds as an opportunity to just run and be free.  There were so many people that we couldn't get close to the windows inside, and many of the outdoor animals were inside for the season.

We had a picnic on a bench and the girls took Quinn on some adventures.

The sun and the laughter and the grilled cheese made for a wonderful time.

The crowds didn't really matter in the end as the girls just wanted to play in the snow piles, run down hills and play shadow tag anyway.

A few weeks ago the girls asked how cheese was made.  This took me back to Provo and Aunt Kate's homemade mozerella so we gathered the ingredients and tried it out.  You notic Quinn in the background signing "all done" it's the only sign she will use and she uses it for EVERYTHING.  While she does it she sings ALL DONE in a high pitched baby voice that is beyond adorable.

This is our finished cheese ball.  The girls loved it and would have eaten the whole thing right there if I had let them.  It was fairly easy and something we will probably end up doing every few weeks. 

We don't get to see Tyler very much these days because he has night classes this unit.  But Friday night we revived our old family movie night tradition and started watching Dr. Quinn medicine woman.  We tried the first episode on a whim because we were learning about that time period in school, and the girls got sucked in!  They beg to watch it every night and I love that it's something we can all enjoy. I think we will all remember Dr. Quinn evenings with girl scout cookies for a long time.