LOVEly days..

We have had a fun few weeks.  First up was International Fair at Kinkaid.  I don't think I will ever get over the amazing experience the school/parents create for these kiddos.  This year's countries were Brazil and Austria.  She visited Austria on the first day and had fun learning about the country and building a snowman.

The second day, I took a shift manning the Mercado in Brazil and loved teaching the kids about the fruits and coffee at this beautiful market.

With Matt's busy travel schedule, I have taken over a few Waffle Wednesday mornings at Kinkaid, including one with just Olivia after we dropped baby brother off at school early one morning.

One recent development in the story of Eric and Olivia is that the hitting seems to have stopped and been replaced by a love for Olivia that conveniently comes when I want Eric to do something he doesn't want to do (go to bed, go to school, take a nap, etc.).  In these moments, he will run to Olivia and yell "Olivia, get on my back!! Lets run away!"  And, she will gladly oblige.  They usually go hide in my room with the iPad or under the dining room table. It's not ideal but both Matt and I are usually willing to let them get away with it for a little while all in the name of fostering this sibling relationship.

(In this particular picture, Eric was scared to walk outside because Olivia brought an earthworm home from school that was living under the covered patio by the back door.  Eric was pretty grossed out by the whole thing (who can blame him??!!) so he made Olivia carry him and he closed his eyes so he didn't have to see it!)

Every once in a while, I can convince them to read a bedtime story..

We also had a week of Yazzie in Houston!  She was involved in some litigation that THANKFULLY settled, but while she was in town, she ended up staying literally across the street from Cathedral House.  So I made her come over in the mornings to walk Eric to class with me.  And we were able to reinstate our sushi/crepe tradition one night.

Olivia has been having fun at Girl Scouts and enjoyed a painting class with her troop.

And we had a sweet LOVE day.  Olivia took popcorn for her friends, and Eric took little animal masks.  Plus they both took some cookies for their teachers.

They woke up to a few sweet surprises from mommy/daddy and their aunts.

They both were festive for the day and had class parties at school (unfortunately, Olivia's teacher didn't send any pics)

And they both came home with a big bag of loot (and some presents from their grandparents) which they promptly dumped all over my floor

And just for the memory book, I can't even with Eric in a matching button down with daddy one night before dinner