We got Alstan's valentines card in the mail this morning! He wrote out his own envelope and everything. They went to the post office on Thursday with their class to mail out their cards.
Adam and I received our first Valentine's Day card in the mail. Elsie made this card at school and mailed it on Tuesday as part of their field trip to the post office.
For her fourth birthday Elsie was able to pick out her first "big girl bike". It seems that the best feature of this bike is that you can store things in the bow. Now, we just have to wait for spring to ride it outside.
Alstan's class is going to be celebrating the 100th day of school on Friday. Each student was asked to make a project with a collection of 100 items. Alstan's great white shark jaw has 100 teeth.
There were free ice fishing lessons at Governor Dodge State Park today, so Alstan and Elsie gave it a try. They didn't catch anything, but did a great job of waiting patiently. On their way out of the park they were able to watch some ice climbers.
This post is a week late: as anyone from this area knows we have had a bit of snow this past week. But, when these pictures were taken, it was the first snow we had since Thanksgiving. The kids were so excited to be playing in it!
With the Zielicke side celebrating Christmas the weekend before and us planning to visit the Van Overmeer grandparents the week after, we were able to celebrate at home this year. Here are some photos from our lovely, cozy celebration at home.
The children were really into giving gifts of their own this year! Drawings that will need to be framed. Alstan made a step-by-step drawing of our holiday preparations that he gave to mom and dad. (The drawings on the wrapping paper roll.)
Alstan's big gift this year was a train. We were fortunate to be able to work it out so he could have the train his Uncle Jeff had purchased but was unable to use much. Alstan loved it!
Alstan associates this train with Christmas at Grandpa and Grandma Zielicke's house. When we showed up on Friday and there was no train, Alstan just didn't think that was acceptable. Grandma told him he could set it up the next morning. Elsie woke up in the middle of the night asking to help set it up and Alstan woke up between 4:30 and 5:00am asking if he could set it up yet.
Here are a few photos from Alstan's concert. If you are struggling to see him in the group, you know just what we felt like. Of course the only photo that wasn't blurry is the one of him pressing his sign against his head looking rather bored. In spite of what it looks like, he really did do a great job!
