February

February was a busy busy month and it was all about Girl Scouts. 

Cookies took up a good deal of time. Between the two girls, we had 6 two hour booth sales which I was in charge of. A booth sale is when they go to a store and sell cookies. This is Katie's troop at our first sale at a local grocery store. One of Lizzy's was at Walmart so at least we had some excitement. We saw two arrests and a near fight in the two hours we stood there (in the rain).

Lizzy's troop celebrated Valentine's day with a mystery dinner. 

I sprang for Nothing Bundt Cakes mini bundts. Wow, they are amazing!

Diana made adorable sandwiches and wands for their patches. 

She also had these amazing costumes that she had "whipped up" from a birthday party a few years ago for an American Girl mystery. They got to solve clues to find the long lost daughter of the grumpy maid. 

The grumpy maid.

They all did so well, reading their scripts and playing their parts. I wish I had a video, it was such a great little play. 

Then, last week, they got to earn their horsemanship badge. We learned about horses and got a chance to ride one. They all enjoyed riding, so I hope to schedule us another riding event. 

While we were at horseback riding, Katie attended her first D-Now. Discipleship Now is an annual national youth event. In addition to lots of Bible study, worship and prayer, they also had fun sleeping over (bedtime was past two both nights), doing a Snapchat scavenger hunt around town, and helping to lead worship that Sunday. Katie had such a great time but was a horrible cookie salesgirl that afternoon, she was so tired and grumpy. 

Katie was also honored to be inducted to the National Junior Honor Society. It is an academic and service distinction program at her school. We are very proud of her. 

Katie also had a band concert this month, but I accidentally erased the photos and video. It was a preview concert of one to come in the spring so maybe you'll get to see it then.

To balance out all of all of this fun stuff, Theo has walking pneumonia, Lizzy is seeing a specialist about her trigger thumb that she developed while on crutches, I have been sick four different times since Christmas (these second graders are so germy!), and we had to replace our entire downstairs heating and AC unit for $7,000.
To finish off the month, I am attending the women's retreat at our church in Oklahoma this weekend. Whew, I'm glad February is almost over. For such a short month, we sure packed a lot in!