Now that grandma is home and doesn't drive, we go to her. Amara walks in the door and other than grabbing ice cream, she goes right to grandma with a treat, or a book, or a story, or something to cheer her up. 
Whether it's a short visit or all day, they both love their time together and I love seeing it--and that they get a little more of it. 
Ever since Charlotte gave us the piano and we were on Copper Ct. I have wanted the girls to take piano. They took some lessons when they were at Carissas, but now we are FINALLY taking lessons at home. 
Mr. Mike (Mastrogianakis) is AWESOME with the girls and they love lessons with him! (as do i) he's great with them and they love him and having lessons. Amara practices a fair amount, and while Cora doesn't, they BOTH love singing and asking when Mr. Mike is coming next :) I hope they stick with it!
We got a flier home from school about an art show that Amara could be involved in and of course she was all about it. We had to submit it in November, before we left for Disney, and the theme was "Let your imagination fly," so she got to work right away to meet her deadline. 
Her piece included an art museum, which i thought was really creative. She is a fast painter, so she was done in just 2 sittings, and we submitted it to school. We found out in December that she was going to be at the showing at Alton Hall, so we were elated to celebrate with her. We examined some of the art of the other kids, grades K up through high school while we were there too.
Every girl who gets into girl scouts has to know that they will be involved with cookie sales--and for my salesgirl, it was no different. From the GO, she was beyond excited to be involved. We had meetings to talk about managing money, selling tactics, being safe, etc. 
And with that, the girls had a cookie rally where they got to sample cookies, participate in games, see the prizes that they will earn, etc. They got to visit stations and at the end they earned patches--a key part of Girl Scouts we are finding out, that Amara loves. 
Amara loved working on the crafts, banners, and learning how to sell cookies at the booths too--I have a feeling she will LOVE that. 
We kind of stumbled into this whole Girl Scout thing, but I think she and I are really going to have a good time with all of this--
(and thankfully for me, her cookie goal is a REASONABLE 280, to get the stuffed cow, not the 1000 for an American Girl doll, hahaha)
We love to skate and it's even better with friends! Saphira was looking to get out of the house just like we were, so all the girls headed up the road. 
Kirsten bought us all lunch, but even better than that was skating :) They played a few games of course and love the dice game and hokey pokey but the most fun was just skating and singing with their friend. 
Cora insisted on the skate mate some of the time, but not all. I feel like another few visits and she will be hot to trot without the skate mate, maybe she can take the same class that Amara took there about the same age? 
The glow stick skates are always a favorite too and I'm a sucker to buy them. They are only little once, but if i don't end up broke it will be a miracle. 
A new trampoline park on winter break is just BEGGING for visitors and we didn't want to dissapoint, so we headed to Hilliard to check it out. 
This place was amazing! wall to wall trampolines and better than sky zone, it also had foam pits, climbing rope structures, an obsticle course, balance lines, etc. it was so cool! Of course it was busy, but the girls didn't care--Cora was debating whether or not to have her birthday there the whole time, so that was pretty funny in itself. 
The girls helped each other out on some of the harder apparatus, but really it was all just good fun. It was warm enough to work outside, so dad did that, I got jump duty, and we all had a fun break. 
What Christmas would be complete without receiving the Pie Face Game? It was a huge favorite back in the fall and I snagged one and put it back for us all to enjoy (right...). 
Amara was actually annoyed when she did NOT get hit in the face--but it was ok, we played around enough that we all got nailed. I think we went through 2 cans of redi-whip the first night alone!
New Years Day started off for mom and I with another radiation treatment, like several before, but we also had a nice little celebration. 
The girls played with toys and grandma and grandpa, Eric made rice, and we toasted and drank a lot of sparkling grape juice :)
Grandpa enjoyed getting out of the house for a little while and Amara took the family photo with her new selfie-stick. 
The short day felt even shorter after the late night, but seeing as we are still on Christmas break--girls were in their jammies early with popcorn and movies galore. 
.JPG)
