Cornelius Chronicles

 

This year we celebrated Groundhog's Day deliciously with these adorable groundhog pudding desserts.  The best part was making them.  The second best part was eating them!

Xavier is getting down to work on this year's science fair project.  He's testing to see which oil is best for popping popcorn.  It's important science. John and Diana are enjoying playtime inside boxes, because boxes are the best, of course! John is starting to have fun playdates with friends from the neighborhood.  It's so fun to find good friends who share a love in all things Paw Patrol!

Every day I put a cute little bow into Diana's hair to help out it out of her eyes and then she and I spend the rest of the locked in a battle of the wills.  She pulls her bow out and I put it back in.  She thinks having her hair down is much more fun than seeing clearly and I beg to differ.  However, while I was vacuuming Diana made her most compelling argument for having her hair down ever.  Turns out Diana's favorite thing about the vacuum is the awesome hair it gives her!  She didn't let me move the vacuum for 5 minutes strait while she played with how it blew her hair all around.  It was hilarious! She may have won this battle, but I vow to win the war!  

My library mama heart is a sucker for sweet baby book moments.  I LOVE reading with my kids and seeing my kids read.  What a gift literacy is.  Since John is cracking the reading code like a rockstar in Kindergarten this year, Diana is currently the only Cornelius who can't "read." But nobody tell her that!  She loves to raid her special board book bookshelf and read lots and lots and lots of books with me and on her own when the other kids are all at school.  Her favorite genres are lift-the-flap, dog books, and touch-and-feel books.  She's so smart!

Aunt Liz had the awesome idea of taking kids out for a night of art fun at Pint Size Picassos.  I took my kids who wanted to paint, and Liz brought her 3 cuties and we made the best baby giraffe paintings you have ever seen.  We had tons of fun being creative and making family memories.  I'm so glad Liz had this idea!  We all had a great night out inside and out of the cold.  :D

It's been a bit of a warm and dry winter, until our latest epic snow storm!!  We didn't get as much snow as high elevations, but I'm happy with 9 inches in 3 days.  Diana is all in when it comes to playing in the snow, the little boys have been busy as beavers digging snow forts, and Maeve has found that digging out snow paths with her friend Lilly is a great way to "chill" during the afternoon.  :D  The big kids have been busy helping Dustin and I keep the street shoveled out.  Dustin wakes up early every morning to use my Dad's snow plow to clear all of the sidewalks on our street  before the kids have to walk to school. The kids and I have been working hard to keep our driveway and the driveways of some of our elder neighbors cleared after all of this wonderful snowfall.  It's been a fun wintertime treat.  The ward to the child who shoveled the most for this storm goes to Rebekah!  She's a pretty awesome snow shoveler despite her preference for warm