All Work and No Play - NO WAY!

While we have spent way more time than anticipated doing home improvement projects this spring break, the girls have had plenty of time to play and we have tried to do a few fun things as a family - taking breaks from plumbing and painting.

The girls have been getting along so well this week. It has been so great. Not only that, but they have been busy doing creative endeavors while we work away - hardly any time in front of the boob tube! I'm proud of them for getting along so well and spending their time in creative pursuits. They are at such fun ages and really are the best of friends most of the time. I LOVE listening to them play together and pretend and create. Here's a sampling of what they've been up to this week. . .

They've played a lot of "school" lately. The whiteboards are one of their favorite "toys". This was a story that Natalie narrated and Sarah wrote. Sarah also teaches spelling (She helped Natalie practice her spelling words last week - he he - Natalie didn't even know she was doing homework with my "brilliant" idea. It happens every so often.) They also do very ornate drawings on the whiteboards.
The girls love to pull out all their art supplies and this week I let them spread it all out in the "running room" (aka living room). They make the cutest things with their fun art boxes they got from grandma P. for Christmas. One of the girls got the idea to make people and now we have a house full of them as you can see below.

Natalie was whipping out "Franks" and "Frankettes" like crazy! She made quite the crowd. Sarah even made a dog one. We call them Franks because we have an inside family joke about how the girls really have a little brother named Frank, but we keep him on top of the cupboards above the fridge. Natalie's first "person" she made was Frank. He's the one with the blue shirt and blue hat. Sarah made him a paper HAM radio so he could communicate to us when he is up on the cupboards! (o: Pretty funny.

Taking a break and watching a movie with their new friends.

The girls have been having "sleepovers" together a lot this week. They sleep in different locations each night. I think it's Sarah's room on the floor tomorrow. This is something they LOVE to do together. Even though Angela "learned to snore" according to Sarah. They are so cute singing primary songs, drawing on Magna Doodles and telling stories together until they fall asleep.

Today, in between trips to look at plumbing stores, we discovered a very fun bowling alley. It is a little farther from our house, but it has some very cool features like bumpers that move up and down depending on which players want them or not. That way Ned* and I can play 'real' bowling, and the girls don't get a million gutter balls. Actually, I kind of missed the bumpers when I played today. Perhaps it has been too long since I've played without them!

We really have a lot of fun bowling together and get some good laughs when Angela's ball goes so slow that it completely drops. Or when one of the kids bowls better than us "big kids".

Angela playing by the finger blower/dryer thingy. (o:

Natalie really gets into bowling. You wouldn't know she was pouting just minutes before this picture. (She wanted to go ice skating rather than bowling. But she warmed up to the idea pretty quickly.)

Sarah did a great job bowling today. She is VERY competitive though! She wanted to win so bad. She wasn't far behind, but ended up coming in third behind mom and dad. She was miffed about this and pouted a little. We talk a lot about being a good sport these days, but she's getting better.

Guess who got a hold of my camera? (o: