Ocean Spray's movie night

Movie:  Hotel Transylvania 2

Face-painted Mia makes a Dracula cookie

with almond sliver fangs and marshmallow teeth

Watching the movie in our cafeteria

January snow (4 inches)

Her maiden voyage.

Uh oh!!

The hardest part is getting back up.

random silliness in mom's shoes

Mia is 7!!

Mia is really growing and changing these days.  She is more outgoing, funny and energetic than in the past.  Still a lover of books, art and sleeping though- that hasn't changed one bit!  Her 7th birthday was on a Friday and, as usual, we had the table set up and ate a special breakfast (heart-shaped waffles in this case).  For her party, she invited 3 friends (Taylor, Sabrina, and Kiera) and we went to the movies (Norm of the North, which I do not recommend, though the kids liked it) and then out to a pizza restaurant who served our ice cream cake.  I invited my own best friend of 30 years on this girls-only party, thanks Vicki!

special birthday breakfast

BIRTHDAY PARTY

getting coats on after the movie

Tavolinos at Patriots Place

We sat across from these 4 lovely "ladies" and had our own celebration :)

GROWING UP. . . 

Mia has her first email account! 

Caveat:  (1) she doesn't check it often, but loves to get new mail.  (2) For safety reasons, she can only have 7 people in her "favorites" who are the only people she can write to or receive mail from.  Look at her first email to Dave. . . so sweet!

As she gets older, I like to give Mia more responsibility in the kitchen. I was surprised by this kids cookbook Matt gave her, which had meringues in there- a very complicated recipe to do all by yourself.  Still, Mia did 95% of it all on her own and was very proud.  I wonder what she will bake/cook next!

Star Wars play

Ever since we saw all 6 Episodes (over winter holiday break), the kids (particularly Gavin) has been playing Star Wars imaginary games and Star Wars legos and reading Star Wars books.  Well we don't have a light saber and I assumed they were expensive so I found a way to make them on my own (get a little finger light and a bubble wand and voila!  Well it wasn't so perfect but it worked for the week (until we found $3 light sabers at Target).  Here are some pictures of the saber-making and playing.

Museum of Science (thanks Grandma!)

I love presents that keep giving.  Grandma gave the family a membership to the Museum of Science this year and we've already enjoyed it once.  We even got to go to the IMAX on whales, which was amazing.

snacks

tortoises

real dinosaur bones

live animal show (see the kids up front?)

Mattie sleeps over

We are trying to have the Miller-Licon boys sleep over one at a time more often so we can get to know them better than when they're all together.  When Mattie recently came over, I caught a special moment of him reading to Gavin.  Enjoy!