Kicking off 2019

It's 2019! Here's a slice of life with the Quinns.

January 1st 2019, Eivelskiever breakfast 

Sewing

Showing off her stitches to our friend Gregory

Flu vaccine day!  I prepped the kids a little better than usual, and they did phenomenally!  No tears, except a few from Robin. 

Taking advantage of a rare warm and sunny day!

Taking the Christmas decorations down

Vicenzo's b-day

Visiting Sophia Ann, who's birth I got to attend on Christmas Eve

Riding our friend Megan's horse

Random snuggles.  And yes, Robin is wearing Esther hand me downs. 

Bubbles and Dinos

Joyschool Rotation.  It's been really fun to have this cute group of kids to get together with a couple times a week. Moms take turns hosting.

Esther and her best buddies.

Date Night. Giovonni's Ristorante in Detroit.  Everything's made from scratch and really delicious.

...followed by Cirque Du Seleil: Corteo

I've been wanting to go for 18 years and finally made it. 

It was everything I dreamed it would be.

Look at all that filth coming off the kids!

(Playing with green slime from Gregory.)

Cream cheese filled pumpkin muffins for Ira's b-day school celebration.

Ira's Birthday!

Origami Yoda

Fantastic Beasts has been a huge hit!

Traditional Birthday Breakfast at The Bomber

Our little "vegetarian," has discovered bacon.

Raspberry Cheesecake

Visiting Ira's class

Esther and Jacob at preschool...accompanied by Robin

Esther testing out her Christmas nail polish

Winter coziness

No matter how cold the house gets, Esther still seems most comfortable when she sheds all the excess, throws some gloves on her hands and feet and runs around like a "Rainbow tiger with wings that breaths fire."

Eliot got hit by some blanket-fort pvc pipe and instead of taking him to the hospital for stitches, Anthony suggested super glue.  Hmmmm.  I guess only time will tell.

If I've counted right, out of 19 school days, we 10 days cancelled.  It meant lots of Harry Potter wand making.  All you need is chopsticks, hot glue, and acrylic paint.

Kidopolis on one of the days of cancelled school

Had the bowling alley to ourselves during the polar vortex.  I guess we were the only ones with cabin fever on yet another day off school.

Happy Snuggles

Ira performing a magic show

Esther's field trip 

Crawling position!

Visiting Eliot's class

Flying keys

Valentine's day, and the day before Ira's party

More Ira partying

The birthday boy requested jello frogs

and butter beer

I was going to referee a game of broomless quidditch in the basement, but the kids took care of it themselves.  They also used the pvc pipe and balloons to make inflatable, spinning contraptions.

Party favors were the wands we made during all those days off school, and chocolate frogs.

Watching Ira fit his friends for wands was my favorite part to observe.  "Let's see.  9 1/2 inches.  Would you rather stay inside and watch a movie, or play tag outside with me?  Ah yes... this is your wand!"

At a Stake conference leadership training Ant and I attended, Robin was the youngest, and loudest participant.

 

Anthony's bread is getting better all the time.

Another day of school cancelled leading to a trip to Kidopolis

Date night at Live from Here in Detroit.  So much fun!

Tickets to these shows were our Christmas presents to each other.

Ira invented a game called Twisted Rooster in which he uses a stuffed chicken toy, to protect dominoes from a tennis ball.

Robin is mobile!  Between the time I shake the food off his chair and turn around to get the broom, he can find the food and devour a load of it.  Something about getting him out of his high chair, brings on a sudden increase of appetite.

Bonding with Grandma Eileen at preschool.

After growing out his hair longer than I've ever seen it, Ant decided to get it cut.

After

Joyschool: When the number of the day is 1, and the letter is U, you make unicorn horns!

These two were extremely excited about flags for about 10 minutes.

Eliot took off his shirt because it was getting itchy, and invented ninja cello playing.

More Esther at Preschool

I've been working on getting the Preschool transitioned to the new location (now that we found one.)  Since the school wasn't taking the belongings of the old tenets out, another volunteer and moved all this stuff to the Cafeteria across the hallway.  Ira and his friend Andrew helped too, which was awesome.

Ira's been enjoying a season of Winter soccer.

I got to attend the birth of a good friend a few days ago.  It was a reminder of how powerful God has made us humans.  Even more powerful than we prefer sometimes.  In the end baby and mom were healthy and beautiful, and relieved to be in each other's arms. 

That about sums it up.  We're just plugging along, and definitely rejoicing in any crumb sized hint that Spring is on it's way.  This Winter feels like it's been especially long, dark, and cold.

I've also been taking a break from teaching birth classes since Thanksgiving, but am restarting on the first day of Spring.  It's been nice to have the chance to attend more births, and I'm trying to find ways to work out the perfect balance for our family.  I'm spending a lot of my time working on licensing the new preschool location, working on birth excitement, and helping the kids.

Robin is small for his size, 9 months and less than 18 lbs, which puts him in about the 17th percentile.  But he's loving eating, and moving, and we have to be on the lookout for legos and open basement doors.  "Constant Vigilance!" as Mad-Eye Moody would say.  Speaking of which, the boys are loving reading Harry Potter with me at night.  Esther is loving pretending to be the pet tiger of her princess friends.  She's been really interested in numbers and letters lately which is fun.

Anthony is amazing as usual, and keeps the family running smoothly with all the constant changes that come with little people growth.