February and March always tend to be very random.
Or "rando" as my kids would say.
There's lots of regular life type things interspersed with blips of weirdness.
For example....
Normal: The first week of February was our 26th anniversary.
Weirdness: That weekend, Katie wanted to make "Cookie Cat".
"Cookie Cat" is an ice cream sandwich in Steven Universe.
Ice cream is too cold for her braces-covered teeth, so she made "Cookie Cat" whoopie pies.
Thin chocolate cake cut into cat head shapes and
then frosted.
I thought they were pretty good.
By the time February rolled around, many people in our school district were beyond tired of masking in schools.
They decided they were going to do something about it by marching in protest in front of schools and school district buildings as well as bombarding the school board with records requests related to COVID protocols.
Here is a sign hidden in a bush near our middle school.
The state beat them to the punch and announced that the mask mandates
would end in March.
School masking would become optional at that time.
I can't say that I was a fan of the whole "optional" thing for schools.
The kids decided they would keep their masks on no matter what.
The Beijing Winter Olympics began on February 4th.
That meant that I actually watched television during those two weeks.
Crazy.
The kids and I stayed up late watching the figure skating competitions.
I had a good time couch-commentating with them.
Figure skating made Mikey nervous.
He didn't like to see them fall.
He would hide behind his blanket.
With Valentine's Day right around the corner, I had some special treats delivered.
I found a safe giant chocolate chip cookie for the kids to share.
Mikey joined the Robotics club at his school this year.
They participated in the VEX IQ Challenge against other local
middle school teams.
The object is to build robots that perform certain tasks.
You can see in this video what the robots have to do:
Mikey's teams name: GEICO: Save 15% or more on car insurance.
And this is their little robot that could: KFC.
We got to see Mikey pilot the robot.
They did okay.
There were some major robot players there as competition.
Mikey made comment that his teammates were ultra-nervous about the competition.
They were stressed and yelling at each other to pilot the robot correctly.
I guess they wanted to win really badly.
He just didn't get it. He was there for fun.
He said he'd try it again the next year.
It's hard to tell in this picture, but Ralph is enjoying a little February sun while being
baked from below by the exhaust from our dryer.
(Yep, the dryer exhaust comes out from underneath our deck)
We headed to a friend's house to watch the Superbowl.
"Go....whoever! I just want snacks."
And, as you can see, they had snacks galore.
I found this bird just sitting on a branch.
He didn't move even when I got right up close to him.
So, of course, I took a picture.
Maybe he was cold.
Since volunteering in schools was a thing again (as long as you had your COVID vaccine), my friend and I signed up for a Popcorn Friday at the middle school.
Guess who we saw?
I have no idea what is up with that hair.
Hat head is my guess.
Huzbend decided it was time to renew his passport and attempted to take
his passport photo himself.
I will spare you all of the attempts and leave you with this
very self-satisfied looking old dude.
Another weekend, another Katie baked special treat.
This time cinnamon knots.
They weren't great.
After loads more figure skating drama, the Olympics came to an end.
Tara and Johnny had the call for the closing ceremonies.
Boo.
Now we have to wait an actual four more years for the Winter Olympics.
The kids had mid-winter break the last full week of February.
It was nice to get a break from the school craziness.
There was lots of sleeping in, movie watching and video game playing.
We did take a day to head on out to the zoo.
It's a tradition.
And this time, it was NOT RAINY OR COLD.
Incredible.
In deep discussion as to if rhinos are cute.
They agreed that they are indeed cute.
I disagreed.
Even the animals were enjoying the sun.
"Whatchoo lookin' at? You gotta problem? Don' make me come down dere...."
We spotted two bald eagles hanging out in a tree.
This was not an exhibit.
To celebrate Mardi Gras, we took Katie in for some allergy testing.
No. Not really.
She hadn't had testing in quite a few years and I needed the doctor to fill out some paperwork for summer camp.
We had her tested for peanuts, a bunch of tree nuts, soy, dog, cat, trees and grasses.
Here is the before....
And here is the after.
Her biggest reaction was to peanut. After that the biggest lumps are cashew and pistachios.
Trees and grasses were on there.
And a slight reaction to dog.
Don't worry.
It wasn't all itching and scratching on Mardi Gras.
We did have some King Cake for dessert.
Another Katie weekend baking project.
Animal cookies.
Meh.
They were chewy and didn't get eaten.
Mikey was learning about advertising in English.
For their unit end project they had to create a cereal box.
Here is what he and his partner came up with.
We have a lot of crows in our hometown.
A LOT.
Sometimes they visit our backyard.
These two fellas were quite entertaining.
They had quite the conversation and then proceeded to lift up any moss they could find to see if there were hidden treats underneath.
They didn't seem too bothered by being observed.
Saint Patrick's Day rolled around.
For dinner I made something called coddle.
It was a bacon, sausage, onion and potato stew and it came out really good.
Katie even had seconds!
And, I made some soda bread.
Pro: It was cooked all the way through. Unlike past attempts.
Con: It was really chewy.
Curse you gluten free flour and non-dairy buttermilk!
Next, it was Mikey's turn to have some allergy testing done.
It had also been a LOOOOOONG time since he was tested.
Like 5+ years or something.
He had a lot less to test.
Peanuts, tree nuts, soy and grasses.
Here is the before.....
And here is the after.
Peanut was his largest reaction.
The other reaction was grass and then the histamine control.
He was not allergic to any tree nuts.
Guess who came back for more tasty moss hidden vittles?
I am assuming it was the same two crows.
They just seemed to walk around like they owned the place.
Ralph does not like getting his nails trimmed.
So, I took him to Petco to have them do it.
They also brushed his teeth, cleaned his ears and gave him a deodorant spritz.
He smelled fancy for about an hour.
Ralph's favorite part of the trip was exploring the store afterwards.
I made sure I gave him a treat when we got home.
My PTA Council invited a school district representative to come and talk about a committee which had been working on creating an ethnic studies curriculum.
Katie and some other students talked about the work they had been involved in since last year.
A school board member in attendance was so impressed with their presentation that the students
were invited to discuss their progress with our Superintendent on her
weekly District News update.
So proud of Katie and the work she put in as part of the student ethnic studies curriculum advisory committee.
I planted tulips and daffodils in the Fall.
THEY ACTUALLY SPROUTED!
YAY!
Spring had arrived!
At the end of the month, Huzbend and I decided to have a very late anniversary celebration.
We grabbed ourselves some dinner and a hotel room.
Katie likes to see photos of the food that I eat when she is not with me.
Here is some guacamole, chips and some grilled corn topped with crema, cotija and some spice.
This burrito was just okay.
Definitely have had better.
This is what I had for dessert.
Huzbend just couldn't resist photo bombing.
It was Mexican chocolate cheesecake.
It was disappointing.
I thought there would be some kick to it. But alas, there wasn't.
After dinner, we made the kids jealous and watched Triple D.
