Catching up...

First off, the various milestones:

Her diva-ness, Miss Bean Divine modelling her big-girl-that-uses-the-potty dress. We have been doing a sticker chart for big girl pottying and her reward was a pretty new dress that she is ever so pleased with. She is still in overnight diapy-pants and has the occasional "oops," but she is doing a great job and we are all ever-so-proud of her progress!

And Mr. I'm-ready-for-steak-now Beebster. Look at those two pearly whites! They both popped through over the weekend.

For the rest, we will go chronologically. For Valentine's Day, I got gifts from both of the bigger kids. Bug made me a "key" out of his big K'Nex:

Isn't that sweet? And Bean gave me a "card" (which is actually a refrigerator magnet that Kitty Daddy got from his co-workers when he left the VA for his current job):

and a rubber bracelet (that she pulled out of their dress up box). Since she doesn't read, I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt on the "card" message. We had a heart-shaped take and bake pizza from Papa Murphy's for our big, fancy Valentine's dinner.

Friday was Knit Night at the Sow's Ear, which was very much needed by a mama with three cabin-fever afflicted kids. To add to the fun, the evening had a Beach Party theme in honor of a new book released by a local author. If that wasn't enough, one of our hog-and-bloggers brought some yummy French tarts in honor of (among other things) her birthday last week. Since this is a woman whose blog has brought me great delight even before meeting her IRL at the Ear's knit night and who introduced me to the first presidential candidate since Bill and Opus in '84 that I have been able to generate considerable enthusiasm for (Dolores's history starts here...NB: if you are drinking anything, swallow before you read or I won't be held responsible for your keyboard), I was taken by an impulse to make a hog-and-blog piggy finger puppet for her (the puppets in the previous post were the only way this one could make it out the door Friday night). [Did anyone survive the mega-sentence, parentheticals, and links?? I'll wait until you catch up, really!] All-in-all, a wonderful night out for Mama!

Saturday, we made our third trip to the annual model train show at the Alliant Energy center. Bug has been asking about the train show every time we go past the Alliant for about the last six months. The show was much the same as previous years, but Bug was delighted nonetheless and a good time was had by all (even Beeb who slept in the front-pack on Daddy)!

I think the only thing I am still behind on from yesterday's list is the Secret of the Stole. I finished clue 5 yesterday. I am now past the half-way point on the stole. I am still enjoying the design. If you click on the picture, I have the new part labeled:


Oh, and today, we did our civic duty and the kids helped me vote in the Wisconsin primary. I wasn't able to vote for Dolores, since the Fibertarians don't participate in the primaries, but she will have my vote in November: