Daddy goes for an early morning run so Laney dresses the part too

That's her new favorite stance--on a chair, next to the window so she can watch everyone's comings and goings.

First Sister Slumber Party

 Our pizza night buddies were feeling under the weather to we opted for pizza and a movie night at home last week.  The girls had so much fun with it that it turned into a slumber party.

Laney isn't much for lying still and sleeping these days so she ended up in her crib like normal and Brinn chose Sweetie Baby to take her place. 

Five to wrap up the weekend

1)  Once again, it's been a few weeks since a post and wow, what a few weeks it has been. Last week took the cake and we are finally feeling recovered from it.  We had our normal work-school-teach-prepare to move routines in place until jury duty, yes, jury duty summoned.  I spent one day in jury selection and one day in trial.  It was a fascinating, rewarding experience--with much appreciation for my husband and his employer for flex time.  Did I mention there was also a snow day in there?  Craziness!

2) This week was better.  The girls are really going to town in Munchkin practice lately and their school's Wizard of Oz performance is going to be impressive.

3) We have hit the jackpot at the library lately.  One of our favorite authors is Kate Dicamillo thanks to her Mercy Watson series.  She also wrote "Because of Winn-Dixie" which the big girls and I have been devouring lately.  They have even asked me to wake them up a few minutes early so we could read-aloud before school.  We also found some great historical fiction picture books for Black History Month.   This one was an especially good read.

4)  Don't think it's been all fun, games, and cheery read-aloud time here in the mornings before school, however.  The time change hit hard and it is difficult for all of us to get out of bed lately.  It seems like this is a challenging time of the school year for lots of people.  We've put Laney in charge of waking up her sisters lately.  It's hard to be too crabby when there is a one-year-old on your bed saying "HI!  HI!"

5) Spring seems so far away.  Jonathan actually built a bonfire to take care of all the random sticks in the yard.  The heat felt wonderful and most of the girls enjoyed sitting and watching it.  Mali, however, suggested that he could next time arrange a fireworks show.  She's always got big plans, that one.

We think she takes after Brinnly

Our News

Get out your address books once again folks, and turn to the W section.  The Wards are moving once again!  We have been back in Pittsburgh now for two years, and while we miss so many things (and people!) of the Midwest, we strongly feel that we are exactly where God wants us to be right now.  Our current house...not so much.  We've been renting since we've moved back and the biggest blessing with that is how doing so allowed us to lease (rather than sell) our Grand Rapids house.  In the meantime, we've fallen in love with our location and especially our neighborhood. 

So...we're moving across the street!  Just add a digit to the final number in our address and you are all set.  Our new house is slightly smaller than we had envisioned, but has a lovely floor plan with a deck leading to a great yard.  The matching wooden playhouse appears to be built with little girls in mind.  We're all really excited about it--the combination of a "new" place with as little transition as possible.  Start planning your Pittsburgh vacation to check it out!