In a word...

You don't have to tell me. I KNOW. I've been M.I.A. (But M.I.A. from my lovely blog just means that I was P.I.A. {Present In Action} in my REAL life. ) And we are busy, busy, busy people, let me tell ya.

But, because I'm having a moment of "blog-neglect guilt", I have decided to put back on that crazy 'blogger-momma hat' that I tossed up onto that dusty shelf in my closet on the last day of November after I hit "publish" for the 31st day that month, congratulating myself with a hefty sigh and a big "hell yeah!"

So here I go again. Crazy hat-on. A blog a day in March. Because I love you.

So the theme for March's blog-a-day is "IN A WORD." So here we go...in a word?

CURIOUS

That is how I would describe each of my kids' take on the day's activity.

Because today we tried something new.

We've mastered crayons.

We LOVE painting.

We'd never tried chalk before....

And when I see 6 sticks of sidewalk chalk in the dollar section at Target, how can I NOT bring them home? So I handed them to the kids to see what they thought of my brilliant idea!

Once it was clear that it was not a snack, they started experimenting.

They needed a little demonstration first to understand the power of the chalk, so Aunt Mary and I started drawing and writing, and soon they understood that chalk is really like giant crayons!

Here I said, "Hunter, I'd like you to write the letter that comes after W" and look what she did! She's brilliant!

(okay, that might not be an entirely true story...)

Note to self:

On future chalk occasions, do not dress your kids in dark colors from head to toe.

Dropped some chalk down his pant leg.

Rockin the chalk AND her sparkly new flip flops. (or "thoos" as she calls them.)

But let's review Colton's "thoo" choice. Apparently he loves ALL his shoes so much that he wants to wear all of them. Together. On the same day. And trust me when I tell you that I tried to reason with him that maybe we should switch one of the shoes, and he was not having it. He picked these two and that's what he wore!

Aside from just scribbling, Colton actually attempted to "trace" the lines that Aunt Mary drew on the sidewalk, which, interestingly he also does with crayons. He likes to trace his name or other shapes I draw.

Time out from chalk to take a quick jump on the trampoline....

And get mad. About something.

Ethan is trying to make a break for it....

Uh, Hunter? I thought we clarified that it is NOT a snack. :)

I know this is only fascinating to me and my family, but I posted this picture simply because of how eerily similar she is to me at this age. Genetics are amazing.

Yep...there's them "thoos" again...

And little Mother Hunter...always cleaning up after everyone.

And that, in another word is FUN.

Go run to Target and get your wee ones some sidewalk chalk!

Day 1. Done.

Happy March, my friends.