Fast February

 Every year, it seems like February comes and goes in a blink of an eye. We packed a lot into the shortest month of the year.  The girls healed from their viruses and we visited "Jump," an indoor trampoline park.  We have an annual pass there, and we try to take them once a month to spend all their energy. 

Hallie's jumping high in the front and Emma's flying by behind her.  We visited on a weekend night, when they turn on black lights after 7 pm! I made the girls wear white clothes so we could see them glow in the black lights. Otherwise, we might never find them again!

Before we knew it, Valentine's Day was here. Emma and Hallie always get chocolate roses from Dan, and they always eat them immediately for breakfast that morning. 

Why does Emma look 16 here? I'm not okay.

They also received a few small gifts on Valentine's Day. They each got a walkie talkie watch with a flashlight and compass!  I said yes to Hallie wearing her watch to school that day, with strict instructions not to use any of the toy features during class. She followed instructions, but at recess time she decided to play with the walkie talkie setting. Her watch just *happened* to be set to the same channel as the elementary teachers' communication walkie talkies.  They suddenly heard a child making announcements in every classroom, and had to hunt down which kid it was. Oops!

StoneBridge School celebrates Liberty Day on President's Day holiday. My dad, an Army veteran who served during the Vietnam War, walks in a special ceremony with the girls every year.

There are many military veterans in our family, but StoneBridge limits each family to 3 photos & names in their ceremony for the sake of time. 

My handsome dad

My granddad (my mom's dad)

Dan's uncle (his dad's oldest brother)

We had one very busy February weekend with two birthday parties!

Emma was invited to her classmate, Kaci's, roller skating birthday party. She really progressed and felt more comfortable on skates than she ever had before.

Hallie had skated before, too, but she didn't feel confident this time. She eventually found this window seat where she could easily watch everyone, and she enjoyed herself immensely.

Hallie also got to attend a birthday party for her friend, Piper, at Funville, an indoor playground. The party lasted two hours, but Hallie and a few other friends stayed there to play for four hours!

Our biggest event in February was vacationing for three days in Philadelphia during winter break! Our good friends, Cynthia, and her daughter, Kailey, were there during the same weekend, and we enjoyed sightseeing with them.

Left to right, Cynthia (in back), Kailey (in front), Dan, Emma, Hallie, and Debby

On the day we arrived in Philadelphia, our first stop was Independence Hall.

We took a guided tour of the most famous rooms in the building, where our founding fathers wrote and signed the Declaration of Independence. 

Our second stop was the famous Liberty Bell.

The tourist center was fun, also, with some hands-on activities for kids. There was a dress-up station where the girls could try on Revolutionary-era dresses.

And they got to pose with Benjamin Franklin himself!

On our second day, we spent many hours exploring The Franklin Institute.

Its most famous exhibit is the giant heart, which is the size of a small house! You can actually walk through it and pretend you're a blood cell.  

There was a section dedicated to optical illusions.

This room was disproportional, so when you laid on the bed, the people standing at the foot of the bed looked enormous!

The Franklin Institute had a room dedicated to flight. They also had a planetarium, an electricity experiment room, a train room, and best of all, a large cafeteria where we could rest our legs and eat lunch.

After touring The Franklin Institute for over five hours, we were ready for a relaxing evening. The girls voted to visit each other's hotels, and then we went to dinner.  

Cynthia and Kailey stayed at the beautiful and historic Bellevue hotel. It had gorgeous staircases, framed art, a ballroom, and a water fountain inside the hotel.  Our family stayed at the modern and economical Holiday Inn Express, featuring a large breakfast room with a pancake making machine, all you-can-drink hot chocolate, and a variety of pastries and cereals. The girls just couldn't decide which hotel was better. 

On our final day in Philadelphia, we toured the Betsy Ross House, walked by Benjamin Franklin's grave, and saw the very first American post office, which was closed because it was a Sunday.

The Betsy Ross House was small, but very interesting, and the girls loved it!  We each got a hand-held audio tour device that played a recorded description of each room.  Emma loves all museums, but Hallie was not looking forward to touring yet another historic building. After 5 minutes into the self-guided tour, she shouted "I can't believe I didn't want to come here, this is SO INTERESTING!"  

There was a lady portraying Betsy Ross who answered our questions and showed us her trick to create a 5-pointed fabric star by making a few folds and a single cut with her scissors. This was the method she used to cut the stars for the first American flag. Creating the flag was an act of treason, so she had to keep it a secret and hide the flag in her bedroom until it was finished and delivered to General George Washington.

In the basement of Betsy Ross' house, there was a small play area with toy food and cooking utensils so kids could pretend to be servants working in the kitchen. 

Philadelphia was such a fun Winter Break getaway!