Valentine's Day Cookies

Last night was happy-fun-family-cookie-time at the Gatchel house! The kids got to punch out the shapes with heart-shaped cookie cutters in the afternoon and then decorate them later before bedtime. Of course, the best part was getting to eat all the frosting and tasty decoration :)

Super Sunday

So what did you think of the Super Bowl? Or rather, the more important question, what did you think of the commercials? I have to admit that I was sadly disappointed in the commercials this year. And was it just me or was it more than a little obvious that sex sells? I felt slapped upside the head with it. I mean, even the M&M's got into it with a naked joke...

Grant, the kiddos and I enjoyed watching the game and spending some time together. My kiddos were super wound up though and I think it was the second half before we ended up watching any of the actual game.

Kayla eating pre-game :) She devoured nearly an entire batch of popcorn on her own by the time the game was over

Breakfast of champions at Casa de la Gatchel - homemade cinnamon rolls :)

Elmo's Super Heroes

A few weeks ago we implemented Noah's "chore chart" here at home to give him some responsibilities and incentives for doing things on his own. Each day he has seven things he can do to earn a "chip" and if he has at least five chips by the end of the day, he gets a special "token" that he can put in his token bank. He saves these tokens to spend on rewards that we determine ahead of time. His first reward was to go see Sesame Street, which cost 10 tokens, which he seemed to earn in no time at all.

Earlier this week I took off work in the middle of the day on Wednesday and Noah and I (Grant) finally got to go see the show in downtown Detroit at the Fox Theatre. The place was probably the most elegant and ornate theater I have ever been to. Our seats were only ten rows back near the center, but just about any seat would have had a great view. 

Noah had a great time! True to being my kid, when asked what his favorite part of the show was, he would say "The streamers! They made a loud bang!". Thank God that he was able to catch some of those as a souvenir  after being shot off during the finale, otherwise I would have had to wrestle a 3 1/2 year old back to the car screaming about not having a $15 spinning Elmo toy....

Anyway, here are a few pictures from our trip, including eating lunch in the car at the park afterward. Enjoy :)