Schragville: February 2017

February is always a busy month for our family. Ben is in the thick of basketball season, Valentine's day and Noah's birthday and I usually have a work trip thrown into the mix.

First up, was Levi's visit to the orthodontist to get his quad-helix appliance put in his mouth (I think I have the name right...I might not). It's supposed to make his mouth bigger, so all his teeth have room to come in.

He has challenging teeth, and was a real trooper getting the appliance set!

I bought this blooming plant at the Newton Et Cetera Shop and it's been blooming ever since early February! A lovely, simple addition to my house plant collection.

Salad and bread....I must be in Akron, PA! The salad bar and bread at the MCC cafeteria are some of my favorite things about visiting MCC in Akron.

These bushes were stunning. So vibrant and colorful!

The highlight of my trip to PA this year was seeing my friend Diana who moved from Kansas to PA last year. We ate lots of delicious food and spent each evening together catching up!

It snowed while I was there, a lovely fresh blanket that was gone within 24 hours.

This cheeseburger was amazing, so very, very good.

Back to Kansas and basketball. :-) We had really nice weather in February so we did our best to be outside and enjoy it.

Thanks to Grandpa and Grandma Schrag the boys have NBA jerseys to wear while they play.

For Noah's birthday (but mostly because it was simply time) we got the boys a basketball goal. It was a full family project (but mostly Ben) to get the hole dug, the concrete poured to reinforce the hole, and to install the goal.

It's been tons of fun to have a hoop right outside the house for the boys to play on!

We took a family walk to my aunt and uncle's pasture one Sunday afternoon.

Walking sticks help get through soggy ground. :-)

"S'mores" for dessert from the oven when you don't want to make a fire outside.

I was assigned to help with Levi's classroom Valentine's party. We decided I would make heart-shaped rice krispy treats,

and Conversation Cutties.

Valentine's morning, he went back to the orthodontist to get the bottom part of his appliance put in his mouth.

And then it was party time! His class can be pretty nutty, but it was a fun party!

A couple days later the boys gave their spring music program at school, as always it was wonderful!

Then it was time to celebrate Noah's birthday in school. He asked for rice krispy treats with M & M's and chocolate drizzle.

Noah still wanted me to come and eat lunch with him and hang out until birthday treat time, which is something I've done with each of them for years. So I got to hang out with the 5th graders for the afternoon!

Band was a hoot!!

Group project time,

and finally it was time to celebrate! In their classroom, everyone has to wait to eat until the birthday kid takes their first bite - he was quite dramatic about it!

And then he had two buddies over for night. This is how they looked when I came down in the morning. :-)

We burned the "prairie" around our house.

It was a fun adventure and hopefully will spur more prairie growth this year.

The six Epp women took a road trip to the Pioneer Woman's Mercantile in Oklahoma on President's Day. Here's my shopping basket:

The store was super, super busy!

My sister, who prefers not to shop, graciously stood in line for the restaurant while the rest of us shopped.

The Epp sisters! :-)

The building was restored with so much care and attention to details. I was really impressed by all of it!!

And the Marlboro Man sandwich is legit. It doesn't look that great in this photo, but the flavor was outstanding.

And who knew prune cake would be so delicious! It was mighty, mighty good.

I rarely feel like I put together a healthy and balanced meal anymore, but I had my colleague Ana Alicia over for dinner and look at this meal I put together, pretty tasty if I do say so myself. :-)

Ben and I went to see Ben Folds perform in Salina!! It was such a treat. He's one of our favorites, and he put on a great show, just him and his piano.

We had MCC board meetings in towards the end of the month, and lucky for staff we got a break in the middle of the two-day meetings and made a mad dash to Mojos for yummy drinks.

Another beautiful Feb. day meant it was Go Kart time!

My rhubarb is trying to grow in the garden. I was worried about it last fall because some tiny critters ate all the leaves....so I wasn't sure it would have the energy to come back, but so far so good!