Francie and I have been stuck at home for a few days with colds... it was bound to catch up with us sooner or later and luckily it wasn't so bad to come down with bugs just as the cold weather and rain came down too. We've been trying to keep ourselves entertained indoors reading lots of books, playing games and finding "projects" to do. We pulled out a Crayola Fingerpaint craft Wesley gave Francie for her birthday and it was really cool! The fingerpaints are colorless vasoline-type pots that turn into bright colors when spread on the special canvas papers. It made for no mess and a lot of fun making beautiful creations :) Francie made a painting for Daddy's office and one for Jannie and Grampa's 32nd anniversary today... Happy Anniversary Mom & Dad!

Francie watches closely as the colors appear

I helped Francie with this one... do you see "daddy" hiding in the rainbow camo? ;)

Little hands (well, not SO little! Runs in the family... I remember doing a handprint project in girl scouts and they had to make a special mold for my 2nd grade giant mitts :)

First fingerpaintings

Then we decided to get really ambitious when Dad was working from home Thursday afternoon (he got the cold bug too) and make homemade playdough. I tried a recipe using cornstarch and baking soda that you heat up. It was supposed to last longer than the old flour, salt and water recipe but it didn't work, AT ALL! I'll stick to the old standard next time :)

She kept saying "San-sie turn!" to stir and for some reason wanted to smell it

At no point did it look like this mixture would turn into something we could play with but we had fun making pretty colors anyway

Ooooooooo!

Neon food coloring makes for fun colors

Francie also wanted a "turn" using my camera apparently and must have pushed the shutter button 23 times while my camera was on the side table (which I didn't realize until I downloaded the pics off my camera) It's actually a fun picture from her perspective since that's about her height right now!

Thursday night we went out to Buca di Beppo's in Palo Alto with Jannie & John (and Emmy too!) to celebrate their anniversary.

Daddy and Grampa (who is still being called 'Bam-pa' by that little Doo, we'll see which sticks ;)

Francie got to wear Emmy's pretty necklace. She LOVES Emmy!

and she helped Jannie pass out the dessert plates for
Red Velvet "Celebration Cake"

Jannie lets Francie make a big mess of her cake and frosting...

and spoils her with kisses! (nice bunny ears HEFF!)

Francie insisted on taking off her sweater. Then pants. Then shoes. Then socks. and then climbing over the booth like it was a jungle gym... she is a nut! It was a nice dinner out to forget we were sickies :)