February Events

 Here are some miscellaneous happenings from February...

CLHS Run

Jason's brother Jon is the Director of Development at the Lutheran high school in our community, and he planned a 5K run as a fundraiser for the school. Our whole Schleicher clan signed up to participate in this Cruisin' Crusaders Run. Most of us (other than Aunt Kim, who bravely ran the 5K) chose to run in the 1-mile portion of the event. The morning of the run was VERY chilly for us Texans-- only about 25 degrees!

The chilly temperatures didn't stop us from participating, though. We simply donned our heavy coats, dug our stocking hats and gloves out of deep storage (ha!), and we were off!

Our pack of Schleichers ended up in several crews by the end. Ian was the first Schleicher to cross the finish line, followed not too far away by Cody, Jaden, and Ryan.

Then came Uncle Matt, Isaiah, and Nathan.

Adley, Noah, and I took the race in alternating run/walk portions, but once we neared the finish line, these two four-year-olds sprinted their way in!

Even Aunt Chelsea and Micah pulled off a great finish at the end!

Jason was the family photographer for the morning since he had injured his foot and was walking around in boot--poor guy! This crew of kids was proud to receive medals at the end.

Back at home, our family enjoyed warming up with a mug of hot chocolate!

Cody's Chapel

In the middle of this month, Cody's class led the school's Wednesday chapel. Cody played the part of a tiger in one portion of the skit. He was excited to use the top of Jaden's Halloween costume from the fall. Cody did a nice job of speaking carefully and clearly.

The class chapel centered on talents from God and how to use them to His glory. Each student made a poster, acknowledging one of his/her talents. They all spoke into the microphone, saying one thing they were good at, and something they weren't very good at. Cody's poster depicted himself playing sports.

Family Birthdays & Superbowl

We combined my mom's and Uncle Matt's birthday celebrations with a Superbowl gathering this month. Some of the family was really into the start of the game! ;)

Jason planned a fun Superbowl prediction contest for the family. We had to make predictions on everything from which team won the coin toss and which team scored the first points to which type of commercial would be the first one shown. It certainly made our family pay attention to some minor details of the game. I've never seen so many people crowd around the TV to watch the coin toss before! Ha!

At halftime, we recognized Uncle Matt and Mom with a birthday song and some special desserts. We sure are thankful for these two!

And that's a wrap for February!

Valentine Fun

 Jason and I returned from Florida just in time for a few Valentine's Day festivities for the kids. All three kids handed out valentines to their school friends. Adley was the only child I got a picture of as she filled out her valentines. She actually filled out small cards for her school friends AND her playgroup friends. She worked hard and was proud to hand them out.

Adley's playgroup met to celebrate Valentine's Day at my friend Brittney's house. Brittney is a former teacher, so she had some fun ideas for the kids! She started by reading a valentine-themed book to the group.

Then, the kids decorated heart-shaped cookies with LOTS of frosting and sprinkles.

Next, we did a little science activity. Brittney had made baking soda molds in the shape of hearts. Each child dripped food coloring and glitter on top of their hearts to make them look festive. Then they used eye droppers to drop vinegar on the hearts. 

The reaction was both colorful and fun to watch!

Our final activity was decorating bags with stickers and handing out valentines to one another.

Since it was a beautiful spring day, we spent the rest of the morning playing in the backyard. What a fun morning with a great group of kiddos!

JA Florida Trip

 Over a year ago, our senior pastor dreamed up the idea to take his leadership team on a special retreat, one that would include everyone's spouses. He wanted to thank his team (which includes Jason) for all of their hard work and dedication to the church. He also wanted to celebrate various achievements in the group-- the conclusion of Jason's SMP program, one member's doctorate, another's associate degree. Over the next few months, we continued to hear "teasers" about this trip and eventually learned that the retreat was to Florida. We felt so honored to take this amazing 5-day trip in February and loved the relaxing time away. 

On our first full day in Florida, the guys spent time mini-golfing while the ladies had a spa day.

For the next two days, we got to visit Disney World! Each couple was encouraged to choose the parks we most wanted to attend and enjoy time just as a couple. Jason and I visited Animal Kingdom first. We were excited to see the parts of this park that we had missed over the summer. With our family in June, we had left this park early due to a big rainstorm, so there was much remaining that Jason and I wanted to see. We started out by riding Avatar (our favorite ride from the summer!), attended the Lion King Show, and then saw a lot of the animals.

We were disappointed the the Everest ride was shut down due to maintenance, but we did try out the Dinosaur ride. We also saw a cool show called Feathered Friends in Flight that featured some pretty well-trained birds!

Our favorite was listening to two amazing birds singing full verses of various songs, including La Cucaracha, Old MacDonald, and You are My Sunshine. Wow!

After lunch, we journeyed over to Epcot, where we spent the majority of our time in the World Showcase section of the park. This summer, our kids were most interested in doing the rides at Epcot, so we didn't get to visit many of the country pavilions. This time, Jason and I loved taking a slower pace through the park as we looked at the countries.

I loved seeing that many of the countries on showcase in Epcot were ones that Adley and I had learned about this year, particularly Canada, Germany, Morocco, France, Japan, Mexico, and Italy. I took quite a few photos for her, hoping she'd recognize some of the cultural pieces from these pavilions.

Jason and I decided to try out food samples from various countries and make it an eclectic dinner. It was delicious! We had desserts from France,

pastries from Morocco,

(not pictured--dumplings from China),

ravioli from Italy,

and pretzels from Germany.

To rest our feet after all the walking from the day, we stopped at this Disney on Broadway show. We were pleasantly suprised out how great it was! We listened to two real Broadway singers-- Ashley Brown who had starred in Mary Poppins and Josh Strickland who played Tarzan. Both singers were engaging and had powerful voices. They each performed signature songs from their own musicals and then sang some other hit Disney Broadway songs as well. It was so entertaining!

We ended the evening by meeting up with the other couples from church to watch Epcot's Harmonious, a evening show which combined lights, moving fountains, lasers, music, and fireworks. It was a pretty amazing production!

What a wonderful day!

Jason and I started out our second day in Hollywood Studios, the park that our family hadn't seen at all this summer.

We enjoyed trying several of the rides, like the Tower of Terror (which surprised me by being my favorite ride of the day!),

Rockin' Roller Coaster,

and Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. The lines at Hollywood Studios were absolutely crazy on this day, so we didn't get to experience as many rides as we were hoping. 

We did enjoy seeing a couple of shows-- the Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular...

and Beauty and the Best Live on Stage.

In the evening, our group met up at Magic Kingdom for their fireworks show, Disney's Enchantment. When we visited over the summer, these firework displays had not yet re-started since Covid, so we enjoyed the special treat it was to see these shows!

It felt like a very magical end to a fun vacation! We were so thankful to both sets of grandparents for watching our kids so we could get away and grateful to our pastor and his wife for planning this special retreat!