Thanks so much for all of the comments on the last post. They were very much appreciated!

The last two nights, I've been very tired and fell asleep before posting. Well, last night I fell asleep before posting. On Wednesday night, I spent 2+ hours going through 7 months worth of photos and writing the dates on the backs of them. I am resolved to get caught up on photo albums before we go to San Francisco in April. I rarely get THIS far behind – I haven't put pics in albums since June 2010. And there are a lot of pictures – OBX, camp, Dutch Wonderland, first days of school, Halloween, Hanukah, and, oh, tons of Nutcracker-related pics. Sigh.

On Wednesday, the girls enjoyed a needlepoint lesson from Nana A, who came over after school. M is interested in an area needlepoint contest, which we are awaiting details on. Yesterday's Washington Post declared that needlepoint is all the rage right now, so at least the girls are on trend!

Yesterday, Discovery had a fire sale of lots of leftover commerce items – DVDs, books, clothes, etc. I got there late, when prices were even lower, and came home with a stack of DVDs and some paintable animals from Animal Planet. I had no idea whether the girls would like them or not. Turns out they were a huge hit. We did Thursday's homework on Wednesday night, so the girls were able to dive right in when I got home last night. Here they are painting the animals:

Here also is a picture that M made yesterday. I am wondering if it might be an elephant – need to ask her:

We have a very busy weekend ahead of us. Tonight, the girls and I are going to the ballet with Grandma Sandy. Very grown up! Tomorrow, we have ballet class, and then the circus in the afternoon. In between I am going to take the girls to one of my two favorite used book sales, both of which happen in the spring. They have lots of great kids books there, so hopefully they will find some treasures. Then Daddy and I have the Lafayette Auction Saturday night.

Sunday, we are having brunch with old friends, then hopefully using a recently purchased Groupon to Madame Tussaud's wax museum. Hmm, I seem to remember that the wax museum is around the corner from Crumbs bakery, which has amazing cupcakes. I see a pitstop in our future. Then we have mother-daughter book club. We are only halfway done with the book and I don't know when we will finish it, given all we have going on! Maybe tonight. It's a good book – Shoeshine Girl. It's sort of dark, which is a refreshing change for a kid's book. I'm interested to see how it plays out.

So that's the scoop from here. Thanks again for all of the sweet comments, and keep 'em coming!