Thursday, January 30, 2014

Ski Day

The snow has finally arrived. It showed up Tuesday night and has been dumping constantly ever since. Obviously I am not a snow girl, but my boys have been beyond excited. John happened to have today off work, so we decided to let the boys skip school for a ski day. 

They woke up ridiculously early (before 6!) so we got an early start. I made it up the "big lift" (and back down obviously!) twice, which was a big accomplishment for me. B & Arch did a kids program for a few hours, and P took a lesson with me while John got some skiing time in. Overall, a good day! I still panic occasionally, but I'm having fun surprisingly. 

Yay! Excited for a family day!

Lunch break

Cutie boy ready to go back out!

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

School

I can't believe it's already the end of January! Before I know it, the school year will be over. P & B are both loving school this year which helps it feel like it's flying by. I am so thankful that both of their teachers have been amazing, and Preston's teacher especially seems to "get" him. 

I intended to blog about their school stuff occasionally, but I've been pretty lax about it. Well, today they both did some pretty fantastic schoolwork that I thought was blog worthy! 

Here is Preston's...all about the color cerulean!

And B's homework assignment was to research a country & write a few sentences about it. I helped a bit with the spelling (I mean really, what kindergartener can spell Lithuania??), but otherwise he chose what to write and draw.

And sort of related to schoolwork...here is the cute little pup in the spot she has claimed for school drop off & pick up.
I tried to keep her off the seat, but she would have none of it!


Tuesday, January 21, 2014

The Bunny Hill

I conquered the bunny hill yesterday skiing. It has been over 12 years since I have attempted to ski. John was just teaching me to ski when he blew out his knee for the first time, and when I finally got up the guts to go again after his recovery, I got hit by a snowboarder who was totally out of control. So needless to say, I have avoided it. I said I was never going to ski again, but I was wrong. I did it! 

John talked me into taking a lesson, and after the morning "beginner lesson" with 14+ other people and only one instructor, I had basically learned to put my skis on. Thankfully John asked why there were so many students, and they said there shouldn't be that many in a class and offered an afternoon class to me. I was hesitant (didn't want to waste more time!), but I ended up being the only student in the class! I was cruising down the bunny hill in no time. :)

The boys were my little cheerleaders. They were cruising up and down the hill (lapping me of course) and cheering me on every time they saw me. The instructor (who has grandkids) loved it and gave me lots of advice about parenting as well as skiing. Two for one deal!

I have 2 lessons left to go, and while I don't think skiing will ever be my "thing" like it is for John & at least some of the boys, I am hoping that I'll be able to keep up with them (for the next couple of years anyway)!

Me waving to a boy on the lift
John & the little guys on the lift
Arch after a wipe out!

And when we got home we were all EXHAUSTED! We crashed out on the couch & headed to bed super early!

Saturday, January 18, 2014

Tubing

My brother & his kids are visiting for the weekend, so we took the kids tubing today. (And they got to come for the party last night!) It was a beautiful day on the mountain - so sunny & warm it felt like spring. I know I've been gushing over the weather lately, but I just can't get over how PERFECT the weather has been. We have hardly had any snow, and it's been above freezing almost every day. 

We had 5 kids between the ages 4 and 8 along. It was a bit of a chore keeping up with Archer at times (he tried to go down the run with the tow rope at one point), and B lost his tube down the run at least once, but the kids had SO much fun! It was so cute to see them racing down the runs and dragging their tubes over to get towed up again.

The Party

Preston's birthday was a couple of weeks ago, but since it was during school break, we had his party last night. And what a party it was! We had over 20 kids, and we did a game truck party. 

According to Preston, it was the best party ever...and I have to agree. The kids had so much fun, but I didn't have to stress over games and activities. They were in the house for a total of 30 minutes at the beginning of the party to eat some food, and about 30 minutes at the end for cake.

I'm pretty sure it doesn't get any better for 7-9 year old boys! I hardly got any pictures of the party (because I got to socialize with the adults inside!), but I managed to snap a few. The guy running the game truck was awesome too. He managed to wrangle all those boys and keep them contentedly gaming!
The Skylanders cake

The place to be!

Blowing out the candles

Thursday, January 9, 2014

Back to Reality

This week was the boys' first week back to school after break, and I have to say, I'm struggling to get back in the groove. I've also decided that I should probably be doing more "kindergarten prep" with Archer since we really haven't worked on anything so far...turns out he (thankfully) knows more than I realized, so it hasn't been too much of a struggle. Dare I say I am actually enjoying it??? And possibly the thought that homeschooling might be achievable crossed my mind...for about 1/2 second anyway!

The big boys jumped right back to school with no issues. They both love their teachers and I never hear any school complaints. I did get a call from the school the other day, informing me that Preston got a "little scratch by his eye" at recess. I was totally baffled that they were calling me over that, until I went to pick him up after school and saw this:
Oh yes, a little scratch, indeed!

Otherwise, we have been doing a lot of this:
Ender has been making the 3 trips to school per day with us. I tried to keep her off the seats, but I'm pretty sure she has claimed her spot! Silly pup. She also enjoys walking to school (but she sits in the bike trailer with Archer). 
And today, I spent forever organizing my pantry. It was driving me crazy. It's not perfect, but it's a huge improvement! I'm in organizing mode, but my attempts at organizing are taking a lot longer than they should due to a potty-training pup. But she's cute & sweet, so I'll forgive her.

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

8

He's 8. 

It's so sad that he's growing up, but at the same time, it's so fun too. 8 is a big number. 

We did a family birthday celebration over the weekend when my parents were here, and his friends birthday party is in a few weeks, so today we had a low key day. We had French toast for breakfast at the birthday boy's request, and then he spent the majority of the day alternating between building his Lego robot (his big birthday gift!), playing with the puppy, and playing skylanders. 

This boy is seriously amazing. He's smart, sensitive, sweet, and thoughtful, but at the same time he is all BOY. Sports, video games, rambunctious. He is currently very into the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books, and pretty much any other "boyish" book he can get his hands on. He loves games (he just learned how to play Settlers of Catan and chess), and has recently figured out sudoku.