Dr. Seuss Day

This week is Spirit Week at the boys' school, and today was Dr. Seuss day. I actually probably would have forgotten about it, but thankfully a friend reminded me (and gave me the idea for star belly sneetch!), so I scrambled around and came up with some last minute Dr. Seuss costumes. Thank goodness for hot glue and a stash of craft felt!

Green eggs & ham, star belly sneetch, and the Lorax

Weekend of Skiing

The boys were off school Friday, so we decided to do a family ski day. I'm not a good skiier, so I usually avoid it, but I did quite a few runs on Friday. The boys are SO much better than me though, so they end up waiting for a while at the bottom. Oh well...they had Saturday to go crazy and ski all they wanted! 

Friday was perfect conditions. It was quiet. The snow was good. It wasn't too cold. I actually had fun (mostly). So I thought I'd try it again on Saturday...yeah. Not so great. It was well above freezing, and the snow was super sticky. I made it down one run (the easiest!) and called it a day. I camped out in the lodge until P's ski practice was done.

I ended up riding solo on the lift most of the time. The older boys want to ride together of course, and I'm not capable enough to help Archer get off the lift!

I took this pic accidentally as I was putting my phone in my pocket, but I love it. John is seriously always happy when he's skiing!

QOTD

Me: Bryton, why didn't you eat all of your carrots? (In his lunchbox)

B: well, because I always eat my carrots last and I ran out of time.

Me: soooo...eat your carrots first next time.

B: NO Moooom! Everyone knows that you eat the healthy food LAST so it takes over the bad food!

Birthday, take 2

We had Preston's "friends" birthday party this past weekend at Strike Zone (it's a Nerf gun arena place). It was so much fun, and despite the fact that there was a crazy amount of 8-9-10 year old boys there, it was pretty fun. Even a few of the dads got in on the action! We had quite a few boys show up, and even though it was pretty loud, Strike Zone was definitely a good place for it! 

I didn't get a good picture with all the chaos, but we did a "build your own" Minecraft "cake" - brownies with green frosting (dirt), Rice Krispie treats (made with chocolate and regular Rice Krispies, for coal), little bundles of red licorice (TNT), red jello (lava), and blue jello with gummy fish (water).

The next day was spent skiing, as are all of our Saturdays. Preston is still loving the race team, and B & A have definitely far surpassed my skiing abilities. I'm still working on enjoying the weekend being consumed by skiing. I'm not there yet, but hopefully soon! I do really want to enjoy it since the other family members do, but it's not really my thing!

In other big news, we have a trip to Disneyland coming up! It's been a few years since we've been there. I was hoping for another cruise, but logistically, it's hard for John to take that much time off from work...and a spectacular deal kinda fell into my lap, so Disney it is! (And Legoland. Archer wouldn't want me to forget about that!)

Back at it

The boys were supposed to start back to school on Monday, but we had a snow day! Snow days are rare here...this might be the 2nd one we've had since having kids in school. We got A LOT of snow, and then it warmed up a bit to make for some crazy roads. I was happy for another day of break, but I think everyone was ready to go back to school the next day.

Break flew by. Preston joined the ski race team, so we will be making even more frequent trips to the mountain (which I'm not thrilled with, but he loves it, so what's a mom to do?!). 

After Christmas, John and I celebrated 13 years of marriage, followed by Preston's 9th birthday on New Year's Day. We kept the celebrations kinda low key, but we will be doing a "friends party" next week for Preston. He was pretty thrilled with his presents, but he only asked for 2 things so I'm pretty sure he knew what he was getting (a bow, and Skylanders Trap Team for his kindle). We decorated gingerbread houses, and played a lot of video games. No surprise there!

Birthday breakfast (pancakes, peanut butter, bananas, and whipped cream)

I just can't believe another year has passed, and my little boy is now such a big kid. Here are his current interests, at 9 years old:

1. Skiing. That's pretty big right now! He's been even more excited since joining the ski team. 

2. Science stuff. He loves science experiments. Definitely takes after his dad on that!

3. Reading. He told me that all he wanted for Christmas was books! Current favorites are anything by Rick Riordan and James Patterson (kids books obviously, not the adult ones!!), and Calvin and Hobbes. He got the complete Calvin & Hobbes set for Christmas and he is just about done with it.

4. Running/jumping/playing with Ender. 

5. Cub Scouts

6. Four square

We also had lots of snow on his birthday, and over the next few days. At one point, I think we had close to a foot. There was some serious snowball fights going on...so serious that they broke out the ski helmets and goggles! Silly boys!

I took the last picture at 10:00 at night! I love how bright it is outside when it snows, especially considering it (usually) gets dark here at about 4:30 right now.