Game Time

We won't talk about the "big game" that happened when Papa was here so we'll focus on all of the other games we played.  The kids got to show off their bike skills on the way home from school and Cameron got to show Papa his baseball skills. They did a lot of Legos and read a lot of books. Cameron showed off his new reading skills and Addy impressed with her math and typing skills. While the game that should not be mentioned was a disappointment, the silver lining is that Cameron came in 3rd place in his football picks (in a league my Dad does every year.) Both kids picked teams at the beginning of the year and by the end of the year Cameron had 3 of the 4 team from the play-offs picked. No matter who wins the SuperBowl Cam wins (and beat Papa in the pool!)
The kids got to school Papa in SORRY and they got him to play "I Can Do That" which is a Dr. Suess game that is great if you are a small child, less so as an adult. This post will never do it justice, but we were playing that game on Papa's last night here and he had a terrible pain in his neck. But my dad is a fierce competitor so he wasn't going to let a little pain get in his way of a competition. He drew the worst combination of cards (if you're an adult) which meant he had to crawl under the trick-a-ma-stick. Never to say he can't do something, my dad proceeded to shimmy his way under the stick, while clearly in pain. I was laughing so hard I could hardly breathe, but the whole time I was worried we were going to have to take him to the Dr. after because he wouldn't be able to move his neck. Luckily he made it through and could say "I can do that" when it was all done.

Party with Papa!

My Dad came to town last week (we missed you Kathy!) and we had a great time. The kids had been looking forward to this all month and were so excited to show Papa all of their new stuff and skills. They got to open some belated Christmas gifts and even got to go shopping with Papa to pick out their own stuff. One of their gifts was a set of dominos so they learned how to play that and Papa learned how to play Mexican train. We all went to the zoo one day and saw tons of cool animals. Of all of the animals at the zoo, the otters are the kids favorite. Hard to believe it, even though it was in the 40's the whole time, my dad was complaining about how cold he was. I would think all of those below zero days would have prepared him better!

Special Stars

Wow! December really was a busy month as I am still catching up and now we're over halfway through January!

Addy was star of the week for her class which meant she got to decorate a poster all about her and her family. She also had to tell her class about her favorite things:
My Pets: Two Chickens-Blitz and Potpie
One thing I do well: Softball
One thing I'd like to do better: Skiing
When I'm an adult I want to be: An artist
If I could go anywhere in the world I would go: On a Disney Cruise to Hawaii
Favorite Subject: Reading
Color: Pink
Food: Fettuccini Alfredo
Dessert: Scotcharoos
Book: Ramona Quimby & Candy Fairies
TV Show: World of Dance
Movie: Moana

Cameron had a holiday performance at his school and his class sang The Driedel song and There's No Place Like Home. Santa also made a visit to his school.

Winthrop Winter Fun II

After a day of skiing in Winthrop, the next day we tackled sledding and ice skating. The outdoor skate rink is a lot of fun and I couldn't believe it but Addy and Cameron skated the full 2 hours. They were the very last people off the rink. They have really improved their skills on the ice because Brian has been taking them to our skating rink to practice. In no time at all the kids ditched their coats and played in the snow without them. I was cold just watching them, but clearly they didn't care. Another successful visit with Chuck and Robin!

Christmas Catch Up II

I just found a bunch of other pictures from December which just reminded me of how awesome our month was.  The kids and I did our tradition of decorating sugar cookies. Cameron made some awesome crafts at school including "Cameron the Elf" and "Cameron's Snow Globe"
We also made snowmen and went sledding down driveways with our Christmas snow. Such fun!

Winthrop Winter Fun

A few days after Christmas we took our annual trip to Winthrop to see Chuck and Robin. We had very simple goals; 1) make it to Winthrop without hitting any deer 2) avoid anyone throwing up in the car 3) relax and enjoy the snow. I'm happy to say we were successful on all fronts! The drive was great, we didn't even see any deer on the way there and no one felt sick in the car. We were off to a great start and the 2nd day we were there it snowed over a foot! We decided to head back to the ski resort from last year and have both kids ski. Cameron got another lesson and Addy was ready to hit the slopes with Brian.
Brian and Addy started with on the t-bar lift and unfortunately it didn't go well. Addy fell off, but didn't let go so  she got drug up the hill. Needless to say she wasn't too happy when she finally got off and was not in the mood to listen to Brian coach her on skiing down the hill. She refused to listen to him, but also refused to ski down. So she definiantly took off her skis and marched all the way down the hill. I was waiting for her at the bottom and would have bet money that I'd be spending the rest of the day with her doing anything else but skiing. We watched Cameron practice during his lesson and apparently that was all she needed. She wanted to ski with him and for the rest of the day (a full 4+ hours) and while they never left the tow rope and the bunny hill they had a wonderful time playing in the snow. Mission accomplished.

Christmas Catch Up

It is hard to believe that it's already 2018, I still have a lot of catch up to do on the end of 2017. We had a truly wonderful holiday break. It was relaxing, fun and memorable. The kids had a full two weeks off of school. We stayed local over Christmas and had a WHITE Christmas! The snow started on Christmas Eve and kept falling through Christmas day. It was beautiful and made Christmas even more special. As usual, the kids were super excited on Christmas Eve and this year it was Addy who woke up first and came into our room and said "Merry Christmas! I see all of the new presents under the tree!" This year the kids also discovered that Santa must have gotten caught in the fireplace because he left us a little something.
The kids were super excited about their presents and we spent the day enjoying the new gifts and our annual traditions. It was a truly special holiday.