Snow Day!

Today was our fourth snow day, and we made sure to do it up big!

Big Fashion!

Story:  I had to put the shovel back into the garage and then I went back into the backyard.  I saw Carter and Dawson sledding on the hill but I couldn't find Ava.  Then from around the deck I saw Shadow's tail and I realized, I bet Ava is right there!  Sure enough I rounded the deck and she was loving on the dog.  All the kids have been wonderful at helping Shadow in and out to go to the restroom, but Ava girl loves to play with her and snuggle her so much.  It is adorable to watch.

Carter loves to sled.  And he loves snow days.  It is the best to tell kids in the morning, "Guess what, no school today!"

Snow Funny!

Today Dawson went to his four year check up.  It is crazy, he grew three inches this year!  But he is actually pretty short for his age, 38%!

Dawson has a patented talking out of the side of his mouth voice that makes me laugh.  Usually he uses it when he is telling a "weird" story, but I noticed when he is feeling shy he will do it too.  Today at the doctor's office for the first two minutes he only spoke out of the side of his mouth.  I was worried the doctor was going to think he needed to get his speech evaluated, but eventually he came around!!

Mr. Popper's Penguins Dinner Book Club

This month we read Mr. Popper's Penguins by Florence and Richard Atwood.  It's been awhile since we've had our last book club, in December we read Little House on the Prairie.  But life got busy and crazy with Christmas, so we never had an official book club.  Now we are back in the saddle this month!

I had planned a craft to make penguins out of toilet paper tubes, but they wanted nothing to do with it.  So with Daddy's help they made three lego penguins.  Ava assembled a theater and Dawson brought a cop car (Mr. Popper ends up in jail at the end of the book.)

We also had ice sculptures (ice frozen in various size cups) for decoration.  We ate white bean soup (the Popper's were really poor and subsisted on beans) with sandwiches and vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup for desert (I don't know, penguin colors!)

Carter with his penguins

Very creative, huh?

My favorite question we discussed was naming your 10 penguins based on characters from your favorite books.  It was interesting to hear what characters they chose.  Dawson couldn't pick characters so his penguins had names like: excavator, John Deere and dump truck.  Ava liked Madeline, Little House in the Big Woods and the Boxcar Children.  Carter picked Scooby Doo and then said he didn't like fiction, only non-fiction.  So the rest of his picks were names like Everest, Sir Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay.

Flick and Float

Flick and Float!

While I was not impressed with the movie (The Boxtrolls) we had a ball playing and swimming in the pool.

What a Dawson face!

Mike and I were throwing Dawson in the pool.  At one point Dawson offered Mike money to throw him another time.  He agreed and when Dawson got home, he ran upstairs and brought Mike two cents.  He's a man of his word!

Carter had fun playing with his friend

Ava was glued to the movie.  We had to leave early to get dinner ready, but Ava made me promise to let her watch the ending.

What a nice way to burn some energy on these cold days!  

Heard and Written around the House

Ava: Mom, did you put pistachios on my sandwich?
Me:  Um, no.
Ava:  speaking of pistachios, can I have some?


Dawson:  Mom I only need four more heads until I'm a grown-up!  
(I think he meant he needs to grow taller!)

Carter left a list:

Carters Cmplants (I'm pretty sure he meant complaints)
Dawson is bugging me

I love laughing at the funny things that come out of their mouths!

Winter Cabin Fever

Wow.  This is what the toy room looked like after one morning of my three playing together.

It's hard to tell from the picture, but over at the couch they turned it into a doggie shelter.  I had to buy "dogs" all morning long.

But they were the cutest dogs I've ever seen!  

(Ava is wearing Shadow's coat.  And yes, Shadow wears a coat because she shivers when it is really cold outside, poor pup.)

It's funny because in Cincinnati one inch of snow covered roads would mean school would be cancelled.  Look at the road behind Dawson, you can barely see it!  But school was right on time and everyone got to school safely.  Then Dawson and I shoveled snow while Shadow cowered in the garage until we cleaned some of the driveway off.

Shopping with my very favorite little man, he he!!

Weekend Activities

 Well, we started the morning off at the water park and ended it by 

Snowboarding.  Kinda weird, but lots of fun.  No pictures of Ava or Doc because they made brief appearances before disappearing inside for hot cocoa. 

While Carter boy was outside for the longest time sledding, snowboarding and building a snowman with me!

We also went to a Jackson Basketball Game with Boy Scouts.  I brought Ava with me as well, and she really got into it.  Carter was pretty exhausted and spent most of the time staring blankly into space.  But Ava was watching closely the score board and cheerleaders.  

She also put together a stylish polar bears outfit with her polar bear sweatshirt, polar bear hair bow, and a purple glitter scarf.  Girls got to look her best!

Wonderful weekend and its not over yet!  Thankfully we had some time to rest today and tomorrow will also be pretty low key.

Water park Getaway

This weekend we spent a night away at a water park.  The kids had a ball and loved every minute of it.

The kids had a ball with their friends.  This was the same water park we went to with Grandma and Bo last year and it was interesting to see the difference.  Carter was able to go on all the rides, and he loved the big water slides.  He spent quite awhile running up and down the stairs with his friend to ride the big water slide.  None of the kids spent much time in the toddler area, whereas last year Ava and Dawson really enjoyed it.  Dawson was also able to ride some of the smaller water slides, which he loved.  He called it the tornado ride because it was like being inside a tornado.

Happy Faces

We also spent a ton of time in the hot tub this year.  The kids had fun going outside in the hot tub.  It was so funny watching icicles form on hair and eyelashes but being perfectly comfortable in the water.  Carter and Dawson even took a polar bear plunge and got out of the hot tub to walk in the snow and jump back into the hot tub. 

A boy after my own heart

After lunch Dawson started begging to go back to the room.  I would ask him what he wanted to do and he would say "watch cartoons."  I quickly realized he wanted to take a nap but he was too embarrassed!  So we went back and had a little cuddle nap.

We topped it off with pizza and Carter almost fell asleep on the table.  They are eagerly anticipating our next water park getaway!!

Kid Stories

Dawson and his Lion habitat

It's funny, this kid really misses his siblings when they are at school.  There has been some friction lately with Dawson and Carter because Carter would like some solitude after school while Dawson wants to follow him around.  Well at least he is in luck because they have a four day weekend!

This girl has been a mess lately.  A MESS.  She just missed her second school day this year due to pinkeye.  But we love her and her sweet silly personality more than anything! 

Ava and Carter got their Interim reports recently, and they are both doing great.  Carter needs to work on memorizing his math facts and Ava needs to improve her handwriting, but both teachers hand wonderful things to say about the kids.  So proud of both of you!

Of course, Mr. Carter boy is doing wonderfully.  He brought a paper home from school recently where he wrote about his winter break.  It included 3 things I did on my break, 2 of my favorite gifts and 1 person I enjoyed spending time with.  For his person he enjoyed spending time with he wrote Ava.  How sweet!

And this is what doggie cabin fever looks like.  Shadow had three walks today!!

She can also sprint down the hallway and dash under Ava's bed.  Multi-talented.

Latest and Greatest

Oh, January.  Can I say that I'm not a fan?  We've had -20 degree windchill which caused school to be cancelled last Thursday and snow that caused school to be cancelled on Friday.  To battle cabin fever we have gone with friends to the movies and had our den meeting despite the chilly temps.

Well, we all know that my kids love sleeping on my bedroom floor.  Shadow has been sleeping in her crate, but in the morning when Mike gets up she runs upstairs to cuddle.

Cuddling with a sleeping Ava

Ava's writing skills have improved so much this year!  I love this little note that she wrote to Carter: You best boy I met.  She drew a little picture of a skull that is on his backpack.  How sweet and loving!

Dawson and his snow tractor

Although we have had really chilly days, thankfully we have been able to get out and play in the snow.  Dawson and Carter are the heartiest, while Ava spends about 20 minutes in the snow and then she is done.  

Ava loves the statue of Mary

The kids have set up a "lab" in the blue room.  Everyone has a desk and they even made a little changing area between the dressers with a blanket and chip clips.  Seriously, one of the kids favorite toys? chip clips.  I can never find one because they are always being used to create forts, hideouts, spy caves and now changing areas.

Funny Carter Story:

Recently Carter told Mike that his top ten healthy food list  included spaghetti and chicken noodle soup.  So obviously Mike asked him "What else is on your top ten list, that's only two things.  Carter's answer:  that's it.  Nothing else on my healthy food list.

I think that's it for now!  Enjoying my sweet kids despite the cabin fever!

Goodbye 2014!!

 Well, here we are the fifth day of the New Year, but I wanted to do a 2014 recap post.

As the polar vortex raged in January I enjoyed some extra time with my little ones with all the snow/cold days.  Dawson enjoyed shutting the water off in the house, scaring his mom to death.

Bo and Grandma's February Birthday provided the perfect respite from the cold at the water park.

In March we celebrated St. Patrick's Day in style at he Pittsburgh parade.

Ava turned five years old in April.  This birthday just tugged on my heart because I felt I was saying goodbye to her baby/toddler/preschool years.  She would very soon become a school aged child.

In May we enjoyed the rising temps!

In June we took a wonderful vacation with family to Gatlinburg. 

July was perfect with kids learning to swim and lots of outside time.  Dawson enjoyed a little carrot harvesting.

August is back to school time!  Carter turned seven, Ava started kindergarten and Dawson started preschool.

In September we enjoyed the football season at the Polar Bears game.

October was pumpkins and costumes!

Our Favorite November memory?  Meeting cousin Abigail of course!

December meant Dawson's 4th birthday, getting Shadow and of course enjoying Christmas!

Let's hope that this year is as good to us as 2014!

Trying our hand at Ice Skating!

I was absolutely certain this outing was going to be miserable.  Which is really unlike me, I'm usually an optimist at heart, but we decided to take the kids ice skating.  I was the only one that had ever gone ice skating before; Mike, Riley, Carter, Ava and Dawson were all newbies!

I started skating with Riley and Carter.  Much to my delight they took off and did wonderfully, so we invited the other three to join us.

Commemorating Mike, Ava and Dawson's first time on the ice.

Carter had a blast!  I really thought we would be there about an hour, maybe two.  But after two and a half hours Mike and I were exhausted but this kid didn't want to leave!

He was cracking me up with his ice skating technique.  He enjoyed playing with the doors to the penalty box, trying to do the widest split possible and using the back of his ice skates to pick at the ice.  But by the end of our time he was hold Mike and I's hand and making it around the rink.

Ava, our little fashion plate who insisted on curly hair, did really well too.  I was certain she was going to fall down once, get discouraged and give up.  We had the "persistence" talk in the van and she didn't give up!  She held onto the edge and skated around and around!

This kid was a hot sweaty mess by the time we left!  He asked me if we could come back in the morning and stay all day and even eat lunch and dinner at the rink.  We have definite plans to bring him back. 

Once we were in the van Ava said "Hands down, this was the best day ever!"  

Well, I'm glad we could start 2015 off on the right foot.

And of course, our big cousin did great on her first skate outing.  The kids are so happy that she is visiting us!