Skiing for Spring Break

Posted on June 2, 2015 by Jennifer

Since we are just 2 days away from being done with school this year I thought that now would naturally be a good time to share some spring break photos. For their Christmas present this year, my sister and her boyfriend gave our kids a ski trip to Blue Mountain in Ontario, Canada. The kids and I had never been on skies and my husband had only been on once decades ago. We were excited but a little nervous.

We flew up to Toronto and then took about a two hour drive to Blue Mountain. Our hotel sat right on this skating pond and had little shops all around.

Here are Caroline and Andrew wearing their “Dallas Winter Wear.” We had to borrow real ski clothes from Derek’s sister and all her generous friends who let us borrow clothes.

And yes…we did go swimming on this snow covered day.

We signed up the kids for ski school which was from 10:00 – 3:00 everyday (with a 1 hour break for lunch). Caroline had just turned 6 ten days earlier so she qualified to go to all day school with the boys. She was a little reluctant on the first day but went along since “her boys” were with her.

She’s the littlest one on the right.

It was amazing to see the kids in ski school. The instructors had the kids going up the magic carpet (ride that you stand on to get you up the hill) almost immediately and even more impressive is that they were coming down almost as fast. Our kids enjoyed their first day but I know Caroline definitely got tired of falling down.

Once the kids were situated in their lessons, all of the adults took a beginning lesson where I promptly fell down. Did I fall while moving? No. I fell while standing still listening to the instructor. Once the beginning lessons were over the instructors sent us over to practice on the same little hill the kids were already practicing on. My first attempt at getting on the moving magic carpet? I fell. They had to stop the whole dang thing for me to get up. Complete fail.

Once we had gone through the various stations and practiced what we were supposed to practice my sister and I asked the instructor what was the next station. The guy pointed up at this enormous mountain and said practice on that. What? That can’t be. There must be more stations. After practicing on the baby hill a few more times my sister and I worked up the courage to try Mount Everest. Trust me. It seemed enormous from the bottom.

When my sister and I attempted the chair lift for the first time we got on with two other people. For some reason they never pulled down the bar which is supposed to go in front of you so to say that my sister and I were panicked for about 4 minutes is a complete understatement. We held on for dear life and were never so glad to be at the top of a mountain.

Until we looked down to the bottom and sheer panic took over.

Somehow we each manged to get down. I’m pretty sure toward the end I was racing down the mountain at 40 miles an hour. After that experience we promptly went back to the baby hill and told the instructors that we needed some serious help. With some help and a private lesson the next day we did get a little better but it’s a safe bet to put your money on Lindsay Vonn this world cup racing season and not one of us.

After ski school ended at 3:00 we picked the kids up and headed back to the hill/mountain until 4:30 everyday. For us it was like when we go to Disney – up at the crack of dawn and at the park until the fireworks at night – we were committed all day.

The kids at the top of the practice hill

Aunt Kelly & Caroline

Andrew & Uncle Duke

Alex, Dad, and Caroline (in her tuck) coming down the hill

At the end of day one the boys were begging to go up “Big Baby,” also known as Mount Everest to me. I kept saying no but their dad and uncle won out (caved) and took them up. Once Andrew got off the ski lift and looked down the mountain he threw himself down on the snow and said, “I can’t do it. Get me down.” He was completely heartbroken to find out that he had to ski down. It took a loooooong time for him to come down the mountain with my husband. He’d ski a tiny bit and then fall. Ski a tiny bit and then fall. And so on. For a long time. But…he finally made it down and promptly announced that he was done for the day.

After spending 6+ hours on a cold mountain what treat do you naturally turn to?

Ice cream of course!

Day 2 – Andrew & Alex take snow board lessons, Caroline continues with ski lessons

Lots of falling on your bum is apparently par for the course when learning to snow board.

Alex ended up loving snow boarding so much that he took lessons again on his 3rd day. He impressed everyone by even going down some blue trails on the 3rd day.

Dad and Caroline going up the magic carpet like pros

Snow board victory!

Aunt Kelly

Finally a picture of me coming down Mount Everest / Big Baby.

Ski Lift Fun – Andrew and classmate below

Mom (me) & Caroline

Caroline & Dad

Andrew & Alex

Day 3 – Last run of the trip – from the top down – Andrew, Alex, Derek (Dad), Caroline, & Uncle Duke – not pictured, me: I was too slow and still making my way down Mount Everest / Big Baby.

Blue Mountain Photo Spot documenting the miracle of no broken bones!

And finally a family photo at the top of the mountain…could it be we already have our Christmas card photo in March?

Great trip…wonderful memories…thank you Aunt Kelly and Uncle Duke!

LEGO Birthday Banner

Posted on May 29, 2015 by Jennifer

My daughter turned 6 awhile ago and for the first time ever we were able to have a family party. My siblings and parents as well as my husband’s sister and parents all live in different parts of the US and Canada so we rarely have family at parties.

When my sister gifted our family a sking trip to Canada over spring break I knew it was my opportunity to have family members at Caroline’s party. We were lucky to have my sister, her boyfriend, my husband’s sister, her husband, and their two sons at the party. What? COUSINS at a party? Yippee!

Caroline wanted a LEGO party so that’s what we had in the hotel room.

Caroline and I worked to make this banner a few weeks before the party.

We used felt we already had and cut out squares and circles that we then glued into LEGO pieces.

I then made the girl lego head out of more felt.

We glued the whole thing together and had a banner for the party – our only decorations.

For the party we had LEGo bingo, a LEGO scavenger hunt, an awesome LEGO cake (made by her aunt and uncle), a race to build LEGO sets, and we took a dip in the pool. It was about 25 degrees outside when we jumped into the heated pool – it was great….until we had to get out and run for the door absolutely freezing our tails off.

Happy 6th Sweet Girl!

Jar of Teenage Love

Posted on April 3, 2015 by Jennifer

I think everything a teenager says should be bottled up and then given back to them in 30 years.

Just open up that jar of love and say, “Enjoy!”

Am I talking about my own kids?

Nope. Not yet.

I’ve still got 2 weeks to go before I officially have a teenager.

Nope. I’m talking about the lovely young receptionist at the swim lesson place my daughter goes.

The other day was a lazy morning for my daughter and I since we didn’t have to be anywhere bright and early. Granted, I had eaten, was showered and dressed in jeans a t-shirt by 8:30 but it was still all done at a leisure pace.

We showed up at the swim lesson shop about 8:56 for her 9 AM lesson. I took her clothes from her, grabbed her progress card, and gave Caroline her goggles.

After she was called into her class I walked over to the receptionist to schedule a make up class.

The young girl at the front desk told me there were two times available next week for a make up – a 9 AM lesson and a 10 AM lesson.

I hummed and hawed for a minute to myself, thinking about what I already had scheduled for that day.

I eventually said, “I’ll take the 10:00.”

To which she said, “Yay, that’s what I was thinking. You look like it was pretty rough for you to get here for 9.”

Just ponder that for a moment.

I looked at her and thought, “Did you really just say that to me?”

Oh yes she did.

I just walked away. It wasn’t worth it to get into it with her. After all, with those amazing people skills I’m not sure she’s going to be sitting at that receptionist desk too long. Just wait for some sleep deprived mom who’s hanging on by a string to come in their and get greeted with that.

Now if I could only figure out her last name, track her down in thirty years after she’s had a couple of kids, and open up that jar of love for her. Wouldn’t that be the best?

Ruthless – Mom Observation

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Jennifer

Inviting people over to dinner always seems like a good idea until you look around your house the day of the event….And once it’s under an hour before their expected arrival it’s amazing how unsentimental you can suddenly become toward your children’ school work which has sat on the countertop for the last two weeks.

Traced hands to make flowers…thrown out without another thought

a perfect 100 on a spelling test…straight to the recycle bin

Self portrait of daughter and her dad…saved thankfully by a moment of restraint

A Little Girl Bathroom – Under the Sea

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Jennifer

This is the bathroom that took 3 years to complete – did we do any major repairs? did we take out the tub and sink? Did we redo the floor?

No. No. And no.

We painted, hung a shelf, and made some art.

3 years people. 3 years.

It’s totally my fault, I hit a wall on the project so it just stopped.

Let me explain.

When we started this project my daughter was three and wanted a Little Mermaid themed bathroom. I knew she would quickly grow out of that so I decided on a whimsy ocean theme.

The plan was to make stripes on the back wall alternating between white and light blue.

My sweet husband worked on this for a couple of days.

When it was finished I liked it but the pencil lines going across the wall really bothered me as did the raised paint lines. I’m normally not so picky but this for some reason really irked me.

As the painting was wrapping up I was laying out random frames we had – soon after I spray painted them bright yellow.

I used light weight denim material and covered pieces of cardboard which were the sizes of the frames.

I found some walls decals on etsy and just printed out the pictures from the listing to create an outline of the sea creature I wanted to use.

I completed almost all of the art when I came across a problem with the turtle art above – this was the only piece where I used the actual back of the frame to glue the denim to and now the art would not fit back into the frame. I did not have any left over denim fabric since it was left over from another project.

So the project stalled.

For two years.

The stripes stayed and the wall art sat on my bedroom floor.

And there it sat until Christmas time this year and I wanted to get this project -DONE. I ended up tossing the turtle art and not using him and my husband sanded down the wall and we just put a coat of white paint on the wall. The art wall is white while all the other walls are light blue.

Here’s the final product. I love it.

Some of the pieces received a little yellow bow.

I glued on some yellow rick rack to create jellyfish tentacles and some stripes on the fish.

Next time, I’ll show you how we (read: my husband) made this mermaid shelving unit.

And to my husband – Thank you for everything you did to make this bathroom so special for our daughter!

LEGO Minifigures Scavenger Hunt download

Posted on March 12, 2015 by Jennifer

Caroline wanted a lego party for her 6 year old party so I decided to make this LEGO Minifigure Scavenger Hunt. She sat with me and chose all of the figured she wanted on the board.

page 2 of the download is shown below along with the directions.

*Download this LEGO Minifigures cavenger hunt here*

Hope your kids enjoy this game!

*Check out the Bad Guys scavenger hunt here

*Check out the Sesame Street scavenger hunt here*

And remember you can always print out 2 copies of the board and use them as cards for a memory game.

SNOW DAYS

Posted on March 4, 2015 by Jennifer

My kids have been waiting and waiting for some snow days this year. Unlike the north we just need some ice and SCHOOL IS CANCELLED! Yippee!

I’m not going to lie. When we got that call last week that the first day of school was cancelled due to the ice I was thrilled. And then to get another call the next night? Eureka!

What did we do? Cleaned out closets, baked, played games, watched tv, and stayed in our pajamas all day long.

And then 3 days later it started snowing! We got about 4 inches of snow and once again everything in Texas shut down. All our weekend plans (about 8 sporting events) were cancelled and we stayed in our pajamas. Just the best.

Forecast is calling for more snow on Thursday….and possibly a delay in school start times….to dream the impossible dream.

A Meal Plan for this Week

Posted on January 26, 2015 by Jennifer

Every Sunday I sit down with my husband and we hash out our meal plan based on the 7,000 after school activities we have going on. Even with a ton of events we almost always sit down and eat dinner as a family. Whether we have to bump up dinner to 5:00 or push it back until 7:30 we eat together because I think it’s so important.

This week I sat down to create the meal plan at the kitchen table and got up before I finished.

A little while later I came back to my list and noticed that my 5 year old had added onto the list.

See if you can pick out the meal she has decided on:

Happy Monday Everyone!

2015 Family Words

Posted on January 14, 2015 by Jennifer

Last week I shared our 2014 family words and today I’m going to share with you our 2015 words.

For the canvases last year we used colorful magazine clippings but I decided to try and make it a little different (and easier) this year by just using paint for the undercoating.

I gathered all of the blue and green paints we had and explained that each person was going to choose several colors from this palette and cover their canvas with it.

All five of us sat at the table on a cold and rainy morning in our pajamas and painted for an hour.

It was my version of heaven.

It was so interesting to just sit and listen to the kids talk about why they chose their word for the year.

After letting the paint dry, we picked through the stickers we had to create our words and names. I then spray painted the canvases with white paint. Once dry I peeled off the stickers.

A few days after making our word canvases I said to Caroline would you like to try some cinnamon toast? She gave me this pitiful look and said, “Mooooooommmmmm, when I said try for my word I didn’t mean to try new foods I meant to try new activities.”

Now keep in mind this kid has eaten cinnamon bread before and loved it.

“You don’t have to eat the whole thing, you could just try it.”

“Maybe later but I just can’t right now.”

She later ate 2 pieces of cinnamon bread and loved every bite. On her own time. When she was ready.

I’m thinking maybe her word for the year should have been “go with the flow,” or “don’t make trouble just for troubles sake, ” or even, “every once in awhile just agree with your mother.”

But for now she’s sticking with “try” for 2015.

Do you have a word or a family motto for the year? I’d love to know.

2014 Family Words of the Year & Our Wall of Pictures

Posted on January 9, 2015 by Jennifer

Last year was the first year each member of our family came up with a “word” for the year.

The word each person chose was entirely up to them, although I did provide the 4 yr old with some choices.

The idea is that the word is supposed to be one of the things they want to focus on for the year. Kind of along the lines of a resolution.

Our words are hanging on a large corkboard which I found at the Habitat store for $4. I then glued on some left over fabric (burlap with gold circles) and placed our word canvases on there with push pins. I then took pictures we had printed out already and let the kids pin those up.

It’s literally my favorite thing in my house.

Here’s a close up look at the canvases and how we made them. The idea is based off the same project I saw on Shannan’s blog. We’re not really friends. I just like to pretend we are so I call her by her first name 🙂

The project starts off with scraps of magazines – the best in my opinion are the Boden catalogs because of the vibrant colors – I spent a couple of nights watching tv and cutting out different patterns and colors.

Then we hodged podged the heck out of those scraps onto a 9 x 12 canvas.

Once Caroline was done, I went back over hers with the hodge podge several times since she was rocking about 4 layers in some parts.

Once the whole front was covered, we used old science fair sticky letters we already had and placed our words onto the canvas. I then spray painted the canvases (I initially painted my with white acrylic paint but liked the look of the spray paint better) and then peeled off the stickers.

Can I just stop for one minute and say that this kid “DID” 2014.

Signed up for the Geography Bee all on his own, finished the school year with awesome grades, made the school band he wanted to, became a leader on his soccer team, made the state meet in summer swimming, made the region band, joined the school pentathlon team all on his own, ran for the cross country school team, and so much more!

Middle school really agrees with him. So proud.

It’s funny how you start out the year thinking your word will mean one thing and it really ends up meaning something else. I thought my word would mean to find the courage to travel to Ethiopia but what it really meant was to find the courage to be around those who could add to their families. With each person who told me they were pregnant the pain of our loss really struck home again. While happy for them I found it just brought out sadness for me.

Courage for me this year was finally visiting my sister who had a new baby and experiencing that joy with her. I went back and forth and back and forth about making plane reservations but what I kept coming back to was my word for the year: courage.

I could do it. I needed to do it. So I did it. And it was wonderful.

Next week I will share with you our 2015 words.

It should be interesting to see what path those words take us on.