Ack! It has almost been a week since Valentines day! I assure you, we celebrated it. Luke's Birthday is tomorrow so I thought I better catch up a little on posting pictures before I get too behind. Here are some shots of our V-Day celebrations. First with Luke at preschool.
Making Valentines!
Then at our traditional Valentine exchange and family dinner. We served butternut squash soup, steak, and salad. I almost burned down the house when the steak drippings created an inferno in our grill. The steak got a little charred and except for peeling of paint on the grill, the fire didn't do too much damage. We invited our friend Lorrie over to dine with us. What fun!
Max made a variety of origami hearts for his valentines, and I probably should have taken pictures of the other kids.
We also made some cut out cookies. In addition to hearts we tried out our new woodland animal set we found on our last trip to Ikea.
Oh and Mer got her first Rose from a boy. And so it begins. She came home laughing about it. She'll have to tell you the story if you are interested. In this photo she is also wearing the high heels she borrowed to wear to her science fair judging the next day.
Mer went to the regional science fair this weekend it was a long ordeal that I will tell you about tomorrow, for now I must sleep! I will tell you one thing, She won 4th place in her division. Details coming soon!
This is what it looked like at our house on Saturday morning.
Sure do love these mischievous little men.
Saturday Night we went to the Dark Sky Festival in Harmony Florida. Harmony is this little community in the middle of nowhere that has huge beautiful homes with a Desperate Housewives feel to it. It is a little eerie there. This was our first trip to the Dark Sky festival. There were vendors and lots of telescopes to look through. We saw Jupiter through one telescope. We could actually see it's rings and 3 moons off to the side. It was amazing. As we were walking away Luke whispered to me in amazement "Mom, I sawed all the way into space!"
We also ran into some storm troopers who evidently taught the kids how to use their laser eyes.
Sunday Mer and Jack drew signs for the super bowl. We had some party food and had a couple friends over for a little while. Max and Jack called the winner and earned soda for their prize.
I am thankful for beautiful clouds to calm me on the drive to school as we drive away from the whirlwind of the morning. There were at least 2 mornings with these clouds waiting to greet us this week.
A Sunset
Luke is very excited for his up coming birthday. He will be 5 on the 20th and asks me frequently if his birthday tomorrow. I've told him over an over that his birthday is after valentine's day so to provide a little distraction and a little fun we are counting down to Valentine's day with Valentine homework and activities every day. Everyday when he get's home from school he finds his "assignment" in his envelope. We read a Valentine story, do a game or play activity, and a learning one. It has been a ton of fun. We set up a little area on the back porch and Jack joins him when he's done with his homework too. Here are a few things we've done
sorting Conversation Hearts...
..with stacking and counting
"V" is for Valentine
Melted Heart Crayons
Bath Crayons + craft foam = Heart match
Luke agreed to let me take pictures of him if he could take a few of me.
I have been going through the files of our filing cabinet trying to make them a little more user friendly.
and pretty!
Wednesday Mer got dressed up for school to present her science fair project. She took 5th place, she was so excited.
Today (Friday) has been a beautiful day. It was 45 degrees when the kids went to school but now it is absolutely gorgeous. Days like this make it fun to live in Florida. Today Luke and I met some friends to play at the new Pirate park. Here he was captain of the ship.
I signed all the boys up for soccer yesterday. Mer's soccer has been practicing all year round. Luke gets to play this year. I'm thinking 4 kids in soccer is a little insane, but they all love it so much, (including Doug) so I play along. I might coach Luke's team, we'll see.
Max had a little award ceremony for the AB Honor roll and Citizenship award. He is growing right up.
They hold these awards ceremonies every 9 weeks and I don't always make it to them, but I should because I know he likes it when we come. I love his smile, especially when that dimple comes out.
He took his kindle to school today and it was confiscated when he was caught playing video games at lunch. Oh Max! We must think of a consequence I guess.
He has a new primary teacher that gives assignments and rewards with candy when they are completed. Max will do anything for candy. He taught FHE last week for candy and is reading all of Joseph Smith History for candy.
Can you see those sneaky little Halloween votives up on the ledge. They made it through Christmas and I still haven't taken them down. They are so sneaky I forget about them.
Last Monday we had no school! Well most of us. Meredith went in for the day to work on her Science Research project. Her project is called something like "the effects of Ultraviolet light on Microscopic Paramecium". I may have gotten that wrong. The rest of us went swimming and to explore our favorite park for the day.
It was a little chilly even though the pool was slightly heated. Luke figured out that if he swims and keeps taking breaths he can swim really far. He swam a half of a lap all at once!
Here's Luke playing Mer's huge hopscotch game.
Mer had a piano recital right after we came back from vacation.
Max is taking piano lessons too but he wasn't allowed to play in the recital yet. They did want him to come up for the picture though. Can you find him in his "too much awesome" shirt?
Mer did great. She played 3 songs. I uploaded them onto youtube if you can hear them well enough to enjoy.
The recital was a whopping 2hrs long and this is what our bench looked like for the duration.
So that's what we've been up to since we've been home.
It has been way too long since I have posted here. I have been spending my spare time sewing a new quilt for my bed. It is half way done :) We returned from our winter wonderland adventure on Tuesday night. The kids were in heaven living out their snow dreams. I will record the daily play by play so we don't forget the fun and so you don't miss out. You may want to get comfortable or read this in sections, I fear this may be my longest post ever.
Tuesday we flew
This trip was our easiest airplane experience yet. The kids are getting old enough to not need constant entertainment/help from me and I found myself wishing I had brought a book to entertain myself. Max was a big help with Luke. He calls himself Luke's personal transit and carries him around on his back all the time. It is so cute.
And I am so thankful somebody decided to start putting lids on the kids cups. Thank you Southwest.
We arrived Tuesday evening and there was just enough snow in the yard to start a snowball fight on the way in.
Snow was much colder than they thought it would be but they couldn't keep their hands off it.
Grandma and Grandpa left the Christmas decorations up for us to enjoy and our Christmas presents were waiting under the tree.
This Christmas village was my favorite thing to look at when I was kid.
And then it was Christmas all over again. Everyone opened presents.
Jewelry and a new body pillowcase for Mer
A trenchcoat converted into a spy coat with a ton of hidden pockets and gadgets for Max
Stuffed animals and dressup animal hats for Jack and Luke.
Wednesday we played
The next morning right after breakfast the kids dressed in their snow gear and went out to play in the snow.
Max found an ice knife. That kid can make a weapon out of anything.
Mer quickly learned that just Jeans were not quite warm enough to play in the snow.
They made snow angels
Jack decided he wanted to know how it felt to put his face in the snow...Luke copied him and didn't like the result too much.
They found patches of ice to slip and slide on.
Luke just laid down and thrashed around on it like he was still in the bath tub with the water all drained out. It was funny. I posted a video on you tube for you to enjoy. click here to see it
They learned that snow can be just a bit too cold to build a snowman with.
They also tried out the sled on the small slope of the grass in the back yard.
After coming in for hot cocoa and warming up their cheeks. They went back out and discovered that the snow had warmed up a little and was ready for snowman building.
Jack built one that he said looked like grandpa.
Here's Mer's pretty one.
Max worked and worked on his. It was quite a masterpiece.
Mischievous Mer even started a snowball fight with grandpa. Can you spy the snowball flying?
That afternoon we went to pick up the rest of the cousins at school and surprise them.
They came home with us and everyone went back outside to play again. Here they are in their hide out.
There was a little snow falling and I told them they should try to catch it in their mouths.
They decided it was more fun to climb trees.
Winter gray never looked so good to me. It has been too long since I've been home in the winter.
While warming up with Grandma she taught them the Nursery Rhyme "Throw it out the window" song as they sipped Cocoa. We ate a lot of oatmeal and drank a lot of cocoa on this trip. :)
Thursday we Skated
We went ice skating at a cute little outdoor rink in downtown Louisville. Uncle Tob flew in to meet us and surprise Grandma and Granpa.
They had double blades on the little skates so even Luke got in on the action. He just waddled around and did a great job.
Mer was her usual terrified self, vowing she wouldn't do it, but by the end she was doing great and even venturing away from the wall.
Everyone fell down a little but they all loved it.
Here is another video
We stopped in a candy shop while we waited for the ice rink to open.
After everyone's feet and ankles were sore we came home and played with Uncle Tob and cousins.
That night Grandpa treated everyone to dinner at the Golden Corral and afterward we went to pick up our gear for our next big adventure...Snowboarding. Doug flew in late that night to join us.
Friday we Snowboarded
Poor Mer started out the day crying because she didn't want to go. I felt a little mean but we made her press on. (Luke stayed home) When we got to the slopes it looked a little foreboding. It was 27 degrees and really windy. I had my doubts about staying, but the forecast for the next day was a high of 16 so that wasn't happening. If we were going to do this it had to be that day. We stopped by the ski shop and bought goggles for everyone, a necessity, since gusts of wind kept blowing the freshly fallen snow in our faces.
We can do this, right? We were so thankful Tob was there to give us a little instruction. Everyone did great. Mer was even having a fun time and did as well as everyone else did. Here is picture proof of Mer, Doug, and Jack
Jack caught on the best of everyone. He would do little jumps on his board as he went down the mountain.
Here are Tobin and Max riding the conveyor belt up the bunny slope.
By lunch time we were beat. The altitude was sapping our energy. The food was really bad.
After the lunch we hit the slopes again. It was fun but I think we would have had better luck if we had more than one day to practice what we learned.
I still can't believe we did it. What an adventure.
Saturday we played
We were hoping to go sledding that day but all of the sledding hills were bare. The Kids played with cousins, Doug and I and Tob went into town to get lunch at Illegal Pete's and bring back Pizza Calore for the kids. We ended up walking around REI, the coolest outdoor supply store around. That afternoon the boys all watched the Broco's get beat and that night we went to see Les Miserable.
Sunday we froze
well not really...it just felt that way. Doug flew home that morning early. When we went to church it was 5 degrees outside. When we came home it was 10.
We didn't leave the house the rest of the day but we did get a lot of game playing in. I also got caught up on Downton Abbey since I hadn't seen the first episode of the new series. Here are pictures of our hangout buddies.
Ben and Jacob
Breanne and Melinda
Mom and Jesse
riding uncle Tob
Melinda Jack and Alex
Becky, Malcolm, Melinda, Alex, and Jack
Rachel, Alex, Max, Jack, and Grandpa
Monday we went Sledding
We heard at church that it had snowed in North Boulder late Saturday night so we all got dressed and tried our luck at finding a sledding hill. We found a great one with just enough snow for real sledding. It was so fun. I think sledding is the most fun thing to do in the snow.
Here are a couple of videos to prove it.
I am so glad we were able to do this before we left, I was worried it just wouldn't happen.
Tuesday we flew home
These four were perfect travel companions.
Though it was a fun adventure to travel to a winter wonderland, it is nice to be home where it's warm.
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