A Snow Day...A Slow Day

It's a snow day...high of 40 and sunny, crazy but I will take it.  The road were a bit slick in spots early but definitely not winter right now.  I am not complaining-activities have all been cancelled and with no school work needing to be done it is nice to take things a bit slower today.  It amazes me how the kids fall into free time so easily.  I can get caught into a rut of thinking I need to entertain or play with them all the time but left on their own they can be pretty creative...or destructive!  As James just informed me that Brayden through a basketball at the window in the basement.  Having a hoop in the basement is a good and bad thing-depending on who is playing, sometimes I just shut the door and ignore the chaos down there, until I remember the windows (which are still all intact!)

School pick-up was a lot of fun yesterday-lots of snow for Tulsa and the kids were ready to play once we made it home.

 Just a little snow, not quite enough for sledding but enough to entertain.  Becca spent her time shoveling snow off the grass, putting it in a bucket, lugging it up to the porch and then would dump it off.

If was Ron's first day at his new Job yesterday.  All went well, although he said he felt like he was trying to drink out of a fire hydrant...lots of info!  The kids said it was like his first day of school.

Boys, these two are so similar.  James really thinks he can take down Brayden, and always trys his hardest.  Brayden was dressed, ate breakfast by the time I made it out of bed to tell him it was a snow day.

Some donuts this morning-Becca's creation, red velvet with purple frosting.

 Donuts anyone??

A Snow Day in Tulsa!

What did you do for Presidents day??...Andrea's class has been working on learning all the presidents and performed them all for chapel the other week.  I don't think I have ever learned them all!

Link to Andrea's Presidents Day Accomplishment

Hello Winter

So we were hoping to get some yard work done this weekend but mother nature had other plans.  Instead of trimming back my ornamental grasses and cleaning out the flower beds we awoke to freezing temps and a world covered in ice and snow.  Kind of fun besides the fact that the older kids were at church, having been at a Lock-in and were needing to be picked up. If you know our driveway....winter weather basically shuts our house down.  Ron was out early for a day off waking up the neighborhood with a shovel and spade eventually getting some of the ice off...enough to half slide the truck down the driveway.  I was super nervous after our issue last season.  Thankfully he landed on the road and not the ditch...or our neighbors backyard.   The kids were up all night but managed a full day of fun in the snow.  Lots of sledding, eating of snow and ramp building.

  There was a pretty good ice base to sledding was a lot of fun.  The kids spend some time with Ron using the ski sled coming down the road in back of the house...James calls it dead man's curve.  Thankfully not too many cars try to make it up when the weather is like this.

 Ok...seems like just a bit of snow and ice.  School is cancelled tomorrow and every radio station has something to say about the weather and roads-so funny.

 We found this perfect little hill down the road from us...hopefully they didn't mind the kids this morning.

 After a long night-no lock in for James, but Andrea and he got to stay up late watching a movie...a little too many melt downs and he warranted a ride back to the house.

 Lilly could eat and attack snow all day-she loves it.

 Brayden thought this was pretty fun...too bad it ended up in the road.

I feel like we just can't make up our minds around here...I am washing shorts and t-shirts, flip-flops are out.  Now snow pants, boots and winter gear and everywhere??  So much fun but I am ready to stick to the 70 degree days!

A quick update.....

It has been a while since I have last updated and sad to say my memory is not keeping up these days.  I have good intentions to document what the kids are saying or doing but the day keeps racing along and by the time tomorrow comes along I have dragged along to the next activities of life.   I am left with some pictures to help jog my memory.

Most recent was all the valentine parties!

Lots of food, games and most of all CANDY.  Not quite sure when valentines day turned into such a big deal???  Becca is the queen of Valentines and loves making them-James, not so much after figuring out he had to write his name 15 times.  As with all the kids at this age it was another terrible experience.  Kind of hard to expect when my kids struggle to even hold a pencil at his age.  He would much rather practice his baseball or shoot hoops-personally so would I

Bird feeders made from soy butter...thankfully we can still make PB sandwiches for lunches.

The kids had a lot of fun taking some photo booth pics-thanks to a mom with a poloraid camera, lots of craziness.  Brayden poor teacher-brand new to teaching, stepping in middle of the year.... she is such a trooper, tackling this group of fourth graders.

The fun bunch after opening valentines.  Yes, Becca is sporting a new look-reading glasses.  With Ron changing jobs we were left with a lot of health money-use or lose!  A trip to the eye dr turned out to be productive is using some of it.  She was so excited to take them to school and show her friends.  I am just glad it was her and not Brayden.

Becca was first up on Sat.  6:30 I heard her in the kitchen passing out little valenines around the table.  A little early for us-she was sent back to bed!  Actually Valentines day was set aside for just family.  Although it is funny how unplanned things can fill up these special days.  The fun thing was that we had some time to enjoy these moments that just came along.  Friends stopping in, a bike ride and catching up with old friends and neighbors.  Sometime I think a schedule keeps us from enjoying these moments of life. We ended the day with a nice dinner and a fun game of valentine Bingo.  We were all pretty beat seeing as it was a 70 degree day and we had spent much of it working or playing outside.

The kids are beyond loved.  So many special packages and cards in the mail.  Andrea was most proud as she could read all her cards-so fun to see them grow and to be excited about it.

 Someone gave James these wax lips...he wanted nothing to do with them, Brayden on the other hand thought they were sooo funny.  I walked into his class and found out someone had given woopie cushions out as a valentine????  The boys were going nuts and I think all the girls were going to puck-it was so funny to see the difference, once again-that poor teacher.  She kept a smile and still fist pumped the boys on their way out-what a trooper.

 A transition... much has been happening with work, but the long and short of it all is that Rons time at Ceja is sadly over.  This company was such a blessing to our family and Ron.  Another offer was presented and God seemed to be prodding us out of our comfort zone.  So, It a week Ron is starting work for another oil company here in town and so the journey of life continues.

Rons office-clean!  Normally there are huge piles of papers and maps on the desks.

With a couple days at home I have been enjoying having someone else around the house...instead of date nights we are able to have a couple date lunches.  Last week we enjoyed the warmer weather and were able to get out and bike together...without having to pay a sitter!  The other week we did make it out and were able to enjoy the symphony-a complete night of John Williams Music.  Of course Star Wars was the huge pull.  This composer is amazing- Music for ET, Jurasic park and then still writing music for the Harry Potter films. They ended the night with a bunch of music from Indiana Jones.

I have to sat those star wars people are a tad nuts, Darth Vader came and directed?!?-but it made for a fun evening!

 One more quick valentine pic before school....the basement is filled with Andrea girl scout cookies.  I am not sure how we are going to sell them if we keep eating them!  Right now they are continuing the hourly count down for the church lock-in.  It starts at 5:30 and they have been counting down since they were out of bed-it's exhausting!

A brief moment of affection between the two.  Ephie is struggling lately to stand lately and Lilly is a ball of never ending energy...both are fur balls and with the cats the hair seems endless in this house. I am beginning to think turtles are a pretty good pet.  We forget about them (I think Becca is the only one remembering to feed them)  and amazingly they are still living.

All Things School...Invention Convention, Wax Museum.

I hate to say this, but I am sick of school....and I am not the one in school!  On top of the normal school work expected of the kids (which ends up being the parents issue of motivation and finding time to get it done) we have had a bunch of projects.  The thing is they are actually a lot of fun and I am learning to take a step back and let the kids handle things...as much as they can.  Becca had her Invention convention earlier this week.  It is been a whole lesson on problem solving, complete with a patent application and logo, I think adding a slogan would make it even more fun.  Anyway, kids come up with problem, research it and come up with a solution that has not been invented-which is pretty hard to do.  Becca had her heart set on a turtle leash and would you know-it has been invented!  In the end she came up with a hook to hang her hair bands on as most of hers end up on the bottom of the tub wet.  She laughed a lot and had a lot of fun putting it together, her favorite part was coloring her logo and then using fun duct tape.

The elementary kids came around and each of the third graders had to tell them their problem and then how they solved it with their invention.  So fun to see what kids came up with.....It is so fun to see each kid as they grow up.  Some read their little speech and hardly look up, other stand like a statue and say in as fast as they can-you can tell their parents really made them memorize it.  Then there are kids like Becca who just grin and and nod and half make it through their speech and it  ends up being different every time.

Link for Becca's Talk

This past month Braydens project has been preparing for the Wax Museum.  His monthly book report was an autobiography taken into high gear.  He had to read and research his famous American, put together a written book report and time line and then prepare an oral speech to be given.  Today was the big day-so much fun to see all the kids dressed up as their famous Americans all giving their 90sec talk.  Yes, 90secs-you wouldn't think it would be so hard to talk that long but Brayden had timing issues.  You needed a poster board and then two items on display. Brayden was Davy Crocket-no weapons at school made it a little hard to come up with our display items.  Would you know I couldn't even find our walking stick-I think Lilly ate it, typical.  The kids did a great job, as much of the work was done at school-which I love, and worry at the same time.  I love not having the over achieving parents take over for their kids but am always a little concerned about what Brayden is really working on.   In the end-it was completed!  Which is all that matters.

Press my Button!!

Link to Brayden Talking about Davy Crockett

Not quite sure how these two ended up together-to much fun!!

Just a little smile for the day.