Snow Base

Poor Ben. He was so excited to go camping this weekend. He did have fun, but then he got sick. And it has not been a pleasant illness. Grant went with him, but had to leave earlier in the morning. So Ben stayed and did the activities, but he was cold and wet and not feeling the best. Here are some of the pictures that Grant sent. Brrr

He's a Bear!

Trevor earned his Bear rank in scouts today. And 5 arrow points to go with it! We're so proud of him!

My Sleeping Beauties

5 Silly Fishermen

One of the classes that Karmin was in this semester was called Musical Theater. They worked on the play "The 5 Silly Fisherman." During school this week, they performed it. She was one of the 5 fisherman. Her name was Pam--and she was the cutest Pam EVER! The play was pretty cute. And I'm glad that she got the experience of acting. Probably the only thing that I feel bad about not having my kids in public school is that Karmin wouldn't get to participate in the "Save the Plants" play in the public school. That is the only thing that I miss. And this play helped me get over that feeling. So now we are good as far as homeschooling goes. Now if I can just remember to invite grandparents to such events, then I'll really be doing well. 

But she was cute, and for any grandparents out there, we have some videos if you want!

Best Day Ever!

The boys love the show "Studio C." They think it is hilarious. Well back in December he wrote the cast of Studio C the following letter with no help:

Dear cast members of Studio C,

All your new and old shows are some of my top favorite things to see! It is unspeakably amazing what you guys and girls do on –wait hold on, the pencil has no eraser- the show. Like for examples, Matt, from what I’ve seen you can withstand a lot of pressure to not laugh (I saw your lips curl on the super brother one. That must have token a lot of will to not laugh so I think that’s amazing. Jason, you were great at Teddy’s story Joint. (is that what it’s called?) Grease-fire to Michael Vey, that was a good one. Whitney, the skinny delicious thing must have been so hard to do because I think, that’s hard to do. Anyway, if you look into the letter there is money. Use this money for your next show as it must use a lot of money to do Studio C, or Adam, if the other cast members let you, buy a slushie with this money. Admitidly, 75 cents is not going to get you anywhere but its all I and I mean  all I was able to give you.

Enjoy,

Trevor J. Ely

Age:9

And along with it is a picture he drew of one of the episodes they did.
Anyone who has watched Studio C will understand many of the jokes. 
Today he received a reply in the mail. They sent him a letter saying that the whole cast read the letter, and appreciated it. They also sent a signed picture of all of them. This boy is on cloud 9!

Here, Fishy, Fishy

 I don't know how it works in your family, but in our family, I only send Grant to the store if I have no other choice. I think it is just our natures--I am a penny-pincher (stingy--whatever you want to call it), and Grant is very giving. But I have to hand it to him, whatever he buys it is always the top quality and lasts forever. So if I send him to the store for some milk, I can pretty much guarantee that he won't just be spending the $3 it costs for a gallon of milk. He will also come home with a month's worth of snacks because he had noticed we were getting low, etc.
Lydia's fish died. Grant had to go out, so I asked him if he could stop and pick up a goldfish. You know, I was thinking the 26 cent goldfish from any store, really. Two hours later, Grant came home with this whole plan for our 1 gallon fish tank. Apparently he went to a specialty store and a hippie guy told him basically how fish work. So 15 "feeder fish," a snail, and a new huge tub of food later--we had our replacement fish. But this was only Phase 1 of the plan.
I had the whole tank beautiful by the time they got home. It was already to go. But the hippie guy told Grant that they needed the dirty water for these fish. Now these fish are just the fish to prep the tank for the real fish that we will get. After these fish prep the tank for a bit, then we will get 1 male and 3 female fish. Because we want baby fish--I guess.
The kids couldn't have been more excited. They love the snail, who was dubbed Turbo within the first day because that little guy is quick.

Don't mind the dirty water--it was spotless just a few minutes before this picture.

Turbo is in the bottom left hand corner on the side of the tank.

It has now been a few weeks, and we are down a few of the original 15. Turbo is huge, and has the tank spotless. And Grant and I have decided that we don't care to even get Phase 2 going yet because these fish are fun. They are the most active fish we have ever had. And they only need to be fed twice a week. It is perfect.
Hmmm....maybe Grant should do all the shopping for now on. I think I am onto something.

Skating

For our family fun thing this Saturday, Grant decided that we should head over to the land that is down the street from us and hike around. The kids were less than enthused about this idea. We tried to sweeten the deal by having Raider come with us. When we got over there, we noticed that Grant's sister's family apparently had the same idea as us. Suddenly the kids were excited about the adventure! We found them and we all headed over to the pond, which had frozen over. The kids had so much fun! They used Raider as a horse and had him pulling them across the ice. (Raider didn't last too long doing that.) We found an empty can, and the kids pulled some of the frozen reeds off the side, and a great game of ice hockey ensued. It was getting dark, so the pictures are fuzzy. We should have gone over there earlier because we had to cut it short. The kids want to go over there every day now!

I'm a Gummy Bear

Have you heard that song before? My kids love it. It really gets them dancing, and for that reason I will let them play it in our home. Otherwise....
Piper has a thing for fruit snacks and gummy bears. It was becoming a huge problem in our home. They were all that she would eat. Even after everyone was in bed, she would go to the kitchen and find them and sneak them to her room. She's 2.
We don't have fruit snacks in our home anymore.
However, we could get her to do whatever we wanted her do if there were fruit snacks involved. Maybe I should buy some more.
We had to be very careful to not give them to her around nap time because they relax her so much that she will fall asleep sucking on them. She loves her fruitsnacks. Again, another reason why they are not in our home anymore.
But one day, she got one from Nana and Papa. Trevor fell asleep on the couch. And Piper decided to join him. On top of him. Holding her fruit snacks.

New years

For New Years this year, we continued our tradition of hanging out with the kids. We had treats, watched a movie, and then at midnight (New York time) we watched the ball drop. I detest the fact that they play John Lennon's song "Imagine" every year right before the ball drops. (I don't even know what to write next because my blood pressure is sky rocketing right now just thinking about it...)
Alright, the ball drops, then they redeem themselves by playing "New York, New York" right afterwards. The song is a lovely song, and in my mind, the exact opposite of the other song.
We hung out with Grant's parents and we of course had sparkling apple cider. They insisted that we use the fancy glass cups. The kids were thrilled about that and felt like they were royalty. I just held my breath that one wouldn't be dropped.
It was a nice evening. I would much rather spend it with my kids than be on the roads with crazy drivers!

Say Cheese!

Wait--where are you?

There you are!