A Little English Date

 I love my kids to have learning experiences, especially learning experiences where they learn about the world around them.  Palmer has an assignment for school to do a report on any place in the world.  He chose to do England, which I was thrilled about since Josh and I had the pleasure of visiting there in 2010.  On Saturday we went out to get some things for his presentation and I decided that it would be fun for him to have an "English Experience".  We went to a little cafe by us called "Little Taste of Britain" for lunch and to get a few English "biscuits" (cookies) for Palmer to take for his class to try.

 Palmer got to try the English favorite "fish n' chips"  and he loved it (as did I.  So so good).  The nicest guy came out and talked to Palmer and told him all about England (as that is where he was from).  Palmer learned lots of things and thought it was fun to hear the different words that English people say that are different from Americans.  He also got to try Tango, which was one of my favorite drinks from our trip to England. 

On our lunch date we tried a few English candies.  It was so much fun and Palmer has decided that he needs to visit England (Oh how I wish we could take the kids right now :) 

Palmer wrote a letter to the British Consulate asking for some information on their country, but as of yet we haven't heard anything.  It has been fun to tell and show Palmer about a country that I love and see how excited he has become about it.  I can't wait to hear his report this week!

One Snowy Day

 I love snow.  I guess that isn't totally true, I don't love to drive in it, I don't love when it is brown and ugly, and I don't love when there is just a stale, thin crackly layer of it on everything.   But I do love thick snowflakes frosting the world white.  I love watching my kids come in after a snowball fight with their cheeks rosy pink and their eyes bright and happy.  Yep, I love snow.

I was sad that we didn't really get that much snow for Christmas, maybe that is why I watched White Christmas 7 (maybe 8) times.  Our Christmas was lovely, but a white Christmas makes it just about perfect for me.

Last Friday night we went to bed with NO SNOW and woke up to see our yard had been filled while we slept.  As I am the schedule crazy around our house I tried to get everyone to complete they Saturday "stuff" as we call it, but alas it was a losing battle (especially since Josh was as excited as the boys that we finally had snow)  Josh put on his snow gear and went out to get the snowball fight "ready".  He built a whole bunch of mini forts that they could each duck behind during the snowball fight and when the boys were all decked out in their snow gear, they had a whopper of a snowball fight.  I missed it...darn it :)

 Once the snowball fight had finished they quickly moved on to the building of a snowman (yes we have been starved for snow).  When you have your daddy help you with a snowman, somehow it just always turns out cooler than it would have otherwise.  Josh decided this snowman would be big...very big. 

 They couldn't get the enormous balls of snow on top of each other with out breaking them so Josh devised a series of ramps that they could roll the balls up.

 

The boys were a great help and totally pitched in helping Josh with what needed to be done.  They were thrilled about their gigantic snowman.

I didn't get a picture of us rolling the head up this here ladder to get in on top of the snowman, but I will watch it in heaven because it had to have been so funny. 

The boys were determined to decorate this huge guy and we didn't really have anything big enough.  We have a sombrero from a New Year's Eve party game from long ago (way fun...) and thought it might fit.  The thing looked tiny on his huge noggin.  To get a scarf around his neck we had to tie two of the boys' scarves together.

The boys scoured our yard to find rocks and sticks to make the face with and decided that he definitely needed a mustache.  Since I am a fan of mustaches (fake ones mind you) I thought this a great idea. 

Lincoln insisted he be called Mario after the number 1 celebrity at our house right now (Mario Bros.).  They were dying for McKay to see the snowman as snow was pretty new and exciting to McKay.  He was asleep when he was being built (hence the reason I got to help) and they couldn't wait for him to wake up.  As luck would have it it was a very sunny day and the longer we waited, the more Mario started to lean backward.  Finally I felt that Mario's minutes were numbered (he started out looking toward our door and ended up full on looking up into the sky, he was going fast).  I ran to get McKay from his nap and in that split moment...Mario collapsed.  McKay never got to see him.  The boys were so disappointed. 

McKay did get to go out and explore the snow though and we snuggled him up and Josh took him out to play.

Lincoln had worked hard all that day to hollow out one of Josh's piles of snow they had used for the snowball fight into a fort.  Josh was thrilled he fit in it :)

McKay was so funny, he would NOT keep his gloves on, and then he would cry that he hands were cold.  I would put his gloves on and he would eventually take them off and but upset his hands were cold...

He liked the fort though...

As did the other boys.  Maybe a real snow fort needs to be on our list for the next time it snows.  It was definitely a fun snowy day.

Jazz Game

For our Friday Night activity last week we went to a Jazz game.  We had 2 very good tickets (row 7) and 4 pretty good tickets (row 22).  Lincoln and I got to use the very good tickets for the first quarter of the game and then we traded Josh and Palmer places. 

I think the boys had a good time.  I... um...lets just say it was interesting. 

Hunter had this huge cup of ice water that he spilled all over EVERYTHING the second that Josh and Palmer left us at half time.  I couldn't really do much about it as I was just trying to keep McKay away from it.

At the loss of his water he started crying...loudly.  I couldn't calm him down and so a nice guy behind us went and got him another cup of water.  After a while the kids started throwing popcorn around and it led to a floor full of SOGGY popcorn. 

McKay was pretty good until he decided that he was done with the popcorn and wanted licorice.  The only thing was that he didn't like to swallow the licorice.  He would chew it up and then spit it all over me.  It was crazy.

Oh well, the kids had fun and that is all that matters right?

New Year's Eve

 This year for New Year's Eve we headed to my parent's house for a family shin dig.  Two of my younger brothers and my little sister and her family were there.  It was so much fun.  We ate yummy food and played games all night.  At midnight we went outside, made lots of noise and lit fireworks. My parents were wonderful hosts and we had a great time!

These little guns (pictured above) shot confetti. 

 The boys thought they were awesome.

 There were lots of fireworks in the air as well.  It was just about as good as the Fourth of July!

 My brothers giving each other a midnight kiss.  Josh and I tried one for the camera...it looked weird because I am laughing in them all.

 Aren't these boys cute?  We sure love them.

 On New Year's Day night we ate fondue for dinner.  Swiss cheese fondue with french bread and chicken. 

 It was really casual and fun (the kids sat ON the table for dinner, yep casual)

 It was super cheesy and delicious!

 McKay even got to use on of the fondue tongs (with us all making sure he didn't put anyone's eye out, including his own).

 He was pretty good at it. 

 Later that night we cleaned the cheese out of the fondue pot and put in chocolate fondue for dessert with marshmallows, fresh pineapple and bananas.  The chocolate fondue wasn't as fancy as some of the ones I have made in the past, but it was just as delicious. 

 It was good :)

We had a great night!

The next day (Monday) Josh had the day off and we cleaned up the house, took Christmas down (including the lights.  This is a first for Josh!  So impressed am I.)  That night we just wanted to stay home.  We got our popcorn machine out (I got this awesome movie theater-ish popcorn machine from a yard sale for $5!  We LOVE it!) We put up our projector and moved it back as far as it would go making the screen the size of a HUGE wall and watched Kung Fu Panda 2.  Josh went to the store to get "snacks" for the movie. He came back with HEALTHY snacks!  I was so disappointed :)  But I guess it was good.  We had a nice, fun relaxing day.  On to the new year!