Snow Men and Snow Caves

Today's mission was to build an igloo. That didn't happen.......too much work for Mom and Dad. Nonetheless, we headed outside to play in the great packing snow and have some winter fun.Elizabeth was the first out. She was all ready to help Daddy shovel off the deck.
Both Patrick and Elizabeth were all about eating snow today. Gross. Patrick was also very into making snowballs to throw at Mommy. Guess who was encouraging that!?!
So instead of making an igloo, Daddy created a snow cave for the kids in the snow bank along the driveway.
He even busted out the small shovels to get deeper in there and make the cave bigger. It didn't last too long though, because Daddy dove on it when he and Patrick were playing in the deep snow.
Elizabeth and Mommy built a snowman. Here is the before......
......and here is the after. Not bad, huh?

And then Patrick discovered he could jump off the deck into the huge snow piles!

Patrick was so excited about jumping. Too bad he discovered it as our time outside was winding down. By this time Elizabeth was in tears twice because she wanted to go in.
GERONIMO!!

Happy Hour

Today was Grandpa's last day of work so we had a little impromtu happy hour to help him celebrate the beginning of retirement. Patrick, Elizabeth, and Leah belly up to the bar.....the food bar that is. Best three seats in the house!Cutey Cousins....Elizabeth, Sarah Jane and Megan. We have lots of pictures of the three of them but this one amazes me because they all look so grown up.
Elizabeth just loves her Uncle Bill.
Elizabeth and William are making good use out of the playhouse. It is always a big hit with our friends.
So there are all the kids that were invited to Happy Hour. There weren't that many more adults. The kids are all drawing monsters. The older girl is Elizabeth, a friend of Uncle Bill and Uncle Will's. She took the kids on a monster hunt in the basement.....looking for an invisible monster, and then brought them all upstairs to draw what they thought the monster looked like. Pretty impressive for a 14 year old, huh? The little ones loved it. Patrick woke up this morning, showed me where they were looking for the monster and then drew a second picture of what he thought he looked like.
All the pictures of monsters came out great. Kids were up until 10:00 - but all held it together quite well. It was a fun time with family.

Vacation Treats

So we had lots a treats this break.....more than usual. I guess that is part of what makes it vacation.Patrick and his Monster sundae from Friendly's. He always gets the same one. We stopped at Friendly's as a treat after going to open gym.
Elizabeth just loves having her picture taken. If you point the camera in her direction she stops and gives the cutest little girl smile.
Patrick chose to have a slushy at a Crunch game that we all went to.
Elizabeth had popcorn and loved the free juice that they were giving out.
And then there was Rosalies for dinner with Pop Pop and Grandma. They have the best chocolate ship cookies.
The cookies were so good I couldn't get the kids to get it together to take a decent picture.

Jump, Jump, Jump

Since we were on school break we had to make sure that we hit open gym at Champions for Life because it is so much fun and such a good deal. Aunt Heather, Leah and Davis came along with us but didn't last too long because Leah wasn't feeling well. We'll have to all go back over April break.Elizabeth was a bit timid but finally got into jumping on the trampoline.
She liked the rings too. Her favorite was the long running/jumping thing. She could have done that all day.
Patrick was all over the place and found a bunch of playmates. There was a great blow up tunnel that he spent a lot of time in. Here he is showing off his jumping skills.
Every time we come here he always gravitates to the big mats. He was helping a bunch of kids build all kinds of forts.

Camp-out

Today we had a busy day. First there was a playdate at the bouncey house. Then we headed out to lunch with Pop Pop. We also went to Bass Pro Shop to see the fish and stuffed animals. Later this evening it is off to swimming lessons.Patrick is pretending to be an old man in his rocker.
When we were ready to leave Elizabeth organized a "camp out" in front of the huge fireplace. She will pretend with virtually nothing and do it anywhere. It is really cute, and she actually let us all experience it. There were marshmallows, tents, and animals to be scared of at night. Oh to be three again!!

Boxing

So today I was working at the computer......listing old stuff on ebay........and the kids were left to watch a show on our bed. Watching TV quickly turned into shirtless "boxing". More like wrestling.
Despite the intenseness of the pictures, no children were injured in this "boxing" match.
I tried to get each kids to actually put up their dukes. Pat cooperated for a nano-second and then it was back to wrestling boxing.

Valentine's Day Loot Part II

So the real Valentine's Day came and Patrick and Elizabeth each got a treat from Mom and Dad.
They each got a game......Patrick Toy Story Yatzee and Elizabeth Princess Memory. Both were excited to play their new games with Kayla, our friends daughter who was coming to babysit so Mom and Dad could celebrate Orangetine's Day (a Valentine's SU game).
Their Valentine's treats were wrapped in the funnies because we spent enough on the made up Hallmark holiday already!

Sweet kisses for Elizabeth's favorite Valentine......her Daddy :)

Hanging With Our Buds

Uncle John, Aunt Heather, Leah, and Davis came over from dinner and a movie tonight. Here's the kids.....cute while it lasted.

Saturday Is Hockey Day

Saturday is hockey day. Patrick wanted mom to bring him to hockey, and dad really likes going, so we all went. As always, Patrick had a good cheering section, with Uncle Dan joining us for a while this week.You know, that hockey stuff is pretty heavy, so Patrick makes sure that he helps Dad carry it.
He did pretty well this week. He is cautious so he isn't the fastest kid on the ice. However, he tries everything and listens to the instructions from Coach.
Patrick and his friend Jack from his class skating along together.
There are lots of older guys there to give the beginners pointers and help. That is part of the reason why we really like this skating program. Sometimes kids learn a lot better from each other, rather than adults.
Liz held her own pretty good today. She was either snuggling with Daddy and watching Patrick, or playing chase with Mommy. As long as someone gave her attention she was good.

Cuties

Patrick and Elizabeth went to sleep together tonight. It was a selfish endeavor on Mom and Dad's part, an effort to keep Elizabeth from climbing in our bed in the middle of the night. It didn't work. The two were simply adorable all snuggled next to each other and asleep after only 5 minutes.

Valentine's Loot Part I

Today was the kid's Valentine's Parties at school. They were eager to come home and read all their cards and see what other goodies there were!Like usual, Elizabeth tore through her bag and went through every card. She was excited that some came with chocolate which she promptly requested for dessert.
After tearing through the bag she was "reading" all the cards to herself in this cute little voice.
Patrick was much more official about going through his cards. He recognized a lot of his friends names and the cards they gave out. He was really excited about the Fun Dip card he got and the Dinosaur hologram from his buddy Jack. This was the first of about five days worth of loot......Thursday there were cards from Great Grandma and Grandpa, each with a dollar, Friday there was more candy than should be allowed from a Valentine's Day party at the babysitter's, and Saturday there was another set of cards, with money included, from Pop Pop and Grandma.

Super Bowl

Patrick and Elizabeth didn't get to watch much of the Super Bowl.....and they were bummed. They did get to see a bit on the T.V. in the kitchen while Daddy was finishing preparing his snacks, and then they got to sample some taco dip before heading to bed. Maybe next year.

Getting Ready For Valentine's Day

Since it was such a laid back and lazy Sunday we took advantage of the time and made our Valentine cards to pass out at the kids Valentine's Parties at school on Wednesday.Elizabeth loved her Dora cards. Mom was relieved since she bought them last year when they were 50 cents after V-day. I was hoping we would still be into Dora.
Patrick was a machine writing out all 18 of his cards. He wanted Animal ones and was super excited that the jungle animal cards I found come with temporary tattoos. Boy was I excited when I found out that there were three pieces to put each card together before handing out to friends. Thank goodness we don't have to write each friend's name on it....I would have to start around Christmas time.