Snow, snow and more snow

Whenever I talk with Dad in Florida, he asks if the snow has melted. Well, it was on it's way until we got more this weekend. Back to building up the driveway berms. But the mailbox has found it's way out of the snowpack at least. For now.

Our weekend winter activities - in reverse. Sunday we took the kids to Navarino Slopes, the world's smallest ski hill (perhaps not). But it is relatively cheap and only 45 minutes away. The kids had fun. Allison remembered skiing last year and she did pretty well. Jacob loved it, but primarily loves skiing down the hill between Mom's or Dad's skis so that he could go fast. Also, it was nice that the kids preferred the ski lift to the rope tow, because the rope tow gets old pretty quickly.






And other pictures from playing outside on Saturday (you can tell the kids are ready for summer - I should have gotten pictures last week of them riding their bikes around the block in the snow).

School News

I have just a few minutes before going to pick Allison up at school today and figured I'd write a little bit about school. I could write about the fact that in order to get a parking spot that allows you to actually SEE the school, you need to arrive at least 10-15 minutes before school gets out and sit in your car with a novel. Arrive just 5 minutes early and you're probably going to be around the block.

We put Allison's name in for the lottery for Appleton's public Montessori school. We know they get more applicants than spots, so we'll have to see. We don't even know if it would be a good environment for her, but we really don't see a traditional 1st grade classroom working well without a lot of extra support. On that note, we'll find out more about support services next month when we meet with her new "team" which really could field an actual team of some sort. It seems that because she doesn't really fall into a specific category, they went with the "well, let's bring everyone together and see what shakes out" approach. This even includes PE. Really? Allison seems to enjoy and do well with PE. Art on the other hand...... But no art teacher at the IEP meeting.

Oh, the snow has fallen again and the shovels are out. Jacob is having a play date tomorrow with a friend from school. Allison wants to invite her friend Jenna over but Jenna is in 1st grade and I don't have a contact sheet for 1st grade. Parental detectiving - part 1.

Time to go grab a novel and sit in the car. Woo hoo! Friday!

Magic number seven

This post is dedicated to Jacob. I wish I could remember every funny thing that he says - because there are lots. He was going to be an engineer when he grows up - the kind who drive trains. That was before he decided to be teacher Ann (at which point I said "a teacher, that's great" and he said "yeah, and I'm going to be a girl").

On Friday night, Jacob got the flu. Brian and I could come up with maybe 3-4 times that Jacob has thrown up in his life, and Friday night he must have tripled that number. Which, you do have to appreciate that he's old enough to know when he needs a bucket.

Saturday morning, he got to open his Valentine cards (that arrived on Friday). Grandpa B and Grandma S had enclosed a $5 bill (which the kids were extremely excited about - now that they know that money buys things like cars and fairies - and ran to put it in their piggy banks). Later that afternoon, they got a few more cards including 2 - $1 bills from Great-Grandma. Jacob studied his $2 for a minute and very excitedly announced "Now I have 7 dollars!"

Ok - so it's simply engineering parental joy that (a) he remembered that he'd gotten money earlier and that it was worth $5 and not just $1 as kids tend to do - like 1 quarter equals 1 dime because each represents one "coin," and then (b) he did the math, in his head, that he had 5 added 2 and got seven.

Groundhogs?

Everyone was upset when the groundhog saw his shadow, but I say "this is WI, only 6 more weeks of winter would mean an early spring."

Things the kids like about snow.....

Jacob enjoys the fact that standing on the snowbanks, he's now tall enough to pick the crab apples off the tree.



Allison likes "standing on top of the world" and sledding down the driveway embankments. Finally, it's been warm enough to actually go outside. This weekend might even be above freezing.

Tuesday night

Went something like this....



The funniest part may have been Jacob standing in the bathroom crying "stick my nails back OOOOONNNNN!!!!!"

Oh well, we're good for another few weeks now.

Jacob and Mom Day

Last Thursday being my day alone with Allison, today was my day alone with Jacob. We played Cars on Wii, watched the Cars DVD, played with Cars cars, and then headed to the library (with Jacob fervently hoping to find Cars books.) We came home with the new Thomas DVD. According to Brian, there is a Thomas rap involved, but I haven't heard it yet.

We also went swimming at the Y. We were the only non-lap swimmers at the pool, but Jacob had great fun and given the cold temperatures outside, his desire to keep his head above water and hair dry worked out well.

Tonight I made phone calls to drum up support for the school district referendum. Overall, no crabby callers, but the crabbier tending people probably just let it go to voicemail.

It's cold, I'm (stir) crazy

Someday, this post will contain a holiday recap / pictures. Perhaps in another month.

Today, it's cold. School is out for the second day in a row due to low wind chills. BTW - schools are canceled here when the wind chill reaches -30 to -40 below (cold enough to freeze exposed skin in 10 minutes). Yesterday, I went ahead and sent Jacob to daycare and just had a day with Allison. Jacob's school will be closed Monday for MLK day, but Allison's will be open, so this seemed kindof fair. This morning I asked Jacob if he wanted to go to school. "No" Ok. So we're all home and the hopes I had of finishing the prep on my ALP class this week is vanished and my total number of back to school prep days has dropped to 2.5. Time flies.

So this is what's we've done this morning: kids watched the Scooby Doo cartoon for the first time ever and liked it. We set up Jacob's racetrack to race the Cars cars. We traced ourselves on large sheets of paper and colored them. We played MarioKart on Wii. It's 11am. I'm out of ideas. Perhaps we'll try and make that carmel cashew popcorn in Allison's cookbook. We made cookies the other day (which I'm eating all of out of boredom). I thought about going swimming at the Y this afternoon, but then wondered if that was such a good idea. Allison and I hit Target yesterday, so shopping is done.

It's easier in the summer when you get bored and you can swim in the pool, take a bike ride, walk the dog, or go to the park. At least we're having dinner with friends tonight, so we will be leaving the house at some point.

Also, I've decided that while Illinois is an all-inclusive "let's give everyone who wants a holiday a holiday so no one gets upset" kind of state (how else does one explain Pulaski Day?). Wisconsin is an all-inclusive "let's give no one a holiday and then no one can get upset" kind of state. Hence, school on Columbus Day, Veteren's Day, President's Day, MLK Day, Pulaski Day, and probably more. I guess that's how they fit it all in between Labor Day and June 5th. Although, I believe with this third day off today, spring break might have gotten one day shorter.