Blizzard

It snowed. On Sunday we dug ourselves out. Let the winter of 2010-2011 be the year that we go buy a snowblower....

We began with shovels.



After a few feet, I joked with the neighbor about renting his snowblower and he let us borrow it. Here are the kids being assaulted with the blowed snow.



We also began a fort. It wasn't really "packy" snow (Jacob's word) - so we really could just dig out a hole and try to build up the walls. Perhaps in a few days it'll be warmer than zero degrees out and the snow will get more packable.

Happy 8th Birthday!

Allison's birthday began with breakfast with Santa. There were a total of 12 of us there - so it was an intimate breakfast with Santa. Santa made everyone balloon animals.... who knew he was so multi-talented!



They were having family days at the old paper mill where the breakfast, so we stuck around, did a scavenger hunt, pet some goats and llamas, and made paper snowflakes.



Allison opened presents later in the day. Her birthday loot included her birthday dress (pink - she wore it all day), Bratz doll, barbie fishing rod, pictionary game, and a paint-your-own tea set. She made Thank You notes with the stamping supplies she'd gotten at Thanksgiving.

She also made her own birthday cake. That's right - if the kids want a birthday cake - they'll make it themselves, Thank You.



Then she blew out the candles and we enjoyed the pink frosted birthday cake.

A new song

Jacob and Allison were making up Christmas songs in the car today (first real snowfall). Jacob had the following gem:

"you'll put out your stocking for Santa...
and you might get toys or toothpaste...."

Soooooo tempted to put toothpaste in his stocking now.....

Christmas Parade

So -it's an attempt to catch up on old stuff. The Tuesday before Thanksgiving, Allison's brownie troup participated in the Appleton Christmas Parade. I'm not sure I'll jump on that bandwagon again.



First off -it was cold, cold, cold. We took a trolley from the school to the start of the parade route. We were there at 5pm. The parade started at 6:30pm. Our "float" started actually walking in the parade at 7pm. So, we stood outside with 20 girl scouts (with no bathroom, no food, no drinks) in subfreezing temps for 2 hours. After about an hour and half - Allison started asking if we could go home. After making it that far - the answer was NO.

Once we started walking, I think she had fun. And we saw Jacob and Brian who were huddled together along the parade route. Fortunately, Brian told me where he's set out the chairs (at 9am that morning - the Christmas parade is a serious event).

Right, Mom?

Jacob has an odd conversational quirk (which is starting to bug me.) Rather than asking a question, he'll make a statment followed by "Right, Mom?"

No: "Can you see that building over there?" Instead: "You can see that building over there. Right, Mom?"

No: "Are we going to meet Kaden there?" Instead: "We're meeting Kaden there. Right, Mom?"

Sometimes, this also comes into the conversation as reassurance of a statment.
No: "Hey, it's snowing!" Instead: "Look outside, it's snowing! Am I right, Mom?"

Yesterday, he said some form of "Right, Mom?" 4 times in the 10 minute car ride to karate. I asked him why he says it so much and he said this: "well, I can't say it at school, so I have to say it to you."

Is this a quirk? A phase? Is he seeking reassurance?.... does he just want to always be correct?... is it simply to make sure that I'm still paying attention to the conversation?

Or is this some form of Northern-speak and we're just substituting "right, mom?" for "eh?"

"Look it's snowing, eh?"

Halloween Pictures

Finally - Halloween pics. Allison went as Dauphne from Scooby Doo and Jacob was Batman. Even though Halloween was a full month ago - the candy is still hanging around.



It was a pleasant Halloween Day - though. Here are the kids in their super-cute T-shirts.

Haven't posted in a month!

It's been a whole month since our last blog post. So much has happened..... well, not really. There was Halloween - and there are pictures - sometime I'll get the camera hooked up to the computer.

Jacob got the flu the other week - he vomited at school - which was quite traumatic for him.

Allison is enjoying piano lessons. We now have 4 variations of Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star to practice.

Brian and I had a babysitter last night - with no particular plans. That never happens.

Jacob got to take Nintendo DS to Allison's brownie scouts meeting the other day and he wanted to make sure I had both the DS and the charger and TWO cases (one for the DS and one for the charger). I said we didn't need two cases - we only needed one. An argument ensued, then Jacob said "why don't you just take two cases so that I won't have to keep complaining?"

I laughed and said we could take zero cases... Jacob decided that one was just perfect.