The Newest Library Card Owners

The boys got their very own library cards this week. I took them after school yesterday to our local library and asked if they could have an account in their own names - so each boy got to pick out their own card and then their information was put into the system as the 2 newest members of the library. Luke's first library book is Skippyjon Jones and Mummy Trouble and Ryan's first book is Olivia Forms a Band. There is a checkout station right next to the children's' section - so both boys got to scan their own card and then their own book to check out for the next couple of weeks. They now think they are so grown up.

Busy Weekend

Greg is out of town this week - he actually left us on Saturday - so in order to maintain peace and tranquility in the home, we stayed busy. The boys had karate on Saturday - but once we were home, the fighting and tattling started up - I didn't want a day of that on Sunday, so we went the Museum of Nature and Science. I gave the boys 3 rules before we left (they added a few more) - #1 they had to stick with me, #2 no fighting, #3 no silliness or running around - overall, they did great. We were there for 5 hours and they had a blast and were both so tired that they fell asleep in the car on the way home.

They spent a long time in this area. As of now, they both plan on being astronauts when they grow up (I like their high aspirations, I think when my brother was their age he wanted to grow up and be the person wiping down the tables at McDonalds - he obviously achieved much more than that). Luke was the main director of their space shuttle and moon odyssey - but Ryan was happy to the be the copilot. Ryan recently asked me if I will go to college with them and learn how to be an astronaut, too.



Both boys thought it was cool to see how life-size moose antlers looked on them.


The dinosaur dig - there was a chart that listed several bones for them to excavate - they had fun trying to find them all.

Luke liked the infrared camera. He was especially fascinated to see how his hair was green, but if put his fingers through his hair, his skull turned red.

Karate was very entertaining on Saturday.



I love how they have to say hiya after every punch and kick.

The boys are in school today, and I've taken the day off - I contemplated going to the movie to see The King's Speech, but I think I'll stay home. Maybe I'll go and see it this weekend when Greg is home to stay with the boys. As for now, I am really liking the peace and quiet - I think I will savor it for the next few hours.

Karate

The boys are taking a karate class for the next 6 weeks, thanks to a fundraiser at their school. The first class was this past Saturday - and I must say, I'm pretty impressed. They had such a great time and the instructors were really good with working with young children. And the best part are the super cute uniforms - they even earned their white belt on the first day.


Luke has quite a punch and a kick.

Ryan liked being able to perform for his instructor.

Their instructor - a 5th degree black belt master (not really sure what that means) told the kids that the most important thing about karate is learning how to treat everyone with respect, even your opponent. So their homework this week is to help their teachers at school and to practice saying "yes sir" and "yes ma'am." He also stressed that they need to learn how to focus their eyes, their ears and their minds - I've used the focus your ears line on Ryan some this week, and it actually works.

Snow Day

After having little to no snow all winter (which has been great), we had quite a bit this past weekend.

There was a little bit of snow left on the ground from when it snowed while we were out of town and the boys had good time trying to sled in mostly grass.

But on Sunday morning, we had a lot more on the ground and Ryan couldn't even wait to get out of his pajamas to go sledding.

I promised the boys that after lunch they could get their snowsuits on and play outside, but Ryan couldn't wait that long and I found him outside sledding with no coat on.

Shoveling the driveway was required before sledding.


Luke wanted to make his own sled out of a box - it didn't work too well, but he did try it out first.

The boys had so much fun -

Especially Ryan - he could spend the whole day outside in the snow.

The Rose Bowl!!!!

We've been home almost a week, but things are just now settling down enough to post our wonderful trip to the Rose Bowl. Greg and I had the best time and the game was the best football game I've ever been to (and I've seen some pretty incredible Auburn/SEC games). The Rose Bowl is everything it was built up to be - beautiful setting, huge old stadium, tradition and some incredible football. It beat the heck out of our trip to the Fiesta Bowl last year (especially since TCU won this game). We couldn't be prouder of our Horned Frogs and even though it wasn't the National Championship game, it was pretty close. It was amazing to be at a game with so many other TCU fans who were equally excited and loud (we were greatly outnumbered by Wisconsin fans, but that was to be expected considering their school is 5 times larger than TCU - the entire TCU student body plus all the living TCU alumni could not fill up their home stadium) - it was a great feeling to be a part of that. The last game I attended as a student at TCU was the last game of the season against SMU in 1998, our only win that year. The students stormed the field and were peppered sprayed by the Fort Worth police. We've come a long way since then.


New helmets for the game - the Horned Frog with a rose in its mouth.

In the stands before the start of the game.

The Frog Horn wasn't allowed in the game again this year, but it did at least make the trip.

I didn't take any pictures during the game - but I took several of the post game celebration.

The team with the Rose Bowl trophy.


It was great to have dinner with Tim and Stephanie after the game. We didn't know that they were going to be there until that morning when Stephanie sent me a text telling me where they were on the parade route - it was bonus to spend some time with them.


Overall it was a wonderful trip - but the best part was meeting up with the boys on Monday to head back home - they were so excited to see us and we had missed them so much. Hopefully we can take them to a bowl game like this some day when they are a little older.

I'll leave you with the TCU fight song!