Sledding and Other Things

After snow earlier this week and frigid cold temperatures last week, we were all anxious to get out of the house today and enjoy the near 60 degree temperatures. We took the boys to a nearby park with a sledding hill and they had an absolute blast.

The boys had fun sledding down the huge hill and didn't mind too much having to carry their sleds back to the top.

I went down a few times while Greg stayed at the top to push them down - except in this picture when Greg slid down to the car. We got the boys little sleds for Christmas that are big enough to sit on only. They don't quite have the hang of those yet because it requires balancing backwards some on your rear-end to make it go. I went down a few times on it - but the last time I hit a little snow jump and flew high enough in the air to come down hard on my tailbone - I am embarrassed to say that I have a sledding injury, but my butt really hurts. The boys have been really concerned about me and I've gotten a lot of "I love you, mama" and "I'm sorry that you hurt yourself" comments from them today, accompanied by a hug and kiss.



Greg is going out of town tomorrow for the week, so we celebrated our Valentine's dinner tonight, complete with a chocolate fondue dessert.

The boys are going to give their first class Valentine's cards tomorrow at school, so they spent some time today writing their name on a card for every student in their class.


Greg was out of town last week and didn't get home until late Friday night. When there is a night that he is out of town that doesn't fall on a school night, the boys and I have a date night. Friday night consisted of ordering pizza, making chocolate covered strawberries, watching a movie (Finding Nemo) and eating popcorn. They love these nights.

We got Ryan these robots for Christmas last year and he and Luke played with it occasionally. But they have recently moved them into the living room and they have had a good time challenging themselves by balancing the robots into different formations.


Luke made these little paper people a few weeks ago - it is his family (I'm the one with hair) and he wanted to frame it like we do with other family photos. He was so excited to go to Michaels a couple of weeks ago to find a frame and mat to fit all 4 of us. After I put it together in the frame I showed Luke and he said, "I love you Mama, you do the best things." He is such a sweet boy.

This is one he painted at school of me and him - it is now in my bedroom.

Ryan painted this on Friday - it is also one of me and him - I need to frame it, too (my favorite part is my big purple head).

I love my sweet boys. They are such great kids.

Snow/Cold Days and a Parade

We have had a great week. School has been canceled for the last 2 days due to cold weather (not snow, but I'll take it). I love snow days - I think of them as little unexpected bonus days when I get to stay home with no prior plans. The boys and I hung out together on Tuesday - we made cookies and I helped them create a fort. Greg took off today and we went to the pool - I think we all had a the best time. We went to a pool in Arvada that turned out to be near where we lived when we first moved to Colorado - I wish I had known about it then. It was such a great place - it had an inner-tube slide and a huge playground area for the boys. They had so much fun and they have told us several times today how much they loved it and can't want to go back - it also wore them out and they both fell asleep in the car on the way home.





The fort was a huge hit. Thank you mom for reminding me of doing this as a kid - it kept the boys occupied and peaceful for a few hours.

We haven't been outside much - the temperature has been well below zero for most of the last 2 days - but Ryan couldn't stand it anymore and this afternoon he headed out to his tractor.


Luke has a tendency of getting crazy schemes in his head that he doesn't let go - we usually let him go with it. His latest one was on Sunday when he decided that he wanted to have a parade. He spent part of Saturday and Sunday morning coming up with the things that he wanted in his parade. He told Greg that he was going to be clown. He found Greg's leather jacket and told him that was his silly clown coat and he also found a ball for his nose and a scarf to wear as a bow tie. He also went down to the basement Sunday morning and found a silly hat for him to wear. Ryan's job was to pull the wagon/float and blow his whistle, my job was to twirl a baton and his job was to lead the parade and play the drum.

After the parade, Luke was disappointed that no one came out to watch the parade - we told him everyone was watching from their windows.



What a great dad!


Video of the boys' karate class on Saturday. Greg was able to go this week - I think he found it pretty entertaining. He especially liked that this was something that the boys seemed to really love doing (unlike soccer in July).

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!