Battle Gear

I walked into the living room to find Jacob and Jane having a sword fight. They had also found a new creative use for ski goggles & helmets. Finally something I approve of - protective head gear for rough play.

 

My flash didn't go off on this one, so the picture is dark, but the expression on Jane's face and the awesome action shot it is - I had to include it.

  

Truce.

It should be noted that these are MY helmet & goggles that Jacob is wearing. It's been too icy & snowy to trek to the garage to put them away since Jane & I were skiing (and we're going again soon) - so he had grabbed mine. They almost fit. That boy has a huge head.

More Snowy Fun

We got about another foot of snow last night. I love snow - but even I am wondering when it will stop. We are simply running out of places to put it! In the city, they have been filling big trucks and taking it to the river to dump it.

Bless Rick - he dug us out before heading to work. He cleared the car, driveway space for the car & walkway. It was a LOT of hard work. He made it all nice & clear for me so I could head right out to ski with Jane.

My neighbor took this picture out of her window.

Millie loves the new vantage point she has now that the snow is higher than our fence!

 

See that little dark figure in the middle of the picture? That's Jake - wading hip deep to his friend who lives behind us to ask if he wants to play. They built forts over at his house and shoveled the neighbors driveway. He earned $6!

Emily spent most of the day building forts, sliding and climbing.

 

When we got home from skiing Jane was happy to join in the fun.

Climbing & sliding / jumping over the covered fence was the hit of the day.

My kids love to make snow tunnels but they actually terrify me, because I have images of my children suffocating silently while I am oblivious in the house! I made them limit the length of this one & had one kid stand guard while another 1 or 2 were in it.

Back to school tomorrow (although we are supposed to get more snow for the next 2 days.)

Another Snow Day

My plan was to ski with Jane one morning a week this winter - like I did the past two years with Jake. We have been super looking forward to it and planned to go on Friday mornings (she can really only last a couple of hours before she's tired.)

One Friday we had a snow day, another a 2 hr delay due to bad weather, one it was just way too freezing to take a 4yr old out .... it's ironic that we've had all this snow, but the weather has prevented us from making it up to ski.

This week I looked at the weather forecast & decided Thursday morning was it - we were due for more snow Wednesday afternoon / night, but it would be clear & a toasty 32 degrees on Thursday morning.

So, I recruited Bek to watch the other 2 in the event of a snow day or school opening delay and geared up for some time with Jane.

The morning was perfect - clear and not too cold with LOTS of fresh snow. It was a little more crowded that it usually would be on a weekday morning - thanks to all the school closings, but we had a great time.

 

It was only Jane's 4th day ever of skiing and she makes the most beautiful turns & is doing really well at stopping & slowing herself. I took out the video to get some of her doing such a great job, when she had this spectacular tumble! I instinctively turned off the camera when she fell to go get her, but I wish I'd kept it going because she went one more time head-over-heals & then stopped on her back laughing & saying "I hurt my leg." I hauled her up & off we went again. It's why I love skiing with kids - they take falling so well!

I pulled out the camera again to get some more (when she had a slow start) and then the battery died! Oh well, we'll have lots more opportunities to get more footage. Here's the little bit I got.

I love skiing, but I really love skiing with my kids. Sharing something with them that I love is so much fun and spending some one on one time is priceless.

Hot Chocolate

Jane just LOVES hot chocolate and as cold as it has been here, we've really been going though it.

Most days I end up giving up on things we needed to do out in the world at large, saying "Lets just go home now & have some hot chocolate."

Oh, and does this face ever say "Mom, enough with the pictures!" or what?

She's growing up way too fast!

Amphibious Boomerang

Millie has destroyed several toys within minutes of bringing them home - which is why I now have several brands that I will buy exclusively. Kong, Nylabone, ORKA and Chuckit all seem to hold up pretty well and be well liked by Millie.

When I saw this toy by Chuckit I couldn't resist - a boomerang, are you kidding me? We had to have it. It's actually designed to be a water toy & will float - but I thought the water resistant nature of it would make a great snow toy for outdoor games of fetch. It has been great.

Jane & Millie trying it out.

Millie LOVES it.

Gratuitous cute picture of Jane.

This dog LOVES the snow and she LOVES fetch.

Taking Jacob to School This Morning.

Man, is it ever cold here!

Millie & Cody

One of Millie's littermates (a brother) lives in Manhattan. They were born in Colorado & we live 30 minues away from each other - we HAD to make the most of that.

We got in touch & made a date to meet at the dog park on Sunday afternoon.

Millie has lots of "dog friends" in our neighborhood, but has never been to a dog park so I wasn't sure how she'd do. When we first arrived, this black & white dog kept bugging her & nipping at her - but I just watched and waited to see if she could work it out for herself (the other dogs owner never seemed to intervene, which is probably why he was like that.) Finally, it was my kids who stepped in. I think they were worried about her. I could tell the other dog wasn't really hurting her - more just bothering her. The kids started to put themselves in his way & then he left her alone.

Milli's brother is named Cody & he is delightful.

He was so much like Mille - only he's bigger because he's a boy!

Jane & Cody waiting for newcomers.

Jane & Cody wrestling - they really hit it off.

  Millie (left) & Cody (right).

 

A kind lady offered to take a picture of all of us.

 Cody

Cody, Emily & Millie.

It was seriously cold outside, so we stayed at the dog park for a little over an hour. Then Cody's super-nice "parents" asked if we would like to come back to their apartment, where they gave us hot chocolate & cookies (& homemade treats for the dogs.) Anyone who's lived in NY knows what a big deal it is to invite six people and their dog to your apartment, so we really appreciated it.

(Sorry, my camera is having flash issues - so this is a bad picture.)

Thanks for the fun play-date Cody! We had a great time.

We definitely plan on getting together (+ some other Entlebucher's we know) for a BBQ or something at our place in the spring!

Snuggle Buddies

I am so glad that Jacob & Jane are so close. They really are great friends and it makes me so happy.

They love to "snuggle" at bedtime or while I am reading them their bedtime story. I hope they always stay this way & that Jake will always be "my boy" (as she used to call him) to Jane.

The Kings Speech

We started hearing wonderful things about this movie as soon as it came out but we held off seeing it because it is R rated. I have seen & loved several R rated movies over the years (Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Slumdog Millionaire, etc) but as a general rule I don't see them.

Then someone told us it was only R rated because of the string of swear words he lets loose (twice) in the movie & that we would know when it was coming.

Which was true (so you can plug your ears if you want to.)

I am so glad we went to see it - it really is a wonderful and inspiring story & another side to the whole "abdication of the throne" that I had only ever thought of as extremely romantic before and now maybe see as selfish and irresponsible.

Colin Firth - how could you not love any movie with Colin Firth in it? He is at his best here and Helena Bonham Carter & Geoffrey Rush also give marvelous performances.

Go see this if you can, you will leave feeling all warm & happy inside!

Groceries

I was behind this guy in line at the grocery store.

I had to sneak a picture on my phone of what he was buying!

{iPhone photo}

Apparently a diet that consists of only cereal and coffee can give you quite the headache!

Snowmen Cake Pops

Emily's birthday is always over the break, so I take in a treat for her class to celebrate her birthday in January each year.

The first Friday in January was a snow day, so I took in treats and a "healthy alternative" (required by the school) the second Friday back.

We decided to make snowman cake pops. I got the Bakerella cake Pop book a while back & we decided to try some out. They were fun and turned out pretty well (especially for our first shot). They were also super time consuming! I would only make them like this again for something special, like a birthday. Also, they really didn't taste all that great. I think I'll try experimenting with my own "from scratch" cake & frosting recipes to get a better taste. In the book she recommends getting the KopyKake edible pens to add faces. I ordered them especially and they were awful! They were totally dried out and it took me literally hours of re-capping, shaking & coaxing to get enough ink to make all their faces. In the future I'm going to use candy pieces or sprinkles or something for faces.

Still, they were cute, a big hit with Emily's 4th grade class and a really big hit with Emily!

 

Ready for transportation to school!

(Drive with one hand, balance cookie sheet on passenger seat with other.)

Cooking with Jane

Jane loves to cook and I really enjoy having her cook with me. Of course, she mostly loves to make treats (who doesn't) but it's fun to work together.

We were making cake balls, which eventually turned into the "Snowman Pops" that I took in to Emily's class for her birthday celebration.

Playmates

One of the reasons we got Millie this year (rather than next year as I had originally planned) was to be a playmate for Jane now everyone else is at school.

It has really worked out well. Jane loves to play with her and work on her training and Millie is super patient with Jane and has also learned that Jane is a great friend - because she is very generous with the dog treats!

They are great buddies!

Tired

Jacob wakes up early. Really early - usually between 5:30am & 6am. He always has.  I used to compensate by making sure he got to bed nice and early too, but now that he is in school and with after school activities (mostly Emily's swimming) we are often not home until later.

Tonight after dinner & baths I sat him at the table to do his homework and ran to pop Jane into bed.

I came back a few minutes later to find him like this. Out cold.

I'm working on ways to try & get him to sleep a bit later in the morning - so far all unsuccessful!

Not so fast .....

January 7th 2011

I leave a comment on my friend Jen's blog telling her how great it is when your kids get a bit bigger & don't get into as much trouble. I reassure her that it will get easier over time.

January 8th 2011

Another snow day for the kids with no school. I get up with them & get them breakfast. It's coming down hard outside & I'm sure we won't be going anywhere for the day.

It's still dark outside (my kids get up early.) My bundle of blankets and cozy bed is calling to me. Rick had stayed home (working from home due to the weather) and is still in bed. I contemplate another hour of sleep snuggled up to Rick & decide to plop them in front of the TV for an hour.

One hour later ....

Emily wakes up & comes in to ask me if it's a snow day. I tell her yes, wake myself up and head downstairs. To quite the sight. Jacob & Jane have helped themselves to a little party from the food storage room and there were wrappers everywhere.

We had anticipated the snow day (due to dire storm warnings the night before) and I had told the kids before going to bed that we would spend the morning cleaning the house, but we could watch a movie and have popcorn in the afternoon. Jacob & Jane had decided to get a jump on the cleaning.

They had taken spray bottles of laundry stain remover and sprayed it on all the walls, the entire carpet, the glass patio doors, the silver picture frames, all the wooden closet doors, the TV .... you name it, it was covered in laundry spray (which, for the record is NOT easy to remove from non-laundry items.) No pictures of that - I was too mad to think of getting the camera!

Having emptied several full spray bottles all over the basement they had moved on to other endeavors.

This for instance.

It is a cup from their bath toys filled with water and over a dozen "pet jellyfish" aka my contact lenses. The brand new one's I'd just ordered.  The picture is a little blurry - but I figured they'd added about $60 worth as their "pets."

 They had also created an "arctic version." This is a glass filled with Oxyclean and water - and more contacts (see the semi transparent things sticking out from the side?) I don't know how many contacts they put in here - because the thing had set SOLID.

They were completely un-repentant and quite impressed with their work!

Needless to say, we all spent a long time cleaning that morning. Hopefully they learned their lesson.
Hopefully I learned my lesson too - it's never worth it to leave them unsupervised!

(You would really think I would have that one down by now.)

Boundaries

Millie has a few boundaries in our house - she's not allowed up on furniture and she's not allowed in my office. I'm really pleased with how well she's learing them. She never jumps on furniture and I have been able to leave the gate open to my office lately and she will stop at it. She just sits there (or quietly lays down) and watches me.

{iPhone photo}

Good Dog!

Mannequin

I was shopping with Jane in tow. She just happened to sit down like this next to the mannequin at LOFT.

I had to snap a picture!

{iPhone photo}