around the house

just sitting here, forcing the boys to stay inside until 8am.  That will give them about 15 minutes to tear around outside like fools before the bus comes.  I actually have time, right now, to upload pics from my camera to the computer. = photos to share here.  I've been trying to play around with the manual settings on the camera.  I figure, since I've had the camera for almost 2 years, maybe I should learn how to work some more of the buttons.

Nothing really on tap for today.  Andy is working a cycling event this morning.  I will be home with the girls, probably attempting to clean something (me, not the girls).  I think I will order a new phone for myself today since my relic (iphone 3) bit the dust a few weeks ago and living in a bag of rice has not revived it.

We have 1 soccer practice tonight (Ewan's).  The last one of Heights' rec league.  Cale, Ewan and Liam all have their last game on Saturday and then we rush off to the first of 2 games that Marcus has that afternoon.  Marcus has 2 more weeks of soccer after this for tournaments.  And, travel basketball tryouts are Monday and Tuesday.  We won't have down time for long.

just a superhero swinging.  a daily occurance to have a masked child running around.

a great close-up of Liam

"Hi. My name is Kinley and I like to eat chalk."

a little bit over-exposed.  the kids built a camp in the yard.

Princess Batgirl-Kella armed and dangerous

Grammy Pammy came last week to see everyone.  The kids were excited.  Princess Kella liked having a buddy.  And, Grammy brought zucchini bread.  Awesome!

So, we were able to get most of the kids in the picture.  You-know-who was too cranky to pose.  I think 5 out of 6 is pretty good.

Here's to a great Friday!

What the girl does...

All the penguins get dressed up.

...and then she dressed up the Skylanders.

a little bit of outdoor fun

Holy smokes it's warm enough to play outside!  I'm beginning to think that spring might actually be on it's way here.  The bright sunshine is coaxing the children to come outside.....

Kella definitely has her own sense of style-rocking out her brother's snow boots.

Liam was excited to have his picture taken/

The warm-ish weather is bringing out the neighbor kids, too.  Now everyone can play together again.

it's the Christmas break that keeps on giving....

We had a great winter break that turned into a break that wouldn't end.  The kids ended up being out of school for 3 weeks.  We didn't go anywhere, but we tried to fill our time with fun at home.  Here's some of what we did

the older boys got to go shoot around the gym at Andy's work

Christmas, of course

basketball tournament for Cale and Marcus

practices

and, the day before school was to start again, we had a record amount of snow. crazy watching the news and how people cleared store shelves before the snow came in.  gas stations also ran out of gas as people filled up their tanks.  little bit of panic going on. we were prepared and had what we needed. so the snow came.  almost 12 inches of it.  no school the next day, of course.  in fact, no school that whole next week.  roads were slowly tended to and it was only toward the end of the week the roads started looking good.  Which was good, because we had run out of milk.

I took a fair amount of pictures.  Be prepared.

To keep the kids entertained, I pulled out a bunch of board/card games they hadn't played in a long time.

Here's one of the stacks we worked through.

While the snow was coming down it was still pretty warm (34 degrees).  You know we sent the kids outside twice to play that day.

And, the next day left us with sub zero temps and blowing and drifting snow.  The kids thought is was cool that the snow drifted up against the patio door.

Other pictures from our never-ending break....

some more board game fun

Once temps warmed up, the kids got to play outside again.  Liam liked playing around the house especially in the big pile of snow created by the snowplow.  Andy was able to take the older three boys sledding two mornings that week.

Kella looked through ads with Grammy Pammy who was brave enough to drive some horrible road to our house.  Her drive went from 5 to 7 hours because of yucky road conditions.  She also got to see the boys play some basketball games.  By the time she left, the roads were much better.

played some games with a princess

and Ash the pokemon catcher

painted my nails, Kella's nails and Liam's toenails

brought the little Christmas trees inside.  Kinley liked the lights

I had to go to work the night the snow came in.  Lucky me, I'm considered "essential personal"and can drive even when the county is telling everyone to stay home.  It really only took me and extra 30mins on my way in.  The next morning just took a little over an hour driving home once my car was warmed up and de-iced.   My drive home from work on Monday (1/6).  There was a rainbow around the sun.  I promise, I am driving on the road.

Another view of my drive.

look at how cold it was that day!

found a recipe for snow ice cream

pretty cold at night too

In a moment of brilliance, I took the kids to Gamestop to spend their giftcards the day before the snow came.  All the boys had new games to amuse themselves with.  We even got a new/used Wii balance board so we could play Wii fit again.

we made snow ice cream a couple times.  the kids thought this was awesome

Cale, showing how deep this snowdrift was.

And now, the kids have a week back at school under their belts.  I think they were excited to go back and I was ready to be a more normal routine for us.  It has snowed the past two days with more snow promised for Saturday.  And, it sounds like it's going to get pretty cold again next week....

last warm day

Last Thursday, the temperatures made it back up to the high 70's after spending some time in the 60's.  I knew that the next day, the temps would go back down again to chilly 50's so I made the kids play outside.  (I know, I'm a horrible mom for making my kids play)  It also gave me a chance to play with my camera trying to take action shots.

running up to kick the ball

Kella kind of just wandered around, carrying things

Ewan found a perch to watch the fun

kickball

Liam, of course he was in the sandbox!

the one thing we did this weekend

Our town has a nice, 3 day festival every year around the fourth of July.  We usually try to go and see the vendors and the pioneer camp.  And, the fireworks are easily seen from our house. 

This year, the weather was hot, mixed with daily severe weather.  The fireworks were cancelled due to the dry conditions.  And, Ewan wasn't feeling well (turns out, he had an ear infection-found out Monday).

So, the only thing we made it to was one of the last things-a free family festival at a local church.  I was drawn in by the word "free" and the promise of a bounce house.

We were not disappointed.

Liam played in this bounce house that even had a ladder to slide down.  He kept coming back again and again.  I finally pulled him away when I heard the monitor tell him "one more time".  It was time to do something else, after all.

Ewan jumped here, too.

Kella did not enjoy being restrained in her stroller.

Cale, Marcus and Ewan all had fun on the obstacle course.

Marcus and his friend did the bungee run thing. (you can see his head popping up in the background)

They also had games to play for trinkets.  All the boys liked those.  They also had free drinks and hot dogs.  So nice!  I'm glad we had the chance to go.  It got the boys out of the house and gave them a chance to run off some energy.  They must have saved some, though, because after we got back home, they ran around some more and played in the little pool.