What Did You Learn in School Today?

We had a nice three day weekend, and there is a chance it might turn into a four day weekend with the ice/snow that is currently coming down!

We enjoyed some beautiful weather last week, in the high 60's/low 70's. We got in a few bike/scooter rides and a few trips to the park. The rest of the weekend we spent a lot of time with Aunt Kelly, organizing her apartment and shopping with her for furniture - the kids were excited that Kel wanted to go to Ikea because they got to hang in the (secure) play area while we shopped - they had a lot of fun. We also saw some flicks this weekend - Nanny McPhee for Friday movie night which Jack has been talking about constantly although he starts out his thought "What's that movie we saw the other night?" And once we remind him, he wants to discuss something that happened. Today we saw Gnomeo & Juliet, the kids enjoyed it although there were a lot of jokes that were over their heads.

We don't have a lot of pics but we have some schoolwork that we will share with you. We had a parent/teacher conference with Lily's teacher on Friday - she is doing very well and is ahead of the curve. Mom helps out most Fridays and is able to observe Lily constantly participating and learning so much. We also had a recent parent/teacher conference with Jack's teachers, and they said he is a delight and loves to help out in the classroom. He is also doing much better with drop-off, running off to play with toys and his friends.

Have a good week!


Jack woke up one morning and came up to our room dressed as Spiderman.


Lily's first homework assignment (for Black History Month)


A recent drawing.

You Are My Sister

We got on the tram at Dulles airport and Jack was following Lily around as she found a seat and she was getting annoyed with him telling him that she didn't want him to sit by her.
Dad: You were the one that wanted a little brother.
Lily: Yeah but I didn't know he would be like this.

We returned from a fun trip to Florida to celebrate Bubbie's 85th birthday - we celebrated with Auntie Donna, Uncle Stephen, and cousins Emilie, Stephanie, Debbie and Stacey. We had a great time dining at the clubhouse (Jack wearing Stuart's 1970's sportcoat), Lily got in a bike ride, and the kids played a little golf on the putting green. We are so happy that we got to share Bubbie's special day with her!

While in Florida, we also visited with Grandma Phyllis, Grandpa Maurice, Great Aunt Ruby, Great Uncle Simon, and cousins Jonathan, Corey, Aiden, Noah, and Kayla - the kids got to swim together, Jack fed the birds with the grandparents, and we met the cousins at a park in Boca on Sunday.

As we were gone for a long weekend, Lily missed her 100th day of kindergarten and both kids missed their Valentine celebrations. Fortunately, Lily's teacher saved her the 100 pieces of candy (!) she received to celebrate the 100th day, and both kids collected their Valentines today, and they each brought in their Valentines for everyone on Thursday.

Re the pics, we took lots in Florida but apparently there were some fingerprints on the screen so some of them did not come out - hopefully cousins Emilie and Jonathan will come thru for us at a later date.

Have a good week!


Sporting the coat.


Enjoying breakfast.


Playing a little golf.


...


With Cousins Aden, Noah and Kayla.


Warming up in the hot tub.


A little lippy while spending time with Bubbie.


Ride'em cowboy.


Making music.


On the carousel.


With Aunt Donna.

Nothing At All

So we have no pictures today and not much to say. The weather was a bit better last week so we had a full week of school - with one two hour delay due to a little bit of freezing rain on Tuesday morning.

Lily had couple of play dates with friends during the week and both Lily and Jack had birthday parties to attend this weekend. Jack had friend Jake's gymboree party on Saturday and Lily had friend Erin's paint your own pottery party on Sunday. After the birthday party, Lily came home to a very small Super Bowl gathering with neighbors Paul and Julie and their kids Beatrice and Charlotte. The kids made to half time and then retired for the evening.

That is all for now. We will try to do better next week.

Here is a picture for old time sake. One year ago this week in 2+ feet of snow ...


2010


2010

Electricity

We are glad January is over and we are desperate for spring to arrive! The beginning of the week started out with Mom sick and in bed, and Dad holding down the fort. Mom got well just in time for school to be cancelled on Wednesday due to snowy weather. Before the storm hit, Mom, Lily and Jack went to lunch and then to see 'Tangled' in the theatre - the kids really enjoyed the movie and Jack stayed seated the entire time, only talking a few times. We exited the movie to a winter wonderland with the snow coming down hard. We settled in to wait out the storm, kids in PJs, and in bed, and then the power went out. We woke up Thursday morning and our house was 61 degrees so we headed to Grandma Gail and Grandpa Tom's and were there thru Saturday morning. G&G really came thru for us with warm beds, dinner, and some fun sledding. Grandma Gail watched the kids all day Friday so Mom and Dad could go to work and check on the house which had by then had dropped to 49 degrees. Thankfully by Saturday morning the power had returned so we finally returned home. The rest of the day the kids played in the snow and we had movie night. On Sunday, the kids made a ship out of an enormous box, we ran errands, and then all of us went swimming with Aunt Kelly. Today it was back to school and work, although we are anticipating a wintry mix tonight into tomorrow, so we will see what the status is with school.

Without going into any specific details, Jack is officially potty trained, with minimal accidents! He was earning matchbox cars for "dropping the kids off at the pool" but is now just going because that is what you do. :)

Lily is doing well at school (when she goes ;)). She was tested today and she said did really well reading an entire book. We also took a trip this weekend to Target because she wanted to participate in a project collecting cold weather items for the homeless, this has been addition to collecting cans for the homeless, two projects that she took very seriously.

Enjoy the pics!


Sledding with Grandpa Tom.


Working on her fort.


Snow angel.

Rocky Mountain High

Long time, no post. We had a great but quick trip to Colorado and then we forgot our camera so had nothing to post last week. Since then we have stayed busy and both Marcy and I have been battling various winter maladies/colds. We both seem to be on the mend.

So we traveled to Colorado on a Thursday and we hit the slopes on Friday. Jack and Casey spent the day at school together while Lily was in ski school. On Saturday we all visited the mountain together and Jack and Casey both had a chance to try out the bunny slope. Lily spent the days skiing with the grownups. Sunday was tubing and some outlet shopping and Monday we were back skiing with the little ones in school.

We headed home on Tuesday after a treacherous ride to the airport. We made it to the gate for the plane with only minutes to spare! Wednesday was back to regular business.

The rest of the week was quite normal with back to school and work. On Saturday Jack and I got haircuts and on Sunday Jack attended his first birthday party -a gymnastics event.

That's all for now - here are some pictures and video.


Checking out the snow cat.


Testing out helmets.


Carrying his own equipment ... for about ten seconds.


Ready to go.


On the slopes.


With Casey.


Lily skiing.


Clowning around.