Sunday, February 24, 2013

Cousin Fun on February Vacation

We were so lucky to have the cousins (Ben, Cassie and Sophie) come visit us for the entire week of February vacation.  We had non stop fun with seeing a movie at Chunky's Theatre, bowling, playing at LaserCraze, playing in the snow, going to The Museum of Science, and Imajine That.  The kids get along and play so well together, and I think it's safe to say that all five kids had a great week!  Here are some pictures of the fun.

Girl's night at Auntie and Uncle's house.


Happy Bowlers.  (Sophie chose to stay at Gigi and Poppy's house rather than go bowling.)

Zach LOVES to bowl!
The boys - SO cool!
Winners winners, chicken dinners!  (Lexi blew us all away!)

We can't go bowling without playing a few games of Ice Ball in the arcade!


Zach went incognito at LaserCraze to avoid being embarrassed by his adoring public!


Zach got to join in for this Girl's Night!


Checking out the wildlife at MOS

The best kids on earth!


Zach's ready for the 3D Meerkats movie!


With the triceratops.  Zachary told us that "tri" means three, and it's called a triceratops because it has three horns.


We got to spend some time with a screech owl, and a skunk!


The boys - ready for take off.


Checking their instruments.


Benjamin - future astronaut!


Ben and Zach in the hurricane tube!

Yes, we had a wonderful week full of fun.  Sadly, it ended with an unintended "bang" when Gigi, the kids and I were in an accident on our last day together.  Gigi and I were horrified when I hit a truck that blew through the stop sign on Waverly Road.  After determining that everyone was ok (minus the car) I was concerned that the kids might have been scared by such a collision.  Silly me - the kids decided it was the BEST thing we had done all week.  What can I say?  Auntie aims to please!


Gigi's car took the brunt of the impact, keeping all seven of us inside safe and sound.

It was quite a hit.  You should see the other truck!

Best part of vacation!  Getting a ride home in the ambulance, with our friend and EMT Rob Crane.

Saturday, February 16, 2013

A Few of My Favorite Things

Here are a few of my current favorite pieces of the kids artwork being displayed on our bulletin board.

Lexi made this penguin in art class this year.


Zachary's "Kk is for kic"  (He sounded out the word "kiss" all by himself)


Zachary made this drawing for Lexi's 7th birthday.  He was 3.


Lexi made this lovely bird in a nest. 

Fluffy The Fish

Lexi decided she would like to have a fish. I thought a small fish would be a good exercise in responsibility - having to feed it and clean the bowl. But in order to get it she had to earn it. She had a list of eight tasks that needed to be done every day, Monday through Friday without arguments or reminders. She had to:
Get dressed
Brush teeth
Do morning stretches
Take vitamins
Drink all water during the day
Do evening stretches
Get into jammies
Brush teeth

She did very well, and earned her fish in two weeks. She was lucky to have her cousins here today to help her pick out her new friend. His name is fluffy, and we're all happy to welcome him to our home.



Thursday, February 14, 2013

On Harold Street, We PaRk The CaRs

From Gigi:

Funny conversation with Zachy today. We were talking about paper.
Zach: "Gigi, how come you say it like this: "Papah"."
Me: "Because I live in Massachusetts and that is how we say it correctly in Massachusetts."
Zach: "I live on Harold Street, and we say it like this - "paper"."

Sunday, February 10, 2013

The Next Day

Today the sun is shining and the temperature is higher, so it was much more comfortable to be out in the snow.  Ahren and I had more shoveling to do - the top of the driveway, and the sidewalks from one side of our property all the way to the corner.  Ahren was a shoveling machine today, and did the walks all by himself.  Zach helped me clear off the top of the driveway, and we widened a few areas to make sure there would be plenty of room to get by when cars were parked.  The sledding hills are packed today (I can see ours from the bedroom window) so we'll wait until those kids get bored, and take another trip over there in the afternoon.

I think we're all looking forward to getting out of the house tomorrow.

Lexi finds a spot to supervise from

Lexi and Zach love playing in the snow banks!

Ahren shoveled a tunnel.

A shoveler's foot prints. 

Lexi tests out the cleared side walks.

You can't quite see the entire length of sidewalk that Ahren shoveled.

Our house - all dug out.

Kid tracks.
And as promised, more sledding in the afternoon.  Last night we had the hill to ourselves.  Tonight it was packed!

Zach has a blast!

Wheeeeee!

All smiles!

Lexi gets a turn!

The trudge back up the hill.

Happy girl!

Having a great day!!

Lexi just wanted to take right turns!

Zach tried to grab a nap at the bottom of the hill.

Lexi thought a nap sounded good too.

Happy!

It was a close one, but no crash!

Hi ho, hi ho, it's back up the hill I go!

Last dash.

Saturday, February 9, 2013

The Blizzard of 2013

After two years of very little snow, the kids were SO excited to hear that we were getting a blizzard.  It started snowing early Friday morning, and at least once an hour Zach would run to the window and say, "Is it the blizzard yet??"  It snowed steadily all day, but only accumulated about 7 inches by the time Ahren and I went to bed.  The winds were whipping, so we notched up the heat, and prayed we would still have power in the morning.

I was very glad to wake up to the banging of the heat this morning at 6am.  Shortly thereafter the kids hopped out of bed and wanted to go check out the snow.  At 7am it was still snowing quite a bit and we already had 2 feet!  After a hearty breakfast, we got suited up and made our way out.  WOW!!  It seemed like a lot from the windows, but it was really much more impressive once we got out in it.  I almost got stuck in the street when I went out to take some pictures.  As I started to make my way back to the house, my leg went so far into the snow, I could barely get it out!

This quickly became the trend with the kids as well.  They would play around happily for about 10 minutes before we would hear cries of "HELP!  I'm stuck!!" and one of us would have to go pull them out of the snow.

Sadly, the snow blower wouldn't run, so Ahren and I spent about two hours shoveling.  We're not quite done yet, but we're hoping to borrow the neighbor's snow blower to finish up later.  It took me a solid hour just to clear off my car, and get a path all the way around it.

It's been a very exciting couple of days so far.  Ahren promised to bring the kids to the playground to sled once the plows are all gone.  That could actually be tomorrow.  There was a 24 hour driving ban, and even with that the plows have had a hard time keeping up.  Our street is completely impassable at the moment.

The sun in starting to break through, and we'll be cleaning up (and playing) for awhile.  The Blizzard of 2013 has certainly been one to remember!!

My car, half buried by the snow.

This is the only way Zach could get around in the snow.  It was up to his head in many parts!

Lexi shows off the pile on our deck.

Zach shows off the pile at the bottom of the stairs.

The yard.  The snow almost covered the picnic table!

Harold Street.

The snow at the end of the driveway is at least as high as my waist.  I almost got stuck on the street!

The drifting made for some very interesting snow piles!

Dude, where's my car??

Harold Street

Ahren made a path to the garage to get the snow blower.  Sadly, it wouldn't run.  :(

Lexi found a stage.

Attempting to take a picture of Lexi, I almost got stuck in the yard.

Lexi got to sled off the hood of my car.
Later this afternoon, we finally got to go sledding!!

On our way to the hill!

There was a beautiful sunset!

Zach wipes out!

Lexi has a blast!!