Christmas #1

before heading to wisconsin
we had a Christmas morning of our own



the biggest surprise of the morning came when
one of the boxes started RINGING!!!!

we now have a 6th grader
WITH A PHONE!!!

he was just a little excited!

ben's favorite gift was a dwayne wade shirt



and alex's favorite gift was his ripstik

but somehow i missed out on getting pictures of him
outside in 15 degree weather
trying to master using it.
must be because i was busy doing the same thing ;)

instead ...
i got a picture of him with his 2nd favorite -
his beywheelz

all in all -
we have 3 happy boys
and our Christmas celebration #1 was a success

jump! jump!

before leaving for wisconsin
we met up with the lees.
with them being in michigan
and us here
we don't get to see them often enough
BUT
when we do find the time
i love it!

we decided to spend the night at 2 of our favorite places.

we started at skyzone

 

 

 

and ended at tavern
our favorite restaurant

we tired the kids out,
got some time to chat,
and had some great eats!

thanks for a great night, lees!!

 

partying with 1SL

SO ...
now that we are home from our Christmas travels
i am FINALLY getting over being sick AGAIN
and
i have things KIND of put away
ok not really ...
but i'm going to pretend for a bit
so that i can catch up on here
and have a cup of coffee ;)
i am going to get you caught up on what we've been up to
and
the fun that we've had in this whirlwind
past few weeks

:  :  :

we started the Christmas fun with alex's school party



they had each brought a stocking
and enough stocking stuffers
to share with all of their friends

his teacher had set up several fun stations
for them to work through

and they spent time working their way through each one of them

taking a few breaks for pictures in between ;)

as always ...

i had fun being in the classroom with the kids

and getting to enjoy the party with alex

 

BUT
this time was even better
because two more special people showed up!

stacey has been working through his 2012 vacation
so he was home with ellie while she napped
WELL ...
when she woke up
they came to enjoy some of the party

 

stacey doesn't get to come to school very often
so i'm glad it worked out the way it did!!

we had fun celebrating with you, alex!!

* wacky *

it's wacky hair day at school ...

mephobia

drew:  mom ... you need to call the doctor

me:  why?

drew:  because i have mephobia

me:  ok.  what is that?

drew:  the fear that i am so awesome
everyone else is going to die and i am going to be left here on this earth
to be awesome alone.

hmmmmm.
ok.

hello! my name is ...

to say that the boys have just a LITTLE fun

with the bags at which wich

might be an understatement

playing the A

this weekend ben played in the st francis tournament

this was their first weekend officially playing in an A bracket

they played the first game against anoka
it was a very close game -
the entire time
TOO close ;)

 

we seemed to have the upper hand
and we had great ideas -
we just couldn't seem to score the points.
we lost 23-24.

our second game was against champlain park
we played a great game
and won 30-25.
this put us in a tie breaker situation
for who would play in the championship game

due to champlain park beating anoka
we got to play today in the championship game!!

we played against brooklyn park
and they were a GREAT team!!

 

 

 

the boys played really hard
but
still lost in the end

BUT ...
that still put them finishing in 2nd place

and for their first tournament playing as an A team
i'd say they should be mighty proud!

we are!

 

the popcorn guy

working hard volunteering in elevate

charged up

yesterday the 4th graders went on a field trip
AND
i got to go along!!

we woke up to find that elfred had packed ben's lunch
or attempted



and then quickly got ready
and were off on our adventure

we went to the bakken museum

what a beautiful AND FUN place!

we learned about electricity and magnetism through hands on experiments
and
through the little tidbits of information and stories that the tour guides told us

the kids got to learn about circuts
open and closed
by trying an 'electricity is life' machine
that used to be used to help give people the morning boost
that i now get from coffee ;)

funny thing is ...
she put ben in charge of the power dial
and he just cranked the thing up from the get-go
shocking his entire circut
AND
scaring anyone else off from trying it out ;)

the kids also got to play the only instrument out there
that you don't need to touch or blow into.
it simply reads the waves coming off your body -
ben was a pro

we got the opportunity to play mindball
where the winner is the person who can relax their mind the most

probably not the game for me ;)
BUT
ben gave it a try!

we watched a presentation on frankenstein

we took a break for lunch
and ben shared his 'snowballs'

  

and we spent an hour learning about magnets

how they work
what are some myths and truths about them
AND
what they can do if you put them on a tv or computer screen

 

WHICH
is very cool
BUT
is something you should never try if you ever want to use your screen again ;)

it was a REALLY fun field trip!
i can't wait to take drew back there -
he will LOVE it!

thanks for a fun day, ben!

the ugly-est sweater

drew:
'mom there's an ugly sweater day next week.
could you knit me a sweater?'

um ...
ya drew i'll get right on that
and i can pretty much promise
that anything i knit
will be nothing short of the ugliest out there.

one week later -
he's given up on the hope that i'll learn to knit
and
has decided to wear a vikings jersey instead

not kidding.

love you, drew.