heat wave

after the crazy cold temps we've had in the past few weeks

the 30 degrees we got yesterday

seemed like a heat wave

the boys got invited to go sledding

and we weren't the only ones with the idea

but it didn't seem to slow them down

first game

this is alex's first year of organized basketball

although he had skills clinics last year

this year he gets to be on an actual team

that plays REAL games!

yesterday was his first game

thankfully ...

alex has proved to be a strong dribbler

AND

a very patient player

so he got to play the majority of the game

at this point 

drew and ben have been in basketball for a while

and their games get pretty intense.

to be back to this level and watch the 2nd graders is SO fun!

alex got to bring the ball up for 2 of the quarters

the first time he did he even scored on his first possession!

(not the best video - the auto focus was struggling - but fun nonetheless)

his team ended up winning

nice job boys!!

i am SO excited to watch you this season!!

andover tournament

last weekend

ben played in the andover tournament

our first game we played elk river

it was a VERY close

VERY intense game

at the very end

we held our lead

and walked away with the win!

our next game was against armstrong

we were a bit nervous going in 

because we heard they had a 6'1" player

YES ... a 5th grader!!

thankfully ...

he didn't prove too effective against our team

and we came away with another win

which put us in the championship game against irondale

irondale is undefeated

and a very strong team

we stuck with them and played VERY strong in the first half

we went into halftime only down by 6 which was GREAT

unfortunately ...

they ran away with it in the 2nd half

and beat us 27-55

i'll go ahead and blame it on the fact that it was SO cold in the gym

that our boys had to put their shooting shirts on when they weren't playing ;)

2nd place was a great finish

ben ...

you had a great weekend

and played really well!!

nice work!

frozen

this past week we got hit with some VERY cold weather

or as the weather people are saying 'a polar vortex'

starting over the weekend the temps started to drop

and by sunday night they were painfully cold!

NOW ...

we have known about this for the past week

SO ...

last friday

for the first time since i have lived in minnesota

the governor actually called off school at the state level!

the kids were SO excited!!

i personally would prefer snow days when they can play outside

OR

for the days to NOT fall

at the end of an already 17 day break

BUT

we'll take what they'll give us ;)

it was VERY cold ...

but that didn't stop us

we met up with ben's entire basketball team

at the andover Y

for some open gym time

it was a GREAT way to kill some energy

and get them all out of the house

while we were there

our phones started going off

and we found out that they were cancelling school for ANOTHER day!!

there was just a TAD bit of excitement shared

and quickly plans were made to meet back for another day of open gym

it was NOT very encouraging to see that the temperatures in the south pole

were higher than our temperatures in minnesota

BUT ...

the fact that orlando was under a freeze warning gave me some solace

there really was no escaping it

SO ...

we made the best of it

and enjoyed our bonus days before the boys had to go back to school

NOW ... 

they are back at school

the sun is out

the forecast is the 30's for the weekend

and the days are getting longer

no complaints here

my new years resolution

it's official.

my new years resolution is to drink more starbucks ;)

so far so good.

you see ...

on black friday i got a notice from starbucks 

that they were going to be selling a limited time

special mug.

if purchased

this mug would get you free espresso drinks

for the entire month of january 2014

loving starbucks like i do

and loving the expensive drinks from starbucks like i do

this seemed like a no brainer

we figured that we would only need to go every other day to break even.

NOT a problem

so i bought it.

WELL ...

right after christmas

my friend called to say that she was at starbucks

and they had a few mugs left and were clearancing them out for 50% off

i instantly knew we needed one for stacey.

i knew without a doubt that we could make that cost up

and that we could have even more fun doing it

because we wouldn't have to 'share a mug'

AND

i would never be drinking 'free coffee' alone

SO ...

we now have 2 mugs

and have been having LOTS of fun trying new drinks

even the arctic air hasn't kept us away

i'm thinking i could get used to this

and starbucks should run an annual mug deal ...

i'd be TOTALLY in

and even more addicted than i already was :/

littlest hoopster

tonight alex had his first basketball practice!!

this is the first year he can be on a 'real team'

and he is SO excited!!

happy new year!

as we have for the past few years

we ended our 2013

with a candlelight dinner

our boys have started really looking forward to this

and now that they are getting older

it is a fun time for us to sit and talk about the past year

it was a very chilly night

so we were excited to be doing NOTHING

but staying in!

alex's neighbor friend, jack

came over and spent the night with us

we played some games

and everyone made it until midnight

for the official

2014 happy new year toast

HAPPY 2014, EVERYONE!!