Lil Cheerleaders

Leah and Hannah performed as Lil Cheerleaders to "Fireflies" at the Tosa West Boys Basketball game Friday night.  (In case the song title doesn't ring a bell, "I'd like to make myself believe
That planet Earth turns slowly.  It's hard to say that I'd rather stay awake when I'm asleep 'Cause everything is never as it seems..)  Hannah literally jumped right in as soon as we arrived for cheer practice, and Leah had to find her in the crowd of little kids and cheerleaders.  Leah only took about 10min to get just as into it as Hannah was, and Leah did very crisp traditional cheerleader movements as she learned the routine whereas Hannah bopped along and shook her hips like it was a hip hop dance routine.  Jay and I both laughed out loud at Hannah's performance, how Leah sang the Kate Perry song out loud as the older girls performed, and both girls lit up with the hugest smiles when they finally spotted me, Jay and Joseph in the stands clapping them on.  It was a fun night....but oh what we're in for with these girls!!!!

Oh Snow Where Did You Go?

We got snow just before Thanksgiving, and though it disappeared in Milwaukee pretty quickly it stuck around in Winona and the kids got to go sledding every day over Thanksgiving break.  We are anxiously awaiting it's return to our neighborhood (yes that's right, I said it.)  The small hill across from our house is one of our favorite (and most convenient) play spots during the winter and I am really looking forward to sending the kids over there one of these weekends when they get "bored" in our house that has literally hundreds of indoor options but none that appeal to anyone.  We moved all of our arts and crafts up to the attic and created a new play area that helped us get through last weekend (and fulfilled Jay's year long wish of no longer having to look at all the stuff in our dining room), and my fingers are crossed for snow this weekend, though seems there's a low chance of that being that it's forecasted to be 40 and mostly sunny.  HMPH! (and yes, I am aware that this is cursing us to in fact get snow dumped on us at some later point, probably when we're driving to Illinois or Ohio, but if I type that then it probably won't happen that way.  I'm all for a white Christmas....just not while we're driving across states please!)

First Family Trip to Disney!

Before Thanksgiving we took a few days off and celebrated my parents 40th wedding anniversary with them in Disney World!  It was our first family trip there, and Hannah and Leah's first time on an airplane (Joseph had flown several times as a baby/toddler but this would be the first experience he could remember).  We had to get up before 5am to head to the airport and would you believe that all three kids woke up and got out of bed before we even entered their rooms? (that rarely happens even at 7am)  They were excited, and so were Jay and I!  Our first stop was our Treetop Villa at Saratoga Springs which was quite impressive (and as it turns out we could have brought fishing poles and caught a few bass right outside our room, but who has time for that at Disney!)  Magic Kingdom was our next stop and it really is magical, from the Castle to the characters to Space Mountain, Splash Mountain and It's a Small World and everything in between.  The girls also loved the Dumbo and Little Mermaid rides, and while Joseph was more into repeat rides on Thunder Mountain.  Hannah and Leah were made into princesses at the Bippity Boppity Boutique, with Hannah picking Aurora's costume (Sleeping Beauty)  and Leah as Tiana (Princess and the Frog).  That was a pretty amazing experience, and also very cool was Joseph being trained as a Jedi at Hollywood Studios.  Though his favorites were the roller coasters, top two being Everest at Animal Kingdom and the Rockin Rollercoaster at Hollywood Studios.  And we all really enjoyed Flying Nemo the Musical at Animal Kingdom (Go with the flo-o-o-o-o-o-ohhhhhhhh).  I was actually more impressed by Animal Kingdom than I thought I'd be, the kids all went on rides, Everest ended up being one of our favorites, and that is where we met the elusive Minnie and Mickey!  Jay and I also enjoyed a night out at Epcot and toured around the world.  Magic Kingdom was still the most magical of them all, and we loved the nonstop fun and madness.  The double stroller, bag of snacks, and fastpass made things easier....and it's not the complaining, waiting for food, Joseph getting sick or hitting his tooth on a post at downtown Disney (seriously, why are those things so tall?), our clothes arriving a day late or me banging my head on the bus as we were frantically trying to catch our ride to the airport that makes the headlines for our trip.  It was the look on the kids faces when they saw the castle and paused in awe, Hannah dancing in the street and jumping up and down in one of the parades, Leah having the time of her life at breakfast with the princesses and her bippity boppity makeover, Joseph's smile and sheer excitement after each roller coaster and all the other magical moments that made the trip so memorable. 

Fall Fun, and not so Freezing

We were spoiled by the weekend before Halloween being in the 60s which was perfect for trick or treating....but Halloween night the following weekend was in the 30s!  Fortunately it warmed up enough on Saturday to take down the decorations, clean up the yard, and have some fun in the leaves.  Thor (Joseph) and his sisters took as many flying leaps as they could into the big pile Jay raked up....I couldn't resist taking one myself!

Spooktakular Times

Oh how we love this season!  Yes, all five of us like the same thing...no one complains about it and we're all borderline fanatics. (I would like to be able to say the same thing about several food items, dinners, and math someday).  But for now, we have fall and Halloween.  Dressing up and campfires.  Raking leaves, decorating the house, carving pumpkins, eating candy.  These are the things we all love this time of year.  And as it turns out, Hannah even likes pumpkin seeds!

(p.s. we coordinated on friday night as mary poppins and burt, but on Saturday don't you think Jay should have been a monster or princess instead?  he even suggested a family theme for next year, but this year he took out an oldy but goody costume....Napoleon Dynamite.  And yes, we'll be in costume again on Halloween night itself!  More to come!)

Hannah and Leah Turn 5!

The girls turned 5 today and instead of a cake, decided they wanted a donut tower for the morning of their birthday.  (Pretty cool I must admit, though I'll still take the baskin robbins ice cream cake or many varieties of cake over a donut )  To celebrate Hannah and Leah had their first friend sleepover, which included the Eckerts and Laumanns, and we did nails and art and costumes, and some tv and playing outside too.  After the sleepover we then decorated the outside of the house with cobwebs and spooky things to get ready for Halloween, played with glitter pens and princesses some more and then all three kids took a nap (though for Joseph it wasn't by choice, he fell asleep next to Jay on the couch watching football).   It was just before the nap that I realized I forgot to pick up the special #5 cookies from the bakery for school tomorrow, and of course the bakery is closed on Mondays, so that's why they make ready to go in the oven sugar cookies and decorative icing!  They won't win a contest for taste or looks, but the girls had fun decorating a few and it still beats the cake Jay made from scratch for my last birthday. (though he got an A for effort, I would only score my effort at B- and that's only because I wrote Hs, Ls, and 5s on the cookies).  When I asked Hannah and Leah what they wanted for dinner as their first day of 5 was preparing to come to an end, they started out talking about shells and pasta and then Joseph said "um don't you want mcdonalds and a movie?"  (captain obvious)  And since it's monopoly season and I was already tired from our very fun and action packed weekend (did I mention we also finished painting the brown trim around the windows and doors on our house?) Jay and I easily agreed to what became all three kids declaration on dinner.  The girls say they loved everything about their birthday, and all of their presents, but my favorite moment was right before bed when they both took all their new disney princess dolls and fairies and tucked them into little beds that they made with their pink and purple blankets from when they were first born.  They put the doll beds in between their own beds, and lined up all their doll shoes for the morning next to them.  I am sure I will wake to little voices in the morning, and the tune of some disney song (two of the dolls play music).  And I very much look forward to it!

These Are a Few of my Favorite Views

Jay and I departed for Alaska the day of our 11th wedding anniversary, and celebrated his 40th birthday while we were there.  It was AMAZING.  We flew to Anchorage, and headed south to Girdwood for our first leg of the trip where we climbed mount Alyeska and hiked onto a glacier.  The first time we tried to hike to the top we encountered a moose a short way in, who decided we did not belong there, so we had to walk (slash run) back to the hotel.  On another hike we used a hand tram (and when I say we I mean I stood in the cart while Jay used his hands to crank the pulley that pulled us in the tram) to cross a water passage that was maybe just shy of a football field across.  We spent a day in Whittier, not to visit the strange little town (strange is putting it mildly as I could not even comprehend a town of 225 people all living in the same apartment building) but to board a glacier day cruise.  We also did a short stop in Seward, and then onto Homer where we stayed in a condo on the spit with an incredible view (last picture), saw the largest Halibut we'll probably ever see (5' 2" and 125lbs), ate salmon for dinner that Jay's fishing guide had caught that day (and I hate salmon, but apparently not fresh Alaskan salmon!), and we think we saw Mt. Augustine erupting across the bay as we departed for Anchorage to begin our journey back home.  We both agree we would love to go back and see more of Alaska, maybe we'd get a bit more of the sun next time (not that the rain or fog stopped us from doing anything) and who knows maybe even winter, after all it's apparently colder in Wisconsin than it is in Homer that time of year!

First Family Football Game

We took the kids to the Tosa West High School football game a few weeks ago and the girls were excited from the start. (Joseph took a bit more convincing but quickly warmed up once we hit the bleachers).  They had great fun picking out their red outfits to wear and getting their hair done like "cheerleaders".  You can tell in their poses they are quit the "fashionists" (a word I still find a bit scary!)