Takin' on Mary Jane

ok...ok...don't get your undies in a bundle...I'm talking about skiing! Guess what lil (now Big) dude took her on today and conquered her steep slopes and moguls? Yep...the Boo Bear! We were so proud of him (and sooooo happy we no longer have to take the long trek, dragging, skis, poles, snowboards and weary kids behind us to the bus depot at the end of a long, physical day on the slopes!). Way to go Boo!! You rock dude!

BTW, I was going to stop and take a picture of the big event but he was cruisin' along too fast! Definitely a big milestone reached today for our family. Just the beginning of a lot more fun on the mountain together! Woohoo!

L/S/S and Big Gma are on their way. Gratefully, they were able to catch their connecting flight out of Mpls and didn't get stuck in the excessive snow falling in the Midwest. We should be seeing their smiling faces in only an hour or so. Can't wait.

Personalized gifts

...from Mimi! These arrived in the mail today for the 4 of us along with Boo's bday gift of Lego Batman for the Wii. Much excitement abounded. I had to rein in the enthusiasm as the boys wanted to race up the stairs and yell out to Mick about the arrival of the prized game! I mutedly shouted out to them, "Conference Call! CONFERENCE CALL!" The boys knew that this meant they hadto be very quiet. Like your twacking a wascally wabbit. It worked. They stopped dead in their wascally steps.

Back Atchya Big Bro...

So we're eating breakfast yesterday and the boys got to talking about school and Ian brought up Boo's Ethanism from his study of physics recently. NOTE: I posted about this topic about a month ago when Ethan coined the term "internetica" in referring to his lesson on "inertia." Ian preceded to playfully taunt his little brother about it. Less than five minutes later Ian was reading something with ingredients listed on it and he asked what "toma-toes" were. Not seeing the label I thought he was trying to say tomatilloes but to be sure I asked him to spell it out. So he did. I said, "that's not toma-toes! That Tomatoes!  (Evidently the boy has a hard time reading hyphenated text easily-LOL).

Needless to say, lil bro got his paybacks in laughter and playful teasing. A humbling moment indeed.

It's Gettin...I'ts Gettin...

(...come on... sing it wid me now) :

"It's gettin' kinda hectic." 

Ok, ok, going back to old school early 1990's rap now. Just a little blast from my musical past. Anyhoo, things are getting hectic around the house. Still need to get family Christmas card pic done-now thinking I may just wait to take a pic while on our vay-K and mail them out from there-LOL.

Have friends coming into town for the weekend tomorrow. They have four kids and three dogs-so we will definitely have a house full. Big Gma is to arrive Mon and our friends we leave for Philly Mon. (moving there-excited for them but will miss them). That leaves Tues. to wrap things up b4 we head for the slopes. Excited but so much to do before then-so, all for now!

homemade potato soup

it does a body good. We seem to eat a lot of homemade soups this time of year. And for lunch today we had turkey, mashed potatoes and apple pumpkin cake left over from our "Thankful Thursday" we celebrated yesterday.

• Ian took math club test this morning and we studied Greece and it isles as well as the ages up to the Minoans. It's so fun for me to learn along with him (or relearn things as is sometimes the case)




• finished reading The Secret Life of Bees and promptly downloaded Scarpetta




• Ian finished Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Wednesday (one week and one day from starting it. Seriously voraciuos reader he is. Crazy voracious. I absolutely love it though. He wants me to get back to reading the HP series so that we can continue discussing God in Harry Potter that we downloaded to my kindle recently.




• Speaking of my kindle. I love it. One of the bests gifts I have gotten in a long time. (A really great gift idea for the avid reader in your family).




• Worked with Ian on our December Daily albums and then with Ethan on his paper Christmas trees for his teacher. He added a little bling to each of them with a hot glue gun and I must say, they definitely added a little "BAM" to them!LOL




• Tomorrow I hope to get family Cmas pic done and printed for cards + I plan to watch the Gators take on Alabama for the SEC Conference Championship. I hope they play well. Go Gators! I think we




• I think we'll do chili tomorrow complete with some football appetizers. Maybe we'll even make some cupcakes.

My baby turned 7

he started his birthday with breakfast in bed (mommy and daddy's as daddy was out of town with work). A few phone calls from the grandmas and then off to school. After school, he celebrated with his "girl" friend Tessa and her mom and brother by making a gingerbread house and gingerbread people. Then later, (wayyyy later) we ate dinner out at locale favorite Asian restaurant and Andy's for dessert.