2015 Week Six | February 2 - 8

Starting to return to a bit of normal here after a crazy month of February.  Ian had friends over for his 8th birthday, we had family visit to celebrate both kids' birthdays, and Darrin, well, he broke his leg.  Not all that happened in the sixth week of the year, though.  Here's what did:

Ian had three friends over for his 8th birthday. It was Ninjago themed, though I think it ended up being more minecraft-esque. 

The game that got the most play (other than the Legos and XBOX) was throwing rubber ninja stars at a bullseye (a painted piece of craft foam). 

Me, playing with composition... 

Another game was using your ninja skills to get through the laser hall. 

He requested a ninjago face for his cake. I ended up making frosted brownie instead.  

This is what they were all doing when parents came to get the kids; either watching or playing Minecraft. 

I needed chopsticks for one of the games for his party, so we headed out for Chinese Thursday night. I am ashamed to admit this, but this was the first time they have had Chinese (though I was in college the first time I had it...).  They ordered peanut butter chicken.  Ian attempted to use the chopsticks with a two-hand technique.  He loved the chicken. Annaliese loved the crab rangoon.  I loved the fact we can all go out to eat Chinese now.  

Other than Ian's party with friends, the story of this week was snow.  This was our house on Monday.  It had snowed 8 inches the day before, though it's hard to know if that's exactly right because it had drifted so much.  

We ended up with a snow day on Monday, which was a sunny, but very cold day. I wandered around our yard taking pictures of the beautiful snow.  

I wish I had the skill to capture on camera how beautiful things are to my eye.  

Did I mention we had a second snow day on Wednesday that week for more snow...  Throughout the week, the kids tried sledding down our hill.  It was frustrating for them because they kept sinking in or had to work really hard to get it back up the hill. 

Ian did have luck on his first sled of the week, but that was about it.  You can see the start of his track in the bottom right of the picture, and he made an almost 90-degree turn as he went down the hill, ending up on the left side of this picture.  

So Monday we woke up to 8 inches of snow. Added  a few more Wednesday morning. And Sunday... this is how it looked Sunday. It was melted. Forget sledding.  

Instead, they were out playing football, riding bikes/scooters, and I sat outside and read a book in a sweatshirt.  

Sunday night, I had to play handbells at the memorial service for one of the founding members of our church. As I got out of  my car at the top of the hill, the clouds were a beautiful color from the setting sun.  

2015 Week Two | January 5-11

We returned to school this week from winter break on Tuesday, only to have Wednesday off for a too-cold day.  The kids and I celebrated by having smoothies with breakfast- the perfect breakfast when it's negative twenty-something with windchill outside. 

Annaliese and I spent part of the cold day working on one of the activities in her Kiwi Crate. We made a winterscape luminary with some tissue paper, glue, stickers, and an LED candle.  

Our kitchen table is in a nook with windows on all sides so not the warmest place when the wind blows.  So picnic by the fireplace, inspired by picnic by the Christmas tree, was born.  

By the time the weekend had rolled around, then temps had gone up and the wind had died down. The kids took to playing on the steep hill in our backyard, climbing to the top...

and then slide back down.  

We stopped by HyVee after church on Sunday. So miss living more than five minutes from that store.  They were super helpful and my ankle only got run over once...

And of course we made sure to get home in time to watch the Packers fight off the Cowboys to play in the NFC Championship game next week.  

2014 Week Three | January 13-19

This past week was exhausting.  I had early meetings 3/5 days this week, and was busy with something every night after work but Friday. Because of that, most of the pictures for this week-in-review come from the weekend.  It's a three-day weekend, so plenty of time to recoup my sleep.

Here's what happened this week:

My office, a place a barely saw this week because I was busy at schools. And when I did, I made a trek.

By the time Friday night rolled around, I was exhausted, so we went out to Red Robin for dinner.  Both kids started out on my side of the booth, and by the time dinner was done, they were on Darrin's side.  If you are going to RR anytime soon, might I suggest the sweet potato fries. They're the best I've ever had.

Saturday was PJ day.  Here, Ian's helping Annaliese on her Innotab. Later, they were practically in the same position, and they were reading their magazine together.  They are each others best friend.

Saturday Darrin installed my tablet shelf he gave me for Christmas.  It frees up much needed counter space and works beautifully... if you're my height. Darrin's too tall and it cuts the top off when sitting vertically.

Saturday it was 63 degrees in January. Unheard of.  Perfect weather for taking down the Christmas lights.  Ian went up in November to put them up with Darrin and never moved from the spot Darrin told him to sit; he was terrified. I walked outside and heard Darrin telling someone to be careful. I figured it wasn't Ian, and yelled up, with astonishment and fear, "You have Annaliese up there!?!?!" She was walking around up there, fearless. Darrin told her to sit so I could snap a picture and she said, "But that's boring!"

When she safely got down, she went for a bike ride.

Then we went for a family walk on the trails behind the houses that are across the street from us.  We've lived here nine years, and this is the first time Darrin and the kids have been back there. I've been running/walking back there when the weather's nice for about a year.

The frozen creek bed. The only sign of winter on the 60+ temp day.

Ian had fun running the trails and jumping off the hills. We saw many bicyclists, and he decided he wants to learn to ride his bike without training wheels so he can ride back there.

King and Queen of the mountain

Annaliese and Darrin headed home, while Ian and I stayed out to explore longer.  I was going to snap a shot of him walking from behind, but he turned in time and posed for me.

Snow Fun

At home, our ground is basically ugly, brown grass, but at Grandma and Grandpa's, just a few hours away, it's covered in snow.  Lots and lots of fluffy white snow that we saw fall on Christmas Eve and Day.  On Thursday, we headed out to the hill behind my parents' house and went sledding.  The weather was perfect- 20 degrees and sunny with no wind, so instead of freezing, we worked up a sweat.

At first, we thought it would be a repeat of last year, when Annaliese only went down the hill once. On her first trip down the hill last year, she got snow in her face and chose not to go again. Well, on her first trip down this year, she got snow in her face again, but this time, after she screamed and had it wiped off, she chose to go again and again and again.

Ian just kept going and going and going, loving every minute of it. At first, after witnessing all the snow Annaliese was getting in her face, he covered his face going down, but he quickly got over that.  He loved to go off the snow piles and catch a little air, but even more, he just loved going fast. 

Mom and I both got in a bit on the sledding, too. 

Her first trip down. Not a happy girl!

But that didn't stop her!

After seeing Annaliese take snow to the face, he elected to cover his.

But the covering didn't last long. Making a new trail.

Catching some air.

That sled was my sister's... it's at least 20 years old and is in AMAZING shape.

Oh, the frustration of having the cord around your leg.

Grandma found Aunt Cara's sled that holds three. The kids were so excited by how fast and far they could go with all three of them on the sled.

Poor Annaliese, being small often stinks...

not that you can tell from this picture.

Yep, that's me. We caught some air over the snow pile.

And that's my mom with a death grip on Annaliese... I have another picture with a big look of fear on her face, but I decided to be a nice daughter and post this one instead.

Darrin decided to forge a path through the piles created by the snow plow. This allowed them to go down the hill in the above pictures, across the drive, and down this hill into the forest, as Ian referred to it.

As Annaliese got to the top of this hill, she looked up and said, "You gotta be kidding me. There's another hill!"  Yep, that's why I like my role as photographer. I don't have to hike the hills as much.

Coming down the second hill through the trees, catching a bit of air down here, too. 

Sledding at Grandma and Grandpa's

Friday the 28th we spent at my parents' house. Growing up, I always had a great time sledding there, and I'm so glad my kids can experience sledding there, too (though Annaliese did NOT enjoy it!)  Behind their house is a large shed to hold a semi and trailer.  The road to get to it is long with a slight incline, and the fact the snow is scraped and then packed makes it go pretty fast.  By the end, though, the gravel was really showing, so Darrin and Ian switched to a complete opposite type of hill- short and steep.  Both of them were equally fun.  When we set out from the house, we had to go down the steep, short hill to get to the road.  Annaliese went down on her sled and when she reached the bottom, the first words out of her mouth were, "Go back to Gan-ma and Gan-pa's!"  She was adamant about it and really didn't like sledding. Darrin took her two more times after that, with her kicking and screaming. Then we just had her stand by whoever was snapping the pictures, though Darrin did get her to go down one more time at the end... by tricking her.

We went sledding with my sister and my nephew Oliver. He, unlike Annaliese, loved it.  It was snowing lightly while we were going and the snow was so powdery. It was perfect.

This was Annaliese's second time down. Not loving it, but at least she allowed Darrin to take her.

And this was her third time. You can't tell from the pictures that she hated it, but she got off and just screamed and kicked when Darrin tried to pick her up.  Ian, however, is loving every minute.

I actually passed the camera off and got in on the sledding, too.

I just love the composition of the photo, though I wish there was something prettier in the background...

A wide view of where we are. If you click on the picture to make it bigger, you can really see how pretty it was with the snow falling.

A switch to the short, steep hill. The show here isn't packed down like the road, and it was so powdery. There was lots of snow flying in the face.

Bracing for the incoming snow...

At the bottom of the hill. His long eyelashes had collected snowflakes that then melted into water droplets.

Love the contrast of her bright clothes with the white snow.

After going down the steep hill a few times, they thought they had it packed enough to go on their stomachs. Ian had a great time, but Darrin still took some snow to the face.

Trying to catch flakes on her tongue.

Last sled ride. They went down the steep hill again, but got off the track.  Annaliese really didn't enjoy it and was defending herself against the impending snow about to fly in her face.