A New Year

We got to go to Zap Zone on New Year's Eve morning for some free bumper cars, laser tag and glo golf, organized for our church members in the area here. Way later, when it was actually evening, we enjoyed our annual Mercado dance party and bubbly drinks to greet the new year... at 7 pm here. (I didn't want to start the new year off with overly-tired kids!) Though, Victoria somehow convinced Jason and I to stay up 'til midnight by watching 1 1/2 movies with her. I'm just not a night owl anymore, I was tired! I did enjoy watching the rest of The Parent Trap, which she had started earlier that week, and showing Jason the new Cinderella. It was a chick-flick night!

Erik loved the bumper cars!

I forgot to post these fun pics of our ice skating trip the last week of vacay.

Erik enjoyed the use of the "walker".

I love to ice skate! Victoria is in the distance in turquoise.  She brought a friend and I never got a good shot of them. 

Austin, the ice man!

 This year church starts at 1 now, so we came home after 4 on Sunday, which was fast Sunday, to a delicious crock pot of split pea soup. Erik had done really well in the CTR 4 class and seemed a lot older to me when I picked him up from his class. He was happy that his classroom is closer to mine now and that he got his very own CTR ring. Taking advantage of this new Erik, when we got home I told him it was the day he was going to throw away his sippy cup and drink milk from a big-boy cup at the table with us during dinner. (He had told me that after Christmas he would throw it away, so it wasn't too big a surprise. I just wanted to wait until the new year). Still feeling older, he gave me no resistance and threw it away! Of course when I offered him the many cups from our cupboard to choose from, he chose the "big-boy" disposable sippy cup that I had on hand for guests. Since it was smaller and harder to drink from, I complied. He has drunk a little less milk since then because it is harder to drink from. Yesterday, he picked out a set of three new cups at the store and we threw away the disposable sippy cups (he called them big-boy cups). His new three come with lids and straws, maybe one step better?

Sippy cup in the recycling bin!

For the new year we are trying to have the kids more responsible for the home. They have made new job charts which include their daily, tri-weekly, and weekly jobs. Each of the older three will also be cooking dinner once a month (Victoria choose to do it twice) and washing dishes once a week. They have done well so far and I already feel a load lifted of my shoulders! I have a feeling, though, that we might be eating mac and cheese for dinner here and there. Hopefully I can convince Karissa and teach her how to make something different!

I think our basement project will be done soon. It has slowed down since Jason went back to work, but we are now mudding it. I even watched a 25 minute video yesterday about the proper way to do it so I can help more!

Jason at work. He looks like Grandpa Jim here with that belt!

To the left, where it's cream colored, is the start of my new shelves, the whole reason for this project. More melamine will go up over the frame in the middle there and complete the back of the shelving section. 

Here's to a new year!