Blue and Gold

We went to Austin's Blue and Gold dinner for scouts on Friday. I guess it will be our last, unless we decide to get into a scout troop outside the Church at the end of the year when the Church separates from the scouting program. We'll see.  I'm excited to see what lies ahead for the youth in the Church.

The theme was Be Brave so each boy was asked to perform or display a talent for a little variety show. Austin wanted to perform a magic trick, but he didn't practice it much, so I convinced him to perform one of his piano songs that he'll be playing for Federation in a couple of weeks. He really does a good job on the piano and puts in some quality practice time. It's definitely a talent of his!

He didn't actually get any scout awards that night since he had gotten a bunch the previous pack meeting and they only met twice since then, due to snow days. He supported his fellow Bears, though, and got to carry the flag during the flag ceremony.

The Bears 

Here's the link to his song. It wouldn't post like it normally does....

https://youtu.be/ODmSL7xCfn4

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day was kind of a blur. I was getting over a cold, Jason had a busy work week, and we had another snow day on Tuesday (because of sleet and ice again) and I didn't really know which day it was all week long!

On Tuesday night, the snow day, the girls and I went to the church to support the Young Women fundraiser for Girl's Camp this summer. We made chocolate covered strawberries and packaged them for the ward members who had preordered them. 

Busy at work!

The final product

 Since my favorite treat is chocolate covered strawberries, Jason bought me a couple. I had also ordered a few to support the YW and be sure I had enough to give some away. We well-supported this fundraiser!

Other than our yummy chocolates, Jason brought home some take-out for us from BD's Mongolian. I ordered stir fry from there so we could enjoy it without the kids being jealous since they're not big fans of stir fry. Funny thing was, Victoria is the least fond of it and she was the one begging for some! I even baked the kids' (mostly Victoria and Karissa's) favorite tortilla encrusted tilapia from Costco and she still was begging!

He also brought me these beautiful flowers!

The Saturday before, Karissa got to go to the temple for the first time! Jason and I took both the girls together and enjoyed that wonderful experience with her!

 The night before Valentine's day was the girls orchestra concert, that had been postponed from the week before becasuse of a snow day. Here's one of each of their songs.

Warming up

I love this family of mine!

Ahhh!

Just when you think you can have no more snow days, you get another one. I kinda knew the forecast for Wednesday wasn't looking great (freezing rain, ice, and sleet), but I chose to look the other way, as I think all parents did, even some educators. However, we got the call at 5:11 am on Wednesday saying that it was not safe and school was cancelled. A thin sheet of ice covered the ground everywhere, with more ice forming during the morning commute.

It's hard to see the ice drops in this picture, but all the white stuff is ice.

Luke loves to hang out in the bathroom because it's really warm in there with the vent. Erik is his snuggle buddy in the morning.

 The good thing about snow days is we get caught up on our sleep and have time to do other projects, the bad thing is that my kids are getting tired of each other and are fighting way too much!

Luckily I had bought an early Valentine's gift for the kids: an air hockey/foosball table. We already have an air hockey table, but it's getting old and I wanted a Foosball table for them as well, so I found a small one at Aldi, half off, which included both games! It's a little smaller than I thought, so air hockey might be annoying on it, but Foosball should be fun. Austin and I put it together yesterday and it took up all the morning and parts after noon. I now have a sore hand from pushing the screwdriver in so hard!

If you notice, his pjs are on backwards. That's one of the traditions to do to guarantee a snow day the next day. It's all his fault we had a snow day ;)

He wore his pjs the entire day!

Victoria choreographed her dance she needs to perform for her Cecchetti exam in May. It's been a long process because she had to choose music and edit it, which was tricky for her, and us, and then she had to choreograph it, which has been harder than she thought. She's redone it a few times, but I think what she has now is a winner! Now she has to perfect it. Here's a video, mostly for her to watch to remember it, as well as to ask Grandma Pat, who majored in dance, for some tips. This is just a halfway job, due to lack of space and mostly to "mark" it.

Karissa invited Olivia over and they made crafts, including this cute cat/cupcake pillow. I forgot his name, though... He's super cute!

Complete with cool whip and a cherry on top!

I think she wore her pjs all day too!

Erik played with his toys, read books, played some Mario Kart, and played Foosball with Austin. There may have been some fighting among some of them, but I'm trying to be positive!

Snow Days!

Did I say it's been a mild winter in my last post? I take it back. It's just been a crazy winter, weather-wise. Check this out:

That was without the wind chill. The real feel has been -21, for the high, and it got down to -41 at the coldest point this morning. Basically, everything has been cancelled, school included. Dance, Youth activities at the church, Scouts, even Red Bell, though I think a few kids whose parents actually have to go into work have been there for at least part of the day. Jason came in from work early on Monday. Ford sent them all home, due to the snow storm. A lot of employees are still working from home, though Jason opted to go in. It's hard to get work done at home with 4 cooped up kids! He took the Explorer, in case the cold weather affected the van during the commute. We even got an emergency alert to keep our thermostats set at no higher than 65, to save on energy.

The kids and I have had fun at home. They didn't have much homework and I made them do it yesterday morning along with their music practice and reading so we could watch movies and play games the rest of the time. We ventured out and went to playgroup at the church this morning so the kids could run around. We tried to blow bubbles so they would freeze outside, but they just blew away, but our frozen water balloons worked out really well!

We just put them in the snow and they froze very quickly! 

We put food coloring in some of them. Here's a few after taking off the balloons. I didn't take pictures of the others because I couldn't stand going out too much. Austin came in crying after the final time he went out to take off the balloons because his hands were so cold, after only a few minutes.

He's been dying to make Resurrection rolls since last Easter, so we did.

Painting squishies.

 Tomorrow there will be school since the 6 am temperature is supposed to be 1 with a wind chill of 1.
As long as the wind chill  doesn't get below 20, we can have school. We're going to try to go sledding right after school so we don't miss the fun that we haven't been able to enjoy, due to the cold temps. Austin and I will be busy Saturday. On Sunday, it's supposed to be 47 and then 54 on Monday and raining! All this beautiful snow will be gone and who knows if it will return?! It's going to feel like 80 degrees warmer!!

What are Austin and I going to do Saturday? We're going to the second session of his brain study. He was selected to be a participant in a study of the brain. They needed 9 year-olds and we had done something similar a couple years ago, so we were on the list. It's through Wayne State University and they're studying the affects of trauma and anxiety on children's brains. Last Friday, they trained him on the MRI and asked him loads of questions. Then he went into the MRI and pressed some buttons according to what he saw on a screen that would trigger different reactions in his brain. He had to stay perfectly still for over an hour in there. They commented on how hard it is, even as adults, and that he had done a much better job than some of the adults they had done. Austin was the first one in the Detroit area to do this particular test. We go again on Saturday for more questions, some physical tests, and some other things that I don't even know, for 5 hours! The best part for him is that he will get paid $150. Since I'm not making money with all these snow days, at least he is! They want to keep up with us every 6 months for the next couple of years and he will get paid each time he goes. He loves his little job! He plans on buying a hover board with his first full payment.

Going in for the MRI

Snow and Ice

It doesn't matter if it's a "mild" winter in Michigan. We always manage to get some kind of weather here. We had a little more snow in November than we usually have, but no snow in December. Temperatures weren't bad either. Most of January was without much snow and temps were mild overall, but we had some cold weather during the annual ice festival, which made walking around and taking pictures of the ice sculptures not as pleasant, though Karissa was happy to with her new phone that she got for her 12th birthday. For some reason, though, her photos wouldn't transfer to my computer, so here's the one photo I took. You can see a sculpture behind us, though I don't even remember which one it is! It's always a big and fun event, just very crowded and usually cold. We try to make an appearance every other year or so. This year it was just Karissa and I.

We finally got a snowstorm last Friday and got a few inches out of it. It was perfect timing because I was planning on taking Austin skiing. Since he's a 4th grader he gets to go free with a paying adult. I volunteered to take him! He decided to try skiing again, whereas in Colorado he tried snowboarding. I was glad about that. Since he's only gone skiing once, I was able to give him some pointers, which he quickly learned. In turn, he challenged me to go off some jumps, though I didn't jump, just enjoyed going up and down with a little extra air.

He lost his goggles in the parking lot on the way up to the ticket line, somehow. I was a little worried about him because it was very cold and windy. Goggles do make a difference with keeping your face warm. The real feel was -2 when we left!

We saw the sun set. It was beautiful! I think the reason his face didn't freeze was because he talked to me nonstop!

That's the moon from our upstairs window. 

We didn't have school Monday for MLK day. It was a regular day Tuesday, though I thought it curious that it was 25 degrees and raining that evening. Well, all that rain ended up freezing on the ground overnight and we had a snow day on Wednesday! They even closed the airport that morning, it was so bad! It got up to 41 that day, so it rained some more. In the afternoon, the boys and I decided to see what the sled hill looked like. It was not pretty, but they still went down on the slush and wet grass. They got very wet and muddy! I got to try out my snowshoes in the parts where there was still snow. The rest of it is almost gone, but it's probably going to snow again next week, so I think we can try again!

That big gray puddle is where we usually end up after sledding down the hill. We avoided that area this time!

Los Gatos

Our cats make life interesting at our home, especially for me. They're like two more kids during mealtime. When I start opening the fridge repeatedly to prepare a meal, they will stand right in front of it, so they make sure they get fed as well. Half the time I'm tripping over them. 

When we got Leia, the Humane Society told us to make sure we gave her canned food at least once a day. They were happy to hear that we were currently giving Luke some canned food three times a day, so they knew she would be in good hands! We just give them each a small fork full, but they look forward to it. 

Leia has done her job in helping Luke behave, just a little. She always scratches on the scratching post, so he does more now, though he will scratch the carpet here and there, mostly to make us mad. I know because he does it with a defiant look on his face. Then he gets in trouble... 

They both now sleep with Jason and I, though they will sometimes sleep with the boys since we keep their door open for the benefit of the cats. They love Karissa's room because she has a nice big bed by the window, but her door isn't always open. Of course they love Victoria's room because she's got that delicious-looking crested gecko in there, but they're usually forbidden from her room, unless she's feeling up to the task of keeping them on her bed and off the tank with lots of good kitty cuddles. 

Leia loves to hang her paws off the cat tree.

Kitty family portrait

Luke is very handsome, but oh so naughty!

Leia is so sweet and cuddly!

They're good friends.

We love our crazy cats!

My Little Young Woman

Karissa turned 12 last Sunday, as I mentioned in my last post. We had a great celebration with Jason's family and I think she enjoyed the drive to Lincoln, listening to Harry Potter. Today, her Young Women's leaders came over to officially welcome her to the Young Women program. Since all the girls who turn 12 this year are going into Beehives as well (which are only 2 more girls in addition), it's nice for her to have had a little more time to prepare. I think the other two families are a little shocked still to have their first-born girls going into YW already. Karissa has a nice clean sweep into the program and the new schedule. It's good they're moving up with her, not only because they are her friends, but because there will now be 4 Beehives instead of 2. Last year at this time, Karissa went to the New Beginnings event where they officially welcomed her into the program, even though she wouldn't actually join til the last day of the year, basically.

One yer ago!

Her birthday party was on Friday. She decided as she made her invitations, that she wanted to have a Disney theme, though it wasn't a strict theme, just an excuse to play Disney music, make a Mickey Mouse cake, wear Minnie Mouse ears, and watch a Disney movie. The girls played Headbands, made clay creations, and ate dinner (which included chili, hot dogs, baked potatoes, chips, pretzels, fruits, and veggies). I have decided I really like feeding these growing friends of my girls. As with at Victoria's party, they raved over my homemade chili and even the potatoes and hot dogs, which required no effort on my part. After dinner we did the cake and presents so one friend could go home early. The rest watched The Lion King. It was a fun, hang-out party.

We made the cake together.

She came up with the Mickey ear idea.

Games in the basement.

Clay creations took a long time for these creative girls!

Some bop-it while waiting for others to finish eating.

Clay masterpieces. 

Karissa may be small in size, but she has a maturity that shows her age, though she's got a great sense of humor (interesting, sometimes) and loves to be goofy. She loves to help in the kitchen, which makes me really happy. She makes a smoothie every day after school, loves to make breakfast food, and bake desserts. She's a girl after my own heart with that desire to make sweet things to eat!

She attends East Middle School and is in the TAG program there. When she and Victoria meet up at Discovery (Victoria's school) after Karissa's bus arrives there, she becomes Victoria's best friend to show off to all her friends. That wouldn't happen if they went to the same school. She enjoys playing the viola in the orchestra, singing alto in choir, and playing the piano. We're looking into a tumbling class, now that cheer season and the holidays are over. The thing she loves the most, however, is drawing. She had become an excellent artist! She draws all the time. Lucky for her, she had art as her first term elective. (Lucky too because Victoria's good friend's mom was the teacher!)

Some recent artwork of hers.

One of her favorites.

Another favorite.

What she made in class at school.

Happy Birthday Karissa!!