Blasts from the Past... circa 1969

Both of the kids have discovered a new favorite TV show recently, and just by coincidence, they are both from 1969!! Any guesses on what it may be? They are not related at all, except for the year!

For Zoey, it is The Brady Bunch!

Please cue the music,

"Here's a story, of a lovely lady..."

Her friend from school has the DVDs and started watching them, so she let Zoey borrow the first season. I honestly wasn't sure what she would think, but she has been enjoying them for the most part. She loves the episodes where the Brady's dog, Tiger, seems to get into trouble. And she makes funny comments like, "all the boys look exactly alike! Even the Dad, how weird!" And oh the Brady's, they were soooo NOT PC! The girls only cook and sew and the boys do sports and that is that! Zoey asks things like, "Only boys don't play baseball, right? That is just silly! Are they just joking? Girls can play too! Remember, we saw it on TV?" (She remembers the girls softball from the Olympics.) We are only watching the first season, when they are all young and cute. I don't know how far we will go from there. I do like the innocence of it, though. For the most part, there isn't much on the show that I don't want her to see... which is drastically different from TV today!

And for Max...Scooby Doo!! Also, 1969!! Again, I would not have thought he would have liked it too much because of the scary aspect and just in general it isn't quite like the stuff he normally likes, but then I got to thinking... Max loves, loves, loves that slapstick type of humor (like the Three Stooges, with the falling and bonking and stuff.) He just cracks up and has since he was a little baby watching older kids snowboard down a hill and falling!!

So after we went to a friends birthday party who had a Scooby cake and Max just kept talking about Scooby Doo, I thought I would find a show and let him see it. And then I remembered all the things that happen to Scooby and Shaggy that I knew Max would find funny! But what about the scary parts? I mean they are riding around in the Mystery Machine, looking for ghosts and zombies and witches, after all! Well, 1969 scary is not the same as 2009 scary in terms of TV! It doesn't even phase him really. He is just laughing at Scooby and Shaggy and all the shenanigans they get themselves into! And for the first day he just kept laughing to himself about Scooby and "Zaggy"! So Cute!


The funny thing for Ross and I, is that we totally remember the episodes and watching them ourselves! Ross was a Brady Bunch Scooby Doo fan!

Brrr... Baby It's Cold Outside

Doesn't it just look cold out?

We are coming out of a FOUR day weekend here. Not because of snow (we got a couple of inches at the most) but because of deep freeze. (Remind me some time to tell you about all of the crazy weather things that happen anytime Ross and I move to a new place... I am actually starting to believe it might be us.)

Today should be a high of 18 degrees. Which is actually a warm-up from days past. They cancelled school on Friday because it was a high of ZERO!! I think in the middle of the night it was -12 or something like that. Canadians would scoff at me, I suppose, but it is a little unusual for here. And in case you were wondering, the car thermometer reading actual does negative numbers! Check it out:


And that was at 6:30 in the evening! Yikes!

Zoey and Ross had some fun shoveling the driveway and even sledding a bit before it got super cold. Unfortunately, the snow was super cold and dry (dry snow? It just doesn't pack together Ross tells me) so no Snowman making! Zoey has been waiting for enough snow to do that, but alas... she must continue to wait... Here's the alternative (slave labor):


And then what do you do? Just hang out inside... At least we have Dad to climb on:


And smiles to go around!



I'm off to hibernate, see you in the spring! (ahh, how I wish)

Outta My Way! And Other Funnies...

We went to a bookstore this evening and Max walked in the door and headed straight for the stairs which lead to the kids section. When I say he headed STRAIGHT for the stairs, it means he went straight through a group of people... with eyes only on the prize, so to speak. As I grabbed him and apologized to the group, who just smiled an understanding smile, he yells, "I'm sorry Mr. Guys, I'm sorry Mrs. Guys!" They all laughed at that. And as he headed up the stairs, he turned to them again and SHOUTED, "Sorry Mr. and Mrs. Guys!"

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And just for our own memories... Zoey has a real practical way of thinking; she often replays things in her head and logically explains why certain things happen. She also does this when giving names to things that she doesn't know the name of. The neat thing is that we know exactly what she is talking about when she says it. Some examples:

"the winder-upper"-- the reel on the fishing rod
"the yellow plugger" -- A yellow extension cord
"the ear-booger getter" -- the Q-tip

Have a good week!

Wintry Mix and Cookies...

It looks like this outside...


Cold and gray and freezing rain! We've played hide and go seek inside, lots of board games and computer games, and even blew up an air mattress in the basement so the kids could bounce around... So what else do you do when the kids are restless and getting on each other's nerves? Make Cookies!! I actually planned for it... The weather was supposed to be much worse and Max is a little sick, so I figured today would be a home bound day! Max used to only be interested in the eating part of cookies, until one day at school they made a pie and followed picture instructions! So Ross drew up some instructions, and since then, he is the lead baker!! Here he is holding the recipe paper and also a picture of the recipe paper Ross drew:













Here he is proudly holding the cookie dough! As I was spooning it onto the cookie sheet, he was going over the instructions and said, "Now you put this onto the cookie sheet, and then they GROW UP into cookies!!! YUMMMMY"


And here is the proud baker watching the "cookie growth" happen! Magic!

Hope you all have a good week! We are getting an arctic blast in a couple of days!! Mom and Dad, do you want to visit again??

Rope Climb

Check Zoey out climbing the rope in her gymnastics class the other day!!

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

She is interesting, although probably not unlike many of us, in the fact that she is very competitive, but careful in what she chooses to be competitive about. Later on in the class they climbed up on one of the high bars and just hung. They were seeing who could do it the longest. Zoey got up there and hung, and hung, and hung... You could see in her face, she was not going to give up!! The other girls fell off and she still hung. She even got her teacher out there to compete against her!! Ross and I were very proud, we must say!! I wish I could have captured her face on camera... Sheer determination!! But with new things that she is a little unsure of, she quickly shies away from. It's that fear of being a beginner and not being immediately successful at, that we struggle with. I think she has great potential for many things, it is just hard for us to get over the initial hump of being new and needing to learn. It's interesting how she has transitioned from a child without reservations, to being aware of her capabilities and then already using that awareness to make decisions. How quickly they grow and become independent individuals, right before our eyes!!

Picky Picky

To go along with our Hockey adventure the other night, Max got some cool shirts for Christmas with hockey emblems and words all over them. Anytime he sees it on TV now, he yells, "HOCKEY!" and has been wanting to wear one of the new shirts every day. He used to be the easy one... I could just pick whatever for him to wear and he would put it on without a second look... BUT NO MORE!

This morning we were walking into his room to get him dressed for church. Since he was sick on Christmas Eve, he didn't get to wear the cute button down shirt I bought him, so I thought he could wear it today... Mommy was wrong...

Me: Hey Max, let's go get dressed for church. I have a cute new shirt for you to wear!

Max: A hockey shirt?

Me: No, a different new one. It is very handsome, I can't wait to see it on you. (as I am pulling it out of the closet to show him)

Max: Ummm, NO.

Me: You don't want to wear this?

Max: Nope.

Me: Okay, well you can choose another one of your new shirts. (I hold up two exact same shirts, just different colors, and also new)

Max: Umm, No thank you. (at least he's polite)

Me: (thinking...I am not doing this with you!! You stinker! I fight your sister every day and now you????) How about a helicopter shirt?

Max: Okay (Ah... compromise, that is almost like a win for me, right?)

For the most part, if they are dressed properly for the weather, Zoey has taught me to just not fight this battle. We'll see if this was a one time thing, or ...

On another note, after being so picky about his clothes this morning...He learned about the Feast of the Three Kings at Sunday school today and then proudly wore his crown (which he normally wouldn't do). Just keeping me on my toes I guess.

Making Vacation Last

CHEESE!

We are trying to make the most of our vacation (just two more days!!). So we just had a fun day hanging out with the kids, eating lunch out, going to a fun bookstore, and playing around the big Christmas tree! Here is another picture from this afternoon:

Tea for Two

My kids love tea parties, but for a while it was an outside only activity. Since they do their own pouring, this was a necessity for my sanity. However, as kids do, they have grown a little and can now have one inside!! No huge spills or clothes changes required!! It is so fun for them, so I try to accomodate when I can. I make them green tea and cool it down with some ice cubes and they just drink away!! Pip Pip Cheerio!



They have a method to their tea drinking as well. The set comes with a sugar and cream dish, they put in the tea and then pretend sugar and cream. However, I usually use milk in my tea, so they don't add cream, they add milk. It is funny how they pick up on little things like that. Anyway, Zoey was quick to offer Max some "pre-fat milk"! Not exactly the milk I use, but worked for them!

Happy New Year!!

So here we are!! I already wrote the date wrong!! I found this quote I thought was interesting... especially if you are kind of lazy like me and sometimes just drift along...

"I TOOK A LONG, DEEP BREATH AND WONDERED AS USUAL, WHERE TO START. YOU START WHERE YOU ARE, IS THE SECRET OF LIFE. YOU DO THE NEXT RIGHT THING YOU CAN SEE. THEN THE NEXT."

-Anne Lamott

Another idea... resolutions... some people love them, some people hate them... One way to do it would be to set monthly goals. Each month try something new or change a habit. Do it for the whole month (much less of a commitment) and at the end of the month, you will have developed a new habit that perhaps will keep going, OR you can throw it out, knowing that you have given it a shot and a priority in your life and have realized that it doesn't work for you. What do you think of my life coaching skills? Just joking... on another note...

Today is Ross' Grandmother's 90th birthday!! She is a sweet lady... we wish we could be there for her party today!!