Valentine's Day

Happy Belated Valentine's Day! Zoey loves any and all holidays. Me, too really! (But mine is more of an excuse to eat special foods, not the holiday itself.) One thing Zoey loves is dressing the part. We often get the little $5 shirts at Target that celebrate the day!! Here is a cute outfit she got from Grandma and couldn't wait to wear for her school party:


She was sooo excited. Normally, she is slow to get out of bed and get ready for school, but on this day, as I reminded her that it was party day... she opened her eyes and popped out of bed!! She practically jumped into those heart tights!!

Snow Days!!

A couple of weeks ago, the kids actually had four days off from school!! I forgot that I took pictures and never posted! The snow wasn't actually that bad... we did have about an inch of ice though! The ice then was covered with about 6 inches of snow. It made for some nightmarish roads for a couple of days, which kept us homebound. I didn't mind though! I love it when we have a fun and unexpected day off. Ross got a couple of days off too, so it was good for everyone.
Here are some pictures from the first round of snow... before the ice:

It's All Relative

It was sunny with a high of 48 degrees outside today.

Zoey opens up the door and walks outside with a big smile and exclaims, "OOOOOHHHH, it's Summer!"

Winter

Max and I had to take/pick up Zoey from her religious ed class the other night. It was 10 degrees. The wind was blowing, so the wind chill was even colder, of course. We all held hands and ran to the car. Now I try to stay positive in front of the kids when it comes to comments about the weather, so I don't take any responsibility for what Zoey said next, "OOOOHHH, some kids in my class say they just love winter. I just don't know why!! This is so bad! I only like summer and spring!" All I could do was nod in agreement and think, I feel your pain, Zoey! Oh yes, do I feel it! (or maybe I don't because I am numb from the cold)

Just to note, my blogging has been light in order to refrain from spewing out all negative comments towards the weather!! I just do not like winter. I do realize that not all people feel like me (how, I don't know, but those people are out there! Crazy, crazy people, running around, loving the cold...yeah right) My excuse is that I have that Seasonal Disorder (self-diagnosed, no less, but very true). And although I did grow up in Germany, I lived a long time in Texas and California, so this is just hard for me. So, this will be my last post about cold weather or complaining about it. Even though I know there is more ahead... there are some breaks out there! And I can say this all, knowing that today, finally, we will get above freezing. And that it will stay that way for a couple of days. And it is no longer January. And February is short, so there is a light out there...

In my former life I must have been a coconut.... oooh, yes, one that gets turned into a fruity drink with an umbrella:) Must be why Ross is partial to those!




Just kidding.




He likes beer.

Sports...Zoey's View

Some funny thoughts heard from Zoey today:

-I know what the Superbowl is! It is when you have to stay inside and watch football!

-Did you know there are two kinds of golf, Mommy? There is the kind that really old guys play. They swing hard and the ball goes way up in the air! And then there is the one like at Magic Castle! (miniature golf)

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)