Snow Day, Snow Day, La La La La La Laaa

22 inches of snow over a span of 6 days!  We had a break in between, however, that occurred over a weekend so the kids were out of school Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday!  I don't think I have EVER had 4 snow days in a row in my entire school carrier!  The funniest thing is that this was Amanda's first ever snow day experience.  What a way to be introduced!

(Just to warn you, Honey, most winters are not like this so don't start banking on it!)

We had a lot of snow play...

... and the dogs were loving it!   I think they are more snowdogs than waterdogs.
(but they DO love their water!!!!)

 We passed the time by playing Uno for cookies.  Amanda usually wins, however when there are girl scout cookies at stake, I step up my game! : )

Snow Cone Surprise Tuesday

 I've been busy trying to get my new business up and running and some days I loose track of time.  This Tuesday was one of those days.  5 minutes before the kids were due to get off the school bus I remembered it was Surprise Tuesday and I had not planned a surprise for the kids yet.   This is our tradition, every Tuesday, during the school year, as I've written about before and my children KNOW when it's Tuesday, REMEMBER that there should be a surprise waiting for them when they get home, and WILL NOT let me forget!  EVER.  Knowing that my monkeys were about to walk through the door and not wanting to see their sad little faces when there was not a surprise, I whipped up these little snowy concoctions in record time.

I must say, I surprised myself with the simplicity and resourcefulness of this project.  A blinder full of ice, two fancy cups, and three super saturated Kool-Aid packets and WALLAH! 


SURPRISE 
SNOW CONES!!!

They were a huge hit!!!

Crisis averted.

And two 
happy 
little monkeys!

Four Days of Celebration

We started celebrating Logan's birthday on Saturday....  Okay, Friday night, but Saturday he got to open his present from Grandma and Grandpa Alley!








Inside this crazy wraped package of madness, he got a battle game (that I don't have a photo of to date) and some REAL METAL handcuffs.  As you can see, Amanda is not too trilled with his latter gift.

But, being a selfless mom, I played along!  : )

Then, he helped me for a bit with his latest room redo....

Iron-on transfers of jets on his closet curtains.

I think they turned out super cool... we had to make our own, because I had a hard time finding "grown up" jet curtains.  We couldn't put baby looking jets in this big boy's room, now could we?


Saturday night, Logan went to a hockey game with his dad (Amanda is a fuddy-duddy and didn't want to go).

Then on Sunday he wanted to go ice skating himself.  Guess he was inspired by all those players.  Let me tell you, those hockey players make it look MUCH easier that it really is!

 But he was getting the hang of it...

 Then decided he was ready to go solo, fell, hit his head on the ice and gave himself a mild concussion!

Happy Birthday
 from the ER!

 

Monday, we was good enough to go to school...

When he got home he had a gift in the mail from Grandpa and Debbie.

 


(Looking good, Amanda!)

He got his very own set of Binoculars!!!

YEA!!!!! He can stop "borrowing" mine now!

 I've been getting hourly reports ever-since on the squirrel living in our bird house out back!  : )

 He also made a "Wild" Valentines Day box for School...

 ... and Amanda keeps photo bombing him!

 Then this morning, we took him for donuts before school!


Happy Birthday, my mature and worldly 9 year old boy!

   I picked him up for lunch from school and he chose Burger King as his birthday lunch.  Then we skipped a little school to drive his r/c car at the park.  I'm sure his teacher wouldn't have minded, had they known.  ; )

And now, to finish off his special day, we are off to swim lessons!

Let the water games begin!

Birthday Drive

Logan got his birthday present from us a little early, since his actual birthday falls on a Tuesday this year.  This year he requested a SUPER FAST r/c car and a trip to the r/c park.  This track is here in town and is super cool!  Too bad it was so windy and cold Saturday.  But I guess that's what you get with a February birthday!

Notice that there are two cars driving around?  Eric decided that Logan needed a "friend" to drive with so he got himself a car as well.  What a selfless Father, huh?  Sacrificing his own time and money for such tedious play... all for the good of his son.

Buddy Burner

 All this nice weather has got me Jones'in for some camping!  Sunday the kids and I did some camp prep by making some buddy burners (AKA Mom-Fire-Starters-'Cus-She-Sucks-At-Fire-Building.)

We reused some tuna cans (Thanks Jules!), cut up some cardboard and put inside, then melted some old candles we had around the house.

 After everything was nice and melted, we poured the hot wax over the cardboard.

Fun times in the Monkey House!  Now LETS CAMP!!