Night with the Hippos

Tim planned another wonderful overnight trip for the scouts - Adventure Aquarium. This time it was just Tim and Steven and they had a blast!
They even got some "behind the scenes" tours. The top of the big tank (above and below here), and back where the hippos sleep, just like you can see in Dirty Jobs when Mike Rowe spends the day cleaning up after the hippos.

Crazy kid!

This is where they got to sleep - with the baracutta.

The hippos are the big attraction, but have a strict schedule. They were in bed before they arrived at 7pm, but they put on quite the show when the go back out to the aquarium at 9:30. Here is Button. They are amazingly graceful in the water. After she eats her hay she and her friend will spend the entire day in the water, with a bunch of fish. The fish clean the hippos, it's so cool to watch. Really, you can spend quite a bit of time watching the hippos.

Though after their adventure - they came home smelling a bit like hippos. Immediate showers were in order!

Pinewood Derby 2010

Here is the main dude and his Wiiiiiiiiii car.

Tim and Andrew in the inspection station. Making sure each car is the proper size, has the proper wheels and doesn't weigh more than 5.0 oz. Then they pass it off to the next Dad who enters the name, number and car name into the computer.

My boy scout, cubmaster and cub scout!

Kendyl was so excited to enter the family race.

Putting her car on the track.

She won 2 of the 3 runs she did, and came in 4th of the 16 cars in the family race!

Waiting patiently at the end for her car. The she expertly would get her car and run back to the beginning to put it back on again. She cried when her turns were over. "I beat boys Daddy". Tim was so proud!

Steven didn't win for speed this year, but we have a feeling (ok, inside knowledge) he will win in the artistic category. Awards are given out at the Blue & Gold Banquet on March 20. I am sworn to secrecy until then!

That's Kendyl

This is just the perfect "Kendyl Face" caught on camera.

Just had to share.

Snow, Snow and More Snow

As everyone is aware - we have been hit hard this winter with snow. We got 24" of snow on 2/6, then another 24" on 2/10. It was difficult to deal with as Tim was not around for most of it (he is "essential personnel" at work) and the stomach bug hit our house in the middle of the 2 storms. Here are a few from the 2nd storm - very out of order. I have more with the big piles from the plow I must not have downloaded yet.

Kendyl finally decided she liked the snow in the middle of the blizzard portion of the storm on 2/10. Either that or she just couldn't stand being inside any more! Andrew shoved a portion of the deck for her to play, but that wasn't good enough - she wanted to play in her playhouse. Steven is such a sweetie and made a path to the playhouse and carried her out there - and played with her. I stayed and shoveled the deck a bit more.
Later in the day we decided the trampoline looked a little heavy - so the boys went to clear off some of the snow....Kendyl had to go too of course. She loved playing on it, but kept loosing her boot.

After lunch we made snow ice cream - here the are getting the snow. This is only the left over 2 feet from the weekend and a few inches from the morning. The heavy stuff came in the afternoon.

This is what we woke up to on Thursday 2/11. Beautiful...but what happened to the driveway?

Here Kendyl is enjoying the snow again - after it finally stopped snowing. She is sitting on the 2-4 feet of snow.

This was before the plow arrived.

Tim worked for 2 days straight plowing and working at work, I couldn't see how he was going to then dig us out too so I surprised him with hiring a plow (just.this.once). He better not get used to it!

Little Miss "I Do It!"

January 13, 2010 - Kendyl insits on dressing herself. It's the beginning of the end.

While I love she is becoming independent (see, I even took pictures), I didn't expect what would come next. You see, not only does she now insist on dressing herself every morning (every.piece.of.clothing), but on picking it out too. Yes, in 2-3 weeks we have grow up about 10 years.
Turns out, these are her favorite pants. If they are clean....they are her go to pants. Luckily we have a few shirts to match.

She refuses to wear jeans.

Usually.

She loves dresses.

As long as it's the right one.

Which one depends on the day.

Sometimes it's a dress with pants. Why I didn't take a picture of that I will never know.




And here is a typcial morning. She now eats her cereal in the family room watching Curious George. Luckily we've only had one mess - that was because she was sitting on her knees and fell into her cereal - oops!

We do her hair right before we leave for school - that is if Kendyl is in the mood. Ahh, the joys of a girl.

Rockin the Tie

Sniff, sniff. Andrew's first tie. All boys were required to wear a tie, so Andrew and I went shopping for new pants, shirt, belt and tie. Thankfully he could wear his marching band shoes! It was quite funny trying to pick out just the right tie. We saw lots of ugly ones and I had fun teasing him with a few. It came down to 2 (both red and black as he wanted school colors). One serious and one fun. He had a tough time making the decision but finally went with the fun one and I'm glad he did. You could tell it was his tie, and not Daddy's borrowed tie like a lot of the boys looked like they had - ya know. Shows his personality.

Andrew's first middle school band concert. He HATED that I wanted to take pictures and pulled out the good old 12 year old attitude he has perfected recently. But I forced him to and got a few. None of his friends were around yet, so he couldn't be too mad. I do wish I had pictures with them too.

The concert band was amazing! Andrew was hiding behind is stand so I could only see from his eyes up. He was on the top raiser. But then it was time for jazz band, which he is loving. While they set up, I was able to sneak in a picture with a teeny smile thanks to Mr. Hess, his band director. The jazz band was AMAZING! Such talented kids. They started with 7 of the members doing a jazz improv. Wow! Then the group played a few songs all together with a few solos. Some have really found their true talent already. Andrew will probably be a part of the improv group in the spring...can't wait!

Christmas Day 2009

The kids waiting to be allowed downstairs to see what Santa left. Kendyl is holding the play icecream Santa left under the tree in her room.

Kendyl was so excited by the giant Thomas the Tank Engine coloring book she grabbed it from the back right away and brought it out to color. She has been coloring non-stop since!

Andrew loved his iHome and tons of Yankees things.

Andrew gave me a beautiful pink/purple necklace on a silver chain. Too bad the chain is way too small. We'll take it back later this week and pick something out together.

I just love Steven's excitement this year. He was especially excited to receive tickets to the Harlem Globetrotters. We are going Monday night!

Our traditional Christmas breakfast. Christmas shaped pancakes.

We went to my grandparents for Christmas dinner. I was proud my boys helped dry the dishes.

Christmas at my grandparents was difficult this year. My grandparents are not doing well health wise and it's upsetting to watch them change so much. I miss their chatter and their laughter and the ways MomMom made Christmas special with Christmas bears and/or Tootsie Roll canisters and special ornaments for everyone.

It was also difficult as my mother and I are not getting along right now. I wish we could have a heart to heart and really listen to each other and try and see things from the others perspective...but that will never happen. I just don't understand what I did to be treated this way. What's even more sad, is the kids are noticing. Maybe someday I will be important in her life again.

Kendyl feeding her Dolly M&Ms. Just love their matches dresses!

And a quick family photo before we left. Kendyl was way tired and not cooperating, but it's our family and I love it!