Ducks!

Every winter at Carter's preschool, the ducks come out to visit the birdfeeder. The feeder is right in front of the window to their classroom and the kids love looking out at the ducks. I love them too!

23 in a row at The Joe

A few weekends ago Robert and I made a last minute decision to go to a Detroit Redwings professional hockey game. The Wings had won the last 22 home games, tying the league record for the number of home games won in a row. The Friday night game was so exciting that we woke up Saturday and decided to try to buy tickets for the Sunday game! We are very fortunate to have Robert's parents living in metro Detroit and willing to watch our kids on such short notice, which meant that we were headed to The JOE (what us insiders call Joe Louis Arena). We drove over to Troy Saturday and decided to stay at a hotel and make a little mini-vacation of the weekend.

The kids were very happy to be able to swim in the pool Saturday night and I was also happy to be able to work with Carter in a pool instead of the bathtub to try to prepare him a little more for starting swim lessons in the spring. Carter did a great job putting his head under the water without plugging his nose and jumping in and letting his face go in before I pulled him up. If you've ever seen him in the water before, you know this was a huge accomplishment for us. He wasn't really excited to do those things, but he didn't shed any tears, so that was a win in my book.

We dropped the kids off with Robert's parents and headed to the afternoon game the next day. I have to say that although I don't watch too many games on TV, I love watching the Redwings in person. I love the chill of the stadium, the sounds of the game (stick hitting puck, stick hitting ice, checking), the excitement of the crowd, the fighting, the octopi. It all makes for a great time. This particular game was a good one. The Wings were up by one most of the game and into the third period, making the end of the game more exciting when the other team pulled the goalie to try to tie it up and go into overtime. Thankfully, the Wings held their lead and won the game, which also meant their 23rd win in a row at the Joe! Definitely a great game to attend.

After the game we all went out to The Melting Pot for dinner - yummy! One of my favorites and a special treat for all of us :) Definitely a great mini-vacation weekend. Here are some phone pics from the game.

Arriving at The Joe

Ready for the next period to start!

It was a pretty full house at The Joe

I had to get a picture of Robert after the game to commemorate his shirt - I know, it would've been even more perfect had we been on the other side of the rink, but it's still pretty cool.  He loves this shirt!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's time to get caught up on some old posts. Valentine's this year was a lot of fun now that both of the kids are old enough to get involved. I learned a few lessons from last year and instead of letting the kids come with me to choose their Valentine's I asked for some general ideas of what they wanted and went to the store by myself. This was a great way to avoid their indecision and distractions while standing in the Valentine's aisle! Teah's requirement for a Valentine was that they were shaped like hearts and since I found none of those in the regular aisle, I decided to buy some card stock in pastels colors and print/cut the cards at home. They turned out great! This year Teah was able to write the name of each of her classmates on all of her Valentine's and she actually had a great time the night before writing each child's name and signing her own, plus picking out very specific stickers for each child. Carter's told me simply that he wanted Valentine's from the Movie Cars2, so I bought him your standard back of Valentine's cards at Target. He signed his name to all 30 cards this year - I was so proud of him for his determination and patience with the task!

The kids both had school parties on Valentine's day and were very excited to bring their Valentine's in for all of their friends. I was able to volunteer in Teah's classroom that day and witness her party firsthand. The kids broke up into groups and rotated through 4 stations - Valentine's bingo, creating a Valentine's themed craft, snack, and handing out their Valentine's. I was assigned to bingo and had a great time with the kids. I come in to listen to them read every Tuesday, so it was helpful that I already knew most of their names. After the stations the kids had free time to look through their Valentine's and talk to their friends about them, which was probably their favorite part of the morning. Teah's teacher gave all of the kids one of those "fortune tellers" that we played with when we were kids, where you fold them the right way and are able to put your fingers in and open up the contraption until your friend picks a number and you read to them what was underneath it. The kids had a great time with that as well.

Carter signing all of his Valentine's cards

Teah was very into making her Valentine's from scratch for each of her classmates

Teah's Valentine's party

Looking through her Valentine's

Playing with the "fortune teller"

Let it Snow!

This winter has been the warmest that I have ever seen in Michigan. I can count the number of times we've had a substantial amount of snow on one hand, which means the kids haven't been enjoying the season as much as they usually do. Thankfully a big snow storm hit at the end of last week and the snow stuck for a few days.  The kids were out for a few hours each day this weekend playing.

My children are not the outdoorsy type, so I had to convince them to go out by allowing a few snow appropriate toys to go out with them, including a foam sword, dinosaurs, strainers, and our two barbeque spatulas - which the kids called their "Ninja choppers".  With these trusty toys in their laundry basket they headed out and didn't want to come back in until they were soaking wet and happily tired from playing in the snow!  Instead of a snowman, they decided to build a dinosaur cave.  Yes, I did help them with it and I am still sore from shoveling the snow into a pile :)  Here are some pictures that I snapped with my phone before I went back inside.

The Bucket of Toys!

All three dinosaurs in the cave.  Those plant eaters better watch out for that T-Rex!

One friendly dinosaur hiding out in his cave :)

The kids best attempt at posing for the picture

This one is for my friend Kerry who lives in the South and had no idea what a snow blower looked like!

Carter was exhausted that afternoon and fell asleep on the couch!