Scrapbooking

For Christmas Sydney got a scrapbook kit from Santa. We have been having a lot of fun with it. She has made pages with pictures of her friends, Daddy (of course!), the family, our trip to Mexico, and other fun stuff that has happened over the last year. It is interesting to see her style - she likes "extraction" style. She cuts around all of the pictures so they will fit in her book. This will make a great keepsake for her. A great start to a lifetime of memory keeping just like her mom!

Pokagon toboggan run

Today the kids had the day off of school for Martin Luther King day, so we ventured over to Pokagon state park for some winter fun! We had been promising the kids that we would take them over to the tobaggan run for a couple of years now since we always check it out when we are camping there. I have only been on it once, and remember that was one heck of a fast ride!


Here are some people reaching the end of the run. Near the end of the run we reached 32, 34 and 35 miles an hour! wow, that was fast! I did hear someone saying that they hit 45 miles an hour (a sled with 4 guys on it). The kids had so much fun. As soon as the got to the bottom of the first run they were jumping up and down with excitement wanting to go again. They were pretty brave.

Good thing we got there early - we got the last "light" sled, which only weighed 35 pounds. The heavy sleds weighed 60 pounds! but heck, I wasn't carrying it so I didn't mind either way (haha, only joking Alan!!)

Our first run took us only 25 minutes round trip (waiting in line) but the ones after that were 40 minutes as it was very busy that day. Well worth the trip!!

First Tooth Gone!!

The day we've been waiting for has finally arrived!! It was back in November that I first learned about the permanent teeth that were starting to poke out behind Sydney's teeth when we went to the Dentist. We were told that after the baby tooth fell out, the permanent tooth would just make it's way into place. However, if that baby tooth didn't fall out on it's own, it would need to be pulled out. I tell you, I was quite certain that we would be sitting in that dentist chair for an extraction!! That baby tooth was not budging!! But sure enough, about a week ago Sydney was pulling open a water bottle cap with her teeth and the tooth started to move. She wiggled it, and wiggled it, but still not luck. So tonight she asked me to pull it out for her. Sure, why not! So we wiggled it, and I took a hold of it, and YANK! out it came! There sure was a lot of blood.

Here she is right after it was pulled out. Don't be alarmed at her chin - I mean, don't your kids always bump their faces into hot muffin pans right after they come out of the oven?? oh, no? Well, we're not sure why, but maybe Sydney was smelling the muffins a little too close, and then she found out what happens when you touch your skin to super hot metal. But I digress...



Here is a graphic photo of the former tooth location. See the red hole, that was the baby tooth. The bumpy tooth right behind is the permanent tooth moving in. Not much space left!! You might notice there is another adult tooth making it's way up in the back too... hopefully we'll have another wiggler soon.



We put the tooth in an envelope that said "I want to keep the tooth, ples". :) It is resting safely under her pillow tonight. Hope the tooth fairy has a good reward for that tooth that has been with her for 6 1/2 years!

Sledding at Brandywine

For our day 2 of weekend sledding we headed over to the local golf course (shhh, don't tell anyone). The hill here is faster than our hill at the park, and also a bit bumpier. We even bought a new sled last night. We thought all of us might fit in it, but it was more like 1 adult and 2 kids.





The hill doesn't look very covered, but it was good enough to get us going.



Following this shot, Alan wiped out!

A spinning fast ride is the kid's favorite.

First sledding day of the 2009/2010 winter season!

Yeah! We got enough snow to go sledding finally! We hit the slopes (a small sledding hill at Sidecut Metro park...) in the morning.


It was a beautiful sunny day.


We still had our bale of stray from our fall decorations in our front yard, so we took it over to the hill and put it in front of a tree as a crash protector. Fortunately for me it also worked as a nice place to take pictures!

Slumber party night

Sydney has been asking (well, begging is more of the word) for a slumber party night with Daddy. Basically this means getting rid of Zack and Mommy and spending the whole night with Daddy. Since our winter break is almost over, we decided last night would be a good night for that. So Sydney and Daddy got to camp out in front of the TV downstairs, watch a movie, eat popcorn and spend the night on the pull out bed. Also, Zack got to do the same, but spend the night in our big bed. This idea worked out quite well, except for Zack and I trying to watch "Chicken Little" which has way too much scary stuff such as aliens trying to vaporize everyone (so we didn't finish it!). Both kids loved the "one-on-one" time together and it kept them out of each other's hair for a while. They have been fighting a lot lately and it was definately time for a break!

Ski day 2

For our next day of skiing, the kids really got the hang of it and wanted to ski on their own. That was a relief as my legs were getting a bit sore from snowplowing down the hill with Zack between my legs!
We went to Boyne Mountain and spent the day on the *free* beginner area. It is a really nice area and perfect for the kids. The kids were basically only interested in "racing" us down the hill. They were pretty quick!

Sydney was a bit too competative and kept the race going until the very end of the hill, this close to the gate and line.... (yikes!)


Don't we look like we should be up in the Swiss Alps somewhere?? :)


A good time was had by all, and we skied until around 2pm and then headed back home.


Alan and mini-Alan.

A day on the slopes

wow, what a day of skiing we had. It started out pretty good - when we dropped the kids off at ski school and got to enjoy 90 minutes of skiing along I mean! haha but seriously, the kids did enjoy their ski instructions at Nubs Nob and we were told that that they did good. Sydney definately can ski better than Zack, but Zack is doing well too. Unfortunately Zack gets so angry when he is frustrated and skiing can definately be frustrating for beginners. We had a lot of fun, but a bit of tears from both kids too :(

Here is Alan getting in trouble - he had been skiing backwards and didn't know he had snow making equipment behind him. doh!!

We enjoyed our lunch of PB&J's and HoHo's and Nutty Bars after ski school and then we were ready to take the kids off the beginner hill and on the green runs. We were surprised to find out that the green runs that we thought were so simple were actually a bit too fast for the kids in places. So after a couple of hours of skiing on blue runs we ended our day with a cup of hot chocolate in the lodge.

The hot chocolate was very hot (as usual) and my eyes almost popped out of my head when I saw Zack spill a whole cup of steaming hot drink all over the front of himself! He screamed and I started trying to get his cocoa soaked clothes off of him. Thank god for layers of clothes - it only soaked through his snow pants and didn't actually touch his skin. From now on that will be known as the "hot chocolate incident" :)

For dinner we went to Papa Lou's, a rustic little bar in downtown Petosky.

They had the best pizza!

Petoskey

We headed up north this morning for our annual post-Christmas ski trip. The car ride was pretty nice - not snowing too much, and oh so quiet because we got a DVD player for the car. Money well spent for sure! When we got up to Indian River we stopped by to see our friend Gina. Then it was off to the hotel. A nice place, very close to the slopes (Comfort Inn).

We decided that it would be a good night to go tubing, so we headed over to Boyne Highlands. The tubing hill is so cool! I had forgotten how fast those tubes get flying down the hill. Zack had to ride down with us since he was under 5. He'll be so happy when he can go by himself next year... although I wonder if he'll be ready. It was a scary ride! Within an hour I was getting chilled to the bone, and we hadn't eaten dinner yet, so we left

Dinner was at LaSenorita's, right down the road from our hotel. Yummy Mexican food! And our day ended, with two exhausted kids (and 2 tired parents).

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas everyone!! My house went from this ...


... to this, in about 4 minutes! Wow!


Present opening began at 7:30, when we finally allowed Sydney to wake up Zack. Sydney was the early riser as normal, getting up at something like 5:45am. I'm only estimating because I was too tired at the time to really accept what time it was. Zack was obviously tired because he is usually up at 7am also, but I was glad he "slept in".

I think one of the kids favorite toys was the Bakugan balls they got from Santa in their stockings. Those things are pretty cool when they pop open!

They were quite sick of me taking pictures by now, but they should be used to it :)

Pico wanted in on all of the holiday action. She made herself right at home wherever she was. The kitties loved their treats and toys they got too. It was so thoughtful of Sydney to buy them fun toys from Secret Santa shop at school.

By far I think the whole family's favorite present was the Wii. Zack is skilled at boxing, while Sydney is trying to learn all of the games. I even like the Wii Yoga! I told everyone it was a Pajama day, and that we wouldn't get dressed all day - I almost made it, but I wanted to put some workout clothes on to do Yoga. Zack did stay in his jammies all day. It was such a nice relaxing day, I think we'll have PJ day at least one more time this winter!

So true...

Today we showed Zack and Sydney a video that was sent from Santa. It's really cool, it says several specific items about your child and even has their picture! It's called Portable North Pole. As we watched the video Zack was pretty surprised to see all of the stuff about himself - his picture with "Nice" marked, where we live, his request for "jets" and even that he has been trying to get along with his sister! At the end of the video he ran off to go tell Sydney about it, and he said "I didn't know I was going to be 'Nice'!"
Yes, that was pretty surprising!! haha

A visit to see the Big Guy

We went to see Santa over at Levis Commons tonight. It went well - neither kid was too shy to talk to him. It was cute, Sydney forgot what she was going to tell Santa, even though it had been rehearsed in the car several times before we got there.
Sydney asked for a "make a plate kit" and Zack asked for "jets" and a "nerf gun". Since Sydney couldn't think of what else she had wanted, Santa recommended that she write a list and give it to Mom & Dad so we could let Santa know. Good plan!

Manor House

One of our annual holiday traditions is going to the Manor House to see all of the decorations. We used to go see these displays when I was a kid! The house is so beautiful, I like to walk around the estate and imagine what it would be like if I lived there....

The solarium was decorated all twinkly and these glass trees glowed along one of the many fireplace mantles.

Here are the kids - and they even stayed out of trouble and didn't touch anything :)

A large train track is set up the basement. As always Zack was mesmerized by the trains. Fortunately this year he left without tears in his eyes!

$17??

Today Zack asked when were were going over to Grandma B's house again. I told him I wasn't sure because they were on their cruise.
me: "Why?"
Zack: "I wanted to ask Grandma a question."
me: "What is that?"
Zack: "I wanted to ask her if she has $17"
$17 is how much the HotWheels Power Drop Transporter truck costs at ToysRUs that he wants for Christmas. He saw it there last time we were shopping and has had it on his mind every since. He wants the orange one. I told the kids how much several toys cost, so we didn't end up with $80 toys on the "I want for Christmas" list!

Lights at the Zoo

It was a cold night at the Zoo - but we bundled up and braved the cold weather. The lights were beautiful as usual.

The dancing tree lights are always a favorite of the kids.

Here is the grand tree at the front of the zoo. Looks just like the one in our yard!! haha

Here is what keeps everyone going - a cup of hot chocolate! First Sydney complained that she was only getting a half a cup of hot chocolate, and then she spilled half of it on the floor. There was so much in Zack's cup that we shared and everyone still had enough. Despite the weird look on the kids face, they really did like it :)