Slumber party fun

Zachary had a whole weekend of birthday parties scheduled, so we decided Sydney should have a friend or two over to spend the night.  She invited two of her close buds, Morgan and Rebecca.  Zachary's party on Friday was actually a slumber party - his first!  It was a classmate from kindergarten, and the boys were all very excited about it.  Zachary called it a "video gaming slumber party".  oh my.  So after I dropped Zachary off at his party, we picked up Sydney's friends.  Unfortunately Rebecca is allergic to cats, but we did a pretty good job of keeping them away from her.  The girls had a lot of crazy fun, giggling and running all over the house.  Eventually at 9pm they settled down for a movie (Madagascar 2) and some popcorn.  After the movie, they stayed up until about midnight!  I went to sleep around 11:30, but I know they were still giggling when I fell asleep.

Boy was I surprised when her friends came wandering into our bedroom at 4:15 am!  I guess Rebecca's throat was a bit sore from the kitties by that time.  I was hoping they would go back to sleep, but I guess they were ready to begin their day!  I hardly got any sleep that morning and decided to get up around 6:30.  It sure made for a long day!!

Meanwhile, I was told that Zachary stayed up until around midnight also, but slept in until 7:15.  Still, both the kids were whipped on Saturday!!  He got a really cool lightsaber, Darth Vader mask (and some 3D glasses) from the birthday party.

I won!! I won!!

Occasions like this come around so rare, that I have to share!!  For New Years Eve we spent a relaxing evening of munching on wine and cheese, snacks, and playing Trival Pursuit.  This year's game went surprisingly fast and I actually won!  It was pretty awesome :) 

Looks like it's going to be a great year!!

Movie Night

Movie night is so much fun now since we have that cool new popcorn maker!  The popcorn is DELICIOUS!!  so yummy.....

Skiing at Boyne Mountain

After a slow start, we made to Boyne Mountain.  With it being a holiday week, it was busy at the rentals and they were running out of equipment.  We were sweating it!  Thankfully, they had what we needed for Sydney.  The lines weren't too bad and unlike yesterday the sun was out making it feel a bit warmer.

We got stuck in a few places and had the make the kids go down blue (Intermediate) runs.  They did pretty good - a bit slow which was expected, but hardly any complaining :)  They will be great skiers in no time.

Since the roads were so good, we decided to stay until 4:00 for our full day of skiing.  A great trip!!

Ski day at Nubs Nob

Day 2 of our after-Christmas ski trip. It's so nice to have the week off of work as the new year is beginning, not worrying too much about the house being cluttered with opened presents, and wrapping paper (still) and of course the decorations that we love so much, but end up wearing out their welcome after a month :) I'm always sad to see the decorations go, but there is something to be said about that feeling of great organization when they get packed away and a cleaning frenzy begins!

We decided to get full lifts for the kids instead of just sticking to the free beginner area.  That worked out good.  The kids also got to partake in our "bad junk food" menu for lunch - Little Debbies!!

When we were skiing at Nubs Nob today, these highlights occurred:

* Zachary no longer needs his edgie-wedgies!! yahoo!

* The kids skied their first blue runs - well, by mistake, but still, they did it!

* Alan ran into a kid while he was skiing backwards!
* Sydney's boot buckle broke off her boots and we needed to rent skis & boots for her :(

* Zachary ran into a tree! Luckily it was only his leg that hit it, but he still got his ski knocked off and he fell down :)

* I jumped off a chair lift while trying not to "land" on Zachary getting off the lift!

Finish it off with a late dinner at Lou's Pizza, meeting up with Dawn and her cousin, and it was a big day indeed! That must be why Alan fell asleep at 9:30 :)

Day 1 of Boyne Ski trip

We hit the road in the morning (made it out at 9:15, yahoo!) and was thrilled to find that the roads were clear and it was an easy 5 hour drive up north.  Even more enjoyable was that the kids were occupied with their new DS's so we didn't hear any complaining or fighting the whole trip!!  That was the best! :)

We went tubing over at Boyne Highlands.  It was a lot of fun.  This year they did not have a "fast" and "slow" side, but just one run.  Still, it was good and we were there for an hour before dinner.

Dinner was at the Mitchell St. Pub.  Good food, and hot nachos!  Who would have guessed that "spicy" on the menu description really meant spicy!!  (not me I guess.  haha!)

Artwork

Here are some random pieces of artwork that have been decorating our house for the holidays...

Checking out the Christmas loot!

We had a day full of checking out the new toys.  Sure, it still looks like our house exploded with all of the toys and boxes all over the place, but there's nothing like a few lazy days after Christmas :)

Christmas at the Bachli's

Time again for opening presents!  We had a delicious dinner at Grandma & Grandpa's house with the whole family.  Then we opened gifts. 

Christmas morning

Christmas morning was a blur! Zachary climbed in our bed at 5:50 am. Santa hadn't visited us yet, because the Christmas tree lights weren't turned on yet. So he squirmed around, waiting for the tree lights to signal the toys had arrived, and for his sister to wake up. Around 6:20 we noticed the lights were on - and he jumped out of bed telling us that he was going to wake up Sydney! Luckily we stopped him and we got a couple more minutes of laying in bed :) Soon enough Sydney came running into our bedroom and the craziness began!

It was flying wrapping paper everywhere - gift after gift!!

They were very excited for their gifts from Santa - Sydney got a Password Journal, MP3 player, and the Blackout Bingo game. Zachary got an MP3 player, Hot Wheels cars, Pokemon cards and a baby penguin. The kids also got a bunch of gift from us, including (Zachary) OSU blanket, sleeping bag, car calendar, Bakugan balls and from Sydney he got a night sky projection kit, and a race car kit. Sydney got the Apples to Apples game, a sleeping bag, snowmen earrings and from Zachary she got a spiral art toy and pretty ornament he made at school. Both kids also got us presents such as wonderful Christmas pictures and decorations. With some help from Grandma and Grandpa Willford, both kids got DSi's. The DSi's were definately a hit, but they did love everything they got.

Reindeer food

The kindergartens were all sent home with bags of "Reindeer food" for Christmas Eve.  As it got later in the night, and we started tracking Santa's travels on NORAD, it was time to put the food out to welcome the sleigh to our house. 
This is what our Reindeer food said:
Sprinkle on the lawn at night

The moon will make it sparkle bright
As Santa's reindeer fly and roam
This will guide them to your home

We found the perfect spot for it out in the backyard and sprinkled it around.  I think it's going to work!!

Christmas Eve Fun - a skiing refresher course

The kids needed a refresher course before hitting the slopes of Boyne soon, so Alan took them over to the new sledding hill.  It went pretty well - the top of the hill was too steep for the first run, but by gradually working their way up to the top they were able to conquer in no time.

After skiing it was time for sledding.  Sometime during this fun Zachary had requested to be spun as he went down on the circle sled.  Alan was glad to oblige and said that he would spin him so fast that "his eyes would bleed!".  Apparently that was an omen as Zachary did crash and come home with a bit of a bruise/scratch from this morning!  (photographic evidence to be seen in just a few days....)

Warming up by the fire.  Ahhhh.  The best part of the trip was when they stopped over to my office and miraculously I was allowed to go home from work after their visit.  Good thing my boss has a soft spot for families!!