Shredding!

Snow Trip

Elizabeth is ready to go!

And Miranda too!

Parker's hair was already gross when we stopped for lunch. It only got worse.

Parker spent a good portion of the inside portion of the trip doing this.

Luckily the boys also played some games together.

Our room. Small but warm and well lit.

Michael reading Veblin. Still.

The girls in the morning.

A better angle.

With Julia.

Now posing.

They found a fort!

And crawled in.

It was kinda pretty.

Oliver is ready for cross country ski lessons.

Michael is ready for snow boarding lessons.

Parker is ready too. See next post for him doing it.

Too cute!

Amy and Oliver.

Again. But closer.

Solo/Dan teaching Parker how to scoot on his board.

Elizabeth waiting.

Julia pulling her sled up the big ass hill.

Elizabeth searching for a better hill.

She was skipping here.

Amy trying to make flat launching off pad.

Eran's chili cheese dog.

A good trip despite some annoying new policies at the lodge.  Everyone 8 and over tried snow boarding.  Amy or Parker were probably the best, but I was up there too.  Kids all took cross country skiing lesson which they did great on. "Best 6 year olds I've ever had!" said the instructor.  

Lame

I recently got some new wiper blades when I got an oil change. The new ones were very loud, squeaking and rubbing rather than smoothly gliding back and forth.

I purchased some new ones but couldn't figure out how to put them on and it stopped raining for a bit.

But with our snow trip coming up and rain forecasted, I asked Michael to put on the new ones. He did and the noise went away.

Then last night I went out to get milk and return some videos and the wipers made the whole thing worse. In the dark pouring rain I couldn't see a thing.

So on our way out of town this morning we agreed to stop and get yet another pair. As we were driving part of the blade was sliding off. That's when we noticed the part coming off was the protective cover. So we stopped, took them off and all was clear.

We felt lame.

Fashion!

Elizabeth made a tape dress today using a pattern and form and then transferred it to Barbie!

Christmas

Christmas was as expected. Early morning wake ups. Excitement by some (Miranda for the giant horse) and Elizabeth (for all "the cool clothes!") and some disappointment from Parker ("I didn't get as much as I thought....") which was actually kinda true.  We just bought all sorts of stuff for his bday so were a little light for christmas for him.  They all got stocking filled with all matter of crap and I made the standard coupon books "one eating dessert without finishing dinner, etc"

He did get a laser spy thing that shoots laser light across small mirrors to protect a room from intruders. If someone breaks the laser beam, an alarm goes off. It's been a big hit all day.

Miranda got an assortment of animal and art related gifts and exclaimed with glee each time she opened one.  The "paint a horse" thing was a real winner.

Elizabeth did get lots of clothes, which was the only thing she wanted. But Santa also brought her some "fashion-related" crafts.  She kept saying, "Boy, Santa really know what kinds of clothes I like." Yup, Santa does.  Clothes for a 6 year old going on 14.

Parker also got some more legos, RISK, a couple science projects and a small telescope.

I got a new comforter and pillows from the kids and an ipad from Michael.

Michael got an umbrella from parker, some hand written books from the kids (one called Powems) by Elizabeth, and yet another plain navy sweater to add to his collection.

When I was at the pet store yesterday getting some dry cat food, I picked up a catnip toy for him. Miranda wrapped it and put it under the tree. Last night after the kids were in bed, Zeke found it and ripped into it. He was high on catnip quickly rolling around playing with it for a good portion of an hour. You wouldn't have guessed he is almost 14 years old.

I went back to bed after all the opening since I got pretty much no sleep last night. Michael entertained the troops with projects and other such nonsense.  When I woke up, we cleaned the house and packed for the snow trip.  Michael made a chicken dinner which the kids all hated, but that was delicious.

It's rained all day here so we never left the house.

Negotiating

Parker: Can I go play wii for an hour?

Me: No way.

Parker: (running to look at the clock)....ok it's 7:21 so how about for 37 minutes?

Me: No, 20.

Parker: 35?

Me: No, 20.

Parker: 27 1/2?

Me: Done.

Running out of room under the tree

Bullshit Nutcracker

Took the girls to the Oakland Ballet Nutcracker.   I'll accept up front that I am a nutcracker snob, but jeez, this one sucked.  There were so many missing nutcracker elements.  No Mother Ginger or skirt. No Prince pantomime at the beginning of act 2.  No chinese dancers (it was a bird!), no nutcracker getting broken, no cracking nuts with it (despite the fact the score has nut cracking sounds in it), and they cut out a good portion after the grandfather dance. The party just immediately ended and she falls asleep on the couch.  It wasn't even clear what the story was for a good long while. And it seemed like the choreographer didn't even listen to the music when he made up the dancing. Big symbol crashes in the sugar plum fairy pas de deux were met with lame ass turns rather than huge lifts.  Plus it was glaringly obvious why these dancers were in the Oakland Ballet rather than somewhere else. The men didn't seem to know what turnout was.

And no crying mouse after the mouse king is killed.  Seriously?  No crying mouse?  That's just wrong.

I'll get off my high horse now.

Random

Parker finished Harry Potter last night so we rented the movie today and watched it together. I still think it's pretty lame, but it was nice to watch a movie with him since movies are not his thing. After that he watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which he has also read.  I did not watch that with him. Ick.  He does seem excited to read the next one.

Taking the girls to see the Oakland Ballet Nutcracker tomorrow. They are also excited and each was reading a nutcracker book at bedtime tonight.  One of Miranda's christmas presents is her own nutcracker.

It's raining a lot here. A lot.

School is out for two weeks.  We are hanging around here then going to the snow with Amy and her family and then back here until school starts up again.  I was looking forward to it, but with these last two weeks being stuck home with sick kids, I might go crazy with two more.

Elizabeth read a book last week that had poems in it. She really liked one of them and copied it 23 times to give to all her classmates. It was called the rainbow and it took her about a week to do. When I asked her how it went giving them out, she said, "Good except some kids just threw them in the trash." And then she teared up. It was heart breaking. We talked about it for a while afterwards and discussed strategies to make sure the other kids knew what is was better next time she passes something out.

I played Parker at chess tonight and it was just pitiful. I told him that I need to have a computer help me play next time. He liked that idea.

I also played Elizabeth at checkers. I was winning for a while, but she started to get a little sad so I let her win and she was very happy hugging me afterwards, saying, "I'm sorry you lost mommy.  I'll let you win next time."

Miranda has been asking for alone time lately.  If she doesn't get to play in her room alone with her animals for a good 30 minutes to an hour each day, she gets very cranky.

I went to Michael's office party last night. Everyone seemed to know me, but I can't keep them all straight. Michael refers to them not by name, but by activities, "She's the one who just got married." "She's the one going to costa rica." "He's the one on performance review."  "She's the jehovah's witness."  So when I said, "Oh are you the one who wore the sex pistols shirt to the client meeting?" it wasn't the best, since Michael wasn't at the meeting and only heard about it from his partner.  Ooops.

Chess Press!

Parker made the local paper. Made it seem bigger than it was, but he was pleased nonetheless.

Sick kid

After missing Monday and Tuesday, Parker rallied Wednesday and went to school.   But today, he slept until 8am, which is a sure sign something is wrong.  He's coughing a bit and is a little sluggish but otherwise Ok.  He decided to build a volcano not noticing it took 2-3 days to dry.  Then he wanted to skateboard. Then he had to play some wii. Just a regular day at home.

Parker Birthday Part 3

Parker had about 12 boys to Bladium for a soccer party. They just played soccer for an hour. They loved it.  Then they got access to basketball court and giant inflatable slide for an hour with pizza and cake. We didn't know it at the time, but Parker was getting sick so he was melting down a lot. Complaining about his friends being jerks. (Which some of them are.)    I did the annoying plastic crap in a goody bag and all were happy.

Next year, small party with just a few close friends. 

I really enjoy him picking his nose here and eating it. A nice touch on his 8th birthday.

Birthday Part 2

Fentons with neighbors

Skate rat