Winter Carnival "Ice Skating"

Every year for Tuck's Winter Carnival they have this fabulous ice skating party on Occom Pond. We have always elected not to attend the actual Winter Carnival festivities beyond this party because it is expensive, full of alcohol, we have three children, etc.  We were excited to once again attend the skating party on Friday after school with the blue skies and warmer temperatures.  Too bad it was a little too warm.  So warm, that it was no longer an ice skating sort of day.  Instead everyone ditched their skates and ran around on the slushy ice to play hockey.  Maddie was not deterred.  She still put on her white ice skates and proudly walk-skated around the ice.  The boys elected to play in the igloo and by the ice sculptures.  

Acts of Kindness

Seriously the cutest idea EVER that tied in Valentines Day with the 100th day of school for Kindergarten.  

In Robby's class they set a goal to perform 100 acts of kindness by the 100th day of school, which was right around V-day.  I loved hearing about it, and then I loved having him come home with a stack of hearts showing the nice things he did in his classroom.  I think that next year I may have to come up with something similar at home.

Here is what is written on each of those hearts:

*Made Mom happy by helping with the chores: Feb 7

*Helped clean up after Chinese New Year celebration: Feb 14

*Shared Mr. Wynkoop's lap with Jennifer: Feb 11

*Vacuumed at home even those it was sister Maddie's job: Feb 13

*Helped by pushing in chairs (at school): Feb 5

*Helped Mommy and Daddy shovel: Feb 11

This slightly deranged looking heart was Robby's art project showing his family.  In case you cannot tell; Eli, Maddie and Robby are in the center of the heart.  Below them are two smaller figures: Mom and Dad.  What are we doing?  Why mopping and vacuuming per Robby :)

Ice Skating in PE

One of the huge advantages to living in cold weather and a small community is the quirky extra amenities offered for the kids.  One of those is the infamous "Friday Morning Sing", but another equally entertaining feature at Mt Lebanon Elementary School is their PE unit of "ice skating".  

Every winter the PE teacher builds a ice skating rink with a plastic liner, boards, lots of water, and a wire fence around the area.  Normally this is built sometime in December.  By January it is completely frozen and ready for the children to enjoy.  They take turns wearing the protective gear and skates each week and on average get to skate 1-2 times a week.  

On Valentines Day I happened to stop by the school at the exact time that Robby's class was out on the ice. It was hilarious to watch a whole group of 5/6 year olds skating around.  Some were quite good and had obviously taken lessons before and there were others who could barely move without falling. Robby fell somewhere in the middle of those two groups.

The best part of all was the big grin I spotted on Robby's face.  He was having the time of his life and then his whole face just lit up when he saw me.  I snapped a few pictures {including one just as he fell down}, waved goodbye and headed back home.

(Never mind the ratty old mittens he is wearing....he has basically lost the match to every pair of gloves he owns, except for his heavy duty ski ones. I refuse to buy more and thus he either doesn't go to school with mittens or wears mismatched gloves.  These nasty ones in the photo are an extra pair he borrowed from the school)

Love Day

This year I feel extremely loved on Valentines Day.  I have three amazing children who are constantly giving me hugs and kisses, and tell me how much they love me, and love to make me homemade presents.  I am constantly reminded at work how precious life is, and come home more grateful than before for healthy, happy children.  They are my light and joy in life.  They make the hard days worth it and they great days even more fantastic.  It's amazing how much life changes when you have children.  You become so much more selfless when it comes to them.  I feel like I was pretty self absorbed until I became a mother.  Instantly the good of your child comes before all else.  My wants are nearly always surpassed by what my children need.  Yet in providing for my children, I am happy.  

I am also grateful for a hardworking, confident, loving husband.  I am so proud of how much effort and determination he puts into his schoolwork.  He is also such a giving man.  This winter he decided to be the volunteer 8th grade Hanover Basketball coach and has put in hours and hours of time with these young men teaching them how to be better athletes.  He truly dedicated his heart to that position and you can tell all of the boys really look up to him.

This year for V-Day I had most of the day to spend with Mr E, now that M and R both attend school all day.  We put together Valentines Day cards and went to the "Tiny Tuckie" Valentines Day feast/party.  We had a great time visiting our friends and exchanging treats.  My older kids had a great time making their own Valentines this year as well.  Because their school essentially banned candy at school, we substituted "take apart erasers" that Miss M has been obsessed with all year to give to each of their classmates, for candy.  I know their Valentines didn't look quite as fancy as some of the store bought ones, but I love that each year my kids put their own personal stamp on their Valentines. 

 Eli is such a goof ball, and it took probably 30 pictures to get one smiling picture of him and he's not even looking at the camera. Oh well, I love to remember him this way.  I love looking at his goofy poses and big cheesy grins.  He is such a happy, spirited little boy and we are thankful for the enthusiasm he brings into our house.  He seems to know what to do or say to bring a smile to our faces.

Love this little Valentine of mine <3 p="">

And just because I am a total rebel, I had to give my kids PLENTY of candy since they weren't allowed to really have any at school. 

TOTALLY LAME

Here is my Facebook post take on the lame Fruit Salad Party Maddie's class had instead of a traditional Party with treats and candy: 

Dear Miss xxxxxx,

Really? A "Fruit Salad Party"? I mean, I'm all about healthy choices when it comes to food and all. But don't you think that Valentines Day is a special circumstance. I'm not sure banning candy from school for the Holiday is going to reinforce a lifelong of healthy eating. Teaching moderation in all things is a much healthier approach to life in general, rather than teaching a no tolerance for such things.

Sincerely,
Unimpressed Parent

Maddie was pretty frustrated when she first heard the news of her fruit salad party and came home and told me about it.  At first I didn't believe and without thinking said "Maddie of course you're not going to do that....that would be just plain weird".  I am so glad I have a child with a great memory; of course she went to school the next day and announced that to her teacher.

When I questioned the whole non-candy thing, this is what I was told: "in the interest in promoting healthy eating at our school, we just feel like having the kids bring candy wouldn't serve that purpose."

Double Lame.
This is one thing I will definitely NOT miss about this quaint little town.

Mommy Eli Date

Eli and I have had the pleasure of going on several ski dates together while the "biggies" are at school.  I love having one on one time with Eli and I love skiing, so it's been a win win situation.  I am so proud of him as well.  He has improved so much over the past month or two. The best part is to ski down with him while he yells "wheee, this is fuuuun!"  He then adds "let's do it aGAIN" as we approach the bottom.  

I am looking forward to many more years of skiing with this cute family of mine.  I am also silently half-praying we end up somewhere cool with skiing nearby {the other half of me says that this nonsense is crazy and that all we need is a beach and warm weather}

*gross little side note: Eli has this really bad habit of chewing the top of his coat.  Not really sure why, but his coat is in pristine condition other than the gnawed piece right above the zipper.  He is once again chewing his jacket in this photo

Re-dedication to Positive Thoughts

Recently I have felt like I have been in a bit of a funk.  I don't know whether it is the gray skies, lousy weather, busier atmosphere at work, lack of sleep, or just general blah feeling.  I feel terrible in the aftermath when I take out my bad mood on my family and specifically my husband.  He doesn't deserve this. 

I didn't think I was going to go to church today because I overlap work on Saturday/Sunday/Monday this weekend.  Working paired with attending my religious services equals little to no sleep for me, which face it is a big deal.  When I announced I didn't think I would attend church this weekend, Jesse was very sad.  He told me he felt like we needed that blessing in our lives and with the stress of upcoming job interviews we needed any extra blessings we could get.  Face it....I was guilt tripped into going.  Not just by him either.  As soon as he gently reminded me of the blessings of attending my church services, I also felt like this was an important thing I had been about to blow off. 

To compensate for the lack of upcoming sleep, Jesse did the best think he could do.  He let me sleep in quite long on Saturday morning.  Like 10am long.  Crazy right? I don't really remember sleeping in like this in a long time (although I will preface this by saying that I did get up at 7am with Eli and helped him turn on the morning cartoons and get some breakfast before going back to bed).  Either way, it was a pleasant surprise to have such a relaxed morning, that orchestrated itself into a pretty good family day.

Even with such a nice morning/day under my belt, it was still a little rough getting home this morning and immediately beginning the Sunday morning church routine.  This involves, begging, pleading, and finally demanding that children put on their Sunday clothes and hurriedly eat our breakfast.....which was yummy homemade buttermilk pancakes {one of our Toronto staple breakfast go to meals}.  At one point I had this ridiculous urge to run upstairs, jump under the covers and hide from everything.  I could pretend that no one needed me and I would blissfully fall asleep into a deep slumber for the next 24 hours or so.  Fortunately I did not follow through with this and patiently tried to gather all of our things before heading out the door for church.  Jesse also followed suit and jumped right in, helping finish the boys up and herding the children into the car.  Amazingly enough we managed to get to church a good 5 minutes early, which is very nearly our record so far in NH.  Eli kept commenting that "Mommy, we are sooo early. The man hasn't even stood up to talk to us...isn't that so awesome?!"  We even managed to score ourselves soft seats up front, BONUS.

I was so proud of my children today.  They all sat reverently in their seats during Sacrement meeting, they {tried to} sang during the hymns and quitely colored from the coloring books.  Because of this, it allowed me to really sit back and really read the verses of the hymns we sang.  One of the verses really touched my soul today on Hymn 191: "Behold the Great Redeemer Died".  Verse 3 says:

"Although in agony he hung, no murm'ring word escaped his tongue.  His high commission to fulfill, he magnified his Father's will."

This immediately brought me to tears.  I thought about how many times I have complained about minscule incoveniences in my life.  I have almost become bitter over the last six months about some of our individual trials, making my life much less happy and joyful than it is meant to be.  If my Savior can hang in agony on the cross and still not complain, then I should definitely be able to work through some of these trials with a positive attitude and a kind heart to those around me.  After all, we shouldn't wait until tomorrow comes to be happy.  There is no reason why we can't find joy in the journey.  So with this post, I am rededicating myself to finding joy around me.  Whether that is through reading on my kindle at night instead of worrying about a perfectly clean house, playing a little more with Eli, smiling even when I am super tired, finding the good in my husband and celebrating our little victories.

Polar Bear Plunge

Apparently one of J's bucket list items has been to take a plunge into the ice cold water of a frozen lake, aka the "Polar Bear Plunge/Challenge".  When he found out that Dartmouth's undergraduate Winter Carnival was hosting one of those parties he had it penned on the calendar, not to be forgotten.  As February approached it got unseasonably warm for a week or two and essentially melted most of the snow on the ground.  Lucky for J that Friday evening of the Carnival it cooled right off and we got a fresh pile of snow. The kids and I decided it would be too windy and cold to watch him freeze his #$%& off and elected to see photos afterwards.  One word to describe this crazy experience from the pictures......COLD.

Apparently it's an "amazing" experience to go through.  Too bad I'm not looking for any amazing life changing experiences like this, so I clearly don't have to worry that I am missing out.

Good Job Babe!

I promise to still love you even if you have permanent frost bite on your fingers and toes :)

Laundry Day

In case you ever wondered how much laundry a five person family goes through in one week, here it is. I sort of couldn't believe how large the pile was prior to sorting loads.  

No wonder I never seemed to be caught up with anything around this place.

-I seriously don't know how larger families cope with the overwhelming volume of laundry.  This is one of my chores that I constantly put off doing because I despise it so much. 

 *thank goodness I have this bright little boy amidst all this chaos, otherwise I might totally lose it

Number SIX: Robby through the Years

I got kind of teary as I looked back through pictures of the last six years of my oldest son's life.  So far, I have experienced the hardest, most emotional, best, most hilarious, tearful, exhilarating, rewarding experiences of my own life during this time.  I have grown as a Mother in ways I could have never imagined. Robby has taught me how to unconditionally love another human being and we have become closer than I ever thought we would be.  He is the first to give me a hug when he sees me and the last to request kisses at bedtime.  I love how at the bus stop he will miss his turn at being first if I am not standing right there to hug and kiss him goodbye.  He is always excited to see me and continually reminds how much he loves me.  He may not have the easiest time in social situations but to me he is number one in love.  He is sometimes not pleased about following certain rules but he is never sassy.

At six years old, some of his favorites are monster trucks, legos, hot wheels, electronic games on the kindle, Disney Junior on the computer, basketball, skiing, pretending, reading Magic Treehouse books with Mom, and treats at bedtime.  He is great at cleaning his room, making his bed, dressing himself in Sunday clothes, vacuuming, and washing dishes.  He hates cleaning the bathrooms!

Robby's favorite color is red (again), he is starting to read small books and getting so good at it.  He probably has over 100 sight words down----we have kind of let those take a back seat and have been focusing more on reading books, he still needs to work on his penmanship but that will be something to work on this Spring.  He is very good at math.  He is already starting to do subtraction at home and has gotten very good at addition.  He loves to count and could probably go up to 300 or so if I let him.

He has been taking basketball lessons on Saturday mornings and ski lessons Wednesday after school.  I am so proud of how hard he has been working at listening.  He gets a little distracted sometimes at basketball with all the children running around, but can now dribble a ball one handed with each hand.  He is learning how to pass and make a shot!  He can't wait until next year when he can join a team and play in actual games.  With skiing, he has now been down a lift several times and gets so excited about doing things like this.  He has gotten much more proficient at snow plowing and turning.  We are all excited for Winter break in a few weeks when we can practice a bit more as a family.

February 3, 2007: His Birthday!

September 2007: 7 months old

February 3, 2008: 1 years old

June 2007: 16 months old

February 3, 2009: 2 years old

Summer 2009: 2.5 years old

March 2010: 3 years old

Summer 2010: 3.5 years old

Early Spring 2011: 4 years old

Summer 2011: 4.5 years old

February 2012: 5 years old

October 2012: 5.5 years old

February 3, 2013: 6 years old

Happy birthday Bubba!  We love you so much and are so glad that Heavenly Father chose to send you to our family.  You have such a special place in our family and we love how hard you are working at choosing the right.  We love how you like to wear your CTR ring to remind you to "choose the right"

Robert's nicknames thus far:

Rubba

Rubba Dubba

Rubba (s)

Rob

Robby-most popular

Bubba (s)

Brother

Bro

Little Buddy

Bubba Louie

Skiing with Daddy

Maddie and Robby had a great Saturday skiing with their Daddy.  I was a proud Mom to see them all pack up their ski equipment and head out the door together.  It was officially the first trip Robby has taken without me tagging along.  It shows that they are both finally big enough to ski completely independently while Jesse snowboarded next to them.  They had a great time together at the Skiway and already can't wait to do it again!