the other overnighter...

It is truly ridiculous how many times I have started this post but along with the all nighter that Jaiden pulled Friday night, Alyssa had an overnighter at Granny Suze's all by herself, which did involve sleep... thank goodness! And as far as I can tell she was a happy little lark doing her thing at Granny's. 

A few of the treasures she came home with that I discovered when unpacking her bag...

 A snowball suit for Splits Jr?

And I thought this was a party hat for Splits Jr but I was later informed it was a tree with icicles (the dripped hot glue if you can see it?!)

I didn't get much else out of her because shortly after coming home, she went to swim lessons and then home again to play with her friend Zoē. They played inside for awhile but then the snow was finally too tempting to pass up for the girls and they headed outside in frigid temperatures to build a snow fort...

this photo cracked me up because I looked out to make sure they were doing okay and this is exactly what I saw first!

The original fort collapsed and they made a bigger one. This photo made me laugh too as Zoë struck a pose...

 and she made it in!

We finally had to call the girls in for some hot cocoa and convince them that 2 1/2 hours was probably enough time outside in temperatures near 0 F.

It was definitely a good plan to have a friend over for Alyssa so she wouldn't bug her brother!

the all nighter...

yes... the all nighter! In case you didn't hear, Jaiden is a Webelos II in Cub Scouts. This is the BIG year that he decides which Boy Scout troop to graduate to in the Spring. He has gone to several functions sponsored by the two troops he is interested in but last night... 

last night topped the cake!

We let him go to one of the troops annual Boy Scout Lock In. The itinerary on the flyer looked like this:

6:30-7pm: arrival & check in

7-8:30pm: swim at local rec center

8:30-9:15: pizza!

9:15-10pm: "surprise" activity 

10-12pm: bowling at local lanes

12-6am: nerf gun wars, games, movies, snacks, fun (dare we mention sleep!?)

6-7am: pancake breakfast

7-7:30am: parent meeting & departure

When we walked in at 7 this morning, Jaiden and his cub scout buddies were sitting at a table with their pancake breakfasts. I asked "did you make it all night?" And I was overcome by the excitement of 8 little 10 years olds excitedly telling me "YES!" I should have captured that on film because they were excited, blood shot eyes and all! 

So when it came time to pack up and leave, I discovered him laying near his stuff...

approx 7:15 am

 I wanted one photo of the ride home and this was the first shot...

approx 7:23 am

 Then Daddy reminded him where that photo will end up so he gave me this one...

approx 7:24am

 And this one was my favorite because Dennis was driving home and Jaiden was excitedly telling us stories about the night like that he drank Mountain Dew, the surprise stop was his favorite ice cream candy store in town and he tried all these different candies, and this one boy almost bought this enormous gummy bear that was bigger than my head...

approx 7:28am

 And then it was straight upstairs to brush teeth and ....

approx 7:41am

sleep!

This little guy is growing up and it is seriously amazing watching him!

gas or electric?

The other day I was teaching in Alyssa's classroom... yes, teaching. I was asked to be the parent volunteer for this Junior Achievement social studies plan. It's a 5 lesson plan that is called Our City. It's actually been a lot of fun and I am enjoying it immensely... however, this lesson was on money, taxes, needs and wants and the various forms of payment that people use to buy goods and services.

The lesson moves along quickly and I pick 5 volunteers to be my "payment experts". Each of the 5 is holding a type of payment with a definition on the back that they will have to read out loud after I ask for "customers" to help answer some questions.

The first question is for buying groceries after school. I ask what she is having for dinner? She tells me and I say she is going to pay for her groceries to make her dinner with a check. Everything goes well.

Second question goes well. The kids are totally engaged.

My third question, I call on Alyssa... I say "Miss Alyssa needs to fill up her car with gas on the way home from school. What kind of car do you drive, Miss Alyssa?"

Alyssa replies: "can it be a car that doesn't exist yet?"

Note: she has big plans of developing the flying car of the future

Me: "No, let's choose a car that currently exists please."

A: "Well, then I drive a Tesla"

Alyssa's teacher and student teacher are stifling laughter and I collect myself...

M: "hmmm, so Alyssa drives an electric car so instead of buying gas she is going to need to pay for the electricity she used to charge her car..."

I think I probably should be more careful about calling on my own daughter next time!

my snow angel...

Once again, I am going a little bit backwards but I had to share this photo because it was hilarious. This is from the beginning of November when we literally dropped temps from the 60s to the negative single digits. We had a delightful beautiful snow that came but with the frigid temperatures, there was no way I was taking the kids sledding or really spending any more time than necessary outside! 

Alyssa was great as she bundled up nicely every morning - the full pink snow bunny - boots, snow pants, ski coat, hat, gloves, even long underwear. We had just come home from school and were settling in. I made up a big batch of hot chocolate and went to find Jaiden and Alyssa.  I call for both, get one answer and start wondering where in the world is Alyssa? 

And then I look outside and see this...

my sweet little snow angel!

officially not the same age

Yes, officially not the same age as my sister anymore! I don't normally post my birthday on the blog but this time I had to. Most years I feel like my birthday gets lost in the hype of Halloween, the excitement of Daddy's birthday on Halloween and well, I don't really want any more sure at that point... let alone my own birthday cake. 

But this year, I decided we were going to do what I wanted to do... and that was take a ride up to RMNP and do a short family hike even if it meant complaining kids and tired feet. I didn't expect that we'd get in the car, drive the 40 minutes to Estes only to be heading down the hill into town to have Jaiden ask Alyssa "Alyssa, where are your shoes?"

And even more surprised to turn around to see her look of surprise and her panicked "oh no, I forgot them." 

And this started the adventure to try to find a local store that not only carried kids shoes but was open!

She got a piggyback from Daddy...

 and then climbed the rocks to show off her new shoes!

Then it was off to RMNP for a walk around Bear Lake and a chance for me to photograph the scenery...

The kids immediately wanted to find big rocks to boulder onto...

Alyssa following Jaiden! 

And I look over to find Dennis watching?... wait no, this photo is for my dear friend, Viv, because no, he wasn't watching, he was messing with his phone!

This is Bear Lake and it was so beautiful.. very chilly and a bit overcast but the sun was poking through and glimmering on the lake so I attempted a family photograph but of course, it's a bit of challenge vicariously balancing my camera on a boulder and then running over big boulders in less than 10 seconds... never mind that I actually get the metering correctly with back lighting and so forth! 

So I try two and call it good!

 I love moments like these. I have no idea what they are talking about but they had run ahead of us and then I find them chatting. It is so darn sweet how they are together. 

 And seeing that the just over a mile hike went so well, I thought let's try for another 1.4 mile hike to Alberta Falls and the next two photos are for Viv as well. It hadn't changed since I visited with her a few years ago, well, except that the aspens had no leaves and there was actually ice and snow on the ground!

 And while we explored the boulders on this trail, the clouds moved in quickly.

Before we knew it, we were catching snowflakes with our hands and tongues and hurriedly walking back to the car to warm up!

A great way to spend a birthday!

the launcher...

One thing nice about a little downtime is being able to take the time to catch myself up. I had forgotten about several of these photos and half told stories. I think this is going to need to be a new year's resolution... keep caught up!

Remember the post "looming"? Click here to reread if necessary. 

I knew I needed to capture the whole story a little better and the day after Halloween fit perfectly to capture some more of that story.

 Of course, only after some candy sorting, candy trading and candy eating occurred. You know, things always work better with sugar... ha ha!

But to give you a little more story, the launching of the cats and guinea pig involved a friend of Jaiden's who had made the launcher. Jaiden ran into a snag about a week after the guinea pig made it's debut. The boy who had the launcher stopped bringing it to school. The story always changed as why he didn't have it... it was lost, it was broken, his dad threw it away, etc.

Jaiden was feeling a bit frustrated by this and so I suggested we create our own. That didn't fly so well either because he insisted we couldn't do it as Max had designed it himself but after a little persuading, we managed to come up with our version. After we finished it, I asked him to please show me how this whole launching business worked so we rode our bikes to school.

 the way it works is there are two poles near where I am standing. One side hooks up nicely but the other side nearest me (you can see the bands on the upper left) needs someone to hold onto it to make sure it doesn't fly off with guinea pig or cat.

Then the launcher (in this case, Jaiden) stands at the bottom and pulls back this crazy looking slingshot... and releases...

 Hard to see Jaiden in this photo but it was a complete success! Launching clear across the playground into the grass!

He asked for this photo and with the smile on his face, I obliged because seriously how cute is this? 

And how long will they really be interested in playing this way for much longer?

Next up, he plans to make a turkey for Thanksgiving, then presents and maybe a tree for Christmas... do you think hearts might be in the future for Valentine's? Or a cupid?