skiing highlights

What to do when you have a Friday off from school? 

Easy, enjoy a fun day of skiing at Eldora with the Brownsbergers... 

Jaiden, Jordan, Alyssa and Katie climbing the big mound of snow in the parking lot while us parents were trying to get all the ski gear out of the cars!

 It did make for a fun photograph!

My absolute favorite... I love that adorable smile and her sweetness. 

 The boys ready for the other side!

In the afternoon, I skied with the boys and got stuck in the trees. I bailed out on Ambush and caught them halfway down. It was a good day.

fun snow day at tahosa

One of the things Ben (Jaiden's Cub Scout Pack Leader) organized this year using popcorn money earned by the Pack was set up a snow day at Camp Tahosa. He rented out the main lodge, organized an amazing lunch (which Dennis went shopping for!) and invited all of the cub scouts and their families for a snow day with broom hockey, sledding, snowball fights and anything else involving snow!

It turned out the day of the event, one of our bigger storms rolled in and snow was everywhere not just in the mountains. Dennis had to go up early to help set up so I brought the kids at 9 am - a more normal start to the morning. We bundled in snow gear and headed up the mountain.

Jaiden is in the bright yellow coat and he set out across the lake to the sledding hill first thing after we signed in.

 Alyssa followed shortly after with a new friend.

 I am certain this was at least his 3rd or 4th run by the time Alyssa and I got to the hill!

 The sledding hill was spectacular. It had been well used before us and wove through the trees. There were a few questionable areas in which one could not be certain which way they may turn, but the kids loved it!

Alyssa catching some air! Ben, our Pack leader, is off to the side helping mound up one of those questionable areas to prevent kids going astray from the trail!

 Taking the corner and leaning a little too far over...

 But all smiles despite the crash landing!

 Seems like that corner probably was a little too steep as here comes Jaiden!

 total wipeout! or yard sale as he laughingly referred to it!

It was snowing so hard, it was actually quite difficult to get photos without tons of snowflakes in the way and keeping the camera dry at the same time. 

I did take a few other photos, but I also took this one looking back from the sledding hill, across the lake to the main lodge. Some people are walking but the group just to the left? They played broom hockey on the lake!

...and the drive home was something else! I had to pull over multiple times to clear the snow from the windshield since the wipers couldn't keep up! Actually it wasn't so much the windshield but the build up in front of the windshield, along the windows and rear window. It was slow driving and we made it home safely with fun memories.

pokemon rules!

We had an unexpected late start... was it for snow? I can't remember the exact details now and I am a bit sad I didn't record the why because it was a fairly expected late start. But what I do remember is Jaiden asking if he could have some friends over to play Pokemon. The answer was of course, yes. 

Tyler and Will showed up a little after 9 am and technically, Will had his little sister, Maia, in tow to play with Alyssa. Jaiden is not an early riser so he was barely dressed and teeth brushed by the time his friends arrived. He had not had breakfast but he was excited to have two friends over to play Pokemon.

Both Will and Tyler had eaten breakfast but I whipped a batch of pancakes with chocolate chips for Jaiden and Alyssa. I made extras and sat them on the table. The boys devoured them. They asked for more. But this time could they be dollar coin size?

I obliged. I have no idea how many I made but I do remember making up 3 batches and mixing in the chocolate chips so I could go faster. I felt like a short order cook, and I couldn't keep up with the demand. It made me smile. It made my heart full. I loved that there was not even a crumb left. And I especially loved when I asked if I could take a photo or two, the boys didn't care. 

you make my heart bounce

Valentine, you make my heart bounce!

And boy does it bounce for these cuties. I should mention that it also bounces for Pinterest and the wonderful ability to find adorable and easy Valentines!

I asked the kids about Valentine's this year and both kids wanted to make their own again so we did a little searching and found two pretty adorable ideas with free printables to go with them! Also, they don't involve more sugar which I totally dig. 

 Alyssa had fun creating her own Valentine's and I absolutely loved watching her. I wasn't allowed to help this year. She did it all by herself, so I sat back and watched.

 You can find the link for this Valentine here.

I didn't catch a photo of Jaiden assembling his but they were super easy too. Print and cut out. He did the cutting out part the night before and then signed the capes. These were quick and easy to assemble to! You can find the link for this Valentine here.

Hope you have a SUPER Valentine's Day!

the cheese car...

While squishing everything into a Saturday, I almost forgot ... Jaiden's last Pinewood Derby!

Yes, the last one because this year, he will move from Cub Scout to Boy Scout, and the Pinewood Derby is a Cub Scout tradition. This year, Jaiden decided he'd forgo winning any special awards and come up with a clever and fun car... the cheese car was born!

A little mouse rides on a piece of holey cheese! It was adorable and I realized I never took a close up of the car so I am going to have to do that so we don't forget just how stinkin' cool it was!

Webelos II racers were slim this year. The group has dwindled down from over 20 boys to a handful of committed scouts. I think there was 8 Webelos II's competing this year. Jaiden started the heat of this round.

As cute as that cheese car was, it didn't win any races. It placed well but not well enough and Jaiden sulked quite a bit about it. We tried to remind him the idea was to have a fun car this year, not necessarily a winning car but it didn't matter. He was still very sad that it was nearly last in several of the races.

I wasn't prepared for this...

... this is when he was awarded the Craftsmanship Award. I don't think he was prepared either, and after 4 years of competing and wanting to win this award, the Craftsmanship Award, he finally did it! He was still pretty upset about his car not placing so receiving the award was definitely great for him especially since the whole idea of this year's car was for something fun and clever!

note to self: take a photo of the car and the award too!

first week of february and we are off...

Hello February!

February arrived much faster than I would have liked. It always feels that way and I realize that I neglect blogging in January... always! While I try to catch this blog up, I reminded of a few highlights from the first week of February... or technically the end of January too.

Tutu visited us for the weekend and was just in time to see Jaiden and Alyssa's music concert. I took this sweet photo just before Tutu left Monday morning for Alyssa to put in her locket... now if we can just find that locket?!

Another highlight and as corny as it may seem was paying $1.29 a gallon for gas! I can not remember the last time I saw it this low, but what a treat!

Later in the week and early in the morning, I was treated to this cute note with a Pokemon tin left on the counter. "put lunch in here"... my sweet 8 year old, almost 9 year old.  I love how sweet and cute Alyssa is. I want to remember her cute notes and drawings that she leaves around the house.

And of course, Girl Scout cookie season began... I have a garage full of cookies waiting to be picked up and a mix of anxiety, dread and excitement as I wonder if I will get through another cookie year without putting the troop in the red - meaning I have no cookies leftover that the troop has to pay for... eek! But that is besides the point ... at the moment...

I do this all because this cutie pie is excited to be a Girl Scout and selling cookies. and she is certainly a cute little Brownie! For the past two years, I took a photo of her with boxes of cookies to make into a thank you card, this year she came up with the idea to climb in the wagon with boxes piled up. It turned out adorable but of course, it's that cuteness in her that makes it so adorable! 

And so we greet the first week of February with a bang!