Sir Elton John

Taken while they were "dancing" to Crocodile Rock.....they are now "dancing" to Don't Go Breakin' My Heart".  We listen to a lot of Elton John around here, they love it. Makes me want to go out and buy a piano...but I won't....but only b/c we don't have any space for one :-)

Oh, just got a request for "Benny and the Jets"....gotta go :-)

sweet, no? so tired he fell asleep while watching Bolt, our new favorite kid movie of all time....

and one of hannah, b/c she wanted her picture when she saw me taking griff''s....

More Snow Pictures? SNORE......

there is absolutely nothing new going on here. no new snow, but the snow we have isn't going anywhere....so unfortunately for you, you need to suffer through more snow pictures. we are so looking forward to beach pictures, as i'm sure you are, too.  i took these yesterday afternoon after we determined it was necessary to get outside and burn some energy.  we (and i guess i really mean me) are having a hard time adjusting to no naps, and the days are unbelievably l-o-n-g without that break. i'm sure it will be nicer when the weather is better.....right?  anyway, pictures for you.

abby is off to another birthday party this evening. feb has been a busy month for parties for her. this one is at the American Girl store at the MOA. jumping off the walls she was so excited....up at 6am today she was so excited.....can't stop talking about it she was so excited. hope it lives up to her expectations!  she is leaving directly from school so we had to pack the birthday girl's present, abby's doll (b/c the doll was invited, too), and a party dress for abby to change into after school. she went to school with a suitcase....almost.

tomorrow abby has another practice for her ice show next weekend. she had one practice earlier this week. i don't think we are going to see any jumps or spins a la the olympics, but at least all the girls stayed upright on their skates while practicing. it was kind of funny - i still make abby wear her helmet during skating lessons. at her ice show practice, she was getting ready to go onto the ice and she refused to put it on.  i looked at her coach and said something like, she doesn't want to wear her helmet. the coach looked at me and said she'll be fine. i still stood there, trying to figure out if i should make her wear it when the coach said don't worry, i'll watch her. i looked at the coach, smiled and said, yeah, i guess she can't wear it during the show can she? the coach looked at me like i was nuts and said no, she can't.  time to cut those strings i guess...at least when it comes to skating.

Trains, trains and more trains

this is how i've been spending most of my afternoons now that H&G are not napping. i can't even tell you how many train tracks i've put together over the last couple of weeks. we can get some pretty serious tracks going, given we have about 3,276 train tracks with which to work. Hannah is usually on the floor next to him, but today she is camped out on the couch watching one of the many Barbie movies she recently discovered we have.

Abby has a birthday party on Sunday at MagiQuest at the Mall of America. not too sure what it actually is, but i do know she gets to dress up like a wizard, arm herself with a wand and try to put spells on people......i cannot even begin to tell you how excited she is. real life harry potter.....does it get any better than that?

Snow Fun

Outside this weekend playing in the snow.  Mike dug a tunnel for the kids and they thought it was a blast. Kona liked it too, but I don't have a picture of him going through it!  We were on our second round of clothing by the time I got the camera out, which explains Griff's pink and white boots, Hannah's hat from about 2 winters ago, and Abby wearing a Dora hat that belongs to Hannah :-)  We wash and dry A LOT of winter clothing around here!

Ice Skating Lessons

It had been awhile since I took any pictures of Abby skating at her lessons, so thought I would get a few of her today. H&G wanted to go too, so we all piled into the truck early this morning and were off.....

She's doing a great job and is very excited to start her practices for the ice show in March. She gets her costume next weekend, which she is also excited about!  Enjoy the pictures.

Valentines

Abby's valentines for her class......

and for the neighborhood kids......

Snowplow

waiting for the snowplow to come by the house....half day of school due to the snow.....supposed to keep coming until tomorrow....fun stuff!

A Bit of This and That

A bit of the same ol' same ol' around here, hence the lack of pictures and updates. Everyone is feeling much better, thankfully, so we've been able to get back into our boring routine during the week: school, workout, lunch, rest time (b/c we are no longer napping :-( , pick up from school, dinner, bed.....and of course there are the almost daily Target and Cub runs in there, too!

I did take Hannah and Griff on a bit of an adventure the other day - we drove up to a cute little town about an hour away that has some small antique shops.  I could have spent all day there, but my co-shoppers ran out of gas after two stores.  In any event, the trip was successful - we came back with two chairs (one for the desk, yeah!), two picture frames and one pair of vintage salt and pepper shakers that I didn't especially want, but after Hannah broke them, I felt obligated to buy them :-)

Mike and I took the kids out in the snow this morning. We are in the midst of a snow storm, or so they say. We are supposed to get snow from now until Tuesday.  It's been coming down all day, but lightly. Unless it picks up, I'm not expecting too much accumulation.  Abby's BFF Lindsey came over this afternoon and they went out in the snow, too.  I think what they like best is the hot chocolate they get when they come in!

Enjoy the pictures. I'm off to get H&G out of their beds - they are not even quietly resting today. They are up there singing Taylor Swift's "I Hate That Stupid Old Pick-up Truck" over and over again to each other.