Birthday Time

Steve got breakfast in bed presented by the kids for his birthday.



Opening gifts.



That afternoon we went to a family concert at Orchestra Hall.







A chocolate and peanut butter pie to top off the birthday celebration.



The letter N.



We bought something in a large box and as soon as I started to unpack it on Monday, M took all the styrofoam pieces and made roads and garages for his cars. I think he could have played with it for hours.



When D came home from school, she was excited to play with the box and styrofoam pieces too. I was in the kitchen making dinner unaware of what they had decided to do: tear every little piece of styrofoam into a million bazillion little pieces. Yikes. It pretty much looked like it had snowed in the playroom (the picture does not quite do it justice-it was taken after we had cleaned up quite a bit). It was a great day for them to learn to vacuum.

Chinese New Year

It's the year of the dragon, and D's school put on a huge production at Bethel University to celebrate Chinese New Year. Each class had a dance and song they performed. I was impressed by the quality of the show, from the decorations to the costumes to the fact that even the kindergartners were not phased by the fact that they performed in front of an audience of 1,200!

Here are some highlights:

All of the 5th graders brought in the dragon through the audience.






One of my favorite performances by one of the 2nd grade classes.



One of D's friend's kindergarten class.





1st graders.



"Plucking turnips" by another kindergarten class.



3rd graders doing martial arts.



D's class.










Another 1st grade class.



The grand finale with the Chinese Lion Dance.





After the performance.



Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Outdoor Ice Skating

M's favorite letter.



We went to our friends' cabin this weekend and spent some time on the ice.

Look--Steve on skates with a hockey stick!



D and M are taking ice skating lessons, but M was a little unsteady still at the start of the weekend.



Our friend Steve gave the kids bucket rides--definitely one of their favorite things!





The kiddos.



Once we gave M a hockey stick, something just clicked in him with skating. He loved chasing the puck and hitting it with his stick and was able to actually skate around so much better than at the start of the weekend. Yeah, sure, he fell flat on his face and started bleeding once, but after minimal comforting he wriggled out of my hold and went straight for the stick and puck again. I think we are in trouble! Hockey wasn't something I expected my kids to be interested in, but M kept saying "Mom, I LOVE hockey."





D loved being able to skate fast while she pushed the bin.

Cabin and Ice Fishing

We headed up to the cabin after having not been there since Thanksgiving. M had left the panda pillow pet he got for his birthday there and boy was he happy to see it again. It never left his side.











Family mitten prints.



On the way home from the cabin, we stopped at Grandma and Papa's house to do some ice fishing.



Our mode of transportation out to our fishing spot.



Getting the fish house set up.





Here fishy, fishy, fishy.






Papa getting the tip-ups set up.



We were very cozy with five of us in a two-man fishing house.





We didn't catch many (ok, any) fish, but we had fun.

Christmas in Minnesota

On Sunday, my parents and sister's family came over to celebrate Christmas.









All the grandkids/cousins with Grammy and Papa.



D loved sleeping with the new sleep mask that came with pj's she got from Grammy and Papa.