Jan blog

I'm sure I've mentioned how much we love our library. The kids go once a month to a Coding Club and once a month to Tween Crafting, and they make super fun things. This month they were using 3D pens to make things. 

Alex made a light house. Evan has asked for one of these for his birthday.

I started onions.....

and ran a lettuce experiment to see what seeds were still good.

I was super surprised to see some of the lettuce germinated in one day. 

I was walking by the boys room when I saw Evan's feet sticking out of their animal bin. He said this was comfortable... I didn't believe him. Listening to his MP3 player in the most comfortable spot in the house. 

Kids.... :) 

Eliza and I painted tiny canvas's for the library art display in February. Eliza made an awesome snowman and I made the Northern Lights. 

Evan all ready to go to church.

Eliza set up a store in the hallway at church for me to come and order food from. 

We just keep getting snow. This is 4" of new snow.

We just said yesterday this is the first winter I can remember that it stays white outside. The snow hasn't turned gray or dirty, it still sparkles in the sunlight.

Family puzzle with a D&D theme. 

The kids convinced us we needed to head to the library sledding hill. Mike decided to join the kids on a run down the hill. 

Eliza maxing and relaxing.

Evan is continuing to take piano. He knows all of Fur Else and is learning Moon Night Sonata.  

We got to hear Uncle Geoff play at his church event. We were not aware that there was a play as well as the performance. It was very cold in the church, but the 'play' was really well done. I could not believe the actors weren't wearing anything on their feet! We really enjoyed a skit that had someone getting a little can of coke and being so happy about it, but the next person got a bigger one from Jesus... and the first person was not happy they didn't get the same thing from Jesus and just got what they needed. There was a skit on how to pray with all kinds of people teaching this guy how to do it correctly. It was fun.

Eliza needed to get some blood work to see if the dark circles under her eyes is just an Eliza feature, or if it is something else. 

The boys joined her for support while getting the 9 vials filled, but it turns out Alex wasn't much help and Evan almost fainted again. 

 After the blood work we took the kids to Starbucks to use up some of my super old gift cards and got cocoa... which Eliza didn't like (because she doesn't like whip cream, she's crazy!) and it was her special treat for doing the blood work so she got a cake pop as well. 

From the initial blood tests we found that nothing was wrong with her, she just has lots and lots of allergies. She's allergic to every tree, every grass, hazelnuts, cats, dogs, almonds, dust. We are getting more tests this week and also taking Evan to see if he has any allergies.

We made 'dragon eggs' again this year with balloons and food coloring.

After a few days this is what we got.

Eliza looking cozy one cold winter day.

Mike and I found some time to do a puzzle a friend of ours let us borrow. I'm getting better at them.

We had our monthly Degan game night. The kids spent some time outside sledding and then got to reading.

While the adults played games..... they are invisible. :)

We were visiting the Douglass family and playing on their frozen canal and the kids brought up how somehow ALL of them have destroyed their gloves and needed new ones. So I said, ok on the way home we'll stop at Dunams and get some gloves and a few new saucer sleds because we are down to two. So on the way there Evan says "Mom, if there's a metal saucer sled at the store can we get one?" and to that I said "Honey, they don't make metal sleds anymore, everything is plastic." Well she showed me, they had a metal saucer sled, so of course we had to get it along with the new gloves. The boys have confirmed they go faster on it, but it's harder to jump with.

Evan had his first concert playing trumpet. He did a wonderful job!

All dressed up and proud.

We all had a nice evening.

Boys getting ready to head to school. Meijer had coats 50% off so I picked up a coat that can be squished into a ball that's about 7" for Alex so he might wear a coat to school and stuff it in his backpack. Turns out he will get a demerit if he puts a coat in his backpack, so he has been putting it in his trombone locker because it fits. I'm just thankful I've got this kid in more than a hoodie this winter. 

Got some pretty good snow dunes in the sub this year.

Eliza and Evan did spelling Bee's this month. Eliza made it to the 4th round at her class and Evan made it to runner up in his class. If the person doesn't make it to school on the school spelling bee day Evan will need to spell. 

Alex is doing a STEM Science class after school this semester. He also has been in a Reading Club put on by the library and the school and he's still doing Robotics which Evan has started as well.

Evan is working on a pretty awesome diamond art of the universe. 

My snapdragons all came up, so I had to make some sacrifices and thin them out. Lettuce needed to be put into a bigger pot and my onions and basil are off and going.

Evan headed out to take some more pictures of the moon. We are having focusing issues, but we haven't had enough clear night to do more tests.

The moon

Jupiter and it's 4 moons.

The Douglass family introduced us to Bischoff spread, and it's amazing on pancakes... Evan thinks its even better with strawberries mixed in. The spread tastes just like the cookies and it's nut free. 

Another visit with Uncle Geoff and Steve.

It's amazing how fast time goes by and how fast the kids grow.

 

Dec Blog

We enjoyed the Keego Winter Wonderland and Hot Cocoa event we went to. We took a walk down the candy land lane together and enjoyed some time with friends. 

Alex attended his first Solo and Ensemble and did a trombone duet with this friend Keaton, they got a 1! Which is awesome!

Evan and his amazing hair.

Alex robotics team went to their second qualifier. They came in 7th, but did not get picked for an alliance so weren't able to proceed in the games. There was some talk after about how the other West Bloomfield team was picked by mistake (they came in 24th) but what is done is done and it was a great season.

I tried to have Amazon deliver on the same day to reduce packaging.... I guess they didn't get that memo. Why didn't they just use one or two big boxes?

We got about 10" of snow at one point by the 10th of Dec.

The kids made good use of it. 

Ice dams are already going strong this year. 

With all the snow we headed to the library sledding hill with the kids.

Mike and I didn't freeze while at the sledding hill, but enjoyed our separate audiobooks while holding hands. I thought it must have looked strange with us sitting there not talking when other families came and went, but... what can you do.

I've inspired Eliza to start embordering. 

I finished my latest one, Eliza wanted to give it a try. 

These are the ones I've finished so far. I need to find more down time to work on them. I usually do them during one board meeting a month. 

I was able to attend Eliza's market day at school. For a month or more now her class has been working on making a business and they have to create something to sell and keep track of money and profits and expenses. She and her friend sold bracelets/rings/necklaces, so they were making these all month. Turns out her business partner lives just around the block so Eliza has a new friend to play with over the summer.

Alex has grown out of his Spiderman glasses he got when he turned 3. So we gave them to the family across the street with a 5,3&1 year old. 

Eliza freezing in her PJs heading to school. Can you guess what her favorite color is?

Mike and I got to help at Evan's holiday party at school. Got to attend them while I can.

The kids did great at our church Lesson and Carols. 

They each had a reading and they each dressed up. Alex as Joseph, Eliza an angel, and Evan was a magi. 

They are all looking so grown up.

We took Evan and Eliza to a no-sew craft at the library to make pillows.

They were pretty tedious, but they got it done and they looked pretty amazing. Alex and Mike worked on a puzzle while we worked on pillows.

I made some Christmas cookies with the kids.

They had fun decorating.

Alex did help, but I was too messy at the time to take a picture of him.

Evan making Sprizer cookies. The family really liked these new ones. Evan enjoyed using the gun to make them.

We enjoyed a Clue Escape room as a family. We figured out who did it, what room, and with what server. 

The boys decided to have some target practice with their bow and arrows and bee bee gun on Christmas Eve. 

Even Uncle Dave joined in the fun. They were shooting cans hanging off the chunk of snow at the bottom of the hill.

Christmas Eve with Mom Baker and the Carter family was lovely as always. Eliza and Evan did magic tricks for the family. We did have a few things that made the day more exciting, one was Mike dropping the entire tray of deviled eggs on the floor (no worries I had 6 more dozen eggs in the fridge) and the second was Aunt Jamie and Uncle Dave flooding the downstairs bathroom. All is well and it will make for a funny story next year. 

The boys figured out how to share their music with each other because Evan's new headphones have a headphone jack on the other side so with a long enough cord everyone can listen. 

Christmas day was low key and the kids had a good time.

We decided to break the wishbone from Thanksgiving on Christmas day, and wouldn't you know.... it was dead even. Better luck next year kids. Last year I forgot about the wishbone, the year before that I just didn't do it... so the kids wouldn't let me forget this year and.... this happened. 

Mike got me an air frier for Christmas. I had to remove my drip coffee maker from the counter to fit it, but Alex said he's never going back to the microwave. 

The day after Christmas we were supposed to head over to my sisters in the morning, but... freezing rain turned our sub into a skating rink. I tried out the deck and fell right away. I scratched up my arm and cut my foot, but other than that I was ok. The kids decided to take that opportunity to sled down the icy driveway and skate on the street with their shoes. 

Alex has been working on figure out his circuit sets he got for Christmas. He's figured out a few things and I can't wait to see where this goes. 

We did make it to the Wades for Christmas. We had the afternoon with my mom....

and the evening with Jodi and Dad.

Eliza really wanted to see Polar Express over break, so we went to see it in 3d at the Henry Ford. We went to the museum after and saw the DaVinci exhibit and the Bicycle exhibit, built some paper airplanes and cleaned some up, and saw the huge Lego exhibit.  

Can't miss taking a picture with the Allegany 

After the museum we went to our favorite restaurant, Red Robin, and saw our #1 server. 

Evan got two Rovers to build for Christmas. One he is able to drive with motors and a remote, the other he can use his hands to operate. 

We headed to the Orthodontist with Evan and Eliza, they are good for another 9 months, but Alex will be getting some mouth jewelry in the spring. 

Alex finished the Wheel of Time books over break. He wanted to get them done before the new year, but he was 100 pages shy, but he did an amazing job. He read ~12,000 pages over the 14 book series. Now he's thirsty for more books and we are trying to find some that are age appropriate, but still engaging. 

New Years Eve we had two families come and join us for the evening. We had so much food and the kids had so much fun. Only hiccup was how wet the kids all got sledding, and the watch that was lost while sledding and was not found. 

Adults getting some game time in.

We enjoyed New Years day playing games by the fire.

The Mario Race track is out of the basement and seeing action again.

We were lucky enough to have Clayton, Maggie and Enoria over for a game day to round out our Christmas vacation. They played two games over ~6 hours... I hung out with Eliza and Evan. 

Happy New Year Everyone!!