Fine cinema...

Apparently, some of this movie was filmed on campus? I think it has Oscar potential.



Step Into Hell indeed...

Birthday fun...

For the boy's birthday party, we rented the local kid pool/gym. It was great for a cold, snowy December morning!! We had just a few kids...pretty mellow as birthday parties go, especially with all that space to run around in! The kids played in the pool for an hour, then we had pizza, cake and gym time. I hope he had a good birthday...

With best buddies K, H, and M3.

Goofin' with Grandpa.

Daddy's cake creation. M4 said he wanted a shark eating a seal, and that's what he got!!

The gang...

Happy birthday!

Our funny, sunny boy is 7 today!! Such a gentle, generous, and kind-hearted soul...he is always a ray of sunshine! He is also prone to being timid (should I say cautious?) and sometimes stubborn. He makes excellent explosion noises. He says something that makes me laugh every day. I want to keep him like this:

Except that I think he'll grow up to be a pretty neat guy. Just slow it down a bit, will ya?!

Storm of the century?

At least that's what "they" are saying. It's pretty early in the century, so I guess that's why. It's brutally cold out today, so I'm glad the kids got out in the snow for the past two days...
Unfortunately, I have to get to get out and shovel if we ever want to be able to use the car again!!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Oh yes, it snowed yesterday! Enough to break us in gently for the shoveling season. I was in Des Moines Christmas shopping all day yesterday with some of my buddies, and I was the designated driver for the trip home. Not so much because of the boozing (although if you need a place to eat in Des Moines, check out Django. So delicious and the Parisian Sidecars...oh my!!), but because I am the one who will drive in the snow. Many years in Wisconsin with a rear-wheel drive Toyota van made me an expert. (Oh, how fondly I think back on all those sand bags I used to pile in the back...and the patented Rock N Roll technique to dislodge your car when you're stuck.)

At any rate, it was not fun. I-80 in the snow...try not to do that. On a positive note, we only saw one car off the road.

In my absence, Mark and the kiddles put up the tree and decorated much of it. I was sorry not to be there, but between M3's swim meet taking up most of Saturday and the aforementioned shopping trip, I was hardly home this weekend! We will decorate more tonight. Yay!

Swim meet update: M3 had a good meet. She tried the 100m Individual Medley for the first time and did great! The IM is cool because they do a lap of all four strokes. It's so neat to see those little ones out there doing the butterfly! If I tried that, I would surely drown.

In sporting news...

A couple of fourth grade dads formed a girls' AAU basketball team, and M3 asked to join! I was surprised; basketball is not big around our house (sorry, Dad. Although we do like to go watch the college women's team sometimes.) She had her first practice last night and said she had fun! So I hope it's just lots of fun for her, and she can get some skillz. Plus it's a nice mixed group of girls; different from her usual buds. They will practice twice a week and only have a few "tournaments." I guess that's when they actually play other teams? I am pretty clueless.

I was hesitant, because M3 already has swim practice three nights a week plus meets on Saturdays. Now she'll add bball on Wednesdays and Sundays. That's a sport (obligation) every day except Friday. Sheesh. But swimming is done at the end of January. And I'm glad she's interested in a team sport. So I guess I'll deal with the schlepping.

Thanksgiving

November was a rough month, so it was lovely to end it on a happy note: spending time with my whole family in KC. Thanksgiving dinner was awesome. Really, what's not to love about Thanksgiving? No gift pressure, just good food and hangin' with the ones you love (OK, sometimes there is turkey pressure involved). Friday I scratched the yoga itch with a great class at The Yoga Gallery. It's so fun to have people to go to class with! And a little post-yoga coffee klatch? Sigh...I wish we could do that regularly, girls! Jenn and I have do our coffee klatches (yay!), but they aren't generally after a juicy yoga class that neither of us had to teach! We also took the kids to see Fantastic Mr. Fox (a Wes Anderson movie for kids?! Suh-weet!).

We took advantage of the kick-a** 70 degree weather on Saturday to take some family pictures. And they came out pretty well!! Not too many closed eyes! (Whoops, I guess Mark's eyes are closed in this one...but you can't really tell, can you?)
Carmelle double-fisting it. Party on, Carmelle!
All four cousins. Their personalities are so evident already. Four amazing little people.
I'm thankful every day for these four and for the rest of my family. I am so very lucky.