January 29th weekend

We spent most of the Saturday waiting on Larissa's chess tournament at a local Elementary school.  She played five games and won none :-(

I am guessing more practice is in order.

I stopped by the house while she was playing and brought Jon and Miranda over.  First, we stopped by Starbucks, where we tested a Face Time app on iPhone, then school playground for Jon.

As usual, Jon stole the show with his goofy personality.  Next thing I know, he is playing tag with older kids...

I used my waiting time to start a new crocheting project.  A baby blanket for Larissa's teacher.

Sunday was another fun but unproductive day.  You got to have some of those to wind down!

January 22nd weekend

Weather started cold and rainy, but quickly turned into a sunny dry weekend.

Larissa started school choir on Friday, it meets after school and kids miss their school bus, which means "there goes another lunch break" for me.  Luckily, Jon is allowed to stay with her, so that's one less thing to worry about.
On the way to pick them up I exchanged my mailed in flier for a free weekend pass to the Gem Fair.  I always end up buying more than I need.  All the shiny things just draw me right in.  It's a girl thing, I think.

On Saturday Larissa and I run some errands, then off to the Wedding shower for my co-worker.  On the way we discovered a hazelnut store in Cornelius and HAD to go in and buy some treats.  That alone made the trip well worth it.

Later that night Miranda had a Formal Winter dance to attend.  She got a new dress just for that.

On Sunday we decided to check out Big Al's morning bowling special, plus kids have been begging to go bowling for a very long time.  We had a blast! 
Jon bowled with the bumpers and even managed to get a strike.  Larissa tried with and without the bumpers and settled on "without".  Gabe had to downgrade his bowling ball from 10 to 9 lb and had much better luck, but kept unsuccessfully trying to curve the ball...

 We all had a great time and agreed to do this again soon!

January 15th weekend

Another fast weekend...

Tim and I tried a new sushi place.  We both really liked it, and will probably try going there again soon.

Main event for the weekend was Miranda's Orchestra performance on Saturday.  We had a little confusion about the start time, so to be safe we showed up at the earlier suspected start time.  We were 30 min early...  but got to see part of the rehearsal.

 We sat in the back row, so that I could stand up to take pictures without blocking any one's view.

With the constant rain all weekend long, there wasn't much to do.  On Sunday, we stopped by the library, got some books, then fed the ducks.  Kids always have fun trying to select the ones "they are feeding" and making sure their feed goes to the right ones.

Monday was a day off from school and kids got a chance to catch up on their sleep, games and TV shows.

2011. The school is back on.

Worst thing about vacation is the end...  It's always difficult for the kids to get back into their daily routines.  Getting up early in the morning, doing their homework...

Not much happened at our house this weekend.  I did a lot of cleaning, trying to de-clatter my closet, sort out my projects.  I only left the house for a few shopping trips.  One of the trips resulted in a new hat for Jon.  He wore it to our long planned lunch at McDonald's and then all day long afterward.

It is getting cold and there is prediction of the snow coming this week.  Kids are excited and hoping for a school cancellation.  I am not too excited, since I still have to drive to work on ice and defrost my car every morning...

Happy 2011!

what is better than a week off from work?..  Nothing!!

Not sure if you can make out, but kids really liked their book lights (Christmas presents).

We didn't do much going out, but we were successful in catching up on the movies and eating good meals.

On Monday we finally got around making our candy sushi.  Not everyone wanted to participate in making them, but there was no shortage in volunteers when it was time to eat them (and the supplies leftovers).

Later in the night we finally got a chance to stop by my manager's house and see all the Christmas lights her family puts up every year.  We were not disappointed and even got a candy-canes from the family, which totally impressed Jon.  Later he asked me: "Isn't that cool, how we ring a doorbell, they open the door and they have candy-canes to give us? I wish I had a house like that..."

On Tuesday Larissa took her first sewing class at Jo Ann's store and made a pillow case.  We loved it so much, the next day we made seven more!  I guess now you know what you are all getting for Christmas next year!

On a New Year's eve we played some fun games like Christmas Trivia, scavenger hunt, etc.  None of the prizes were great and many were more of a joke than anything else.

Remember how Jon helped me pick those out?  Well, he was quite disappointed when he ended up with a few of those.  The obvious question was "what did you expect?.."

We did some party popper that came with a paper crown, a prize and a joke.

 Champagne (and non-alcoholic drinks) were poured.

Everyone was able to stay up past midnight!

Best wishes in 2011!