Febriary 5th weekend

The week started off with a day off from school on Monday for all the kids and continued with a Tuesday off for the Middle and High school students.  Naturally, I didn't have a day off from work, as it is not always a paid holiday, so I had to come up with something to keep kids busy.  Afternoon at the Skate World it is!

Kids had a great time playing games, spending money on junk food and on a claw machine.  I think Gabe is slightly obsessed with getting a prize and almost always ends up spending all of his allowances on it...
After renting their roller blades for Larissa (the only one who doesn't have her own skates that fit anymore), and her getting some serious blisters from the rentals, I ordered her own pair that same night.

Later on Monday I tried a new recipe for the candied orange peel.  It came out great!  I will try to perfect it even more the next time with all the "lessons learned".

On Tuesday morning Larissa finally gave up on trying to grow out her banks...

I think she looks better with them short, but she disagrees, and tried changing her mind in the middle of a hair cut...  Too late!

Wednesday was my birthday.  We did a low key birthday lunch with Tim and a couple of my great friends from work.  They took me to a great sushi place, and, as expected, I ordered too much, but ate it all!  Final touch = birthday ice cream tempura!

On Saturday Tim and Gabe went on their very first ski trip together!  They scheduled a ride, rental, and classes through the Hillsboro Ski Club, and both tried snowboarding for the first time.

Needless to say, we ended up buying a number of "essential" items before the trip.  All the things you never need, unless you go skiing...
Bus took off at 6:00am and brought them back at 5:30pm.  A long day for sure, but they are both looking forward to the next three weekends already.

Meanwhile, Larissa and I attended a weeding reception on a Saturday night.  Started off rough.  We somehow left her glucose meter behind and had to turn around and go back to get it...  Since we car-pooled, we made our friends late to the ceremony :-(  However, reception was great!

On Sunday I took a wire-ring making class and created quite a collection of inexpensive rings for Larissa.  Knowing how easy she looses things, I won't feel bad if she lost on of these.
Rest of the day spent watching a Super Bowl game and eating finger foods.  Good times for sure!