Up on the slopes

It is finally time for our first ski trip of the season!  After our somewhat complicated last visit, we made sure that everyone had their gear and that Jeremy and I had the key to the top carrier ready to go.  

For the first part of the day I stayed on the bunny hill with Cambrie and Daxton as they figured things out.  The hill was perfect for Cambrie to figure out exactly how snow boarding is supposed to go.  She picked it up really quickly and was having a great time.  

We decided that we were going to teach Daxton how to ski off-leash this season.  I wasn't sure how everything was going to go with this kid, but after practicing his s-turns all morning, he got the hang of it and was loving life.  Around lunch time we met back up with Jeremy and the other kids.  They had cruised over to Peru to ski some more difficult stuff.  While hanging out with us Kelton practiced his skiing backwards skills.  That kid is so comfortable on skis.

  We decided to take the bunny hill graduates over to the bigger hills at least once before calling it a day.  It was a little rough and they were pretty tired by the time they made it to the bottom of the hill.  Part of the problem were the crowds and waiting in those long lift lines.  Hopefully we can avoid crowds like that as the season goes on.  

Daxton showing off his skills to big brother and Dad.  He loved playing follow the leader.

I think we still need to work on some skills and endurance, however, this is still looking to be a very promising season!  

Failed Keystone Ski Trip

We were all so excited for our first day skiing this season!  We loaded up the car the night before and woke up bright and early to make the drive up the canyon.  We hit a few snags as we ended up in traffic, and took twice as long to get to the mountain.  Oh well, after three hours in the car, getting out and playing sounded like a pretty good idea.  We got all of the kids bundled into their snow clothes and then realized...we didn't have the key to unlock the rooftop carrier!  We had left it at home.  We had a couple of choices.  Pick the lock, rent skiis, or turn around and go home.  We tried finding a locksmith, it didn't work.  We didn't want to pay for rentals for everyone.  And we didn't want to waste all that time in the car.  So we came up with a completely new plan.  We drove into town, picked up a few sleds, and bought a second-hand snowboard for Cambrie.  The we drove back up towards the resort where there was a sledding hill that was calling our names.  The kids spent the next two hours sledding down the hill.  

Cambrie strapped on her snowboard for the first time and Jeremy helped teach her some of the basics on how to make it down the hill.  

Part of the hill was so steep that we didn't even need a board or sled to go down it.  You could totally slide on your bum and just fly!  

It was perfect.  No one complained that we couldn't go skiing.  No one was sad at all by how our afternoon turned out.  The fact that we had all four kids smiling at the end of the day is a big deal. Cambrie grew pretty comfortable on the board and is anxious to try it on the real ski hill next.  We're headed up again in a couple of weeks.  Hopefully we don't lock our skis in our car again!

A five-year-old and a exploding cake

After seeing all of McKenzie's birthday celebrations, this boy couldn't wait for his birthday.  He had to go to preschool that morning, which wasn't awesome, but we still found ways to celebrate.  He got to choose his special birthday food.  We decorated the house just for him.

We went to Chick-fil-A for lunch.  We couldn't dine-in so we went to the Orchard to eat.  It was colder than we were expecting so the boys hid under their tent while they ate.  Hey, it's one way to enjoy the meal!  We went to Monkey Bizness, and while we could only play for about a half hour, it was still worth the visit.

He got some silly string and we decided that the best way to use it was to let him attack his siblings!  They ran away from him while he squirted them without mercy.  It was a great present from the big kids to their brother.

We were lucky enough that Coleson was able to come over and play.  Since it was Daxton's family year he didn't have the same scope of party that McKenzie did, but it's always nice to have friends over to play.

After much pleading and begging (from all three boys) we decided it was time for presents and cake.  Daxton had the best expressions as he unwrapped his presents.  He must have gotten everything he wanted!

Jeremy was in charge of the cake again, and he didn't disappoint.  We went ahead with the Mario theme.  Luckily Daxton had some figurines so that Jeremy didn't have to sculpt all of them.

That is one happy birthday boy!

Jeremy really wanted Daxton to wear his "cool dude" sunglasses when blowing out his candles.  I wasn't sure why...until Jeremy reached forward at the last minute to light one last fuse.

It totally exploded!  He had put a fire cracker in the yellow mystery box!  You can tell that Coleson was a little worried by the whole thing, but the other boys just laughed and laughed.

It turned out to be a great birthday for this kid.  Five years old!  Can you believe it?

Harry Potter Hullaballoo

It was a wild week getting ready for McKenzie's birthday party.  Not only were we unpacking from our trips, but we had Christmas to put away, and a house to transform into Hogwarts.  The night before the party I started worrying about what I was prepping.  I had chocolate melting on the stove, black dye simmering, and a terrifying dementor face under construction.  Luckily everything pulled together wonderfully and the party was a blast.

We played a lot of party games while the girls were here.  We had owl paper airplane competitions.  All of our owls were acrobats and none of them actually went very far, but it was fun to try!

We played ping pong quidditch.  This was a lot of fun.  The boys had been practicing while I set up the party, so we knew it was possible.  They ended up being the best players on the teams because they had so much practice!  The idea is that you bounce the ping pong ball off the table, through the hoops, and into the cups at the end.  Balls were flying everywhere, but that was half the fun.

We played another owl game where we had to get the owls into the owlery using only their wands.  It was tricky to get the balloons to cooperate and go where you wanted them to go, especially the really big ones!

The girls made love potions.  While it was fun watching the potion bubble and fizz, it tasted awful!  Ultimately the girls dumped all of their potions down the sink and just used Rose Thorn (Kool-aid) and water.

Professor Trelawney showed up to teach a Divination Class.  Cambrie found her clothes, made a crystal ball, and prepared tea cups with tea leaves in them for the class to use.  She did such an amazing job.  Not surprisingly, more than one student saw the Grimm in their tea leaves and Professor Trelawney predicted their gruesome and horrible death.  The girls were giggling so hard during the whole class. 

They each had the chance to fight off the dementor pinata.  He ended up looking incredibly spooky, and when paired with a long black cloak...let's just say that when Jeremy dropped it suddenly more than one girl screamed.

We set up a photo booth for the girls to take pictures at.  McKenzie was super excited about the chance to use her new Polaroid camera she got from Grandma and Grandpa for her birthday.  They are cute girls and look so great on film. (Shaila, Evalyn, McKenzie, Aubri, Emi, Hannah)

One of the best parts about any party however is the food.  We themed everything we set out.  I only wish I had house elves to help with all the prep and clean up!

Finally it was time for cake and presents.  McKenzie requested a Hagrid style cake.  It is surprisingly difficult to purposely spell my kids' names wrong.  Happy birthday McKenzie!  I hope your birthday party had all the magic you were hoping for.