Skiing with Say

So...I got to take my sister skiing for her birthday. Yeah, it's March 28th but we woke up to 8 inches of the white stuff so my mom hung with the kiddos and we hit Pat's Peak for the day. The slopes were totally empty and conditions were perfect. We had a blast!

3 Days of Photos

Wednesday...

Thursday...

Today...

Finale

What a great Easter Sunday. Good service, good company, good food...what else can you ask for! We had the pleasure of spending the afternoon with our good friends, the Tobeys, where the boys played with friends, hunted treats, and spent time with the mini horses. We all had a great day and were ready for some rest when we returned home.

I'm SO ready for this snow to melt. That's right, we currently have 2 feet of snow on the ground. I don't think we'll have any more snow, but this winter has been so long that I find myself watching the weather each morning just to make sure. We've had at least a foot of snow on the ground since December 1. So...to put that in perspective, we have snow for 1/3 of the year.

Enjoy your week!

Easter, Act 1

Happy Easter! Our morning, all 48 minutes of it so far, has consisted of the traditional Easter basket hunt, Conner's gift to Grady, and me taking pictures with my nifty new camera. I thought I'd share a few.

I wanted to take a minute and tell you about the gift that Conner made for Grady. Conner got a High School Musical book for his birthday. This book is no ordinary book - it is full of pop outs and little envelopes that contain trinkets about the different characters. Needless to say, Grady really likes this book and Conner has had a difficult time sharing it. Yesterday, Conner decided he was going to make Grady one of his own. He spent close to 3 hours drawing each page, making the different pop out sections, attached envelopes to the pages filling them with the various surpises, and adding color. He was very proud of his work and was very excited to give his gift this morning. I was very proud of him as well, but a little twinge of concern had me worried that Grady may not be as excited as Conner was. I didn't want his feelings to be hurt but I also didn't want to make him feel badly about this treasure he had worked so hard to create. Well, I don't know why I had any concern. When Conner gave the book to Grady they shared a very precious couple of minutes - one that is not shared often between brothers their age. Grady gave Conner several hugs and let Conner show him each page, explaining all of the drawings. What a wonderful Easter morning!We asked Grady to smile...he proceeded to shake his booty!

Easter Eggs and Acrylic

Let me begin by saying that I have the best husband in the world. Really, I do. And not just because he is surprising me on Easter morning with a super new digital SLR - although that is what has prompted me to say so - but he really is the greatest. So, excuse the lighting on a couple of these pictures as our current camera is on the outs...Conner wants to put the new one in my basket so it'll have to do until Sunday.

Here are a few of the boys doing some egg decorating the other afternoon and painting today. Conner wanted to know what he should paint so the art instructor emerged and we were soon setting up a still life. Conner blended the world of Spongebob with the still life and Grady worked in expression and subtraction. (A detail of his painting is above in which he incorporated a straw to scratch into the paint to reveal the colors below...ok...I gave him a nudge but he did the scratchin'.)

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of Aunt Sayward, the Spinster, and Nana. Happy Easter.

Happy 4th Birthday, Grady!

I was a bit under the weather yesterday...developed a slight cold but I'm feeling MUCH better today...so I'm tardy in blogging a happy birthday wish to the Grades. He is telling everyone he is now 6, but holds up 4 fingers. Too silly! See the video link for his birthday singing at Bugaboo Creek.

Shawn is totally into Guitar Hero. Ok, so am I, and I think I'm developing carpal tunnel.

This is a before and after of the boys' room. It is not quite done as I still need to do the cityscape with chalkboard paint. However, as you can see, this is a marked improvement.

This is a before and after of the loft area. It had functioned as a catch-all for storage, etc. until I finally got a more organized space together. I am most proud of my "leather" ottoman I scored at Target for $13. (I say "leather" because I'm pretty sure it's not real...but it does play the part rather well.)

Snow, Snow Go Away!

I am sick and tired of the snow! The above photo is probably the most accurate visual description of just how much snow we have received this winter - Concord reached a record 100+ inches so far this season. That is our mailbox...the door in the heaping mound of snow.

Shawn has been very busy, well, since Christmas. This is a good thing for business, but we miss him a lot, and with all of this snow it's been a bit more difficult to be alone. So, this morning I sat down at the old laptop with the sole mission of getting out of dodge for a vacation. Granted we don't leave until May 4 but we now have some sun to look forward to. We're heading to every child's favorite place...the home of the mouse...but don't say anything to the boys if you talk to them before d-day as we are not telling them that we are going. We want it to be a surprise. Shawn and I took Conner back in 2005 and didn't tell him - he was so excited when we pulled into the Magic Kingdom. I'm really looking forward to some time with all of my boys away from the hustle and bustle of every day life.

Grady had his first experience in organized sports yesterday. It didn't go over so well and he is now enrolled in a youth soccer skills clinic instead. Much more appropriate. After a couple of sessions in Lil' Kickers he'll be ready to hit the field with a team. Conner continues to enjoy Tae Kwon Do. He's doing very well and recently achieved his dark green belt.

As a youth, I quoted movies quite often. This has now moved onto my children. Conner can often be heard, in response to someone saying something was done "on purpose", mumbling "You used all the glue on purpose!" (From the much loved A Christmas Story.) And just the other day Shawn and I were talking about college and I hear from the back of the car - from Grady, "Your mom goes to college." (Napoleon Dynamite...the boys have never seen it but we quote it often and I guess it just stuck.) Grady also throws out Grinch quotes left and right. Too funny. They both have such great senses of humor.

We took the boys skiing last weekend. We had a great time on the slopes, Conner spent the day with a private instructor, and Grady spent his slope time on his bum. At one point we saw the instructors packing snow around his skis to keep him standing. We'll get them out there at least one more time before the season ends.