Pictures From Our Week

Skiing in the Yard

This is how Bryan and Katie have been spending the past few days.  Yes, we got snow and I think it will be staying around for a bit.  Earlier this year I spent some time browsing craigslist looking for inexpensive sets of cross country skis.  We already had 2 pairs plus 3 pairs of snow shoes for the kids.  I added 3 more pairs of cross country skis and now the kids have a way to keep busy outside in the winter. A definite benefit of having more than just a regular city lot to play on.  The kids can ski right outside their front door.  Sorry the picture is not the greatest. I was not wearing shoes and was not going to step outside.  Yes, I'm a wimp like that.

Happy Birthday Kieran

Kieran turned 8 on Saturday.  He had a wonderful day I think.  We went out to lunch at Red Robin then went to the spaghetti dinner at church where Father Mickey had everyone sing to Kieran.

Then we came home for cake.  He'd requested a blue cake but someone raided the pantry and it was too late to make frosting so Kieran settled for chocolate frosting.

We had a very happy 8-year-old. Congrats Kieran.

Christmas Play

The older boys were all in the Christmas Pageant at church this year.  We had 2 "additional" shepherds, one head shepherd and Balthazar. The biggest hassle was getting all the parts of the costumes to the church that night since swimming lessons ran late so we sent right from one to the other with a quick stop in the driveway to grab things.

The pageant went rather well from what I could see. Gabe was about done with sitting still and being quiet by the time everything started so I did not get to see too much from where we were hiding but I did get to see Kieran jump up and down excitedly when the shepherds were all supposed to be showing their joy and excitement at the birth of Jesus. I must say he played that part well and the other shepherds were very much slacking off.  Yes, they all wore sneakers and the show still went on.  Amazing, huh?

Let It Snow

I will admit that I am not interested in a lot of snow this winter until, oh, the end of January but this morning this is what I woke up to.

Of course, the temps today are supposed to be in the 40's and tomorrow it will be in the 50's so nothing will last long at all.  This is what the kids are doing right now.

Our Little Big Guy

I think the picture says it all. Robert is suddenly getting big on me.  I am truly wondering where my tiny little babe has gone to. 

Science Museum

We visited the science museum so we could go to the traveling Titanic exhibit.  I'm not so sure if the exhibit made much of an impression on some of the children but it always amazes me to just stop and think about the entire tragedy.  All of the things that went horribly wrong.  Bryan, Sean and I were talking a few days later about how if we were there, Bryan would have been old enough to be considered a man and left behind to die.  Very sobering thought right there.  Also makes me question why on earth we allow our children now to shirk responsibility so much during their teen/pre-teen year but that is another post unto itself. We don't have pictures from the Titanic exhibit since you are not allowed to take any but I do have a few others of the kids.  The older two spent a good 15 minutes playing with an interactive Erie Canal exhibit moving the boat into and out of the locks.  Abby and Gabe spent a ton of time playing in the water table.  Kieran spent a lot of time putting on weather reports that he then emailed to Dad and the other kids spent a ton of time climbing in some tunnels.  Everyone had a great time.