Weekend(s) Recap

I realize I haven't posted for the last two weeks and despite the weeks being filled with some mundane, some tears, some belly laughs, and lots of funny kid quotes, the last two weekends specifically have been pretty epically awesome. 

So let's go back to the first weekend of February and the Superbowl Party at the Sannes. We rented a deep fryer and had a fry party. Yes you read that correct - a FRY PARTY.  It was A-M-A-Z-I-N-G - the food and the family and friends!! There was a few hiccups getting the thing to work (there were serious flames when there shouldn't have been) but thank goodness for Matt Sanne and his willingness to never give up on a task at hand and his ability to trouble shoot. If you were wondering what we deep fried. Everything. Wings, onion rings, fries, chips, oreos, pickles and funnel cake. It seriously was a state fair up at the Sanne's House. 

Here are some photos from the party. 

Party prep at our house. Mae cutting celery for the veggie tray. Yes we had one thing that was not fried! 

Starting the assembly of the fryer. 

A bunch of folks milling about. 

Julie calling work because it doesn't seem to be working. 

I got bored with the milling so came in to check out this adorable little one. 

Ready for the oil. 

More staring. 

Heather and Jennifer. 

Another picture of this cutie. 

Then we moved the fryer to the garage area because it started raining.  Beef and Phil are really helping? 

Matt still at it. There were lots of problems and here he is trying to troubleshoot. 

Success at last!!! It is like a restaurant but in a driveway. 

My dad who become the lead fryer. He loved it. 

Two men and a fryer.

A couple and their fryer. 

Wings starting to look good. 

My onion rings!! 

Frickles!

Matt's wings and my wings.

Although her face isn't showing it, she loves the deep fried oreo. 

So does Luke. 

Then this weekend we headed up to Seven Springs, just the 4 of us for some skiing. My Aunt Mary and Uncle George/Cousin Kathy have a place there and they were super generous and let us stay there for the weekend. This was Whitaker's first time ever on skis and needless to say he was a stud. And Mae has only really been up on skis one time and she was amazing as well. Further, this was the first time I have been up on skis in over 6 years so I was happy to report that I actually made it down the hill.  

Pearson and I put the kids in ski school in the morning so we got some quality time just the two of us. Not to sound like a broken record but it was really nice doing an outdoor activity just the two of us without the kids. Then we skied as a family in the afternoon. I have always been iffy about skiing and still wouldn't say that it is "my thing" but all of us being out there was pretty awesome. And watching my kids ski was amazing. Again, I sound like a broken record. Here are a couple of videos of the kids skiing. I wish I had gotten a few more as this was them at beginning of going down on the magic carpet after ski school and lunch. Mae got so confident and good, she just did laps by herself. 

Here are photos from the weekend. 

Driving through Western PA on Friday evening. It was a pretty epic sunset. 

Eating dinner on our first night there. 

Ready for ski school.

Best buddies. 

When I picked them up, I did ask the people how they did. The person responded by saying, "they really are the best of friends. They get along really well." 

And they are off with not even a turn back. 

Just the two of us. 

We, of course, creeped on the kids at ski school. 

Whitaker in the yellow vest.

We picked them up from ski school and went to get lunch for us and hot chocolate for them. They were all smiles and funny faces. 

We were at the Foggy Goggle - a place we used to party 10 years ago.  Things have definitely changed. 

The kids on the magic carpet with Pearson and I. 

Too good to not take a picture. 

After skiing/being gone from 8 to 4 this is the position you assume. 

Then you get in the hot tub. 

And then we came back to a 60 degree day in DC today, which warranted a picnic outside. 

I kept trying to get a photo of Mae singing on the microphone but Whitaker kept moving to get in the shot.

It was so warm Whitaker took off his shoes. 

TGIF

With temperatures cold and windy but a need to get outside and stretch our legs, we bundled up and went for a walk this afternoon. The walk, albeit cold, was just what we needed to get us through the final hours of the afternoon and reaffirm that [on most days] there is no place I would ever want to be then be with these kids. I truly have the best job. 

This kid never slows down.   

And her sunny personality is ever and always present.   

And this face just slays my heart every time. 

You CAN Judge a Book By Its Cover (Sometimes)

The other night the kids and I cuddled up to read books before bed. Two of the books we read were The Cat in the Hat and Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! Even though we have read these books countless times and my kids have had the same reaction to them, I never really thought about how some aspects of their personalities are easily determined by reading these two books. In fact a stranger could sit down and read these books with them and determine which one is willing to bend the truth and which one isn't. And which one follows the rule and which one doesn't care to follow the rules. 

If you haven't ever read The Cat in the Hat, which I find hard to believe that someone hasn't read it at least once, the Cat comes and makes a big mess of the house when two little kids [Sally and Nick] are at home alone while their mom is out. (Side note, in this day and age I don't believe any kids that little would be left at home alone but I am assuming when Dr. Seuss wrote the book the laws were a little more lax on this issue). By the end of the book, the Cat puts it all back right before the mom walks in the door. Then there is a line that reads, "Should we tell her…Now what should we do…What would YOU do, If your mother asked you?" So Mae answered immediately that she would tell me. Whitaker's response, "No I would not say anything."

The next book we read was a newish book called Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus! We have read this book hundreds of times but it is an easy read (meaning short) and the kids love it. If you don't know about this book, essentially a bus driver leaves a bus parked and tells the reader Don't let the pigeon drive the bus. Insert pigeon who comes by page after page and tries to convince the reader to let him drive the bus by asking questions/pestering them. As you can see this book was designed to get the reader to say, No and I can only assume to make them thinking that following the rules is cool. Because following the rules is cool, right? It comes as no surprise that Mae always says "NO" and Whitaker always, always says "YES!! [with much enthusiasm]

Cursed

I am really starting to think that we are cursed when it comes to renting houses. I don't know what it all means but I find it pretty ironic that we complained about the weather and rain in Seattle and now we have another situation with a different house. 

To back track, on Friday the kids and I headed to have a sleepover with Jolene (and Aunt Julie) since Uncle Beef was out of town. Here is Whitaker all ready to go. 

We brought Jolene Mae's pink piano. Could she possibly be any cuter playing it? I mean really look at those cheeks. 

Can you guess which one is a doll? 

On Saturday afternoon, when the kids and I came home we came home to this!!!! Pearson was home and thank goodness caught it before it got terrible. This house has a sump pump but a piece on it froze a couple of weeks ago and broke off. They came to fix it on Friday when we were at the beach and unplugged the sump pump and never plugged it back in. Hence our basement getting water. 

Thank goodness this house is managed by a property team and this is what it now looks like. We can't go down there till Wednesday when they will come to replace the padding and make sure it is totally dried out. 

All in all it was a great weekend but it makes me want to go back to the beach. 

Parent Teacher Conference (Part 1)

Today was Whitaker's first ever Parent/Teacher Conference (hence Part 1 with many more parts to come). By no means is this a deal breaker for the basis for his academic life. BUT it is also a huge deal because it is the first time that I got to hear what someone [a trained professional] who spends a fair amount time with Whitaker thinks he is doing developmentally. 

As I might have written about before Whitaker has already been to the office at school for bad behavior and it seemed every time I went to pick him up for the first two and half months, there was some incident of Whitaker misbehaving. However, in the last couple of months things have seemed to be going a little smoother but by no means is Whitaker going to be the class pet. So when I stepped in to talk about Whitaker, I was curious to hear what his teacher had to say about him. And she said...

Whitaker's teacher said that he was a total "delight" to have in class and that he was eager to learn, inquisitive, and curious. She also did say he was "one of the most stubborn kids she has seen." No shocker there! Along with giving us a formal evaluation of Whitaker's development (fine and large motor skills, language, self care, speech, and cognitive), Whitaker's teacher put together these books that were about "ME." The books showed certain skills that they were working on. 

It goes without saying that I am so impressed and proud of him and thought this conference could not have gone anything better. 

I am pretty impressed how he stays in the lines and that he got his eye and hair color correct. His teacher also thought he did a great job. 

Whitaker's teacher asked him some simple questions and recorded his answers.  

And if you didn't believe me when I said Whitaker had some downs during the first months of school, this is a self portrait of Whitaker during the first few weeks of school. It says that Whitaker "Refused" to participate in this activity.