Winter Fun

We took the kids up to my parent's place last weekend.  It has taken me a while to post the pictures, it has been a very busy week.  The kids wanted to go to the cabin and ice skate and ice fish.  Grandpa Mike bought each of them a pair of double-bladed skates and he and Brian shoveled off an area of ice on the lake.  The kids had a blast ice skating.  As you can see from the not so great picture above, Mackenzie was pretty much off and running on her own from the get-go.  Lexie and Grandma and Grandpa helped Isaac.  He had some difficulties at first keeping his feet together, but he eventually figured it out.

They both liked the ice fishing as well and they got to see Uncle Mike and his friend Corey catch a pike.  Unfortunately it was not big enough to keep (24 inches), but it was still quite big to them.

Finally at the end of the day we took Lexie to a Japanese steakhouse called Genji's in Midland with us and everyone had a great time watching our chef cook dinner and almost everyone ate their food enthusiastically.

Unfortunately we only had one night with Grandma and Grandpa, but I am loving the fact that we are close enough to visit for only one night!



Bean Bags

After watching Charlie Brown's Halloween, Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving, and Charlie Brown's Christmas numerous times and seeing the kids in the shows sitting on bean bag chairs, I thought we might want to give bean bag chairs a chance in our den.  The room isn't small, however with a fireplace on one wall, huge windows/doors on another wall, and the entrance to the kitchen on the third wall, there is really only one wall available.  I don't like the look of a huge line-up of furniture on one wall.  We had tried having a chair in addition to our couch and having it in the room sideways to the wall with the fireplace, but I hadn't loved that either.  With just our sofa, the four of us can fit on the couch (for now) but no one else, if we have visitors. 

So I thought maybe bean bag chairs could be the answer.  Of course I am on a do-it-myself kick, so I decided to look for instructions to make my own.  I found a tutorial from Michael Miller Fabrics here: http://www.michaelmillerfabrics.com/Blog/bean_bag_chair.pdf.  The picture made it look kind of small, but I thought it would work for the kids so I gave it a shot.  Fortunately I have a lot of fabric right now (much to Brian's chagrin) so I didn't have to go to the fabric store for the project.  All I needed was some velcro and bean bag filler (I found beans made from recycled material, which was great).  Here are the results:

Brian helped me fill the inside lining with the beans and I think we may have over-filled them.  I was hoping they would squish down some after they were sat on for a while.  I may be deluding myself, but I think they are, even though currently if you sit on them hard enough the velcro blows open.  Here is a picture of the kids on them watching Cars this morning:

They fit very nicely in the corner next to the couch when they aren't being used, so the room looks nice and spacious, the colord match the couch and woodwork nicely, and the kids love them.  I think they are going to do quite nicely!

Happy Belated New Years

It has been quite a week here and it is only Wednesday.  Luckily Brian has been off the last two weeks because we have had quite a cold go through our house.  Currently I cannot breathe and my nose looks a lot like Rudolph.  Mackenzie and Brian seem to be pretty much over it.  Mackenzie was sick mostly last week with a fever on Wednesday and Thursday.  Isaac got a fever Sunday and he still had a fever today.  Brian took him to the doctor today and the doctor thinks it is viral, but if the fever is still there on Friday they are going to do a lung x-ray to make sure it isn't pneumonia.  Like I said, I am super congested but no fever so far. So hopefully Isaac's fever will break and I will be able to breathe tomorrow and we will be on the road to recovery.

We had our annual New Year's pasta dinner on New Year's Eve.  Friends and co-workers of mine, Sunil, Luis and Gopal came over with their families and we had dinner and did an early countdown with the kids.  If I do say so myself, my pasta was pretty good, the wine was quite excellent, and the kids seemed to have an awesome time.

Tonight Isaac was totally wound up because the doctor's visit was at three o'clock so he took a nap on either side of the visit.  Anyway, I was upstairs with him after his bath and getting him dressed and he was running around.  I went into the bathroom to get a tissue and Isaac runs in and I thought he said "Screw you" and then he ran back out.  I went out to the hallway and asked him what he had just said and he repeated "Screw you".  So I asked him what that meant and he says, "You burped, excuse you."  Evidently he thought the sound of me blowing my nose quite loudly was a burp.  I am glad that I asked what he thought he was saying instead of telling him that saying "Screw you" isn't very nice.  I can just see him running around and telling Mackenzie, "Screw you!"

Also in the way of interesting things my kids say, we have taught both kids to say "Go Irish", of course.  It really caught on this fall with Isaac.  Lately when they are home in the evenings Isaac will say "Go Irish" and Mackenzie will say "Go Buckeyes" and Isaac will say "NO Mackenzie, Go Irish".  This will go back and forth a bit and eventually one of them will switch to "Go Michigan".  Evidently the kids were saying "Go Irish" at school and their teachers have been helping them with some new phrases. It is hard for both Brian and I not to teach them some sarcastic phrases about the Buckeyes and their recent problems, but so far we have told the kids that they are allowed to root for whatever school they want, however I am secretly praying that neither of them wants to attend Ohio State.

A happy 2012 to all, hopefully it has been less snotty at your house.