Ringing in the New Year

And so...did you party last night?

We sure did! Our night included a scavenger hunt prepared by Auntie Liz, some board games, coloring, lots of treats, and a dance party!

Here's the first clue...

Another clue...

Clue...

And the treasure! Hidden in a board game-so clever!

Nora checks out her prize...

From left: Adrea, Taylor, Dana, Nora and Brooke enjoy their treasures.

Sorry!

Uncle Sam and Auntie Liz have a gigantic white board in the hall that is a lot of fun.

Even Diogi got in on the festivities.

Happy New Year!

Let's finish up with a quick video of the dance party in action! Because I may as well be in trouble with yet another family member for posting them on my blog.

New Years Eve

It's New Years Eve! What do you have planned for tonight?

We started our day by heading out for some indoor ice skating! The rule is, you have to wear skates on the ice, not boots. Well, friends, I haven't been on skates in 9 years, because 8 winters ago I was pregnant with Nora. And pregnancy+skating=no no. And friends, my feet grew from being pregnant, so every second on the ice was excruciating. I could feel my poor toes smooshing against the toe box and it was not fun. It was fine if I was skating fast, but with two little girls who are unsure on the ice, I was going pretty, pretty slowly. I'll tell you what, though-my winter boots have never felt so heavenly in all my life. And it was so much fun that I am already plotting our next ice skating adventure.

Here is a little video of the girls skating:

Hahahaha! Isn't that fun? Yeah, I am not laughing either. For some reason my camera is only taking video in fast forward. Between not being able to post the holiday programs yesterday and getting this sideways, super fast, old-timey movie version of video today, I am clearly on a roll. But you get the point. Both girls started out using chairs for support, and by the end of the 90-minute session, neither needed a chair. Sweet!

Now we are off to bake chocolate chunk brownies to bring to my brother's house tonight. We are having a rip roaring get together that will include the 4 of us plus Sam, Liz, and their niece Taylor. I think I heard a rumor about cousins Brooke and Adrea coming, too, but that can't be verified at this time. At any rate, I am certain the festivities will be over long, long before midnight. Because already, Nora has asked to take a nap and if I didn't have to worry about Dana entertaining herself for an hour and a half, I would be snuggled up with her right now.

Here's to a safe and enjoyable New Years Eve, with the added fun of a blue moon!

Who needs training wheels? Not us!

Dana is always trying to keep up with her big sister, and yesterday she proved she really can!

Kevin talked Nora into learning to ride her bike without the training wheels. She felt she would do better on Dana's bike, since it is so much shorter and, thus, closer to the ground.

Not to be outdone, Dana hopped on and took off, too!

Nora's still working on mastering this on her own bike. It's taller and heavier, so it's a bit different. She's also working on mastering walking on stilts that Kevin built her.

Hula Hoop Queen

I am completely in awe of my firstborn child. Watch this girl in action!

The crazy thing is that this clip is almost two minutes long! I had to edit it down because it was too big for Blogger to accept. Who the heck can hula hoop for two minutes, without a care in the world?

After I finished filming her, I asked Nora to teach me how to hula hoop because I have never been able to figure it out. She didn't have any luck with me, but I tell ya-I am so impressed with her skills. She says she just watched some kids at school and figured out how to hula hoop. And I think that is incredible! Because I watched her and I just cannot figure it out. I love this girl so much!

And, FYI, Blondie was her idea, not mine. I swear!

Sliding Race

Friday was an early release day at Nora's school. They have an early release once a month so teachers can do staff development. So on Friday, rather than coming home a couple of hours early, Nora went on a field trip with her Brownie troupe. They went on a sleigh ride and had a blast! When I got to the school at 5:45 to pick Nora up, the troupe leader had the kids busy sliding down the hill on their butts. It's a pretty neat hill-there is actually one of those tube slides that goes down the hill, and a stairway to easy the trip back up. The winter picnic was a couple of weeks ago at school, and a group of parents spent an evening sculpting this fantastic snow hill for one of the activities. Nora was too scared to go down it on a sled because sleds kept flipping over and throwing kids off. Most kids seemed happy with this outcome, but not Nora. However, after sliding down it on her butt that evening, she hasn't been able to talk about much else. She has been begging and begging to go back to school to slide down the hill. They aren't allowed to at recess because it isn't RIGHT on the playground and the monitors can't be in two places at once.

So anyhow, we went yesterday after school and a lovely time was had by all. Please enjoy the seconds-long race between Kevin and Nora. Kevin had a fun night of ibuprofen and pain in strange places but reports that he is feeling better today.

Dana Working Out

Ever wonder how Dana keeps her girlish figure? Mystery solved!

A couple weeks ago, Dana put on her bikini (inside out, of course), put in an exercise DVD and got to work. She managed to follow along for about ten minutes before she started dancing and doing her own thing. It was all pretty humorous and very sweet.