Skip to main content

Sledding, Monsters, and 2011!

Finally, the holidays are really coming to an end!  With all of our free time, we were able to fit in a few fun activities.  We bought a sled for Ava for Christmas, and thought it would be fun to get her out in the snow.  Boy, were we wrong!  That girl did NOT like being in the snow!  But, Scott and I had fun, so 66% ain't too bad!

Heading down with Daddy








Mommy's turn


Ava wanted nothing to do with that...and took off down the street!



She might have been smart not to go down with Mommy.


Sending her down on her own


NOT a good idea!



After recovering from the sledding adventure, she took a bath (as usual.)  She likes to run around and pretend to be a monster - and terrorize the puppies!



Spanky hiding under the tree...


She received a couple of dress-up outfits as Christmas presents.  Cute, but they are loaded with glitter!

Less than thrilled with having to pose for pics...




And she finally let me put a barrette in her hair...yippee!



We went down to Grand Meadow to ring in 2011 with the Winfields, the Nelsons, and the Reids.  We were supposed to get a horrible storm, but luckily, we only encountered a little bit of sleet and fog on the way down.  Once we got to the Winfield's house, we parked on their steep driveway.  And 15 minutes later, the neighbor came over to tell us our truck had slid down the driveway into the street...yikes!  We're just happy that it's not a busy street!

The evening was a great success...friends, kids, and food - what could be better!  We all stayed awake until midnight to ring in the year (I'll admit, I took a little nap around 10:30pm.)  Even all of the kids (except for Charlie) stayed awake.  We eventually had to give up on the idea of Ava sleeping in Isabel's room...they were just too stimulated, and weren't settling down to sleep.  

Ava isn't one of those kids who sleeps in if she stays up later.  After she went to bed around 11:30 on Friday night, we thought we might get her to sleep until 8am.  Oh no.  She was up starting at 4am...and never went back to sleep.  She just so badly wanted to play with Isabel!  Let's just say that we all started off 2011 with a serious lack of sleep!

Isabel was nice and shared her skirts with Ava..what a bunch of girls!



There's Charlie, playing with the new camera!


A little adult mommy time is always needed...


This is my favorite picture from the night - look at Charlie poking out from behind Erik!  That boy knows how to work the camera!


Awwww...Erik and Charlie



He's just too cute!


This sweet moment last for maybe 20 seconds.


Getting ready for the countdown!


Dee and a very pregnant Tiffany!  (She's so close!)


This is what a sleep-deprived toddler looks like.  Crabby.



And...she's out.


So far, the first few days of 2011 have been very busy!  We have a Christmas gathering this afternoon, and then we *might* have some downtime before the next one.  Here's to hoping that 2011 is a fantastic year for all!

Comments

Lisa said…
I love the photo of you chasing down the street after her! I kinda wish Dylan had just a TEENSY bit of fear in him when it comes to this sort of stuff. (These boys are going to make me go gray...) And as for the glitter... my friend says glitter is the herpes of kids' art supplies. :) Happy New Year to all of you!
I have been wanting to take the boys sledding SOOOO bad this year!! I think I'd have more fun than them as well, but whatever :-) I miss winter activities.... enjoy some extra sledding for us!! Happy New Year!

Popular posts from this blog

Goodbye Sweet Spanky

This is a post that I'm not very excited to write.  As you probably know, our oldest dog, Spanky, had struggled with health issues (ear infections, seizures) his whole life, and recently, his health had severely deteriorated.  He hadn't been eating, his ear infection was so severe his face was swollen, he had a hard time getting up the stairs, and he very rarely wanted to play.  Last week we got a few tail wags from him, and he ate a few bowls of food, but it was a 50-50 chance that he would actually keep the food down. On Thursday, we made the decision that if he wasn't any better by this weekend, we were going to put him down.  I know Scott didn't want to make that decision as Spanky was a very special dog to him - he truly was his little buddy, following him around everywhere, wanting to be wherever Scott was, and howling his sadness whenever Scott would leave him. Throughout Friday night, it became clear that Spanky wasn't going to have a miraculous recovery...

Happily Ever After?

Lately, I've been adding to the Disney Princess movies in our collection.  Last week I bought Beauty and the Beast for Ava.  That was never a favorite movie of mine, but now that I've seen it several times in the last week, it's growing on me.  I figure this is a good chance for me to catch up on some of the stories that I missed out on! Watching all of these princess movies has me thinking about fairy tales...why is it that it's always the evil stepMOTHER?  Or the mom is dead, and no one has taken her place?  Very rarely is it the father who is evil, or dead.  This has actually come up as a topic in more than one conversation lately, and has me a bit intrigued.  Fairy tales are often not very happy - and usually someone dies at some point.  I was a giving an overview of Snow White to a friend of mine, and as I was going through the story, both of us were horrified at the message - mom dies, evil stepmother wants to murder her pretty stepdaugh...

What's Black & White?

It's officially summer in Minnesota.  We've passed the 1-2 weeks where it's pleasant outside, and have moved into the hot and humid midwestern summer season.  This calls for some FUN in the SUN!  We were hoping that Ava would enjoy the water a little more this year than she did last year (I took her to several weeks of swimming lessons in a lap pool, where the temp of the water was just a wee bit too chilly.  It didn't go well for either of us.)  Plus, she has a new swimming suit I was anxious to have her try out, so at the very least, I knew she would look cute. :) So, Daddy decided to set up the sprinkler for her one night after dinner.  This, too, did not go very well.  Perhaps it's because he sprung the sprinkler on her without warning, causing her to run to me, with fear in her eyes, and very wet hands...  After that, we never got her to come near the sprinkler (way to go, Daddy), and she decided to play with my potted flowers...with h...