Ski goggles

Sometime last week I was digging through my old ski gear bag, and the kids just thought it was a big bag of toys for them to play with. Quincy kept trying to put on my ski hat. Miles liked wearing my face muffler. And they both thought the ski goggles were just the best thing ever.

Even Rocky got to get in on the fun. Although I'm not sure how much fun he was having, but he was a good sport for quite a while.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all our family and friends. I hope that you are all having a wonderful, blessed day with the people you love. Mike and I were actually the first ones up this morning, I think we were just as excited as the kids. Miles was just in awe that Santa actually came to his house, and brought him what he asked for, a fire station with a fire truck and fire fighters. Quincy also really liked Miles's new fire truck. Quincy took a few minutes to finish waking up and realize that there were lots of toys in front of him. Then he still wanted Miles's fire truck. Eventually he saw Elmo and then his own toolbench. Of course, the chocolates were gotten into very early. In fact, I asked Miles for a morning/Christmas hug and kiss and was told "Okay, but not until I am done eating the chocolate." Priorities. The post chocolate face: Miles got a hulk mask, that he prefers to see other people wearing. Quincy got a steering wheel that he was so excited to play with he didn't want to finish unwrapping. And Rocky wasn't forgotten either, now if Quincy will just let him keep and eat his treat.

Fire Station tour

This morning Miles, Quincy and I joined some other Moms & kids from my Mom's Group for a tour of a local fire station. The firefighters were very nice, and patient, the tour was a huge hit with the kids.

They got to climb into a fire truck, and play with some of the equipment:

Sit in the fire truck:

Go through a training maze:

And they all got fireman hats at the end:

And here is a picture of our whole group:

Sledding

Yesterday we went out sledding with some friends. It was the first time for Quincy, and he loved it. Miles was apprehensive, it seemes he remembered getting snow in his face at some time, so he didn't want to sled. I was a mean Mommy and held him, crying, and down we went, the tears and protests mixed with laughter and smiles by the bottom of the hill. He even chose to go down with his friend the next trip down.

And a short video clip of Quincy's first time sledding, not that you can see Quincy all that well, but here it is:

Christmas cookies

This weekend we made our christmas cutout cookies. It was messy as usual, but fun for all.


Rolling and cutting out the dough. Quincy did get to try this, one try. Then he got to watch and play with the cookie cutters.


Then came the decorating. Both boys got to decorate the cookies. Here is a picture when they are doing their first cookies. See how clean it is.


Quincy quickly realized how yummy the frosting was.


He was good though and mostly tried to frost the cookies.


Some family frosting fun:



And Miles putting entirely too much frosting on a cookie:


Quincy was made to take a break from decorating:


Here is one of Miles's decorating jobs. There is actually a cookie under this pile of frosting and sprinkles:
Here it is:

You can see the candy cane outline in the frosting still left on the placemat:

Quincy got another cookie to decorate, but I looked away for a moment and turned back to this:
In his defense, he was still decorating, he put a bit of frosting on before each bite.

More snow

It snowed again last night, with no rain after it stopped snowing, so we woke up to nice fluffy snow all over the place this morning.

Miles making a snow angel:

Quincy playing in the 'snow cottage':

Miles eating more snow:

And the snow mustache:

Snow!

We woke up to snow on the ground this morning. Probably about an inch or so of snow, so pretty decent amount for around here. Unfortunately, the snow turned to rain around 6am, so the snow is melting, and is currently slushy mess. But Miles didn't care, he has been asking for snow for a month now and was very excited to get out to play in the snow. Of course, Quincy doesn't really know what snow is yet, as he was only about 5-6 months old last time he saw snow. So I dug out the snowpants, jackets and boots, got them bundled up and out we went, to play in the wet snow.

Quincy didn't know what to make of it at first.

He was a bit upset that something was in his car (snow).

Miles was tasting snow from all over the yard. Then Quincy had to try some.

It's pretty hard work shoveling out a back yard.

Quincy wanted to go down his slide.

With a bit of encouragement from Miles. Oops, he slipped, ended up going down face first, luckily there was a bunch of snow to slow him down.

Overall, I think Quincy liked the snow.

A few almost-traumas

ugh. Let me start from the begininng. This morning I let Miles feed the fish all by himself, and I forgot to check how much food he put in the tank. (my first mistake) A little while ago we went into the guest/play room to play and I saw that the fish tank was so dark I couldn't see anything in there. So, I get everything non-living out of the tank, get the fish into a separate bowl and start the process of cleaning the tank. Apparently it is a bad idea to leave a bowl with fish and water on the edge of the dresser in the playroom with two young children and no adult. Yep, you guessed it, I go back into the room and find the fish lying on the floor next to the bowl. Not flopping around, just lying there. Got it back into the bowl and into the partially refilled tank. Okay, the fish is swimming so no problem there. Next I put Quincy into the highchair so he can be safe and out from under my feet while I finish taking care of the fish. He is not happy at all, so I ask Miles to go try to help him feel better. (mistake #3) While in the playroom, I hear a crash and crying. Miles thought he would try to cheer up Quincy by knocking over the highchair. I arrive in the dining room to find the highchair knocked over, Quincy half in/half out and crying, and Miles trapped under the highchair, also crying. Luckily, no one was hurt, just a bit traumatized. And Miles thought the only thing he should have done differently was stand on the other side of the highchair so he didn't get hit by it.

Gingerbread house

This afternoon we made a gingerbread mess, um, I mean a gingerbread house. We took the easy way out and got a premade, prepackaged kit in a box. Mike and Miles started to put it together while I made some cookies and Quincy was still napping. It all started out so well.

Putting it together. All together and ready to decorate.

And now the decorating starts. Unfortunately the decorating started immediately after the house was put together, and no time was allowed for the house to set. (As you can see, Quincy woke up from his nap by now and watched the decorating with a keen interest in the mess unfolding in front of him.) Miles was very specific on where he wanted things put. Slowly the roof started slipping. Then the sides started leaning inwards. Then everyone lost interest. And here we have it, the 'finished' house.