Colby got his first pair of lace up shoes. I thought it was going to be a problem, but he learned to tie them in less than ten minutes!
We've been doing inside play dates with Charlie and Jonathan. Here are Charlie and Miller hard at work on some dot-to-dots.
Pizza party and ice cream.
Colby has been going to the climbing gym with Lee and loves it.
Miller and I have enjoyed squeezing in a little girl time. This was her first real pedicure- soaking, lotion, and all. Needless to say, she loved it.
Lee is officially a cat person. He will try to deny it, but pictures don't lie.
Actually, I swaddled Savannah up like that. I do it every night just to annoy Lee. Savannah seems to like it- she must be the most laid back cat in the universe.
I helped Colby's class celebrate the 100th day of school by manning the beaded necklace table. Colby loves it when I volunteer in the class, and I love getting to know all the kids. They run up and hug me when they see me in the halls. I NEVER would have hugged someone else's mother as a child.
On warm winter days, Miller and I like to do a little spider swinging.
For the second year in a row, I got crafty with the valentines. (But don't mistake me for a crafty person) I found them on the internet and printed them off and added the pixie stick instead of a pencil. (Who wants a pencil on Valentine's day?)
Miller's valentines were a butterfly body with a blow pop as the head and two googly eyes glued on, but I forgot to take a picture. Miller calls it "Valance Times Day". It's one of those things I cannot bring myself to correct.
The kids are still enjoying our proximity to the ski slopes. This is Colby and his friend Colin. (Marin's brother)
Colby and Colin had a blast skiing together, but of course, it's the Apres-ski they both really love....here they are at Colin's parents' condo playing a little DS.
We took just Colby and Miller skiing yesterday...
Miller has had two lessons, and I mistakingly thought she was ready to ski with us (without an instructor). What I did not know is that during her lessons, she was wearing an "edgie wedgie" at the tip of her skis which controls her speed. Yesterday, I put her at the top of the advanced beginner slope and told her to follow me. She skied towards me and then flew by me at a high rate of speed....she had no control at all. She could not slow down and Lee and I screamed behind her to "FALL!!!!" as she whizzed down the slope. We were all terrified. Thankfully, she fell shortly after that (wasn't hurt) and cried her little eyes out. She did not want to ski down to the lift, so we took our skies off and hiked back up the mountain. I knew we could not go home on such a terrible note, so I booked her a private lesson with her favorite "Chocolate man" a couple hours later and we headed inside for hot chocolate.
There's not much that hot chocolate won't fix.
Once Miller was with Chocolate man (her third lesson with him) she was happy as a clam.
After her lesson, she had her confidence back and a belly full of chocolate. (Why do you think they call him chocolate man?) He is fabulous with her, and we have decided that the only skiing she will do this year will be with him. She said to me after the lesson "I only fell once. But chocolate man said it was because I was tripped by a snow stick." She was totally serious. So cute!
Colby is doing great and is now going on the big hills! Oh boy...not sure I was ready for that so soon, but he is totally in control. We did not do the black diamond, but we did Tyro and Eagles Swoop, which is almost a black diamond. I'm so proud of him.
The secret to keeping Colby happy is adventure. Plain and simple. As long as he has adventure, and fun people to play with, he's happy. I have a feeling he's going to give us some gray hairs in the future. (And check out my new braces...worse than I remember at twelve but hopefully I won't have them too long)
