Winter

It's been fab being back by real mountains.  We signed the kids up for ski classes at our local resort, Mt. Rose which is a quick 20 minute drive from our house.  We haven't had much snow down in the valley but fortunately the mountains have had enough.  So anyway the three older kids are in the "Ripper" classes, which have been great.  The boys have surpassed Rob and they are wizzing down the black diamonds.  Lucy has been doing well, although she is more cautious (wise) than the boys.  Clara is in the "Rosebud" class.  Honestly she has been a stinker and has refused to do her lessons a couple of times.  But on the plus side she has learned to ski, and was wizzing down the bunny hill on her own yesterday.  In her spare time in the lodge she was politely bowing and saying "konichiwa" to Asians in the lodge.  Nice.  

 Mostly though, winter has been like spring.  Lots of days at the parks and spent outside.  Friday was dreamy.  I even have a sunburn to prove it.

 There has only been one occasion to bust out the mega snow blower.  We think the purchase of the snow blower is the cause of our mild winter.  Blame climate change on Rob.

But, as I said there is plenty of snow just up the road.  We went snow shoeing at Tahoe meadows one afternoon.  Clara wasn't supposed to be with us but due to stomach flu at a friend's house she came along.  Needless to say, we didn't go very far, but it was fun anyway.  We even got to sled a couple of runs.

Rob took the boys out of school one Friday (Lucy couldn't go because she had a big oral book report that day.  Lots of stress involved in that one) to ski.  They went to Heavenly instead of Mt. Rose.  Tragedy ensued. Rob fell and his ski poles bent his thumbs out and one is broken and one is just jacked up.  Kind of a problem because he is supposed to do procedures at work, but won't be able to for a few more weeks.  Fortunately for us, our neighbor is a hand surgeon and Rob is a radiologist and between the two of them they got it all sorted out.

 And last but not least (although picture wise I only have this crappy one from my phone) on President's Day the YM/YW hosted a fun sledding activity up at Tahoe meadows.  A good time was had by all, even though on one run Lucy got thrown off a tube and hit by another tube and was a bit banged up.  But no lasting damage.

It's great to be back in a place where winter is full of fun things to do!  Love it.  Hope we get some more snow soon!!!

Cafe De Valentine 2012

Cafe De Valentine went off without a hitch last night.  It was, as always, a hit.  I'm thinking it won't be so cool at age 13 or 14?  Anyway plenty of silliness and good food for all!  Hope you all had a nice Valentines day too!

Why Lucy Is Cool

Today in YW or SS the subject of outerdarkness came up, and Lucy leaned over to her friend and whispered, "Manslauuuuggghhhhtttttterrrrrrrrrrrr!"

Say What...

Not much happening.  Actually that isn't true.  Lots is happening.  Gymnastics, piano, YW, scouts, playdates, birthday parties, skiing, book club, doctor appointments, laundry, recipe group, homework, homework, and more homework.  But you know, no pictures have been taken in the month of January and the first few days of February.  But I thought I better blog anyway, since this is my only record of our families goings on.  So here are some gems:
Anders:  I cried at school today.
Me: Why?
Anders: Because our teacher announced we were having PE and I was so happy I burst into tears.
(Underfunded schools means all extras have been cut.  Boo. This was the first time they'd had PE since he started school here.)

Clara had a friend over yesterday.  After lunch I was going to take them to the park.
Clara to friend:  Hey handsome, you ready to go?

What else?  The kids have discovered Brian Reagan on You Tube.  Lots of quoting going on.

And now I wish I'd written more stuff down, because my mind is blank.

Crap...It's Already February

Okay, I have had a mental block about blogging about our post Christmas trip.  Don't know why.  So here is a LAZY post.  I'm not even going to sort the photos.  But here are the highlights:  Dinner with Jennifer and Gina, Marshmallow party with the cousins with a rockin' band hosted by Katy and Daniel, kids skiing with Rob at Brighton, great New Year's Eve fest, Hugo, a seriously mind blowingly amazing Greek New Years Day dinner, a trip to the new Natural History museum with tons of Uncle Tony's Indian stuff on display, Dunford Donuts, Tom "helping" us make a frame for our Maynard Dixon frame, lots of card games, and best of all just hanging out with the family.  Very glad we got to go!