Bowling

We took the kids bowling a couple weeks ago and it was super fun! They both loved it! Ian wanted every turn to be his turn so it was a little tricky keeping him out of the way when it was actually someone else's turn. The bowling alley had bumpers so we avoided gutter balls, but they didn't have one of those racks for kids to use. Do you know the one I mean? You just put the ball on it and roll it down. Anyway, it was really cute to see Maddie and Ian bowl, but getting through 10 frames was a lengthy process. And we paid for two games. Ian would send one ball down the alley and then immediately bowl the next one and there was still plenty of time to move the knocked-down pins out of the way before the second ball got to the pins.
Maddie was fabulous! She had such a great time and kept wondering if she was winning. Truthfully, none of us is very good and since we used the bumpers we could hardly say Spencer's and my scores were realistic, so I told her we all won.
Here's Spencer in action. We bought two gift certificates to this bowling alley for a really cheap and we only used one, so we are all looking forward to going again soon!

Ringing in the New Year

At our house, it involved delicious ice cream sundaes, Rock Band, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and sleeping children. This was Spencer's ice cream. Do you think it's big enough? We had a major pig out feast that night to enjoy all of our bad eating habits before turning things around for the new year. It was so fun! We had filet mignon for dinner along with tons of other yummy food. Since I love food so much it was a perfect night for me.
After dinner, the kids went to bed and the adults played Rock Band. Let me just say that I love that game! I will jump at any chance to play. After AJ and Marian and Mark left, we put Rock Band away, made our ice cream sundaes and watched a little Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Olivia assured me that since I love Twilight I would also love Buffy so she let me borrow the complete series on DVD. I can't lie. I love it. I think I still like Twilight (meaning Edward) better, but I'm only in season 2.

This is how Maddie and Ian rang in the New Year. Soundly sleeping in their beds. Maybe next year I'll think about letting them stay up till midnight.

Happy New Year!

Christmas 2008

As usual, I wasn't too good at getting many pictures of the festivities, but here are a few.
Santa brought this basketball hoop for Ian. He totally loves it and he's pretty good too!Madeleine got a big girl bike. She loves it! We've taken her out to ride a few times and she's pretty good. Hopefully soon she'll want to lose the training wheels, but for now she is still kind of uneasy about the prospect of falling. I'm sure it won't be long before she's ready to take off the training wheels and leave us in the dust.
We took the kids to the dollar store so they could pick out gifts for each other and they had a lot of fun doing that. They both picked out flash lights and those may have been one of the top fave presents. They really loved all their presents. I am hoping that despite all the presents and talk of Santa leading up to Christmas they are absorbing the true meaning of Christmas.

After opening presents around 8:30, we had a nice big breakfast and lounged around till we went to see Bolt in the afternoon. We loved it! I thought it was hilarious and I am looking forward to adding it to our video library once it's out on DVD. After the movie we had a fun time on a Skype call with Spencer's parents. We missed not seeing them for the holidays this year, but we're planning to be able to see them for next Christmas for sure.

Hope you all had a great Christmas too!