Friends Over Today

Ah, yes.  It's Christmas break and everyone's losing their minds.  I decided to be proactive and let the kids invite friends over for the afternoon.

 

Poor Moo is just to little to have friends over.  Yet Maisie's friends are always so kind to her.  I just learned today that Maisies' friend, Katie (below) has a 3-year-old sister and 4-year-old sister.  This could turn into something...

 

 Also, if you aren't up to date with PBS Kids on IPTV, there is a "Snow Engineer" program going on.  Basically, you create something out of snow, snap a picture of it, and email it to their studio.  Well, you know how we are regarding media publicity and I'm all over this.

 

 

Don't ask what happened to our Snowman's mouth, buttons, ears, or why his torso is much larger than his bottom. I had planned to make an 'upside-down-snowman', but the bottom we made was way to heavy for Ross and I to lift above chest-height.  Believe me, we tried and I pity those who drove by during the ordeal.  Sorry Toni Tindle.

 

Never-the-less, the above photo is our submittal to the station.  Keep your eyes peeled on PBS kids to find out if we were selected.  Fingers crossed.

 

The rock band...

 

 

Alphabet instruction...

 

and goofy smile.

I apologize there are no pictures of Ross and his guest.  They were busy shooting cap-guns (which were purchased at Ben Franklins earlier in the day) in the basement. 

 

I threatened him with his life if woke his sister whom had just crashed on the couch.  Little Moo had a tough afternoon.  No friend, then I found the girls had mistakenly left her alone in the fort (she doesn't know how to climb down), had to ride in the bike trailer smooshed between the big girls and then got her finger pinched in the mud-room door.   My heart went out to her. 

 

Lucky for us, we now have a wide selection of Band-Aids at our house.

Christmas 2013

click the link for our Christmas Slide Show

Christmas 2013

Christmas Eve

I'm not positive, but Christmas Eve day could be the longest day of the year...

 

Just sayin'

Merry Christmas from the Boyds

Click the link for our Christmas Card!

 

Merry Christmas from the Boyds

The fox verses the gingerbread man

Ross made this at school yesterday.  It was in his 'take-home' folder. 

I have no words and can only imagine his teachers expression when she read this...

Angels

It began like any other day after school.  The air felt warm and the kids wanted to 'go somewhere'.  They talked me into going to Middle River Park where we enjoy walking the trails and hunting crinoid fossils.

Once we arrived, we noticed a gate that said "No Parking" was blocking the entrance to the park.  We've parked in front of this gate before and just walked around the gate to enter.  No bigs. 

While at the park, we followed mysterious animal and human footprints in the snow, explored a run-down wooden playset and threw heavy rocks at the ice covering middle river.   Before long, our fingers were cold and the sun was barely visible.  That's when I heard gun shots and remembered it was shotgun season.  I explained to the kids we needed to get home and that we should race to the mini-van.  We made a game out of it by pretending we were being shot at and if we didn't make it to the van before sunset, we would be trapped in the woods forever.  I'm a weird mom.

We made it before sunset, yet the moment I put the gear in reverse and pressed the gas, I kicked myself.  Sure enough, we were stuck on ice.  We were parked on a steep incline and the road was snow and ice covered.  As panic set in, I floored it at 10-second intervals causing the van to take on the smell of burnt rubber.  We slowly began making progress, but had a long way to go.  Maisie began crying that she might never see blue blankie again.  Ross unbuckled and got up front with me and for a split second I considered asking him to drive the van while I pushed it up the hill.  Can you even imagine?

I kept flooring it until our van was now sideways on the steep hill with another 20 feet to go.  Black burn-outs zig zagged across the the snow path and I could hear the gravel fly each time I pushed the accelerator to the floor of the van.  Eventually, I got out to evaluate the situation and send up a prayer.

That's when looked down the road and noticed a red truck turning around and coming our way.  A young couple hopped out of the truck as I smiled and told them, "My husbands gonna kill me, these tires were already bald."  The woman was smoking a cigarette and looking at me like I was a complete idiot. Within a few minutes, they got me moving as the man yelled, "Go, go, go!"  I hollered out my window gratefully, "Thank you so much!" as I peeled-out off the shoulder of the road and onto the highway.  

With relief in my chest, I decided to explain something important to my kids.

"You know what those people were?" I asked.

"What?" Ross responded.

"Those were angels.  God sent them here to help us."

Ross looked out the back window and asked, "Mom, do angels smoke?

Long Grove Christmas 2013

 

Click the link for the slideshow!

Long Grove Christmas 2013