Parkour

Ethan start working on something from his annual goals list this morning.  He attended his first official Parkour class.  When he mentioned that he wanted to take a Parkour class at the beginning of the year I thought it was a great idea, but then I looked everywhere and couldn't find any for kids under 12.  He was pretty disappointment, but a few days ago I happened to be looking into some gymnastic classes for Liv and the gym had a Parkour class also.  Ethan was beyond excited and got up early and was anxiously awaiting the start of his class this morning.

I think he was hoping to be climbing walls and jumping over buildings by the end of class today, but I reminded him it might take a few weeks.

The kids played outside all afternoon.  They were hunting for "big foot", or as Liv said, "Pink Foot".  They were sure they saw footprints in the snow leading over to the elementary school.

We finished the night off watching the Secret Garden (which Shawn was sure the kids would hate, but too my delight everyone loved it) and eating Pazooki's.

Chinese New Year

Last year we celebrated Chinese New Year for the first time and we had so much fun we wanted to do it again.  Liv helped me all afternoon make lanterns and get the dinner table set-up and decorated.

We had fortune cookies as part of our dessert.  Ethan's fortune said something about "finding his one and only true love".  It made us all laugh!

One thing I wanted to do this year that we didn't do last was the tradition of the "red envelope".  These envelopes symbolize good luck and usually contain money (or chocolate money in our case).

I made a copycat recipe of PF Chang's Crispy Honey Chicken and everyone loved it.  

and we had Roy Rogers Cocktails to drink (cola, grenadine syrup and a maraschino cherry on top).

Beauty Salon

When I was a girl I used to go and spend a week with my grandma every summer.  She lived in Northern Utah in what I would classify as "farm town".  My aunts always make fun of me and call me a city girl.  One of the things we always got to do when we stayed with grandma was go to the "beauty salon".  It was always a highlight of the week.

Right now I'm sitting in my own little beauty salon.  Liv's salon, called Beauty by Liv, is located upstairs in her bean bag chair, where I am comfortably sitting.  Music is playing while I type and my stylist (Liv) is curling my hair.  My nails have already been done and my make-up applied with hot pink cheeks and purple eyes.  It's lovely!

Liv seems to be a little obsessed with doing hair, nails, and makeup a lot lately.  This morning she wouldn't come down for breakfast.  Finally after hollering several times she came down proclaiming that she had to finish her nails and that is why she was late.  Last night after checking on her in bed I found her sound asleep with hot pink lipgloss smeared all over her lips and then some. It was cute. I have a feeling lots of facials, manicures, and hair styles are coming my way.

Yearly Books

The day i denounced scrapbooking was a happy day for my husband.  My passion for scrapbooking was replaced by blogging and at the end of each year printing out my blog.  I've done it every year since 2008.  I just got my 2011 book in the mail.  I use Blurb.com, but there are many others that I've heard are great also.  It feels good to have a whole year completely documented and available for everyone to reminisce on the fun times we had.  (another good thing is they save all your books on file so if down the road I can't find out 2008 book I can just order another one)

I used Blurb because my books end up being around 200 pages or so.  I need LOTS of room for a decent price, but if you are looking for something with a more creative touch check out www.PaperCoterie.com.  I've done some freelance work for them in the past and I recently finished the photography for their "This Was the Year" book.  Here are a few pages.

It's a great way to wrap up the year!

Fun Monday

Remember how last Monday when the kids were out of school Shawn and I took the kids to the Domes and they were a little disappointed.  They were hoping for something with lots of running and jumping.  Well, this Monday they did not have school either (teacher inservice) so I choose something that I hoped would not disappoint....and I was right.

We went to Monkey Joe's.  Shawn and I basically just sat in the corner and relaxed while the kids jumped, ran, laughed, and had a great time.  They spent most of the time trying to avoid the "facility referee" who walked around reminding kids not to run or jump, and boring stuff like that.  She had her eye on my boys and Shawn and I thought it was hilarious how they tried to hide from her.

The Domes

There was no school on Monday (thanks Martin Luther King) so we took the kids to the Mitchell Park Domes.  It's a popular Milwaukee tourist spot and something we've wanted to do for a while.  It's kind of like a giant green house.  The good thing was that it was a free day for Milwaukee County residents, but the bad thing was that it was a free day for Milwaukee country residents.  So, we got in free, but so did everyone else in the county and it was CROWDED!!

So we didn't end up staying very long, but we were able to enjoy each dome and it's climates.  There are three domes.  They each represent a different climate.  One is the desert, one is tropical, and the other is a floral dome with gardens and flowers.  The last also had lots of electric trains running around it.

The kids weren't all that impressed, but maybe it's because on their day off school they wanted to go to pump it up instead :)

Singing

I made my kids watch Annie the other night.  

About halfway through Ethan turns to me and says,

"Mom, don't you think there is a little too much singing in this movie?"

Movies just aren't the same anymore!

School, Shots, Soccer and Scouts

We started off this morning dropping everyone off at school at 8:15.  When Liv got out at 11:00, I took her to get her Kindergarten shots.    Hands down the easiest shots I have ever witnessed.  She hopped up on the table, talked with the nurse for a minutes, and two seconds later it was done.  No tears, no screaming, no bribing, nothing!  It was very different from the four nurses, two parents, and doctor that had to hold down her two brothers kicking and screaming to get their Kindergarten shots.  It was so nice and wonderful.  Afterwards I took Liv to target for some new squinkies :)  She was sooo brave!

Then we took Cole to a new indoor soccer league that started tonight.  It's called Futbolito (little soccer).  

He is kind of a spaz, but did a great job.  He just runs and never stops, which is why the pictures are blurry.

Then we finished the night with Ethan's scouts.  Tonights, I learned that Ethan will be awarded his Wolf badge at next months Pack Meeting!  He's worked really hard and we are very proud of him.

Annual Black and White Dinner

We had our annual Black and White dinner Monday night.   It is our fancy family dinner that we dress up for, and get to work on table manners and talk about fun things we want to do together as a family this year.  I also decided this year that we needed to add in something more spiritual.  I choose President Monson's last conference address on Temples.  We talked about temples and what we need to do to be worth to enter the temple. We even planned a fun family trip to Chicago to see the temple in the near future.

This year was fun planning the dinner because I had a special helper.  For scouts one of Ethan's tasks is to help plan a party.  I thought this was a perfect opportunity to get a little extra help.  He was a champ and helped with decorations, an activity, the menu, table prep, and the food.  Here is the menu:

Drink:  Cinderella Mocktail
Appetizer:  Caprese Salad (bocconcini, tomatoes, and basil)
Main Dish: Prime Rib
Sides:  Roasted Klondike Potatoes, House Salad, and Grilled Herb Flat Bread
Dessert:  Banana Splits (Ethan's favorite)

Ethan was the waiter and took everyone's order (even though though there wasn't really choices and everyone got the same thing).  Cole was funny and took his menu and circled one thing:  Ice Cream.  When Ethan asked for Cole's order he said all he wanted was Ice Cream, but I was a mean mom and made him try everything.

For the activity we did the name game where you come up with things that stand for each letter in your name.  Here are the results everyone came up with:

S-sweet
H-humble
A-awesome
W-wonderful
N-nice

J-joyful
E-excellent
N-nice
N-noisy

E-eccentric
T-terrific
H-hard to beat
A-athletic
N-nice

C-curious
O-optimistic
L-loving
E-energectic

O-outstanding
L-laughable
I-interesting
V-vivacious
I-incredible
A-angelic

Lazy Saturday

Life has been a little crazy lately and it really isn't slowing down much in the near future, but for some reason today happened to be a nice relaxing day.  After working all night Shawn let me sleep a few hours this morning and then we got up and went swimming as a family.

We followed swimming with a nice big mexican fiesta at a wonderful restaurant called Jose's Blue Sombrero.  They made fresh guacamole table side, which was delicious and we taught the kids how to drink a margarettia for the first time.  Cole loved licking all the sugar off the rim of the glass.

We finished off the night with some shopping and a nice relaxing movie at home.  Hoping we can have a few more of these relaxing Saturdays in the future :)

Master Piece Gallery

Before Christmas Cole invited Shawn and I to his come to class with him for his "Master Piece Gallery".   It was his opportunity to show us all the art work he had been working on so far this year.  His classroom and hallway were filled with lots of different projects.  Cole took Shawn and I around and showed us each piece.  He got to us read stories and show us some of his favorite things in his classroom.  It was a really fun day for him and I just barely remembered to post the two few pictures I took.  Better late than never!

Liv has recently shown a lot of interest in hair, make-up and other girly stuff.  The other day she brought me my straightener and asked if I would straighten her hair.  I grabbed my phone and took a quick picture of the end result.

She looks so grown up, it kills me!