Sunday Bowling

With the weather icky we needed something new to do. We went bowling!
Brendan and Madelyn both had a blast.
To keep the game running a bit faster Brendan went first, Madelyn & Mommy bowled together~Madelyn had help with the first ball, then mommy did one, then Daddy had it turn. We got 3 games in! Brendan bowled all by himself with a little help on showing how to best get the ball down the lane. Thank goodness for bumpers.
Brendan's scores ~ 85, 82, then 88.
Mommy & Madelyn's scores ~70, 90, then 89.
Daddy's scores ~125, 209, then 234. (show off!)

Here are some photos from this morning....
Mommy helping Madelyn push the ball for her turn....Daddy's little funny leg lift that he does every time he goes...Brendan showing off his cool bowling skills....

Winter Blah! Cont...

Here is the rest of our Winter Blah story...
Every once and while you just need something sweet. Well I have learn from past to always keep cookie supplies on hand. Now the hard part deciding on which type of cookies to bake. We couldn't decide so we made two. No-Bakes and chocolate chip cookies. Here both the kids are helping to make the no-bakes.Our sheet of cookies. Notice one is gone! (so is daddy with Madelyn.)Brendan's whole reason to make chocolate chip cookies...licking the mixer & spoons.Half our cookie mix...Brian and Madelyn taking a break from cookie eating to surf the web. (Lulu likes to call that "Nani's seat")
Cute morning cuddle bugs.
Madelyn and her dough nuts. The kid go nuts and will only eat them if she sees that we have them. (new lesson learned)Brendan wanting me to take his picture but hiding at the same time.

Winter Blah!

Okay we are in the middle of winter and it doesn't seem like we are doing that much out and about. It may be due to the fact that this past weekend was really, really cold. Highs in the teens to single digits.
Anyway, here are all the funny things that have been going on in the past couple of weeks. (I will break the post up so it is not so long)

First we have Java Jungle. Our indoor play park. The kids love it.
Here is Maddie playing on the kiddie slide.Here is the Large play area with Brendan in there somewhere.
Here are the kids playing their new favorite game. Huballuba (something like that). It is like twister but they have to follow directions on where to go next. Brendan is really good at following the directions, Maddie just likes to dance on the pads.
This is what our Mighty Hunter does while at home. Some hunting dog.
Dipping Chocolate. This is Brendan's favorite dessert. We serve it with 4 sides and the popular options include: strawberries, grapes (yes weird but good), bananas, graham crackers, marshmallows...Here is what the kids look like afterwards.....

Banana Bread Cake!

Last week Brendan & Madelyn helped me make banana bread.
Well Brendan thought it was a cake so after I got it out of the oven the two of them put candles in is while I was doing something. Well since the bread was still hot, the candles started to melt.
Also my kids are cleaning fends! You get out the feather duster they go nuts. Some times I can't get Madelyn to give it back!

Ice Skating

Brian took Brendan ice skating on Saturday morning while the girls stayed home and had bubble baths & pedicures.
Brian said that Brendan was a quick learner and by the time they left he was able to skate will very little help on balancing.
Here are the photos from the boys day out....
Brendan watching the Zamboni....The Zamboni....Brendan skating....Brendan getting better at the end....

Flash Back!

Okay, Madelyn has decided that our Winter Break was just too boring. Let the drama begin.
Background story-when I was young I broke the end of my pinkie finger in a closet door.
Drama-Wednesday Brian went back to work and we had planned on going out to Jungle Java to get the kids sillies out. While I was getting both the kids and myself ready Madelyn closed the closet door on her pinkie finger! So we call the doctor and rush over and have her finger looked at and if she was older they said she would need stitches but were afraid of her playing with the stitches more than just a band-aid. But they did think it could be broken. So we go to Beaumont to have a x-ray taken. The tech was just so impressed that I could explain to Maddie so she could understand what she needed to do and how she needed to move her hand for each x-ray.
Well thankfully it is not broken but still needs to be cleaned and recovered twice a day.
Here is our little Drama Queen (I wonder where she gets this from?).....Her poor little finger......So we weren't able to go play on Wednesday so we went after school on Thursday.

New Year's Day

We have more snow. Well the snow we had before melted but now we have a good 5 inches of snow for us to go sledding again.
After our first trip sledding and me being nervous about popping Brendan's sled I went to get a larger one. I was able to find a two person one! So Brendan & Madelyn got to ride down in our laps this time. The first time we went she was nervous about going (saying no, no,no...) but being the kind parent that I am took her anyway.
Here are the photos from the sledding trip:
Walking to the hill....Brendan & Mommy testing out the new sled....Madelyn watching not really wanting to take a turn....Mommy & Madelyn getting ready to go down...Daddy & Brendan getting ready to go down....Last of sledding: I tried to zoom in as much as the camera would go to show how much further you go in the tube sled, Brendan & Brian are in the middle closest to the trees. We went far, fast.
Once Madelyn went a couple of times she really liked it and even got upset when Daddy left her to take Brendan down.Also to help celebrate the New Year I wanted a special dinner and BBQ ribs sounded really, really good. So Brian agreed to smoke some for us for dinner. Did I mention the 5 inches of snow that we got. Here is the smoker cooking in the snow covered backyard.

New Year's Eve

Brian & Brendan took Mojo out hunting in the morning (Video's on Brian's blog) and the girls were left to play.
Miss Madelyn got to get crafty with finger-painting. This is her first time being set free with finger paint and she loved it. We just used one color as she got used to it.When the boys got back from the woods poor Mojo was just pooped out.We had of course Pizza for dinner.
Here are the kids being silly.Then we went over to the neighbor's house and played cards. Madelyn made it up till about 11pm, Brian made it till 11:20, Brendan was up till 11:35, and I was the only one awake when the ball fell. Oh well.
Happy New Year Everyone.