Masquerade Ball, Daddy/daughter dance

Ashlyn gets to go to a Daddy/daughter dance every year for girl scouts.  This year was the Masquerade ball.  It was so cute!  Ashlyn and I made the masks together.  One for her and one for dad.  We might have made Dave's mask sparkly with glitter. :) haha I'm sure he felt pretty manly in it.  He was such a good sport and they had a great time together.  He took Ashlyn out to Sweetie Fry's afterwards (ice cream and funnel cake fries...so good).

Ashlyn had so much fun with her dad. Dave said that when her friends wanted her to come dance with them she told them she just wanted to dance with her dad. So cute.

Sledding goodness

We've made it out to sled a few times this season.  You know what I love about sledding now?  I do not ever have to carry the kids back up the hill.  Oh man I love that.  I used to trudge them back up the hill over and over again when they were 2 and 3 and probably 4.  We love to go out to Patterson farm and grab a bunch of their fresh homemade donuts and then hit the sled hill which is right down the street.  So fun.  We went sledding with the Harmers.

Family Fitness night

Are you kidding me?!  This was the funnest event, I couldn't believe how cute it was.  The kids school hosted a family night that was centered on fitness.  We had never been before and we were so glad we went this year.  I wish we had gone every year!  Ashlyn planned this activity for our family.  We all loved it. 

First the kids did a relay where they had to run and unstack a tower of cups and then rebuild it. 

 

 Then they went through an obstacle course

Then the kids played volley ball and basket ball

 And lastly, they had a bunch of matts with light weights and bars for them to lift and an area for them to do push-ups and jump rope.

 So tough!!

Oh man, I loved Ashlyn's push-ups.  I tried to show her the right way but she said, "Mom, I want to do it my way.  I like doing it this way." haha (ummm...that's because it's easier and it basically takes no effort :))

Trevor is so tough!

 Corbin could not get enough of the jump rope.  He jumped forwards and backwards.

 One more shot of the push-ups, just for fun :)

Lovely ladies

I have no kids at home anymore.  I get together often with another group of ladies that have no kids at home.  Here we are cooking up some treats...

bird feeder

Dave's parents got us this sweet bird feeder for our backyard (he is obsessed with feeding birds!!)  It has been really cool to watch them fly into our yard.  At times we have a couple dozen and the kids love to watch.  I think we have so many now because it is snowy outside and getting easy food is enticing.  I tried to get a picture of the dozens that were crowding the feeder, but they all flew away and I just got this one...

More evidence of Dave's obsession HERE, and HERE

Ice skating

 January 2013

Ashlyn planned a trip for us to go ice skating.  

We took Zack with us.

Ashlyn and Corbin started off with the cones but warmed up to ice skating without them later.

 Trevor and Zack

 Trevor

 Ashlyn and Dave

 Me and the kids

 It's funny because I never remember having issues ice skating.  In my memory, I just got on the ice and basically started doing triple lutz's. :)  I wonder if I went through the "holding the cone" phase and then worked up to feeling comfortable and I just don't remember that part.  My kids (all three) were so nervous to get on the ice and took some real warming up before they felt comfortable.  

Oh, and we never wore helmets as kids, ever.  After this experience with Trevor, I think I will have them wear helmets until they are 100. :)

Building forts

One favorite pastime of my kids is building forts.  They build forts almost weekly.  (And make huge messes in the process which kind of drives me crazy)  But it is cute and fun.  They always want to sleep in them.  Here is one they created a couple of weeks ago. Basically they just put a blanket over the space between two of their beds and slept on the floor under it.