Just thought I'd share

I added new links to my side bar, sites I like to visit. Some of them I visit because I USE what I find on there. Othere I visit because I have grand dreams of being more productive and having free time to do all the cute things I'd like to do. Anyway, I find them fun!

Ice Hockey

Living in Vacaville where it never really gets THAT cold, and most definitely never snows, I have always found it surprising and kind of cool that there is an ice rink in town.

Just prior to Christmas break the kids came home with flyers about some fun events happening at the ice rink, including 2 days where you could try out ice hockey for free! David has long thought it would be fun to give it a try, and since he is a seasoned ice skater (he went once with his boy scout troop in November), we decided to let him give it a try.

David had a great time! Apparently they give the kids skates, a helmet and a stick. Then the instructor lines up a bunch of pucks and lets the kids just got at it for an hour. Very little instruction (none), but it's free so I guess you can't be too picky about those minor details.

When David had gone ice skating, he picked up on it quickly and did really well, so he of course expected this experience to be the same. Apparently it is harder to skate in the ice hockey skates so there was MUCH falling, but he did good with the stick and had fun getting the pucks in the goals.

The down side of this experience? David came home rather bruised up. He had huge bruises on his knees and ankles and was sore for a good few days. He even was too sore to get up into the top bunk for a couple of days! Of course if asked if he would ever want to try it again, he said yes!
Getting the hang of it!

Joe had fun braving the cold and watching David

Quick Visit

My Grandpa and his wife, Rosie, went out to Albuquerque to visit my mom and dad for Christmas. Scott, Meagan and Aaron and Emery got to visit with them. Jolie and Mark and their kids drove out after Christmas to see them too. What made it special for us is that we were able to grab a quick visit as well!

Grandpa and Rosie live up in Medford, Oregon so their closest airport is in Sacramento. They flew in the Sunday after Christmas and drove to our house for the night. We had a nice dinner and a fun visit.

Getting Back

I am really not sure why it has been so hard to get back into the swing of "regular" life after just 2 weeks off for Christmas. Really. It's not like it was summer vacation and everyone got into crazy, lazy habits or anything. We've just had a hard time getting back into getting up on time, getting going, and even getting to school on time has been a challenge!

I am one of those people that has their clocks set 5 minutes ahead on purpose. There are times when I wonder why I do it when every time I look at the clock, I automatically subtract 5 minutes in my head. Partly I do it out of habit because I have been doing it for so long. The other reason? Because when we are in a hurry to get things going in the morning and kids moving, it helps us move a little quicker. The kids can't do the math quick enough, nor do they probably realize the clocks are ahead!

It shocked me Tuesday morning when the kids ended up being 5 minutes late to school, even though we left at our normal time. It has surprised me all week at how close we are cutting it to get places on time, or how I ended up finding Alexis and David walking home from school and almost to the house when I had fully intended to pick them up on time! Yes, that all shocked me until yesterday when I looked at the clock on my cell phone and it matched the time on the microwave! We had lost power for a bit last weekend, and apparently I didn't reset the clocks properly! How annoying, but once I realized it, it made me feel much better about my tardiness issues this week!

In other news...

Ez has started his new schedule this week. It in no way means that he will be home more. It simply means that we will get to see a bit more of dad. A bit more. But we have really been loving it! Ez was home for dinner AND for helping the kids into bed at night Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday this week! He will be home a little more on Thursday mornings too.

In fact, my thoughtful husband thought that since Joe is at preschool on Thursday mornings, it would be a fun thing for us to go out to breakfast once all the kids are at school (except for when it's my turn to teach Joe's class or Ez has to go in to work early). We went to Lyon's with Evie this week. It was great to have a little time to just sit and chat. I am really going to love our little "dates".

Ringing in the New Year

We had a very laid back sort of New Year's Eve celebration. Ez went to work and Alexis went off to a Girl Scouts slumber party. We ate our favorite simple meal from Costco--orange chicken and rice, and then just played around for a while.

Evie and Joe were playing with mom's bread pans and were being rather noisy, so I sent them into the front room to use them. Joe decided they would make great "ice skates", and soon all the kids were having fun skating around!

Evie and Joe went to bed a bit after 8, but Lily and David wanted to stay up as late as they could. We watched the ball drop in NYC at 9:00 just in case we didn't make it. Mom was ready for bed before the kids were, and she took Lily into her room to watch TV around 11. David managed to stay up until midnight, but he was determined to do it since last year he fell asleep at about 11:45.

"ice skating"

"ice skating"

Joe letting Evie put hair clips in his hair

Eating yummy nachos

Happy New Year!

Loving the Cake

Evie was enjoying birthday cake long after the rest of us were done, and Grandma Jane was able to get some great pictures of it all.

David's Birthday, continued

I don't think David could have been feeling luckier to have his celebration on New Year's Day this year. He got to watch the Rose Bowl with Dad (and the family too, of course), and USC was playing Penn State!

We snacked on nachos during the game and then ate David's favorite dinner--steak, bread, corn on the cob. He got a new skateboard from the family and a cool DVD about the history of roller coasters from Jane. We rounded off the evening with delicious cake (made and decorated by mom) and ice cream.