Snow Sculpting

Only in Minnesota, could you go on a leisure afternoon field trip to view a snow sculpting contest.  This was one event of many during the Saint Paul Winter Carnival.  Mix Mardi Gras with snow/winter festivities and you have Winter Carnival.

We decided on Saturday to go view the sculptures as they were being sculpted.  Contest ended today (Sun) but I still haven't found out who won.  I gotta say....it was quite amazing to see.  First the snow is compacted into HUGE crates and made into one big snow block.  Then the sculptors get to work.

 This first on was a shark in progress.  S was amazed how they got the fin to stand up firmly on the back.

 This one, when finished, was to be Elsa from the movie Frozen

 Hands down, our favorite had to be the dragon.  It was HUGE!  I don't know hoe many snow blocks it took for this fella.  He was off by himself so I'm not sure if he was part of the contest.  It was SO incredibly detailed.  The pictures will not do it justice.

Along with the snow sculptures, the snow park had a snow maze and a snow slide that the kids enjoyed thoroughly.

So....do we look like Minnesotans yet??

Embracing Minnesota and Winter

This is my beautiful backyard.  

I love the beauty of winter.  I've always liked winter.  Moving to MN though was a bit of a scary thought.  However, it hasn't been that bad (but we've also had a mild winter so far).  I'm slowly learning how to drive on ice and snow.  Snow isn't so bad.  Ice, well, that's another story.

There's so much that MN has to offer even in the winter.  We've already decided next winter's goal is to learn to ice skate.  Another thing we would like to learn in ice fishing.  Anyway, we are embracing what MN has to offer in the winter.

Right after Christmas, we got another pretty decent snowfall.  The boys were excited to get outside and use all their snow toys they received for Christmas.

 Mom and Dad couldn't let the kiddos have all the fun.  S and I tried out the snowboards and scooter sleds.  However our old bodies didn't pick it up quite as fast as the young-ens.

 W and T got the chance to build their first MN snowman.  All our snow has been too powdery but with the warm up this past weekend, it made the snow a lot more compatible.  

Today we set out for our first MN winter hike.  It was a balmy 37 out today so we had to get out and explore.  LOL!  We took the trail down to a frozen lake.

This was everyone's first time on a frozen lake.  Pretty cool.

 I wasn't too scared until you push back the snow and see the ice for the lake.  Then it gets a little daunting.....

 Fun little outing.  Makes us excited for what's to come in Spring and Summer when we can get out on more adventures!

Catch Up: Christmas 2014

It's not everyday, you get to kick off Christmas with a roaming Santa Claus in your neighborhood who stops by to see the children.  Yep...we had one.  The kids saw him walking the street to our neighbor's house first and then we saw him walking again and he waved to us (because he could see us gawking out the window) and he came up to say Merry Christmas.  T was ectastic as you can tell from the picture!  In the end I found out it was our neighbor's dad and she told him to come by our house.  BUT, at the time I didn't know who the heck he was but gladly and happily let him in my house to visit my children.  I mean, wouldn't you?!?!  

 Christmas Eve, it was cookie making time for the big guy.  The boys were adament on making gingerbread cookies (are there really people out there who like the taste of gingerbread cookies??).  I went easy this year bc S and I don't like that kind and I knew the boys weren't going to eat all of them so I went with a box mix - GASP!  They had fun all the same.  And yes....we are in our jams and bed hair for these shots!

 Christmas Eve night we went to church and had our annual pizza dinner.  I really love how simple our holiday is.  This year we read "Unwrapping the Greatest Gift" by Ann Voskamp every night from Dec 1-25.  It was really really good and the boys enjoyed every story from it.  Highly recommend.  The entire book focuses on the real meaning of Christmas - Jesus - and how He is the only gift we need and how God ordained and planned his coming since the beginning.  It begins in Genesis 1 and shows how Jesus is threaded throughout the entire bible.  It's divided into nightly readings.

Then the moment arrived....time for bed.  Soon it would be Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night

 C loves his Hot Wheels.  Hmmm...think he has a little Aunt Stephanie in him.  hee hee!

 The older boys got some beginner snow boards.

 And the big gift....a Wii U.  I will never see my children again.

 Look at this happy little boy.  Smitten for Mario I tell you!  Thanks Nana.  He won't take this soft furry Mario robe off!

I love our simple Christmases.  We are sad we can't spend with family each year.  Hopefully we can in the future.  But for now I will cherish our little Christmases and our little family traditions.

Catch up: Sledding Fun

During our Thanksgiving break, we got a pretty good snowfall.  We decided to take the boys up to the hill near our house that is one of the community hotspots for sledding.  They had so much fun for their first real experience!  I, on the other hand, had to go sit in the truck and watch about halfway through because my fingers were frozen.  Poor gloves are no bueno in these parts of the woods.  Thank goodness for after christmas sales....I'm now set with warm mittens!

 

Worst part about sledding....climbing the hill back up.  HA!  I can't tell you how many times C made it half way up, accidentally dropped his sled and had to go all the way back down to catch it.  Ahh....good times.  Can't wait to have more sledding fun this winter.

Catch-up Time: My Baby Ain't a Baby No More

So this kid turned the Big 5 on Halloween.  My baby's a big kid now.  C is so cute, so smart, and so mischievous all wrapped up into one.  Gotta love a third child (ahem....I was a third so no comments!).  We were traveling to our new home this year on his bday.  We woke up in Sioux Falls, SD and made our way to MN.

Before we left NV, my good friend Tricia, arranged a private trick or treat night for my boys (what an awesome friend, huh??)  and at the end of the evening we and all our friends met at the park for a GLOW PARTY.  I decided to tack on a little special birthday party for C that night since I knew we would be traveling on his actual bday.  The kids had so much fun running around the park with glow in the dark paraphernalia.   C was so sweaty by the end of the night.  I hope he remembers how special all those friends were to us.  Here's the bday boy with his glow glasses blowing out his big 5 candle:

When the time came for the actual birthday (I mentioned we were traveling, right??), we had to wake up in the hotel room and open the few presents I packed along on our trip.

Nana supplied C with more Mario plushies and a cool mario hat.  This kid is crazy about Mario.  He can talk for HOURS about it.  Don't get him started!

Oh yeah.....it's Halloween too.  Whew.  I'm tired just writing about this.  So, we finally arrived in MN and we got the kids all dressed up for trick or treating.  We decided to take them to the Mall of America since we didn't know anyone here.   We had a Jedi (W), Wolverine (T) and a Monkey (C) this year.

We got to the mall early (thank goodness bc that place was a madhouse by the time we left).  The kids went to several stores and got their treats.  Then we celebrated C's bday at the RainForest Cafe (appropriate for a monkey don't ya think??).  We had dinner and then ordered C the Volcano cake!  

Here's a short video of them singing to him:

I'm so thankful that with the chaos of moving and Halloween, we can still create a meaningful birthday to my little boy.  He is a joy!  But I still can't believe my baby ain't a baby no more!

A New Year, A New Home and a New Goal

Holy cow!  I had not realized how long it had been since I posted on my blog.  But seeing the date on my last post, it is completely understandable.  Our lives got a little hectic and busy since the last time I wrote.  Soon after T's birthday, we found out we were moving (again).  This time is was to here:

That's right folks.....these Southern natives were moving the furthest north one could possibly move in the mainland of the USA.  YIKES!  Although scary, it was not completely a surprise.  You see S had put in for 3 other jobs and for one reason or another he kept getting passed over.  When this one came up and we talked about him putting in, I knew this would be it.  S always said he would never think about a position too far north except St. Paul.  He had heard good things about the office and the area.  I was definitely not on board with that when he mentioned it 5 yrs ago.  But after all our moves, I was completely up for whatever God had in store for us.  Plus, why not move to the one area of the US we had never been!

It was a speedy moving process.  We sold our house in Vegas in October (one week of being on market).  S and I flew my sister in law into Vegas and we left the kids with her for a week while we house hunted.  Ironically we ended up choosing the first house we even stepped foot into in MN (but at the time we didn't know that would be the one)

Of course....this is more of what it looks like now:

The last week of October we hit the road for our cross country move.  We took the whole week to drive it and enjoyed the sites through country we had never seen before.  Of course most of it was just fields and fields through WY and SD.  We took a small detour and visited Mt. Rushmore and Custard State Park on our way.  What an awesome opportunity.

We arrived in MN on Halloween (C's bday - more on that in another post coming up).  We took the kids to the Mall of America that night to trick or treat.  Memories in the making folks!   Once getting to MN we had to live in a hotel for 2 weeks while we waited for the closing date on the house.  I got the kids enrolled in school and we started living.  Little did we know, winter would arrive a tad early and they got their first snow of the season and cold temps the first week we were there.  We did not pack for major winter!  Here's my kids on their first snowy school day:

Good thing kids don't get as cold as us old folks!  They had wet shoes but at least I was smart enough to pack some hats and gloves in our temporary packing.  As for me....S felt sorry for me and let me buy a new coat :)  My winter coat was in moving storage with all our other household items.  Lucky me!

We've been here for 2 months now and it feels a lot longer.  Moving and then the holidays has made time go by really fast but feels like  months ago all at the same time.  Weird.  We've experienced a lot so far (sledding, deer in the yard, learning to drive on ice/snow, etc) but we can't wait for all the things MN has to offer.  We really like life here so far.  Now....get me through winter and I'll let you know.  HA!

So, my goal for this year is to update  this blog a little more frequently.  My friends keep saying I should have a blog with all my suggestions, ideas, etc.  I tell them I have one but I only do it to keep grandparents happy!  HA!  So....maybe I will expand my horizons and write about more topics (but unfortunately I'm not much of a writer).  Who knows what 2015 will bring about!

The Ninja Sleepover

T turned 7 this weekend.  To celebrate, he invited a few friends over for a Ninjago Sleepover.  Complete with ninja masks, swords and training.

Here was our invitation

The cake.  I just bought a plain cake from a bakery I had wanted to try.  All I did was add the paper ninja eyes to the top.

I added ninja eyes to balloons for decoration.

 Party favor buckets.  Once again, ninja eyes glued to bucket.  Inside I included a ninja sword, mask/hood, ninja lollipops and some glow sticks.  We also make ninja tshirts for them to take home (see later in post)

 Here's the ninja gang.  Scary bunch huh?!?

 Here's they are in W's ninja training.  They first meditated.... 

 Then they practiced sword skills...

 And of course, strength training with some push ups....

 Present time.

During the night, the "Birthday Ninja" came and surprised T.  THis tradition started a few years ago when I hung a sign in T's room the night before his bday.  He proclaimed it must have been the Birthday Ninja.  Therefore the Ninja must come every year.  This year, his bedroom door was draped with green crepe paper and the eyes made it seem as if it were the green ninja who visited.  

Only one boy spent the night but the other came back the next morning for round 2 of the birthday celebration....DONUTS!

 And more presents.  T wanted to open family gifts on his actual birthday.

  This picture shows you the shirts we made from T's party.  I used the ninja eyes as a stencil.  First the kids stenciled the large yellow area and then once dried they did the black eyes with another stencil.  They turned out so cute!  AND it was easy AND a cheap party favor.  Shirts at Michaels were only $1.99 that week.

 On top of all the birthday fun....T lost his first tooth.  He's a little late in losing teeth.  Dentist says it's because they are tightly packed in his mouth.  I predict the other teeth will start falling out right and left now that one has come out.

 If you had all that fun....wouldn't you be pooped too?!?!  This was T Sunday afternoon after the jam packed fun filled weekend.  I can't get the boy out of the wolverine costume and the new rollerblades!!!  He'll be ready for ice skating for sure this winter!