2020

That weird timeless winter break is coming to a close. What a truly weird couple of weeks it is. No rules, who knows what we ate, lots of screens. Here's how we spent ours






We did get outside occasionally.





New Years Eve! Our kids made it to midnight!


Kappy turned 9 somewhere in there.














Marlo has been attached at the hip to her new bear.



Today was Rob's FORTIETH birthday! We woke him up with breakfast in bed.








And with that we go back to school and work tomorrow. Wish us luck!

NINE

Closing out 2019

I hope everyone had a great holiday! We sure did!

We started winter break with a belt test on the last day of school. Also Marlo's birthday.


Kasper was in vacation mode but persevered.



We headed up to St. Cloud Saturday afternoon and on Sunday celebrated the kids birthday with the grandparents.




We transitioned from Grandma Sandra's house to my parents' on Monday evening. Marlo settled into creating.



The kids love sleeping under the Christmas tree.


Santa came! He brought Legos, a 4 ft tall bear and a Nintendo Switch! He also wrote a fun letter with the Nintendo schematics all drawn out.



We brought the enormous bear over to Grandma Sandra's for Christmas breakfast.





We got home Thursday and have been acclimating back to real life. It's slow going but thankfully we have nothing but time at the moment.


Hope everyone had a great couple of holiday weeks!

SIX

Birthday SZN!

We had a fast week! Kasper got his testing tip at tae kwon do so he'll be getting his double black stripe this week! The rest of the week was just a slow build to birthday excitement.

Marlo made up songs for herself.

She experiments with writing more than Kasper ever did. He either knew how to spell what he wanted to write or he didn't write it. Marlo writes and writes and writes and doesn't worry that she's spelling wrong -- it's all about output for her. (The third line to her song is "I am nearly six")

Today was her birthday party! We had the party at the local fitness club we joined this summer but never ever go to. It was a lot of fun! There were 20 some kids there and they basically bombed around a gym for 2 hours then pounded pizza and cake.




She has some really neat friends. We invited her whole kindergarten class along with 4 friends from daycare and Marlo had an absolute blast. One girl has a sister in Kasper's grade so they entertained themselves being 9 in the next gym which worked out.

Marlo really made out in the present department.



Partied out.


LET PRESENT SEASON BEGIN!!!

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Instant winter

And just like that we have a ton of snow outside and Christmas is just around the corner.

We got a tree at Costco this year. Our favorite tree farm is closed and since there is a week less between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, I didn't want to wait. It is one of the best trees we've ever had! It is so soft, keeps all its needles (I didn't even have to vacuum) and drinks water all day and night. It's such a nice tree which surprised me since they all apparently spent a month in the back of a semi after being cut down in North Carolina then delivered to our Costco.






This week was the third grade Bazaar which sounds like it was a success. Marlo found some little treasures and Kasper said selling was super fun.


Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Thanksgiving!

This was Thanksgiving week and it was also the week of our first winter weather headaches!

The kids had school Monday and Tuesday. Marlo has been in a creative zone this week. Even more than usual. Lots of creating by this girl. Even at 7:30 am with her bagel breakfast.



School was cancelled Wednesday because we got about 10" of snow. Crazy because we had no snow before that so we woke up to a lot of white! Thankfully the roads weren't bad by Wednesday afternoon so my parents could come down and help me with the Thanksgiving turkey! We hosted Thanksgiving and had a fantastic meal with family. No one broke their arm this year so that's a win. Marlo wore one of my necklaces for about an hour before she agreed she was pulling on it too much so should probably take it off.



Playing catch with cousin Harriet.


Steph and I did a very small amount of Black Friday shopping but honestly since the sales start as early as Monday the week of Thanksgiving, you can get all of your shopping done before Friday! Marlo made me some juice while I was out. Again with the creating. Very big on writing, cutting, glueing, taping. That label says "Hirs your jus".


Kasper was at a sleepover Friday night so Rob and I took Marlo out for burgers. Then she and Rob played outside. She loves to play in the show. And with perspective.



We were going to go up to St. Cloud Saturday but another storm blew through yesterday and today so we just stayed home. I think we have over a foot of snow out there. We got through the snow days with movies, homework, sledding, photography. Can you guess who took these???






Hope everyone had a Happy Thanksgiving and a great weekend!