Snow Day(s)

Originally I planned to go to the mall on Wednesday, which I hate so I'd spent several days hyping myself up for it--I recently discovered that H&M recycles old clothes so I have a pile of stuff to take to them and Alice is refusing to wear most of her pants,  

Tuesday night I got the call--no school on Wednesday due to a winter storm.  The kids were excited.  I was not enjoying the change in plans.

Wednesday morning we woke up to a cold but bone dry yard.  I was annoyed and the kids were sad.  By 8, the snowing was coming down hard and by 10 the kids had done enough chores to merit a romp in the snow.  And I was glad for the change of plans.  I've finally aquired enough snow gear for everyone to have a bib, jacket, hat, boots and the most important addition this year--gloves, funny how warm, dry hands can change a 5-minute snow adventure into a 2-hour one.

We used the sleds that we finally broke down and bought last year and sledded for a while, before being drawn to the Wheatley's where we attempted to jump on the trampoline (not so fun with 5 inches of snow), made some snow angels and built a Wheatley family out of snow.  Usually on snow days we meet the Wheatley's at the sledding hill and sled for a while before wondering over to their house to build snowmen, then Becky makes macaronni and cheese while Parker makes hot chocolate.  We hung out outside the Wheatley's for a while before Alice decided that not wear socks was a bad idea and headed home, followed shortly by the other kids.  Rex and I stayed out a while longer to finish our snow Wheatley's before we got cold and hungry and headed home for lunch.

 While I cleaned up lunch and did a few other chores, the big kids painted snow for about an hour and then we made snow cream, which is tasty when covered with chocolate.  Then we decided to read a bit of a Series of Unfortunate Events, as part of our monthly book/movie series, which we dropped for a while.  Henry fell asleep while we were reading (and so did I).  Rex and Alice suited back up and decided to help Greg shovel the driveway.  I decided I'd lay down for a just a few minutes, thinking that Zora would be up from her nap within the next 20 minutes.  An hour and a half later, Zora woke me up, so I woke Henry up and we suited back up to find Greg and the older two, who'd gone on an adventure to find a bigger hill to sled on.  They couldn't find one so we all sledded on the normal hill until dark.  Henry and Rex got pretty brave and tried all sorts of crazy positions.  We had grilled cheese and tomato soup for dinner and then the kids picked to read more of A Series of Unfortunate Events instead of watch a movie.  It was a perfect day.

 Thursday school was cancelled again because there aren't enough snow plows in Charlotte so we just have to wait for the snow to melt for the buses to be safe to drive again.  Our friends the Turners came over and sledded a bit with us and we built a bigger snow man before introducing them to snow cream.

 Alice and Henry spent the afternoon painting snow again, while I decided to get some chores done and Rex and Greg played video games.  After Zora's nap, I really wanted to go on a hike so we all suited back up but I decided to switch up everyone's snow suits so that Henry and Zora were not wearing bibs that hit them mid-calf.  Henry just about lost it when I put "his" suit on Zora and a bigger one on him, so I had Alice switch him because we have 3 size 4/5 snow bibs, but then Alice lost it because the second one wasn't comfortable and then Rex was getting bored and starting throwing snow balls and then, after 20 minutes of tantrums, I lost it and went inside.  After 2 days of doing nothing but play with children and dry their clothes and make them snow cream all I wanted was a hike in the woods with the family and they couldn't pull themselves together long enough to handle it.  I almost feel bad from ruining the end of our snow day.  I made an early dinner and vowed to put the kids to bed early.  The kids knew what was best for them and stayed outside as long as they could.  Rex actually had to be called in at near dark for dinner.  Then the kids helped clean up and we spent an hour or so recovering from our tantrums and reading more of A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Friday school was still cancelled because the snow in the northern part of the county still hadn't melted, but ours was all but gone so we finally left the house and played at rec center not so close to our house for a few hours.

Snow days are fun, for about 2 days.  It's like a forced 2-day stay-cation, which is my favorite kind of vacation, no driving, no packing but lots of family time and built in activities.  But after day 2, it's time to get out.

Monday starts the first full week of school since before Christmas.  It's going to be a rough week.  I love/hate school so much.

And then the Wheatley's Moved

Our neighbors/landlords/best friends/object of much stalking moved.  To Montana.  To say it's been sad is an understatement.  

Friday night, Derick had a final sleepover at our house.

 Monday Rex came home from school, crawled under a desk and just cried.  And I couldn't blame him.  I suggested that he use a homework pass and spend the rest of the day playing with Derick.  I dragged him home that night at 7:30.  The Wheatley's pulled out and started the long drive to Montana at 1:30 Tuesday afternoon.

 We still spent a lot of time at the Wheatley's.  We just kind of gravitate to their house whenever we go outside.  We just end up there.  We don't mean to but all of a sudden here we are at the Wheatley's.  The day after they moved Zora, Henry and I found ourselves riding bikes in their driveway and Henry went to the door and knocked, declaring that he was hungry and was going to get a snack.  Zora checked all of their one million outside doors trying to get in.

It's just a lot of emptiness here without them.  I ran out of brown sugar today and had no one to ask to borrow some.  I got sick last week so Greg had to take a day off to watch the kids, when I normally would have sent them to Becky's.  It snowed this week and we had to sled by ourselves. 

Life goes on, obviously, but the Wheatley's were my family here.  Becky was a mom and a sister and a best friend all rolled up into one.  Her children were like my children, however much they resent that.  I just love them.

Rex and I talked about how we can choose not to be sad but rather be excited and happy for the Wheatley's in their new adventure.  They've had a rough few years trying to get their kids into decent schools and a job with semi-normal hours for Erik and and and...I'm only just now learning of half the stuff Becky was dealing with.  She is always too concerned about others to worry about talking about herself.  So I'm glad they're getting away.  I'm happy that the school is less than a mile from their house so Becky isn't driving 4 hours a day taking kids to and from school.  I'm happy that Derick gets 3 recesses and that all the girls at school think Sam is so cute. 

But I'm lonely.  I miss Becky.  I miss Derick.  I miss Caleb, and Eric and Parker and even Sam, who,  even as they were leaving, couldn't lie enough to say he liked me.  Every night since we've moved here, I've looked out my bedroom window as I get into bed and just checked on the Wheatley's house.  They used to have a yellow door bell that I'd just stare at it like the green light in The Great Gatsby, only in a less jealous way and a more, that yellow door bell is assuring--Becky is right there if I need anything.  I still check on their house every night as I get in bed, but now it's just black.  All the lights are off.  There's nothing to see.  The door bell's been replaced.  Their house is gone--invisible in the night. 

I'm about to check airline tickets for Billings, Montana.  It's just so lonely without the Wheatley's.

The Great Wolf Lodge

A few years ago for Christmas I saw a Living Social deal for Great Wolf Lodge so I bought it and gave that to the kids for Christmas.  And they've been begging to return ever since.  So this year, when I couldn't think of anything to get them, I reserved two nights, and then thought of stuff to buy them so they ended up really cashing out this year.

We checked in January 2, put Zora down for a nap and headed to the water park, which was freezing.  Ok, not really but it wasn't warm either.  They heat the air in the room to 84 but not the water, so sitting in the room in a dry swim suit is comfortably warm, almost making me think about getting wet.  But the water is not heated, so once you get it, it's just cold cold cold.  But the kids had a good time.

When we were done at the water park, Greg got some take out and we had dinner in our room followed by using the Christmas money from Grandma Pattie and Grandpa Brian to enjoy some of the other attractions.  Zora and Henry picked to go to the arcade.

 Alice and Rex picked to play the MagiQuest game, which is pricey but is hours long.  They played for two or three hours the first day, more than three the second and Rex didn't even come to the water park on the last day so he could finish.

While the big kids played the MagiQuest game, I took the little two to the clock tower show, where it snowed, which Zora thought was the greatest thing ever and then we all went to bed.  The kids didn't do too bad.  The big three got their own little room within our room and were pretty tired and Zora was beat and it was late so the all fell asleep pretty fast.  And Henry woke up around 3 and tried to wake the other kids up again.  What is his deal?  

 Day 2 started with donuts, more water park, Henry buying a wand to join the kids on the MagiQuest game and me falling asleep in the lobby, college-student style, while Greg got take-out for dinner again, Zora slept in the room and I was supposed to be watching the big kids play the magic game.  Oops.

That night Greg went home to sleep because he said the bed and pillows there were just too bad so Henry slept with me.

 Day 3: started with donuts again, followed by the water park for everyone except Rex who just wanted to do the MagiQuest game, and leaving around 2 to make it home for Zora's nap.

Highlights:
*going on a "vacation" 20 minutes from home, which meant that Greg could sneak home the second night and sleep in our more comfortable bed.
*having all the kids entertained the entire time with no complaints about being bored

Tips for our next trip (Henry asks just about every day when we're going again):
*Give the kids their own money.  This worked great.  My parents gave the kids some money to use while we were there so they knew exactly how much they could spend and they didn't hound me and Greg for stuff or complain that we were cheap.  In fact, when Rex went to pick out his wand, he purposefully picked the least expensive one so that he'd have more money for other stuff later.  And then when Rex wanted $8 worth of ice cream, he just bought it.  It was fabulous.
*Get take out.  Last time we packed everyone up and left the resort to get dinner because the places in the resort were over-priced and gross.  This time, Greg just got take out and we ate in our room, so much easier.  I also packed snacks from home so the kids had stuff to munch on during the day and brought stuff for lunch.  I even saw one lady bring in a crock pot, not sure how she was planning to clean the crock pot in her bathroom sink but hey, if it worked for her.

Cons:
*It's freezing.  Even the shower was cold.  I was so looking forward to a nice long hot shower after freezing in the water park for hours but no.
*the fire alarm went off 4 times while we were there.  Once at 10 pm.  I just about killed someone when they told us to evacuate at 10 pm because I had just gotten everyone to sleep, except Henry of course, and if I had to wake everyone up we were about to go home and I was going to get my money back.  They ended up giving us a $100 voucher for our next trip...yes our next trip.

Nevertheless, we had fun and we'll go again...in a few years.  It ain't cheap.

Happy New Year

Let's start off by admitting that New Year's is one of the dumbest holidays.  Everyone on TV makes it sound super fun--it's a friend holiday right?  No lame family parties that you're obligated to go to.  You get to par-TAY with the people you actually like.  This rant doesn't need to go on forever, but even in college I struggled to find something worth doing on New Year's.  Probably goes hand-in-hand with the whole not drinking thing.  

Anyway, a few years ago, I found a way to make the holiday tolerable so this is what we do:

We pop balloons.  Each balloon has a time on it and at the appointed time, we pop the balloon and inside the balloon is an activity.  Allen, Sahar and Zolaikha even joined us this year and began the evening with a massive Nerf war while I finished up getting ready.

The balloon popping started with a glow stick dinner.  We actually had pizza, which I had to cook at the Wheatley's because our oven wasn't working because I failed to clean it for four and half years and the stuff on the bottom made the element explode, who knew?  So we had pizza but we put glow sticks under our plates and around our cups and turned the lights off, well most of them, to enjoy the chemical glow.

Next we made dessert--or at least I made dessert while the kids and Greg played some game that Allen had brought over.

Balloon three was "Do you want to build a snowman?"  The adults wrapped up all the children.  They thought it was quite fun.  It turned into a toilet paper war.

Balloon 4 was to use the toilet paper tubes to make decopoge noise makers.

Then glow stick blowing (put glow sticks in water bottles).  Zora thought this was a great game.

 We played a few other games but I can't remember what they were now.  At 9, "dropped the ball,"  shouted outside very briefly because it was below freezing, and drank some sparkling cider, which is disgusting.

Then the big kids played with Allen some more while I cleaned up and put Zora to bed.  Sahar took Zolaikha home and Allen went to Statesville to get an early start on the last day of the hunting season and Greg went to bed as he was meeting Allen in the morning.

 And then I made a huge mistake.  I told the older three they could stay up until midnight to watch the ball drop.  In California, we could have watched this at 9 and called it a night, but noooooo New York is in the same time zone as we so, midnight it was.   I thought we'd watch a movie, but the kids wanted to read (nerds).  So I read them all of The Fantastic Mr. Fox, hoping they'd fall asleep so I could go to bed.  Nope.  They all made it.  Then we watch the last 15 minutes of the party at Times Square, which seems like a lot of standing around and being cold before the ball finally dropped.  Around 12:05, Alice asked when the ball was going to drop, I said, that's it, we just watched it.  That's how lame it is.

Maybe next year, we'll go to bed on time.

The next day we had a big breakfast then headed over to Allen and Sahar's to make cookies and brownies for the Wheatley's farewell that afternoon.  More on that later.

I guess that since this is the New Year's post I should say something about my resolutions this year:

As always, read the entire Book of Mormon, which will be my 4th year running.  This year, I'm going to focus on teachings of Christ as suggested by President Nelson.

Second, learn how to play Imagine on the piano.  I've bought the sheet music and can almost play the first page.  It's a lot harder than it sounds.  It might take a while.

And third, go to the dentist.  I haven't been since before Rex's first birthday so I figure I'm due.

Christmas and thereafter

Christmas started dark and early around 3:30 am.  Henry was the first up and turned the light on.  I dashed in as fast as possible to turn it off but by then Rex, who was having a sleepover with Alice and Henry, was already awake.  I laid down with Henry to try to get him to go back to sleep but he and Rex, as usual, would not shut up.  They eventually succeeded in waking Alice up and annoying me enough that I left, which then woke Greg up, which is never a good thing.  He went in, told them to hush up and then slept on the couch by the tree to prevent them from sneaking out.  I heard them again around 6:30 am.  I went in and read books with them for a while but by 7, they were done so I went out to wake Greg who said they couldn't come out until 7:30 as a consequence for waking up at 4 am.  Zora, meanwhile, slept through everything.

Greg built a barricade to keep them in their room.

Then the present opening began.  And for once, no tears and no lame gifts (I'm super bad at gift-giving).  Alice got a fat-tire mountain bike; Rex got a skate board; Henry got a sit-down digger; and Zora got the stuffed dog she'd picked out at IKEA.  Each kid also got 8 large foam pads and we all got a trip to Great Wolf Lodge.  By the time the older kids were done opening their presents, Zora finally decided to wake up so the big kids helped her open her presents, which she wasn't too pleased about.  She's the fourth child: she knows what present opening is.

Oh look, Zora made it to Christmas.

After all the present opening, we finally got around to a group picture with the tree.  (We wanted to wait for Zora.)

Showing off the books Grandma and Grandpa Robins got them.

These foam blocks/pads are the best gift ever.  The kids played with them for hours.  This is the first Christmas that the kids just sat and played with their toys and we didn't have to assemble anything or teach anyone how to use their toys or blah blah blah.  I made breakfast and then started on the dishes and Greg pushed kids around the skate boards (Greg also got a skate board) while the other kids built stuff.  It was lovely.

Zora especially liked the skate boards.

After a few hours of that, we got dressed and headed to Greg's sister's house in Greensboro.  And everyone fell asleep in the car, except Greg because he was driving.  We then spent the rest of the day playing board games.  Well, Greg and Rex did.  I sat on the couch and played with Zora and Henry and Alice escaped to Cora's third floor hidden room, her favorite place.  And then we drove home and everyone fell asleep in the car again. I guess the kids waking up at 4 am did have its benefits.

I ended up taking all the Christmas decorations and the tree down the day after Christmas.  Really all I had planned to do was mop after having so many people over on Christmas Eve, but every time I'd get the floor cleared enough to mop, the foam blocks would come back out.  So, instead of yelling at the kids, I focused my productive energy on taking down the decorations.  Besides, I needed to get the New Year's ones up anyway.

We spent the rest of the week doing the same thing.  The kids were so pleasant and happy just playing at home that we stayed at home, which we never do.  We usually go on at least one outing a day to keep the kids from killing each other and to stave off the boredom but those foam blocks, they really did the trick.