Bubblegum Sale

C's sale is usually open. I'm not sure he's had any takers though.

Wintery

Second Place

This weekend, H's soccer team competed in a Futsal tournament at a local university. And came in second place! Whoot whoot!

Saturday Afternoon

It appears that the last time we went ice skating, the rink was not technically open. The ice had just froze. There were pot holes. The warming house was closed. Well, now it's officially open. The ice completely frozen and perfect. In fact, C is ice-skating in gym class (seriously, so lucky!) and you should have seen him flying around the rink. And I love that whenever we go, the kids find a number of friends to hang out with. To have something like this in our back yard is just so awesome.

Snow Drawings

8:15 a.m. Waiting for the bus.
I drew the heart. But he wrote "Mom."

Art by C :: Duck with Frog, Dragonfly and Cattails

Bicycle Charles

Early last week, I took a photo of my prized Bicycle Charles sculpture. It was one of the items available  for purchase at the NYC pART PROJECT to raise funds for World Bicycle Relief. Bicycle Charles sculptures are made by Charles Mwanjeleka, a Zambian artist. At the pART PROJECT event, Melissa surprised me by giving me his guy as a gift. And, I guess great minds think alike, because someone else was thinking of her Bicycle Charles sculpture as well. The pART PROJECT was something I loved being part of. To have my friends there was amazing. This sculpture makes me smile -- I absolutely love it.

Downton Abbey

Brian and I are SO late to the game on this one, but we recently discovered Downton Abbey and are totally hooked. Call me crazy, but it didn't seem like a show I thought I'd be interested in. But we decided to start watching it on Netflix and were instantly smitten. Wanting to speak in British accents and drink tea around the clock. Unfortunately, Netflix only has season 1 streaming available. Ugh. What to do? Thankfully, we got to take advantage of a week of Hulu Plus, and watched the entire season 2. Then were able to DVR the most episode 2 and 3 of season 3. One episode was missing, which we were able to get through iTunes. This whole process has made us total hermits. The good news? We are completely caught up.

P.S. You can watch the entire season 3 here (before it's released on US TV). It stalled for us with the missing episode which is why we caved on iTunes. Plus, I'm holding out for my weekly Sunday night viewing.

A Night at the Museum

On Friday night after dinner, Brian and the boys went to the Milwaukee Public Museum for an overnight at the museum. Originally, I was going to go. But when Brian found out we were going to the  Pirates exhibit, he decided he wanted to take them. Honestly, I wasn't sure how this whole thing was going to go. It was a gift from my parents, and when I first found out about it, all I could think of was C's fear of "fake people." He almost backed out of it, but ended up going. When Brian sent me a photo of their sleeping area, I thought for sure I'd be getting a phone call. They were right by a Native American exhibit. Well, they all survived. In fact, they had an absolute blast. What a cool experience.

First Band Concert

Last night, H had his very first band concert. Papa happened to be in town for some business, so he even got to be in the audience with us. H looked very handsome in his dress shirt and tie (and new shoes which showed up at the door 5 minutes before we had to leave for the concert). From what I hear, you should not expect much from a 5th grade band concert, but I've got to tell you, I was pretty impressed. Each section played a short little solo to introduce the audience the instruments. H on his baritone and the tuba player are the only ones in their section so they played a duet with solos. They did great! I know I'm biased, but it was my favorite. I wasn't sure what to think of it when H said he wanted to learn baritone, but it's really a beautiful sounding instrument.

January Hike

The weather was gorgeous out today, with temperatures in the 40s. It's supposed to get much colder this week -- highs in the teens next weekend.We decided we better get out and take advantage of it, so the five of us (Storm included) went for a hike at Lion's Den Gorge. Lovely.

Winter Farmer's Market

Brian visited the Milwaukee County Winter Farmer's Market to pick up our Christmas bison this year. He took C with, but I hadn't been able to go (I think H and I went to Tae Kwon Do instead). He raved about it, and I couldn't wait to check it out myself. Believe it or not, we don't have one single thing on our calendars this weekend, so it was a perfect one to head on over to the State Fair Grounds and see what it was about. He was right -- it's pretty awesome. We bought some golden carrots, beets and mushrooms. My favorite vendors were Valentine Coffee Roasters (buy a pound, they buy you a cup of their delicious drip coffee -- otherwise $2 a cup), Caroline's Raw World (flax seed crackers -- she was so smitten that C loved her Collard Green Smoothie that she sent him along with a bottle of it), and Satellite Crepes (the boys had a salted caramel one, but their Moon Unit and vegan Fresh Orb sounded pretty good too). Pretty awesome.

Art by H :: Owl

Weather Experience with John Malan

It's no secret that H is a huge weather nut. I rarely have to look a forecast up -- it's the first thing he does every day. He follows the local weather, and often knows the forecasts for people we know around the country. Right now, he thinks he may even want to be a meteorologist when he grows up. So when my parent's gave him the "Weather Experience with John Malan" that they bid on at a charity event, the kid freaked out. (John Malan is a local meteorologist on our NBC affiliate station who I grew up with.)

Tonight, Brian and I took H, C and two of H's friends to the TMJ station, where John Malan came to the door, and gave us a quick tour of the station before whisking us off to our seats to watch the 6:00pm news get taped. There, we got to hang out with John Malan, Mike Jacobs and Carole Meekins while they did their thing. Total pros. Carole Meekins asked if C wanted to sit in his lap for the photo, but he said no. Silly guy. We also met Cody Holyoke and Rod Burks. Brian said to Rod that he had met him before in Chicago because Rod used to model for SAIC fashion shows (where Brian went to school for Fashion Design). The guys in the radio department got a big kick out of that. Sorry Rod Burks! Watching the news being taped was extremely interesting. It is amazing to see how it is all put together to what we see on our TVs. Afterward the broadcast, the boys got to tape each of themselves in front of the green screen giving a weather forecast. They did really awesome and were kind of hilarious too (except for C who wouldn't do it). What an amazing experience.

Comfortable

A blanket was laying on our bench, which is where I found our 82 pound dog making himself comfortable and sunning himself. What a goof.

Packers ... In Style

The past week, Brian was in San Francisco for work. He came back Saturday, rushed home, where we met him after rushing home ourselves from H's futsal game, then he and H headed up to Green Bay to watch the Green Bay Packers vs. Minnesota Vikings game this weekend. They had an absolute blast. And check out their seats! Private box thanks to the owner of the company where Brian works. Sweet.

The Winner Is ....

As I was putting some things away today, I came across what is probably the most unique gift  exchanged this holiday season. It was from my 16-year old nephew to C. He has a pretty awesome sense of humor and tends to give some pretty interesting gifts each year. It completely cracks me up. C loves sardines and when we went on our RV trip, he'd eat them all the time. He also loves bulldogs -- I had no idea there was such a brand in sardines. And pickled eggs -- really? Needless to say C was so excited when he opened these (and has been begging to try the eggs). I think I'll be sticking to the yummy Snickerdoodle cookie mix my niece made us instead. But that C sure is a happy camper!

Ice Skating

The local ice skating pond (right by C's elementary school) is filled, and ready to go. H and I made our first visit there today. Hoping to spend a lot of time there this year. It's pretty awesome.

Polar Bear Plunge

The Polar Bear Plunge is an annual event held at Bradford Beach. This year may have been bright and sunny out, but don't let that fool you. It wasn't even 15 degrees! I was decked out in snow pants and a huge jacket and it was still cold. We missed the big noon plunge by just a few minutes, but there were stray polar bears braving the Lake Michigan for quite awhile after. It was such a blast to watch. H even said he wanted to do it next year. We'll see!