Christmas - Throw Back

Hard to believe that I can get behind... HA!  I did want to post a few more pics from Christmas that I haven't gotten around to sharing.  We were fortunate enough to make the journey to San Antonio to celebrate with the Dieckman's and Oma & Opa.  It was nice to spend time with family!

 The Bures' tradition of decorating Oma's famous sugar cookies.  This year we added jell icing which lead to many creative but GOOEY cookies.  Micah enjoyed some time on mamma's lap while Victoria enjoyed moving amongst the table with her baby & stroller.    

 Oma & Opa got the kids Christmas PJs.  Trying to get a picture of all of them wearing the PJs was another challenge since Micah refused to wear his.

 For some spontaneous fun, we had a dance contest.  I think the winner was Shane with his version of the worm!

 Shake it, twirl, kick it.... whatever you got!

 It's gift time!  It was hard waiting.

 We went to the San Antonio Zoo for a day's outing.  Feeding the birds towards the end was fun.  I was worried that Victoria wouldn't even go it.  But she was 'safe' in Oma's arms.

We are the Champions!

 On March 15th, we finally broke the record for the most snow fall in Boston... 108.6 inches.  But it didn't stop there.  We even got snow on the 1st day of Spring.  So far our total is 110.3 inches.  With a bit of warmer weather in the past few days and rain, alot of snow has been melting.  We however will still have snow for Easter.  I'm just trying to imagine hunting for Easter eggs amongst the snow.  Before all the snow melted, a few pictures has to be taken to document just how much fell.

February School Vacation Week

 Unfamiliar to me is the concept of February (and upcoming April) school vacation week.  Many families go on vacations during this time.  Others stay home and enjoy time / activities in the area.  Oma was able to visit to help with Izzy during the day while I was at work.  They had a busy week even if they stayed within a few block radius of home.

One cute place close to me is a children's puppet theater.  Izzy & Oma took up a show which I heard about later being very cute.

 One night Izzy lost one of her front teeth.  The following night she lost the other.  It was pretty cool because the tooth fairy came for 2 teeth at the same time!

 The 1st day of school back from vacation was the 100th day of school.  The assignment was to bring 100 of something.  Izzy helped me create this t-shirt which has exactly 100 jewels on it.  She wore it proudly the next day.

 Something that has turned into a tradition is going to Disney on Ice with my good friend Kiran and her daughter Lelah.  This year's Disney on Ice was Frozen.  Kiran got tickets for this in July.   At that point she said ~50% of the seats were already sold.  We had an amazing view from where we sat which made the girls all that more excited.

Bath time fun with three.

The kids were fascinated by putting these on their fingers... especially Victoria.

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Izzy was definitely in the St. Patty's Day spirit.  She thought very hard about her outfit even making sure her socks were green.  I had bought some accessories for all the kids to wear.  That night they spent time digging through the bag picking out what they liked.  Micah loved the headband with shamrock bobbles.  But he refused to wear it past then and so no pictures.  I tried to put stamps on their hands which only lead to crying.  So I had to wash them off.  Izzy had a great day at school with many commenting about her outfit.  She was excited to let people know she was part Irish thanks to her Oma.

Happy Valentine's Day

 Izzy & I were up late to get her valentine's done before her school party on Friday.  Thanks to the lovely weather we've been having in the New England area, mail isn't coming through "sleet, rain or snow".  I ordered these valentine's long in advance but they just never seemed to be coming.  Thankfully, the night before they arrived.  So Izzy and I worked together to get 23 valentine's completed before bedtime.

 She really loved them especially since I had to buy an enormous amount of candy for that many.  Even the twins liked Swedish Fish, calling them 'vitamins' (they take gummy vitamins).

 On Valentine's Day, we all went to a Wayne concert.  For those of you who haven't heard me talk about him, he's a sensation for kids.  His concerts always sell out.  And his music isn't horrible to listen to as an adult.  I own 4 of his CDs and have been listening to his music since Izzy was a toddler.  He's figured it out.... on weekends he has concerts or plays for events like birthday parties.  During the week, he goes to many of the daycares, preschools and schools.  That's how he gets them hooked.

 One thing Izzy wished for the night before was to see her friends at the concert.  Lucky for her we ran into her best friend from her LCSH days, Mia.  We then ran into 2 other friends from Izzy's LSCH pre-K class.  All of the girls got right up front of the stage to dance to his songs.

The twins enjoyed Wayne as well.  They stayed with me in the row most of the time.  One song in particular got Micah to head out into the aisle.... 'I like trucks'.  He's all boy.

Blizzard

 The first thing I should say is WE SURVIVED!

I spent part of my Monday 'preparing' for the blizzard that was to come the following day.  Me and the rest of Boston that is.  I stopped by a local toy store to stock up on some novel things to do.  Oma & Opa, Izzy has a new game that she likes.  Get ready!  I wasn't the only parent doing so.  They store manager said they had been busy all day because of the storm.  The second stop was the grocery store.  It was hard to find milk and the check-out lines were awful.  This was the check-out line for the '12 Items or Less'..  

 Nala spent a good portion of the day right here watching the snow fall or the birds trying to find shelter.  The news that night said 24 inches of snow had fall by 4pm.  It continued to snow throughout the night adding a few more inches.  I don't know what the final count was on total snow accumulation.  We were lucky and did not loose any power.  My upstairs neighbor, Michelle, found someone who would dig out your car for $50.  Since we park right next to each other, she asked if I wanted him to work on my car.  That was the best fifty dollars I've spent.

 Today I decided we were getting out of the house.  The park close to us has a hill which is a hit for sledding.  Bonnie asked if Izzy wanted to go sledding.  We ended up meeting 2 other classmates of Izzy's there.  Getting to the park was another issue.  Some places had dug out passageways.  Other's had not yet begun.  Absolutely no stroller would get through.  Will have to rethink how to get to daycare in the morning.

 In our courtyard.  Izzy made seats for everyone to sit on.

 Let the sledding begin!  The girls loved the track that had a ramp built up at the end.  Everyone would go flying over it.

 I was able to get Victoria down the hill once.  That was it.  She was 'all done' after that.  She spent the rest of the time at the top of the hill.  We were out there for almost 2 hours.  Micah on the other hand LOVED sledding.  After only going down once, he wanted more.  I lost track of how many times were went down together.  On the way home he asked when we could go again.  Not sure how to convince Victoria to go again however.  Oma, sound familiar to the water slide this past summer?

Christmas Day

 Before celebrating in Texas with the Bures clan, we celebrated Christmas Even at home.  Thanks to Oma for making her famous sugar cookies we had something to set out for him.

 Izzy was super excited Santa got her sparkly boots.  She's been asking for something like this for awhile.

 Victoria modeling her dress up shoes.   She clip-clops around the condo with them on.

 I laugh at this picture every time I see it.  Micah's face it just priceless.  He LOVES this toy and can spend a long period of time playing with it by himself.

At the end I asked each one of them to hold up their favorite gift.  Micah's was his remote control tractor.  He took it to church with him that day.  However, once I put batteries in it and he saw it moved, he promptly hasn't played with it once since then.  Izzy's was Anna & Elsa Disney clip dress dolls.  Victoria's was magnetic letters and numbers that go on the refrigerator.  An oldie but goodie!