Finally! Sledding...

Last weekend while Brendan was off on his annual guys' trip to Foxwoods,  the kids and I entertained ourselves with lots of fun things. One of them was going sledding at Mac's with the Chau's.  We had just received a couple inches of snow the days before. It was cold but still there wasn't a ton of snow.  It was the first time we could go to Mac's given this crazy mild winter.  I love sledding there and although I am ok with not having 5 ft drifts of snow, I do miss going sledding a lot!  The kids had a blast. 

 You can't really tell from this picture but Sam was definitely the daredevil of the day.  It was nice since Mac's folks had cut down a lot of the brush that in years past you would plow into after going down the big hill. And the grass poking through helped slow down the sleds a bit, just enough for me not to stop them from going into the woods but fast enough for them to love it!

 Abby dubbed this one the Lands End commercial.

 And after an hour of sledding they had enough of climbing and walking in general. :)

Pretty sure my kids expect that at every get together with friends that there will be a group picture.  haha.

I'm hoping for one more time at least to go sledding at Mac's!  

Pinewood Derby

 Cole has enjoyed Tiger Scouts (Boy Scouts- 1st grade level) for many reasons this year. One of them is the Pinewood Derby races.  This is of course a long standing Boy Scout tradition and one that has been going on for many many years! In fact I remember lots of years when my brother used to do it.  

Brendan and Cole had a great time together designing and building the car.  Everyone starts out with a block of wood and they get to design it the way they way. Cole wanted a race car inspired car- with a wing on the back and everything.   I was very proud of Brendan for working on this project- since he doesn't do wood work at all!

Brendan reminded Cole that they were doing this for fun and it would be great to win but not to count on it.  I think Brendan wasn't sure about how the car would turn out and didn't want to get Cole's hopes up too high!

 Once they had the car, they planned out the colors and the design. 

 Cole loves green and so he painted the car green. He also wanted flames on the front which he asked Brendan to point for him.  Also the number five which we are not sure why he chose it but whatever! 

 One tip that Brendan found was that it was allowed to "load" the car with lead weights.  The car can weigh up to 5 ounces and no more.  Cole's ended up being just shy of the perfect weight which I think helped a lot in the races.  Besides the weight requirement, the car also has to be a certain length and width.  There were so many different designs among the 35 cars-  the Black Pearl, an Angry Bird, the Yellow Submarine and lots more.  Very creative!

 Before races started, Cole had to sign his name to a form that said that he made his car himself (with a parents help of course) and that he would have good sportsmanship no matter what happened with the races.

 Pre race photo and then the car was "impounded".  Once it weighed in, we had to relinquish it so we couldn't make any other changes to it.  Very serious business.

 The track!  This thing is very cool.  It has sensors on the finish line so the computer system knows the exact time and who placed first, second, and third.  The computer system also randomized all 30+ cars so that everyone raced 9 times with different cars.  The time of each car was averaged and that is how they knew who would win overall.  Very good system I think.  I assume over the years at different locations they have had cheaters and poor sports who have made all of this technology necessary.  Oh well, it's more accurate any way!

 Cole and Caden had front row seats right by the top of the track.

 So excited!

 There goes Cole's down the middle!

 Excited he won.

 Here we go again!

Cole's car ended up doing really well and he was beyond thrilled. He was excited but didn't gloat.  I was really proud of him.  At one point when a friend lost a rac we saw Cole, unprompted, put his hand on the friend's shoulder and say, "It's ok."  

 Every time a race started all the boys shouted, "3..2..1...Go!!!"

 Getting the participation trophy was really cool.

What a good team!  Cole ended up winning for his den and coming in tied for 4th overall!  We couldn't believe it.  It's incredibly cheesy to say, but I loved watching Cole and Brendan work together and strengthening their bond together.  These are things Cole will remember!

Only Four Short Years

 Time goes by so quickly when one is an adult.  Making every moment count seems so important because I know just how quickly it goes by.  It does and yet at the same time it doesn't seem so long ago that we brought Charlotte home.  I am thankful every single minute for this beautiful girl.

 1 year old!  Walking around and giving off that little half smile.

 By her two year birthday her crazy silly personality had fully emerged.  

 By the third birthday that goofy sense of humor was in full swing.

I hope she always keeps it!

Having a sense of humor about life is entirely necessary!

 And here she is on the morning of her fourth birthday.  What a little girl she has grown to be.  No more the baby or even toddler.  Four seems so much more grown up!

 We started the day with presents in bed. It has become a really wonderful tradition that the kids love.  Hugs and kisses and "happy birthdays".  It also gets the whole anticipating of the gifts out of the way and we can just focus on the day. 

 Sparkle shoes for her and Emily were the highlight of the morning.

 Birthday girl gets to pick whatever she wants to do and eat on her day.  It was donuts for breakfast, McDonald's for lunch (for the kids at least.  Brendan and I had Chipotle! Yummers.), and junk cereal for dinner.  All those things are extremely rare in our house (in fact junk cereal is only birthdays and getaways like camping), so each one was extra special!

 Even though Charlotte had a really fun birthday party, we wanted to do something special as just a family so we went to Chuck E Cheese.  Charlotte was so excited.  She got 2 free tokens just because it was her birthday.

 Meeting Chuck E Cheese was the highlight. She made me stop and watch Chuck E at another party and wait for him to come by for a "hi" and a picture.   Charlotte loved the roller coaster ride as well. This girl will be a daredevil like her brother!

 Tickets redeemed and a blue taffy as a reward.  

 More sugar!  Charlotte chose cupcakes for her birthday celebration.

 She wanted purple and yellow frosting but I just ended up making purple and then adding some of the decorating frosting in the end. She decorated and was happy with them.

As far as junk cereal my favorite is Lucky Charms and Brendan likes that as well so we were trying to steer her in that direction but Cole had his own agenda and craftily suggested Cookie Crisp instead.  Charlotte listened to Cole. :)  I loved this cereal when I was a kid so I understand! She gobbled up cantaloupe as well so I felt slightly better about her dinner choice.

 This is so Charlotte.

 Happy Birthday my darling girl!