365 ~ 2015: Day 59

Staycation family fun at Gunstock for some tubing!

365 ~ 2015: Day 58

Looking sharp with new hair cuts!

365 ~ 2015: Day 57

No fear!  He's skiing the jumps and landed them cleanly.  I imagine soon he's going to want to try to get up on the rails (or whatever they are called!), and I'm not sure how I feel about that!

365 ~ 2015: Day 56

Gorgeous day for skiing!  My confidence is definitely better and it's fun to be able to join the boys on the slopes instead of staying home or sitting in the lodge.  They are amazing to watch...no fear!  They were skiing the terrain parks and going over jumps, skiing moguls and through the paths in the woods and Shaun tried his first black diamond today (albeit by accident!) and he survived!  I'm glad I gave this whole thing a second chance!

365 ~ 2015: Day 55

Snow painting!

365 ~ 2015: Day 54

We braved the bitter cold and headed to the slopes (Gunstock!) for some family skiing!  We started by dropping Evan off at Ski Camp, where he spends the day learning to get comfortable on skis.  He gets lots of instructed skiing time, game time and a lunch.  He loves it!  And we don't have to worry about him while we are doing our thing!

I am still trying to feel comfortable and confident on skis, so I signed up for my own lesson (which ended up being a private lesson since I was the only person there!).  My instructor was really great and I felt really comfortable by the end of the 2 hours.  I skied blues confidently for the first time ever!

That left the other boys to ski at their leisure.  David (aka Bode Miller, Jr.) was dying to try some black diamonds, but Shaun is just not at that level so he would have to wait until after lunch when I met up with them.  Shaun and I went off to ski at our pace and that left David to go off with Dad and be more adventurous!  We rode up together to the summit and went our separate ways!  This is Shaun after we made our way down a bit!  It was fun skiing with him and he would give me tips and warnings when the terrain changed!  

365 ~ 2015: Day 53

David getting some serious air at the trampoline place!  They loved this place, especially the orange socks they got to keep!

365 ~ 2015: Day 52

There are many things I will do around the house, I can run the lawn mower, snow blower, shovel like a boss...but there is ONE things I CANNOT (and will not!) do around the house and that is shovel a roof.  Good thing I've got a husband and 3 crazy boys to do it so I don't have to!

365 ~ 2015: Day 51

Everything is Awesome!
Everything is Cool when your watching a movie at school with your friends!

365 ~ 2015: Day 50

I spy a dancing machine!

365 ~ 2015: Day 49

My Funny Valentines!

Happy Valentine's Day!

With David's basketball tournament all weekend long we celebrated Valentine's Day on Monday.  Monday is one of the few days during the week when we're not running around so it's a good night for us to have our annual "Fancy Dinner"!  The menu this year was Spinach & Cheese stuffed Flank Steak with asparagus and homemade rice pilaf!  I also made some scallops wrapped in bacon for Charlie and I to share!  The boys really love having "fancy" dinner in the dining room and especially love the chocolate fondue we had for dessert!

My Funny Valentines!

We are dressed up and ready for "Fancy" dinner!

Spinach & Cheese stuffed Flank Steak!

Dad teaching David how to cut a cantaloupe for the fondue!

Using care while cutting the cantaloupe into pieces.

Ready for some fondue!

YUM!

Happy Valentine's Day!

365 ~ 2015: Day 48

Evan's class did not do a formal Valentine's Day party but she said that anyone could bring in treats or valentines and they would get passed out.  Rather than fill out 15 cards, Evan chose to make mini-banana muffins for all his friends.  With the exception of cracking the egg and putting them into the oven, he did all the work.  He was so proud of himself and loved passing out his treat to his school friends.

365 ~ 2015: Day 47

Me and my Valentines

365 ~ 2015: Day 46

David playing some fierce defense in the tournament over the weekend.  They lost in the semi-finals in one of the most heartbreaking endings I have witnessed in kid sports.  The other team came back to tie and eventually move ahead.  We were down by one point and got the ball back with 5 seconds to go.  The other team fouled our player, shoving him out of bounds as the buzzer sounded so he wasn't able to get in that one last shot.  Refs called a foul giving our player two shots.  He would have the chance to tie it with the first shot and win it all with the second.  He was all alone on the court, and you could have heard a pin drop it was so quiet.  He missed his first shot and then, unfortunately, his second shot.  The tears flowed.  My feels hurt so badly!  It's too much pressure for a 4th grader to have on his shoulders and you could tell he felt like he let his team down.  Hopefully after some tears and reflection, he'll realize that he didn't let anyone down and he should be proud of how he played.  File this under "good life lessons"!

365 ~ 2015: Day 45

Basketball tournament.  They lost their first game and won their second.  These kids play hard and most important, they show really good sportsmanship!!

365 ~ 2015: Day 44

Happy 100th Day of School.  (finally!)

365 ~ 2015: Day 43

Hey!  Did you hear?  We're getting more of this stuff.

365 ~ 2015: Day 42

Breaking out the gear for some serious snow storm sledding!

365 ~ 2015: Day 41

Cold cheeks!

It's SNOWMAGEDDON!!

Since the 24th of January we have been getting dumped on by Mother Nature!  The biggest storm being on January 27th, what was known as the Blizzard of 2015.  We ended up with 14 inches that storm, but areas south of us saw between 2 and even 3 feet of snow!  We're making the most of the snow and getting in some sledding and tunnel making.

It would be awesome if it were just a little warmer because it's not as much fun to be out when it's so cold.  Plus it might have made some of this snow a little heavier for snowman making!  It's been so light and fluffy that we haven't been able to make our annual snowman yet.  There is still more time and rumor has it we're looking at another potential chance for significant snow at the end of the week.  Not sure some areas will be able to take much more.  We've averaged about 10 inches per storm, which is a lot, but not debilitating like other areas.  At least so far...

JANUARY 24TH - WHERE IT ALL BEGAN!

Before this snow, we had mostly ice storms.  It was nice to have some fluffy stuff to make sledding more fun!

Playing with the shovel!

The ice that we broke out of the saucer sleds that were left out!

Family selfie!

First Big Ski Adventure of 2015 - January 25th

It wouldn't be winter without some skiing!  We made plans to meet up and hit the slopes Sunday with our friends.  Evan is now old enough for ski camp instead of the day care/1 hr ski lesson he did last year.  He spent all day in camp and had so much fun and keeps asking when he can go again!

Ready for ski camp!

The boys hitting the slops!

Shaun made it to the top of the mountain!  He was pretty proud to ski some blues!

I opted not to ski this time and hang out with my friend Susan, whom I had not seen since summer!  Her girls took a lesson too so we headed over to watch for a bit.

Evan working on his 'wedges'

After the girls were done with their lesson, they met up to ski together.  David was showing Briana some of his moves!  She was able to keep up even though it was her first time.

Alexis and Shaun

Forever friends and now ski buddies!

BLIZZARD OF 2015 - JANUARY 27TH

While we didn't get monstrous amounts of snow like our friends south of us, it snowed all day long and the wind was blowing it all around like crazy!  Visibility was very poor and we didn't last very long the few times we ventured outdoors!

Blizzard = Snow Day = Waffles!

The wind gusts were impressive!

It's cold!

Trying to get a little sledding in, but it was COLD and WINDY!

Round 2, made a few runs down the hill!

Wipe out!

The wind was so crazy during this storm that it blew more than a dusting all over our covered deck!

Blizzard = Snow = Snow Ice Cream!

ANOTHER STORM!  SNOW DAY #2 - February 2nd (post Superbowl!)

How nice of Mother Nature to dump a foot of snow on us the day after the Patriots win the Superbowl!  It was even nicer that it was going to snow all day long that they were able to let us know before kick off that school would be cancelled!  We ended up letting the boys stay up after halftime to watch, but only David made it to the glorious ending!  Snow Day meant, this Momma could stay up late watching football commentary on the glorious outcome of Superbowl 49!

Championship Waffles!

David and Shaun couldn't wait to get outside for a bit for some more sledding!

THE BIG 3 DAY STORM!  February 7-February 9th (Snow day #3).

This latest round of snow, started Saturday night and still going!  It's been very light, but it hasn't let up at all, especially today!  It's been very cold so we when we do go outside, it's not for very long, but we are making the most of it!  Charlie helped the boys build a couple of tunnels in the giant snow banks along the side of the road from the various storms.

SUNDAY FEBRUARY 8TH

MONDAY FEBRUARY 9TH

The banks are BIG!

They can reach the top of the mailbox post!

Snow day selfie!

That is it, for now.  I'm sure we'll have some more before the winter is over!  It's definitely one for the record books!