Happy Birthday, Daddy-o!

The post may be late going up, but we love Daddy-o and wanted to make sure that gets recorded.  We were excited for Daddy-o's birthday to fall on a Saturday, so we could play, but he ended up having a huge project come up at work and spent most of the day working.  But we did get to have pizza and his traditional lemon cake, which this year, I went the easy route--cake mix, canned filling, only the frosting was from scratch, with a little lemon zest that really added the final touch--and of course, this cake turned out better than I think any of my previous attempts.  Sometimes easy is the way to go.

The kids did an awesome job picking out gifts this year, all their own ideas.  Bean found him a tie, and Bugaboo decided he wanted to get him a new back scrubber for the shower, since he's been using a broken one, which also happens to be pink, for the last few months.  I wasn't quite so creative in my gift, but Daddy-o's been wanting a Blu-ray player for quite awhile, so I think it was a welcome gift.

Day 3

 The sun finally came out, and another day of no school meant backyard playtime.

 The ice is pretty amazing.

 The entire yard looked like a frosted cake.

I think the break from being cooped up in the house was exciting for all of us.  It's not normal for us to have 3 snowdays in a row--we're just hoping that the warmer temperatures melted enough ice that there will be school tomorrow.

The Irony

 Look what we have!

 After traveling to UT and CO over the holidays, and surviving FREEZING temperatures, we ended up getting the most snow of the year back in Charlotte.  (Don't let the grass poking through fool you--that's just where the "sleds" had tracked out the snow--we got several inches over night with more on the way later today.)

The kids have had a blast this morning playing with the neighbors and doing some sledding, down a hill that turned out to be a little faster than we expected.

It wasn't always easy stopping the kids before they were clotheslined by the fence.

And of course this means no school, probably for a couple more days, and Daddy-o is working from home--its been 3.5 weeks since we've all had to go our seperate ways during the day, and I think we're all getting used to it.  Real life is going to be a bit of a shock.

Although we'll certainly be happy when the temperature heats up.

Utah Stop Number 2

 After staying with my brother for a couple nights, it was time to head over to Daddy-o's side of the family.  And for a couple hours, we were able to get 12 of the 13 cousins on his side together. 

 Daddy-o was also able to be with all 3 of his older brothers, something that hasn't happened in 21 years.  It was so great to visit with everyone!

 And having our own room in Brick Oven meant the adults actually got to talk a little since we put all the kids at their own table (well, except Buggy and his cousin who is the same age who both got a little shy and wanted to eat with us.)

 The rest of New Year's Eve was a big party.  These girls spent hours preparing for their dance recital, which they performed for us that night.

 Along with the dancing, they all ate a lot of rolls (and mine didn't eat much else for a couple days--they LOVE bread), set off fireworks in the cul-de-sac (and only one of them almost hit the house), and then we had our kids in bed by 10:30.  I was amazed that I actually made it to 12:15 or so, but I just couldn't make it through the movie Daddy-o and Uncle J started after that--the pregnant lady has to draw the line somewhere.  (And I was a lot happier than Daddy-o when the kids woke up at 7:30 the next morning.)

 And New Year's Day meant playing in the snow.  We kept telling the kids that even though we were missing the snow in NC, they'd get to play in it on our trip.  This was actually the second day they got to go out in it, and they had a blast.

This was a good beginner hill, although they liked it a lot more when Daddy-o pulled them down a little faster.

All in all, we had a GREAT time in UT and the kids have done so well with all the car time, late nights, switching houses every few nights, and having new people to play with everywhere we go.