Family Awards!

I got the best idea from my totally creative friend Shawni!

Last night (late family night this week), we sat the kids down and told them that we were giving out awards for awesome behavior. Each child could nominate themselves or another family member for each award. The kids were really excited...well Dylan was patient through the whole thing. I made up posters that the child could proudly display on their bedroom door for the whole week. Then next week the same awards will be up for grabs. We explained what each award would be given for. They first started out telling Jason and I ALL the wonderful things that THEY had done all week. "I helped Clara get dressed this morning" "I brushed my teeth" I did this I did that...then Jason and I started saying "did anyone notice Isaac being extra happy this week?" or "who noticed Camilla going right to her homework without being asked?" They then all started nominating each other for different awards. Here are a few award titles that we used. Some of these are from my friends list
SS=self starter, HC=happy camper, NAP= neat as a pin, FM= family member, LFR=leader for the right.
Even Dylan proudly hung his award on his door. The kids all got a kick out of it. Isaac even said. "I never win the award in PE, now I will tell my friends I won my family award!"

Thanks Shawni!

Popcorn

Jason's family had a tradition growing up of popping popcorn in a frying pan. When Jason and I first started dating I remember his Mom popping popcorn over the stove. I thought this was so foreign and did not understand why they did not have a huge air popcorn maker like we did. Well now I know why. It is so much more fun and tastes soooo much better. Jason remembers Sunday nights popping a huge frying pan full of popcorn and then going down to the basement and watching the ABC Sunday night movie together as a family. I just love this tradition. So I buy popcorn (not microwave) and we regularly pop popcorn over the stove to keep this fun tradition going. It is not measured so half the fun is wondering if you are going to pop the top off the fry pan. Thanks Grandma & Papa for making our family "pop" with excitement!

Jason included the recipe for making "Slatter Frying Pan Popcorn" for all who care to "pop"

1 large fry pan with a lid

small amount of oil in the pan

cover bottom of pan with pop corn kernels

heat skillet & pop!

all the while listening to oo's, ahh's and giggles
then smother with melted butter & salt

SNOW DAY!

Yes it is finally here SNOW!
TUESDAY was our first SNOW day of the year. We woke up to a small amount of snow, but enough for us to play and have fun in. We new it would not last long until the ICE came, so we made the most of our day!
Here is the 1st (of many) snow collections. The kids take out cups (in their PJ's of course)to fill up with snow and then bring them in to eat.

After a day in the snow what would be more fun than sledding in the dark? So the neighborhood boys got bundled up to sled in the dark!

WEDNESDAY......THE MORNING OF THE ICE STORM!

Jason enjoying his snow day off.... Oh Just kidding he really does need to go into work today :(

We filled our day with a lot of inside activities. I dusted off the ol' Bernina machine and Camilla made her self a purse out of an old GAP skirt. How cute is she....:)

Isaac played Lego's for about 13 hours straight!

Dylan played xbox for about 13 hours straight (I remember the days when he played Lego's all day long)

Clara played Candy Land 250 times!

EARLY MORNING ICE!

This morning it was a sheet of ice on the driveway, sidewalks & street. That did not stop the kids from having such a great time out playing (sliding) around.

Camilla skating on the drive way in her PJ's and socks

Our front walk covered with ice.

6th grade Chorus Concert

Zach had his 6th grade chorus concert last night. He smiled the entire time. He was trying to win the "who can smile the most" contest from his teacher. He did such a great job! They sounded awesome!

Enjoying the small things about my day

Outside my kitchen window I noticed this up in the tree.....can you see him? Clara and I sat and watched this beautiful Hawk from our back window. It was beautiful! It sat most of the afternoon up in the tree. Clara kept running back and forth from the window giving me updates that the hawk was still there. Really beautiful! FYI: we looked it up and it is a red tail hawk

New Shoes

Get Running!

LET IT SNOW!

Seriously this is what we are dealing with on the East coast! 2 centimeters of snow. The kids woke up freaking out that it had snowed. School was delayed 1 hour and this was what all the fuss was about. It makes me sad to raise Virginians....I guess this is what they will think is a snow storm? Hopefully we will get a real storm one of these days. The kids did get up & ask for their boots, snow pants, hats, gloves & sleds. I let them put on their boots just to be a good Mom. We had a warm breakfast and then they were off to the bus. By the time they got home from school the snow was gone and it was just back to normal...which is just plain old...COLD. Please let it SNOW this year! REALLY SNOW!

Happy Birthday Jason

HAPPY BIRTHDAY JASON!

Jason had an unusual birthday (weekend)this year. Friday was the BIG day! He took the day off from work and started on a laundry room project. Yes that is what a great guy he is! Always giving :)
When the kids got home from school on Friday. They really wanted him to open his presents (that we had not even wrapped yet). So out came the gifts. He got a new computer bag, clay pencil mug, photos of the kids for his office, homemade cards and art projects, books & from me a GOAT! Those who really know Jason know that his dream in life is to have a goat farm. Well that did not happen this year, but he did get a goat. It will be a goat that goes to a poor family in another country but nevertheless Jason owns a goat! Jason's goat will provide over a ton of milk to a family this year. (here is the link if you are interested... http://www.heifer.org/ )
We celebrated with swimming and cake with our great friends the Self's . It has been a great birthday weekend. Jason looks great at 38! Even with his salt and pepper hair. Not many women can say that they are married to a marathon, triathlete, handyman.

Water

It was just a regular morning for me. Taking kids to school, running errands etc. Then it went WRONG. Really Wrong. Clara had brought a play date home from school with us. We were pulling into the garage and I thought I heard something. Like an alarm. When the girls got our of the car and ran into the house. I really heard it this time. The fire alarm was going off. The girls started yelling, "Wow there is WATER EVERYWHERE!" So I put down the groceries and ran into the house. The kitchen floor was really wet....and those dang fire alarms were going off. I immediately ran down stairs to see the guest bedroom was totally flooded. You could have swam in the mattress. Evidently the water spout on the front of the refrigerator had malfunctioned and sprayed water all over the kitchen floor the entire morning while I was out....almost 4 hours. It spread all through the kitchen and then leaked through the ceiling and into the basement setting off the fire alarms on it's way down through the ceiling.
It only took about an hour to get the stupid Fire alarms to go off. It scared the poor dog so bad he peed all over. Clara had to take out her hearing aids....it was really a great moment.
This now leads to picking out new carpet, repairing drywall, replacing the kitchen floors and dealing with the insurance company (who will not pay for the fridge to be repaired). FUN FUN FUN!

Costa Rica-part 1

When we arrived in Costa Rica we did not know what to expect. All we had were some pretty obscure driving instructions and this really awesome 15 passenger van. So we headed off to Nosara!
The 3 hour drive was all dirt roads with very large pot holes and bumps. We were laughing so hard. Dylan was in the very back bouncing all around. It was a big adventure to find this small town. When we arrived and found our house it was amazing. We had our own pool & out side dining room with a huge wooden table that sat at least 20.

This is the street in front of the house that we rented.

On the way to Nosara the kids kept asking if they would see the Rain Forest?

Our if they would see any cool bugs/spiders?~Dylan with a scorpion

They wanted to know if we would see iguanas?

or Howler Monkeys swinging in the trees

I was hoping to see a beautiful waterfall. We could have never imagined that we would see it all and soo many amazing things in one trip!

The Rain Forest was even more beautiful than I thought. We were constantly mesmerised by everything that we saw.

Lazy days at the BEACH. You can never spend too much time at the beach in my book. It is my favorite place to be. We had endless hours of fun. Looking for shells, finding over a hundred sand dollars, drift wood, digging, making sand castles and of course feeling the sun on your face.

We ate Christmas Dinner at this wonderful restaurant with the most incredible views. It was a beautiful sunset.

We came up with a very unique way for the cousins to exchange gifts this year. We picked names and each child had to hand make something for the cousin who's name that they choose. Everything had to be hand made out of nature. I don't think that any of us could have predicted the talent that would come out. All the kids were so proud of the gifts that they made. They worked so hard on them. We did take a trip to the local hardware store to get a few items (glue, rope, tape etc.) It was quite a sight. No English was spoken so it was hard to communicate (to say the least)

We were so proud of the kids. They each got one small gift from Santa. They actually did not even care about that. They just wanted to be with their cousins, aunts and uncles, and grandparents.

Our 1st Waterfall hike. We walked up a river bed to a beautiful waterfall. The older kids even jumped off. The kids hiked and climbed around. We ended the hike with a stop at a small market to get a trit. This is the most amazing treat we found in Costa Rica. It is vanilla ice cream with a small amount of chocolate sauce in between two cookies. YUM

We all went on a canopy tour (aka Zip Line) It was very intence. The kids (and Jason) were in Heaven. These cords are hung hundreds and hundreds and hundres of feet above the rocky, steep rainforest. It was awesome for the kids. Not so much for me.

Uncle Ben getting Camilla excited!
All the cousins geared up and ready to go.

Zach said this could have been our last family photo!

In the truck on the way up the moutain. Lots of howler monkies were around on our way up.

Grandpa Buehner and Camilla ready for the zip line

Getting ready to take the giant leap

The 1st of 8 or so zip lines. They got faster and steeper as we went

Everyone had a great time SURFING! The kids got up bright and early for a few mornings and took lessons. After about 3 days the boys were catching every wave. Camilla was sure a natural. Isaac was not old enough to take lesson, but that didi not stop him from surfing. Gramps sat out in the water helping him catch several waves. Camilla also got one on one attention from Uncle Paul. Camilla & Thea

The cousins coming in after a great set of waves.

Gramps and Isaac waiting for the perfect wave.

Uncle Paul giving Camilla surfing advice