Not wasting ANY time!!

Well well well, here we are in 2013! My, oh my, December certainly flew by! Of course, those of you who read the December entry know that we gave it no choice in the matter - ha ha ha ...

Having said that I promised you that January was going to be less hectic, and if your definition of less is not AS CRAMMED full, then this month will be the ticket.

2 minutes into 2013.

We had a pretty good snow storm a few days before New Years and the kids made the most of it.  We did lots of sledding, snow ball throwing, snow ball eating and snow balls left inside jacket pockets that turn into a big messy cold puddle that momma steps in with only her socks on, which by the way, is NO way to start a morning in January in Rhode Island!!  Our little town sponsored a penguin plunge on New Years Day (a wonderful opportunity to go swimming in Narragansett Bay).  Jim had talked all three of the kids into doing it with him two days before, but after breakfast on New Years day, surprise surprise (spoken like Gomer Pyle), no one was interested.  We did go down to watch, however -- Jim took the kids sledding nearby -- and there was a pretty good turnout of crazy people who wanted to submerge themselves in that frigid water.  I saw lots of white, goose bumpy flesh, and several bikinis - not good!!  The cool thing about the plunge is someone carved a really cool ice sculpture!!

Now THIS could have been my New Years Card!!

Or this!  REALLY?!

All the snow was piled up in the parking lots in the area and it is extremely difficult, oh who am I kidding, it is IMPOSSIBLE to keep my kids from climbing them.  This particular ice mountain Ben had scaled three visits in a row.  On this day he found a few shopping carts in the middle of it.  

 As the snow begin to melt the sledding became even more and more of a requested activity.  This was the last day of sled-able snow.  We gathered up a bunch friends and hit the hill.  For an hour and 1/2 we OWNED this hill.  In the picture below you can barely see a form coming into the shot that is our neighbors kid on a sled.  He was heading right towards the group of kids pulling the sleds up the hill.  Lilly (second from right in the blue coat) was the target.  We started screaming at them to move but it was too late! Lilly, totally unfazed, just straddled Charles as he continue to careen down the hill. 

 

It wasn't all fun and snow, we had some other memorable events happen.  Lilly lost another tooth.  Meanwhile, Lucy doesn't even has so much as a wiggle.  She is the last in her class with all her baby teeth -- and is NOT happy about it!  I promised Lucy that eventually her baby teeth WILL to fall out, and we had the dentist show her the x-rays to prove it!

 

 Lilly had gotten a crystal growing kit for her birthday and I managed to convince her that we needed to do it before the movers came in February, because we would not lay eyes on it until JULY.  I will admit, I was a teeny tiny bit skeptical that we would be able to grow anything, since we read the directions wrong and not to mention my children can not keep their hands to themselves.  The kit was supposed to be "undisturbed" for 12 hours in order to properly grow the crystals.  This is what was advertised on the box.

This is what we got.

That fickle science strikes again!  I am not totally taking the blame for misreading the directions, I think the four that didn't produce crystals can also be attributed to the fact that the whole operation was moved a few times when no one was looking.  So much for "undisturbed."  Lilly, however, was thrilled that we got anything to grow.  A couple of days later, she came back with a somewhat less than enthusiastic review of the experience.  "Mom our crystals didn't look anything like what was on the box".  Really?  I thought it was a dead ringer!  I found a recipe on Pinterest, so maybe we will try again once we move across the street.
Oh yes, you read that correctly, we are MOVING again.  Our third move in the not quite one year we have been in Rhode Island and all on the same island.  This time just across the street.  Why you ask? Because we like the pain apparently.  No seriously, Jim is moving to his next job in Miami and we didn't want to split the kid's school year (AGAIN) so we are sticking around until school gets out in June.  The next house is smaller and FURNISHED so our stuff will head to storage and all I have to worry about is clothes, some bikes and a few odds and ends.  Easy Peasy!  Oh and the whole single parent for 4+ months, but let's gloss that over for now.  I shudder to think what kind of experiences I can give the kids in the time we are apart from Daddy.  They have so grown accustomed to entertainment on a grand scale.  I fear they will be sorely disappointed!!

The big excitement for me this month is that Nanny, Gigi and Ward were coming to visit FOR A WHOLE WEEK!!!!  I was so excited!!!  I picked them up from the airport and we had a nice quiet evening in Jamestown, but the next morning we loaded up the car and headed into Boston for the day.  Boston in January you say - are you crazy!?! It was actually nice, by far one of the nicer days of their visit.  We toured Fenway Park, walked through Boston Common, a little of the Freedom Trail, rode on the T, and basically just had the best day.  Here are some of the highlights:

Lucy - mid leap

kids on the "Make way for Ducklings" statues

The next day we headed over to a nearby skating rink for a little roller skating!!  Officially we were there for a Girl Scout/Brownie/Daisy function, but Gigi and I secretly knew it was all for us.  Once I talked her into putting on skates it was as if she had never taken them off.  Aah, the memories.  We did get Ward on skates for about 2 minutes.  He wasn't feeling it.  I promised him I wouldn't post it on facebook, but nothing is safe from the blog!! ha ha ha

Gigi and Ben are both big Dallas Cowboys fans, so we had to make sure we got a photo of the two super fans together sporting their gear.  I questioned Ben if he was still going to be a Dallas fan once me moved to Miami and he said we would all have to start pulling for the Dolphins.  Sorry little man, that will NEVER happen - EVER!!

Of course, it wouldn't be a winter week in Rhode Island without a little snow.  We got a few inches so I dragged Gigi and Ward over to Shoreby hill to do a little sledding.  It didn't go very well and we only stayed about 30 minutes.  One, there wasn't enough snow and two, it was REALLY COLD.   But we managed to get in a couple of good shots before we threw in the towel.  It was really cold!  Even inside our house we were cold.  Every night we huddled upstairs in my bedroom while Jim was downstairs writing his papers/exams.  It was awesome, except for the coldness.  Gregg wore her hat the whole time she was here.  Nanny said she even slept in it.  I hope that isn't true.

Gigi all up in the gnarl

No, not the boat pose, we are racing on the saddle sleighs.  A very slow race indeed.

Before you know it, the week is over.  We had one last day in Newport and so of course we had to go check out a Mansion.  We now have all seen a Vanderbilt house in two states!  I still think the one in North Carolina is more impressive.  

Gigi at the Breakers

Gigi at the Cliff walk

Nanny at the Cliff walk

Ward descending the 40 Steps

Out to Lunch!

It was with a HEAVY heart I dropped them off at the airport.  SIGH, hopefully I can talk them into coming back up this spring after all chances of snowfall are gone.  

Can't dwell, lives keep going and so do we.  An hour after we dropped the Casper crew off we were at a gymnastics meet.  The girls have just joined a Recreational team and they were having a warm up meet to get the jitters out.  All in all, I was pleased with their performance.  They have only been on the team for about 5 weeks so the routines were not polished, but both girls did a great job and seemed pretty happy.

Lucy on bars

Lucy on floor

Lilly on beam

Lilly on vault

The happy gymnasts

The coveted prize

We were fast running out of days in the month, but we did have one last chance to squeeze something in - skiing!  There is a tiny little ski place called Yawgoo about 20 minutes down the road and we finally took a day to go over there.  The kids have all had lessons in previous years, but this time we decided to just rent some skis and see what happened.  Lilly quickly linked up with some friends and she was off.  I literally only saw her when she either skied past me on the slopes or yelled at me when she was on the chair lift for well over the 4 hours we were there.  Lucy skied with either me or Jim but towards the end she broke off on her own and linked up with Lilly.  Ben, on the other hand, has the least experience on skis, and really needs a few more lessons.  But he did make GREAT improvements and everyone really had a great time.  We are hopeful that we will make it to another resort in Maine, Vermont or New Hampshire before Jim leaves in March.  If not, then we'll at least go back to Yawgoo one or two more times.

And that is how you fill up a month without even trying, people!  Highlights for next month will be Ben's 5th birthday and our move across the street!! Yippee!