The Shining Star

One week out of the school year, each one of Acacia's classmates is the shining star. They get to decorate a door in the classroom with pictures and facts about themselves. They get to leave this up for a week. During the week they get to share all about themselves, bring in things to show and share treats. What is a school event without treats?? This past week was Acacia's turn and she was very proud of her work.

Madtown Twisters anyone?

The kids will never not want to go to Madtown Twisters and yesterday was no exception. Acacia's friend Rachel and her brother Braden were there and so was Chris' friend Alex and his little sister Kate. Braden is just a bit younger then Chris but not to be showed up wanted to climb up the rope ladder to the very top - only to get a bit ... scared and mom had to maneuver herself up there to help get him down. The girls ran all over at a rate I could not keep up with to take any photos but they were there! Winter break officially ends Monday the 7th. Back to ice hockey, horse back riding and swimming ... and a bit of homework! We are all set for another great year of blogging!!

The Melting Pot!

MMMMMMMM! Our grand finally was a night out at the Melting Pot. We were there for THREE hours - with the kids! I think everyone had a great meal and Acacia did her part in cleaning both of the chocolate pots!

Mini Golf with Nono

Another indoor activity we took part in during winter break - mini golf. This course is very interactive and not really designed to help you improve your putting. The two glow in dark holes were especially challenging!

Roller Skating '08

Today was roller skating day! It seems my kids never cease to amaze me. They both took to the skates and had a great time. This is really Chris' first time on roller skates and he decided he was ready to do the limbo!! After three hours of this though - Acacia had had about enough and was ready to go home.

Click the link to see a slide show of more photos ...

Slide show of Roller Skating

Ringing in the New Year '08

This year really just flew by. We ended it in a somewhat traditional way by taking the kids to the Monona Terrace for a night filled with jugglers, live music, huge blow up jumpers, slides and putt putt golf. It would not be complete if we did not also see the Rick Wilcox amazing magic show. And, to follow in tradition - Dad (Nono) got to go up on stage and "help"! Dad sacrificed his watch for the illusion! It's just an amazing show!


















After the kids fun was over we left the kids with Emme and Nono and we actually went to a party! It was a lot of fun and the champagne was unexpectedly good! I am paying the price for that today ... We had an amazing ham dinner compliments of Emme and pretty much vegged out on the couch! All is good in 2008!

First ski trip of the season!

We took our first ski trip of the season and given the amount of snow we have already and how amazing Chris did I think we will be able to do a few more trips this season! Chris had a lesson and now skies down the hill saying "... french fries ... pizza ..." What this means is - make your skies look like french fries when you want to go fast and make them look like a slice of pizza when you want to slow down. It will not be long before we can all ski together!!


Click the link to see more skiing photos.

Slide show of Skiing

Riding bare back!

Acacia continues to show great improvements with the horse back riding. Recently she was allowed to ride bare back and now she is even trotting bare back. She is gaining more and more confidence and still just loves it.





Click the link to see a slideshow of more photos ...

Slide show of Riding Bareback

Christmas Day '07

I can't believe we actually were ready for Christmas this year - but we did manage to pull it off! Chris came in around 8a to tell me ... "Mom! It's Christmas ... Can I play on your computer??" No request to open gifts or anything. He just wanted to play on my computer! We were able to convince him to open gifts and he only asked twice during the gift opening if he could play on my computer. Thanks everyone for making our Christmas GREAT!



Click the link to see all the fun!

Slide show of Christmas Day '07

Christmas Tree Cut '07

At long last, we finally went out and got our tree! We cut it down this year. Everyone helped!

Slide show of Cutting the Tree '07

Steelers crush Rams '07

December 20th - 8a - off to pick up Matt, Gail and Rod for our road trip to St Louis to watch the Steelers crush the Rams! We saw car after car of Steelers fans on the way down and we saw more Steelers fan around St Louis then Rams fans. We went to the arch and got a close up view of some fog but the little tram ride was very cool ... unless you ask Rod. We did a mini tail gate in the parking lot and waited for Brian and Karen to arrive and then off we went to the stadium. Relieved that our tickets actually worked we made our way to our seats. As it turned out, we never actually sat in our seats but we did sit in about 7 different seats until we found a home at about the 35-40 yard line. It was awesome! It was a good high scoring game with lots of action. We yelled and screamed our heads off and had a great time. The final score was 41-24. I think we beat the spread! We spent the night with Brian and Karen and took off to see some body museum but there was so much traffic we never did make it. We just drove on home. It did end up taking us about 9 hours to get home where it only took us a little over 5 to get down there. The fog was just terrible. Emme and Nono stayed home with the kids. Click the link to see all the fun!!



Slide show of Road Trip to SL to see STEELERS '07

Acacia's Christmas Concert '07

Well, you sure will not find this at a public school here in Madison - but Acacia performed in her schools Christmas Concert this year. Thanks to Emme's new camera with a zoom - we have photos!

More hockey and horses

After one season of hockey and horse back riding the results are amazing! If you recall from earlier in the blog the first day of hockey and horse back riding compared to this entry. Acacia still totally loves horse back riding but Chris is not so thrilled with hockey. He really likes to skate but the concept of hockey is not winning him over. He really does not want to have anything to do with the hockey stick. In fact, he wants to learn how to ride a horses ... We will see. I hope you can view the two below movies. Enjoy!

Bye to my Fuzzy One...

I knew it had to happen and I was sure hoping it would have been easier ... We had to say good bye to my fuzzy one, little miss Nita. Her hind legs were failing her and with all the snow and ice we've had it was just making her life pretty sad. It is VERY weird being in the house without a dog. Between Ross and Nita we've had at least one dog in the house for over 15 years.

Snow ..... and more snow ...

Sooo, we've been getting a bit of snow lately. This is the most snow this early we've seen in the 11 years we've lived here. It came up on us so early this year we were unable to get any Christmas decorations on the house. Oh well. Guess we will have to make up for it on the inside of the house! Hope everyone is staying warm!