Cold but fun: Last sledding adventure

 

This was our last round of snow and you can even see in the photos that it was not the deepest.  The wind was blowing and it was frigid this day, but we knew that we needed to get out.  The forecast said 40's and 50's within the next week so it was going to be gone quickly.

 

Everyone, especially Daddy and Levi, had a blast!  Lots of trips up and down the hill.  Then, a BIG meltdown when it was time to go inside.  The girls worked well together, carrying the sled up the hill once they got to the bottom.  The two of them could almost get to the neighbor's house behind us....hopefully they don't mind us sledding from our yard  into theirs.  :)  If they opened their door and listened to the laughter and giggles, I'm sure they would smile too.

 

We look forward to many more sledding adventures in our very own backyard!

Another birthday for mama

 

 These darn birthdays just never pass me by!  One of these years I'll skip it....

 

 

Daddy was so sweet and made me a coconut pie.  I maybe got a little too excited and ate some the night before my birthday, but thank goodness 34 candles still fit on the remaining pie.

 

   

 

We had the local fire department ready, just in case these candles got out of control.  Ugh.  So many.

 

 

Lesley was so sweet and just loved celebrating my birthday.  She loved it much more than I did.

 

Daddy found me perhaps the best shirt ever!  I might not be the "World's Best Mom" but I'm "Okay"!

Leah was in Iowa with Grandma and Papa, so my birthday photos are just with my oldest and youngest.  We talked to her that day though and she was sad to miss my big day, but very happy to still be at Grandma's house.

 

Our attempt at a crazy photo.  Didn't phase little brother to be held upside down.  Maybe more normal than it should be?

 

Then, Levi wanted to take some pictures too.  It was cracking me up how he grabbed my phone, walked out in front of us, gave us a big cheese smile and held up the camera trying to snap a picture.  Kids learn so quickly!  (Please ignore the messy living room with toys everywhere.)

Having birthdays and getting old is not my favorite thing, but at least I get to celebrate with these amazing kids!

Why not? Ice Cream in the winter!

 

The girls convinced their daddy to make some ice cream.  It may have been cold outside, but they were very excited!

 

Levi was pretty pumped too!  He is starting to get a real opinion on what he wants to eat and what he will refuse to even try.  Dinner time is fun these days!

Grandma Cheryl Visits

As a Christmas gift, we got Grandma Cheryl a plane ticket to come visit us.  We are so glad she was able to visit on a "slowish" weekend and the kids could really soak in the time with her.

 

 

Levi was teaching her all the tricks to building a good train track.

 

She even helped mommy pick fabric and start sewing curtains for the kitchen.

 

We didn't do that much, but the kids were so happy to have Grandma Cheryl visit.  Hopefully she can make a return trip soon!

Girl's Day - Science Museum of MN

Lesley didn't have school on President's Day and I had the day off too which worked out well.  We decided to keep Leah home from daycare, but send Levi and make it a girl's day!  It was fun, and it was much too short!

 

 

 

First, we headed to the Science Museum of Minnesota.  Lesley has been seeing commercials on TV for their IMAX presentation of "Hubble" and I knew we needed to get her there to see it.  The shows were changing the next weekend so it was our last shot.

 

There was a space exhibit they were preparing and though it wasn't technically on display yet, we got a few sneak peeks.

 

We decided to get a membership to the museum which has already paid for itself.  The price of 3 admission tickets and 3 tickets to the IMAX would have been about half the cost of an annual membership.  And, we have already gone back and Jason and I even went on a date night to see a show when my parents were in town.  With the membership, you get free IMAX tickets which is awesome and totally is worth the membership alone.

 

 

They didn't want their photos with the dinosaurs, but they did want a selfie with mommy.  Since all the local schools were out for the holiday, it was pretty busy.  Another good reason to leave Levi out this time, no stroller and no toddler to chase!

 

 

They loved the tugboat on display and how they could pretend to drive it.  It was a snowy day as you can see from the window.  It actually overlooks the Mississippi River though you can't really see it from this image.

 

 

 

There were some hands on exhibits too.  These were fun and something I think Daddy will really love when he visits in the future.

 

The IMAX show which was pretty cool, and Lesley had a lot of good questions.  Leah was nervous and kept asking if we were moving.  It did seem real at times...floating through space and all! 

 

After the show, we headed to have lunch with Daddy.

 

 

I won't lie, I had my heart set on Mexican food and I even had Leah convinced (doesn't take much, she loves chips, dip, beans and rice!) but Daddy mentioned a diner and all of a sudden Mommy was outnumbered.

 

 

Diner it was and the girl's loved it.

 

 

We were nervous when we walked in and there were no other customers, but it made for good service and the food was tasty!

 

 

  Daddy and his girl Leah, they make quite a pair some days.

 

 

After lunch, we went to the fabric store...along with everyone else trying to capitalize on the President's Day sale.  Despite the crowd, we picked out lots of good fabric to make bunting and get some ideas for more curtains in the house.  We also picked up a few items for Lesley's birthday party as it would come quickly with so many busy weekends ahead.

 

What a fun day with the girls!  We were all pretty tired at the end of the day.

Lesley's Valentine's Party

 

 

Mommy was pretty excited to help Lesley create her own Valentine's box. We had fun coming up with the idea and then decorating it with letters and stickers.

 

 

Leah made her box with her friends at daycare.  It was cute too!  I wish I had gotten a photo of it.  Bummer.

 

 

I joined her class for their Valentine's party.  It was fun, though the kids were very wild and crazy. 

 

 

 

They decorated cookies with frosting and sprinkles.  Pretty sure they just ate all the frosting even when their cookies had enough.  I'm sure that didn't contribute to the wild behavior at all.  :)

 

 

Sasha's dad had a bow and arrow heart game.  Lesley was terrible!

  

 

She of course loved the craft activity and creating her own little Valentine guy.

 

 

Though she wasn't the winner, she actually wasn't too bad at the stacking game.  I think this game was before all the cookies and frosting were consumed which may have helped with her focus.

 

Fun party!  I very much enjoy being in the classroom with the kids and hopefully I can get in on the planning next year.  Since we weren't here at the beginning of the year, I didn't have the opportunity to sign up for the various classroom events.  I've helped with each party, but others have done all the planning and prep work....though I guess maybe that's not a terrible thing.

A Wild game

I feel so lucky to have already found a few great friends.  I waited and waited, and looked and looked forever in Tulsa with no luck.  But, here everyone is just so welcoming and I feel like our family is so much more like the folks here.

 

 

So, my new friend Laura invited me to celebrate her birthday with her and a few other gals.  Laura's husband works at the Xcel Energy Center so often has the option for free tickets to the various events.  The Minnesota Wild hockey team plays there so Laura wanted us gals to go to a game, and enjoy the buffet ahead of the game.  The food was amazing and it was absolutely wonderful to be waited on, served wine and eat fancy desserts.  No bathroom breaks for kids, or spilled milk or whining over peas and carrots.  A great night out for all of moms-of-three-kiddos!

 

 

There may have been a few of these consumed too.  I can't let them go to waste when my new friends don't like Bailey's.  :)

 

 

The game was fun too, though I think we only say about half of it by the time we finished eating and enjoying our drinks and dessert.  I could not believe how loud it was in the arena!  These people take their hockey seriously! 

 

The high school our kids will go to (assuming we don't move and they don't build a new high school) actually won the state hockey tournament a few weeks after this, in the same arena.  It was fun to watch on TV.  There were three brothers that played which seemed really cool and special.  The oldest two, twins, are going to play college hockey after competing in an amateur league through the summer.  Hockey is big time up here!  We actually have a rink in our neighborhood and a few families on our street have mini rinks in their back yards.  It's pretty cool in my opinion.

 

Jay also delivered bottles of water and warm mini donuts to our seats at one point.  It pays to know the guy in charge of the food concessions.  What a great way to celebrate Laura's birthday!  And, it was awesome meeting her other friends who I'm sure I'll see around and hopefully get to hang out with again.  Great, fun gals!

Snow Girl

Leah loves being outside and she especially loved the snow this winter.  Whenever Daddy was out scooping the walk or driveway, and even if he wasn't, she would beg to go out and play.  I eventually got her a shovel so she could be helpful and both her and Levi have used that shovel almost to the point of breaking it.  Doesn't help that is is cheap plastic not exactly meant for real shoveling, nor that Levi tries to scoop ice and blocks and other non-snow items.  But, totally worth the $2.50!

 

I hope she always likes the snow and will some day be our official snow scooper!  I think we actually got off easy this winter based on what the locals tell us so I imagine there will be quite a bit of shoveling to be done in the future.

Cowboy Levi

 

Levi was all dressed up as a singing cowboy the other night.  Sort of.  He had his space "Little Bro" shirt on with his space leggings, then some sports socks and Lesley's purple cowboy hat.  Once he got a hold of that microphone, he was jabbering away for what seemed like hours.  I was laughing so hard watching him "sing" in that outfit.

 

Don't make fun of the leggings, they are fantastic on the sub zero degree days to keep him warm.  I'm glad it is warming up since those leggings are pretty tight on his chunky legs.  They won't fit much longer!

Meeting Isabel

On our way back from Grandma Nancy's house, we stopped in Ames to meet sweet Isabel.  Cousin Katie had Isabel Ann Marie the Wednesday before and got home from the hospital on Saturday.  We wanted to give her a quick squeeze on our way home.

 

 

She had to stay an extra day in the hospital because she had a virus, and our kids had runny noses and were a little congested, so we made them stay in the car promising we'd be back to visit her once everyone was 100% healthy.  It was kind of mean to make them wait but Aunt Denise, Brad, and Katie took turns going out to see them.  And, Daddy took them to Casey's to get a piece of their favorite pizza that we don't have close in Minnesota.

 

 

We didn't stay long, but it was just enough time to sneak a few photos, hugs and kisses. 

 

She is sweet and she is the 7th baby girl born in the Hoffmann family since Levi was born.  The ratio of girls to boys is out of control.  After Levi was Sydney, Elsie, Josie, Loryn, Annette, Izzy, and now Isabel.  There are currently no cousins pregnant (that we are aware of anyway) but Levi sure hopes the next baby is a boy!  He is completely outnumbered with only Ian, Landon, Luke, and Cooper as fellow boy cousins.  Girls include those named above and Maren, Nora, Lydia, Eva-Lyn, Elizabeth, Elle, Caitlin, Taytum, Lesley, Lilly, Leah, and Lyssa.

Iowa with the cousins

We headed to Iowa to celebrate Great Papa's birthday and hang out with some of our favorite people - Grandma Nancy, Papa, Lilly, Lyssa, and Loryn.  It was a good weekend, though exhausting as usual.

 

 

It's always a FIGHT on who gets to ride with who and how to make it fair.  Pretty much every time Lesley and Lilly end up in the same car and these two girlies do too.  If there is too much fighting, then it's not an option and the sister ride together in their parents car.  This weekend, Aunt Aimee was on call so Grandma Nancy was the chauffeur and that was part of the issue.  They all wanted to ride in her truck.  Eventually they usually make deals and take turns since the apparently the alternative of riding with their parents and their own sister is not a good one.

 

On our way home from church, we had to stop and get gas so we bought these girls a donut to share. We also got one for the older sisters.  Can you even imagine the meltdowns we would have had to deal with had the older sibs not gotten one?

 

 

Loryn and Levi both liked the musical toy with the lego like pieces.  It was fun to see them sort of play together.  Loryn is over 6 months old now.  She likes toys and interacting more now than she did just last month around Christmas time.

 

 

Loryn also do not like to take naps.  She rarely naps on weekends and the babysitter says only a few short naps during the day.  But, we put Uncle Jason in charge and he has the magic touch.  I think she slept for over 2 hours....even when Buster was trying to wake her up.

 

 

 

Of course we had to stop by Papa's shop and run his errands at the bank and post office.  No, we don't get to drive the mules, but there is always a lot of testing going on.

 

Levi enjoyed his first sucked from the bank and he was a BIG fan.

 

 

 

 

Grandma had lots of snuggles for these two kiddos, and she even helped Lilly and Lesley finish up Lilly's Valentine's.  Loryn didn't want to be left out so she had to sit on Grandma's lap.  Grandmas are pretty darn good at multitasking.  It's almost like she raised her own kids AND taught oodles of kids over the years. 

 

 

Mommy also got lots of snuggle time with baby Loryn and Levi when he didn't want to be left out.  Loved just sitting there and rocking her, and watching some HGTV too!

 

 

 

The Valentine creation was quite the project.  We had put Lesley's together the weekend before, and Lilly's family was actually going to visit us that weekend but had to cancel due to sickness.  We had already gotten the supplies for her class so just went ahead and made them in Iowa instead.  I think Lilly's mom was pretty excited to get that project done in advance.  I loved that the special treat was not candy but instead goldfish, it required the girls to cut and color, and they had to carefully write all the names of their classmates on the notes.  "I'm so glad you are in my school!"  They were not perfect, but they were a tiny bit creative and they were personal.

 

It was definitely a good weekend visit!  We still live 5 hours away, but it sure seems a LOT closer than the 8 hours when we were in Oklahoma.  Thank goodness!