Leprechaun Trap

As a monthly homework assignment, B was asked to build a leprechaun trap.  I read the directions, and once it said a moving piece and demonstration, well, I felt overwhelmed.  I called in back up... Grand Dad.  Well, after spending the weekend with my parents, Kerri and Bridget came home with what I guarantee will be one of the best kindergarten traps there is.  Once again, I am so grateful to have grandparents close by that the girls just love and adore.

So Sean and I breezed by this weekend with just two kids.  What fun.  Maura had a soccer tournament.  Very fun, but hard, as they lost all three games!  Ugh!  We had dinner out at Aronimink Friday.  That was so nice and cozy.  We went to BT to celebrate Nick's b-day (again)  it was all good things!  Love it.

Some much needed vitamin D

We just got home from a whirlwind trip to see Tim and Sue in Florida.  It was really a perfect trip in every way, except it was too short!  We packed it full of good stuff, from the pool to the beach, from the zoo to mini golf with the stagnaros. The girls are quite the swimmers.  Very happy about that.  Might even skip West Chester lessons this year.  We ended the week with a little dinner and dancing outside.  So much fun.  The girls are so lucky that they have such fun grandparents and get to see them so much.  They are so close to both sets of grandparents.  They go to them without question or fear.  i did not have that growing up, and I am so happy they do.  There was a girl at dinner at the table next to us that brought three of her friends from chicago to celebrate her 18th birthday with her grandparents.  I could totally see our girls doing that, and it makes me very happy.

Snow, Snow, and more snow

Well, 2014 has brought us lots of, you guessed it, snow.  So far we have had 10 snow days and I do not even know how many two hour delays.  Well, we have survived in tact.  In the beginning it was exciting, sledding, shoveling, snowman making were all lots of fun.  Now that girls barely notice the snow even though it is piled up higher than them on the sides of the road.  We had an ice storm where our area lost power for days.  Luckily, we were able to go to Tim and Sue's from Wednesday until sunday and stay warm and entertained.  The Gallaghers and the Smiths joined us too, so it was kind of like a mini vacation.  Lots of fun for the kids, and the grown ups too.  Too many late nights though!

Now that the snow is melting, the damage that was done is starting to reappear.  Lots of branches and sticks and trees down all over.  When it all melts it will be very messy and there will be lots of stick picking upping going on.  I am happy that we are headed to Florida on Tuesday.  Maybe we will return with a renewed energy and better outlook!

We took all four girls skiing last wednesday.  I have to admit, the first half hour, well, hour if you include getting the rentals! was pretty shaky.  I thought it was going to be a quick day, but once again these girls (pleasantly) surprised me and we had a full day of skiing.  It was lots of fun and everyone did great.  Kerri was a solid little rockstar for her first time.  The other three girls got much better at steering and controlling themselves.  Impressive, considering they only ski once a year.  I hope we can go more as they get older.

Travel Soccer

Maura tried out for travel soccer this  year.  She made the A team.  She was pretty proud of her self, but was a little sad that her two best friends did not make the team.  She has done great though.  She is playing with a nice group of girls and loves them all.  She had a rough outdoor season, losing almost all her games, they only played two teams over and over again.  The one time they played a different team, they won.  They did improve a lot through the season and definitely narrowed the scoring gap each game.  She kept her spirits high and still tried hard each game.  Her footwork really improved and she was a great defender.  This winter indoor season they seem to be playing younger girls each week, and crushing each team, like they play down a player and still win 15-0.  I thought losing all the time was bad, but winning by this much   each week is not that fun either.  Hopefully next year we will figure out the right place to play.  And hopefully we will still play with this great group of girls.

Gymnastics

LLast year when Mags got sick she stopped gymnastics.  Really, she couldn't even walk, let alone do gymnastics!  She said she was not going to go back.  I think she was just scared she would not be able to do it anymore.  After much thought and time, she decided to go back.  It was not easy.  She cried; I mean really cried, like yelled and screamed and threw fits, every time I would try to drive her (she did do a demo class she loved, but then changed her mind).  I have to say, I did not really blame her.  She knew no one.  At one point I even asked to get my money back, I mean it was that bad.

Well, it is the end of December and she is loving it.  She had a little Christmas party and show before Christmas.  I thought she might not want to go, but she did.  She was so excited and happy and running around with her friends.  She loved it.  She even gave her coaches their gifts, which is not like her.  She does not like to draw any attention to herself ever.  We were more proud of her for that than her performance on the mat.

Christmas 2013 recap

I can honestly say I loved every minute.  Well, except those minutes when I thought my head might explode, literally, after a trip to NYC to American Girl Cafe... so fun!  For Kerri's birthday.  The trip up was interesting when we got on Amtrak with NJ transit tickets!  The conductor let us stay.  Walking around was fun, minus the whine.  And Kerri loved picking out her doll.  Lunch was delicious.  Although, at that point anything would have been delicious, we were so hungry.  The ride back the train broke down on the trucks, underground, in the tunnel.  You see, I worry about running out of air a lot on public transportation, not sure why, just do.  A man started yelling about trains hitting us from behind and bombs and such, we're all thinking it dude, just know to keep it to ourselves!  I had to give him a few pieces of my mind.

We eventually, after a lot of chaos and riding between train cars, made it home.  My head felt ready to explode, but it is a great, and funny, memory.

We had lots of fun with Arlington cousins.  Fun gift exchange.  I feel like girls are getting less "jink" which helps my piece of mind.  We trained (surprised girls would get back on a train) into Philly for light shows and lunch at Reading Street terminal.  Had a fun Christmas Eve Eve at the Gallaghers.  Got home after midnight, which made the girls year.

Christmas Eve we continued the tradition of meeting with the Smiths.  We went to their house for lunch then to church.  A quiet night home with girls in bed by 7:30 (their own doing... thank you Santa tracker).  Christmas morning was great.  Maura got the hamster she wanted, Maggie got horizontal bars.  Bridget asked what her "big surprise gift" was so we said a trip to Florida.. that worked.  Kerri got a leap pad she loves.  Lots of presents from Santa too.  Visits from all the grandparents happened that day.  How cool is that?  And how lucky are these girls to have all their grandparents!?!?

We saw Frozen the next day, visited daddy at work, did a big clean up of basement...getting rid of "baby" toys.  This I am not sad about.

Ryan and Chris came over on Saturday with my parents for a visit.  Fun catching up with them.  Maggie already spent her Justice gift card plus some!

Looking forward to NYE at the SMiths tomorrow.  Sure am not ready for early monring wake up calls any time soon!

Chained to the wall

The girls and I met Mimi the other day to see a new Disney movie, Frozen  It was right near Sean's office, so afterward we stopped by to see him.  They love going through the circular door the most.  After meeting a few people along the way (and asking lots of questions), we got to daddy's office.  Maggie immediately go in daddy's spinning chair and started to pretend she was on the phone.  At one point she went to hand the phone to her sister.  As she handed it across the room, the cord did not quite reach.  Totally baffled, she said, I would give it to you, but Daddy has his phone chained to his desk.  I guess she has never seen a phone cord before!