Out of retirement...

Today we brought my beloved Yankee Clipper sled out of retirement. My parents have saved it all these years and recently gave to me to use as a winter decoration on the porch.

Once we arrived at the hill, I rubbed some snow on the blades to get the little bit of rust off. I then debated whether or not the old sled had a weight limit since I weigh a little more than I did 25 years ago (wow, that makes me sound really, really old).

I went for it! It worked. Actually, it worked AWESOME because the snow on the hill was packed down and had a lot of ice! I flew.

I finally convinced the girls to try it. They were hestitant. They flew and I didn't get another chance to get on it the rest of the time!

The old sled was the topic of many conversations. Mainly by people my age or around my parents age. They remember having an "old fashioned" sled or remembering thier kids having one.

Can't wait until we get to use the sled again!

Sledding Hill

Oh my...I am going to be sore tomorrow. We went to the Talyorsville Dam today to go sledding. This is the first time we had been there. We decided the girls are finally old enough to endure the cold AND walk up the hill themselves! We stopped by the babysitter's house and picked up her granddaughter and a few extra sleds and we were off.

Megan and me!

My cold girls!
You can see Megan's pink coat and green sled!Emily in the red!

Emily walking up the big hill.

We were at the sledding hill for about two hours. It was fantastic fun. Continuous squeels of delight as kids were going down the hill. Dad's spraying PAM on the bottom of the sleds and falling down as they give their kids big pushes! Strangers laughing with each other at the kids wiping out half way down the hill. A good time was had by all!

More Snow pictures

Digging out...

We got 6-7 inches of ice and snow in a period of 21-hours. The snow started Tuesday afternoon, the freezing rain started around 6:00, and more snow around 5:00 a.m. The snow came down until about 12:30 p.m Wednesday.

I left for work around 7:00 a.m. and left around noon. It took me longer to get the ice and snow off the van than it did for me to drive to work.

The girls were out of school and Ron was off work so they could stay snuggled in their beds longer than if they had to get up and go to the sitter's house.

When I got home from work the girls and I went out to play while Ron shoveled the driveway. I took over 300 pictures! I played with the different settings on the camera and snapped away.

Here are some pictures of the girls...

Jumping out of swings into the snow

Pathetic Daisy

Helke Hoppers

Last night Emily had her first Helke Hopper performance of the season. The Hoppers were the half-time entertainment at the boys high school game. This video isn't that great because I used the camera instead of the video camera but this should give you an idea of the show. In case you can't find her, Emily is the one in the yellow shirt and pony tail with her back to me.

A little background on the Helke Hoppers...

Who the Helke Hoppers are:

The Hoppers consist of 2nd-4th graders. Most kids have to try out to make the team. Some of the lucky kids get to skip out on the actual tryouts because they are picked by the gym teacher in gym class while practicing the required skills. Each year the requirements get a little more challenging to the kids.

What they do:

Some of the kids double-dutch, some jump rope, hula-hoop, jump rope while on a Saturn ball, jump rope while on a pogo stick!

The Uniform:

The second graders wear white shirts, third grade wears the yellow, and fourth grade gets the much anticipated TYE-DYE shirts!!!

The Performances:

The Hoppers perform a couple of times a season. High School Boys basket ball games, High School Girls basket-ball games, and the most exciting for the kids is at the Wright-State University Raiders men's basket-ball game!

The Practices:

Practicing for the Helke Hoppers takes place before school several times a week.

The girls brought home some of their artwork from school today. This is all stuff done during the second quarter of school.

If you are looking at this on Friday night or Saturday morning, please check back. I will replace some of the pictures with pictures that are more clear. I just wanted to see if I could get the slideshow to work.

Right now I am tickled pink with myself for getting a slideshow to work on the blog!

UPDATE: It is Sunday afternoon and I think I have a few better shots of some of the artwork.

A historic day...

The girls were able to catch glimpse's of the inauguration at school today. I wanted to post some pictures of today's historic occassion hoping they can look back at this blog and remember...


Before a jubilant crowd of more than a million, Barack Hussein Obama claimed his place in history as America's first black president, summoning a dispirited nation to unite in hope against the "gathering clouds and raging storms" of war and economic woe.

"I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

"My fellow citizens: I stand here today humbled by the task before us, grateful for the trust you have bestowed, mindful of the sacrifices borne by our ancestors. I thank President Bush for his service to our nation, as well as the generosity and cooperation he has shown throughout this transition... "

"...Let it be said by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations..."

"the time has come to set aside childish things," from 1 Corinthians.

History in the making...

I have spent the better half of the past two days answering questions about Martin Luther King Jr. and Barack Obama. I have explained both men the best I can for a first and third grader to understand.

I have explained what the Inauguration is and what happens and why it's "always on the news". It is neat to have the girls so interested in what is going on and asking me questions.

I know one of Emily's teachers have taught on the topic a little by having the kids look up things in the internet. Emily knows what gifts President Obama and V.P. Biden will receive and what they will eat today! She said it is nothing that sounded good to her!

When I woke the girls up this morning, I asked them to say a little prayer for the Obama's and the Biden's and ask God to help them to make the right decisions for our country.

I have the ceremony recording so we can watch bits and pieces of it tonight when we get home just in case they don't watch it at school.

Regardless of your political party and your race, this is a day you will never forget.

Girls day out!

The girls were out of school today so I took the day off work to stay home with them!

We slept in a little. When we woke up we lounged around and watched some TV. Once we were a little more awake, we got ready, went to a few stores return/exchange some Christmas gifts, ate McDonald's for lunch and then went to the movies.

We saw Bedtime Stories with Adam Sandler.

As you can probably imagine, the scene when it rained gumballs was Megan's favorite!

The movie received three thumbs up!

Emily's first game

Today was Emily's first basketball game, EVER! Emily woke up very nervous with pregame jitters.

I could tell she was still nervous during warm ups but I knew she would be ok.

Emily did the jump ball (not sure of the official terminology) and wasn't sure what to do as they hadn't practiced it in practice. Emily made many rebounds and her VERY FIRST BASKET EVER was the result of one of the rebounds!!!! The look on her face was priceless. From that moment on it was game on!

I didn't get many good pictures as I was busy watching the game, which is so not like me!

Jump Ball, Jump Ball, get up off your feet!

First foul shot.

Final score. The time was reset before I could snap the picture. BTW, we won!!!

Megan's favorite things...

Megan and I were talking about all her favorite things. Here is a list she came up with, please keep in mind she gave me the categories and the answers!

Song-Summer Nights from Grease
Color- Baby Blue
Animal- Giraffe
Book- Henry and Mudge and the Happy Cat
Toy- America Girl Dolls and Bitty Baby
Holiday-Easter
Season- Summer
Movie- High School Musical 3, The Ultimate Christmas Present
Food- Mashed potatos and gravy
Best Friends- Abigail G., Emily C., Madison C., Bridget O.,
Activity- Sleeping
Subject - Handwriting
Outfit- Purple Velour shirt and gray stretch pants
Favorite Candy- Tootsie Rolls
Favorite Candy Bar- Mr. Goodbar
TV Show- iCarly, American Idol
Favorite Cartoon- Dora the Explorer
Sport- Dance
Website- http://www.starfall.com/, http://www.noggin.com/
Fruit- Granny Smith Apple
Vegetable- Corn on the cob
Color of Sharpie- Lime Green
Drink-Chocolate Milk mixed with white milk
Person- Megan
Place- Debbie's
Time- 5:00
Dog- Mutts
Football Team- Bengals
Baseball Team- Reds, Yankees, and Dragon's

First snow storm of 2009

Today was the first major snow storm of the season. The snow started earlier this morning and by lunch the roads were covered and pretty slippery. There were accidents everywhere. North of town got hit hard, again. We only got about 3 inches of snow today which is just about perfect. While sitting at work today I thought for sure the girls would get out of school early a lot of area schools did. They didn't.

We now have to deal with frigid temperatures. The high tomorrow is supposed to be 8 with a -3 wind chill. Not as cold as some of my friends in MN and WI but cold enough for me.

The girls played outside after school today for about an hour. When we got home, they helped Ron shovel the driveway and sidewalks. The snow was not wet, just light and fluffy! Once they got inside they stripped down, put on their jammies, and drank some hot chocolate to warm up.

The pictures are a little dark. It was getting dark when I took the pictures and I didn't want to take the time to change the settings because the camera was getting wet.

This was my (or Craig's) sled when we were little.

The teeter-totter in the back yard.

Another test...

This was the same night as the post below. I adjusted the volume but I don't think it adjusted it to the original "video", I think just to the playback on my computer. Let me know.

Testing

The girls were very jovial tonight so I took full advantage. This post is a test for me to see how a little video looks and sounds. Please feel free to comment to let me know!

High School Musical on Ice

Today we went to see High School Musical on Ice. Grandma Barb bought tickets for the girls for Christmas.