Family skate plus

We spend an awful lot of time this time of year on ice skates. Last weekend it was so cold, that we couldn't even take the free route and actually paid money to skate. We met up with some friends - the McCalls and half of the Lawrence family to skate in circles.
Ege drew smiles as he went against the flow of traffic. I'm being nice by not posting a picture of him laying on the ice:)
Remick was awesome as usual, though started complaining about being cold after about 10 minutes and then he was out sidelines referee as the other kids came around to check in.
Here are the check-ins relating how many people were not wearing helmets
accounting for close calls,
and generally looking for encouragement.

Makili for his part thought that he needed to try to skate as fast as he possibly could for the entire hour and 15 minutes straight. He crashed a few times, but for the most part it was actually difficult to even get him to slow down enough for a picture. He is really good.And then of course, there were the sillies.

In these parts,

In addition to a certain mom who had a few nervous breakdowns this week, there is a certain member of the family inclined to wear too-big tap shoes around all day stomping out the rhythm of love (or something like that).

Simultaneously, I have another child who, when he is not skating (he skated like 4 hours/day all weekend), is extremely anxious to try out some cross-country skies that were gifted to him by some friends. He's tried out the rug and the grass and determined that in fact, snow would be better.Sometimes these two join forces to entertain together.
I'm just trying to hang on this winter. I've been calling it the winter doldrums. It might also be PMS, I suppose.

Before I forget

I'm running a bitt behind, and I'm trying to get my mojo back, but I don't want to skip important markers of time, so

Before I forget to record them, these are some of the highlights for me of 2011, in no order except the order in which they hopped into my mind, and because I'm playing catch up, I'm sure I've forgotten some:

• Fabulous, wonderful, magical gala wedding of Chris and Emily.
  
• surfing with my cousin Caroline and her boyfriend Jake.
• hitting NYC with 30 exchange students and my friend, Kirsten
  
• pond hockey at the Moffats last winter.
• meeting Ege
• more focused success with the flowers
• short, sweet visits with Nancy and Michael (who apparently play lacrosse) and Sarah and David (and Freddy in utero:)
  
• Prescott Park concerts on the boat with farmer friends.
  
• impromptu bonfire with the Fifields.
• watching Makili ride bikes with Dre.
• moutain biking with Raph in Vermont:)
• Remick's unbelievable independent skating
• flowers
• seeing siding, some trim and a few doors put in their place on our lifelong house project
• meeting Hudson
• bamboo bike building with Gabe.
• Suzanne letting us drop in on the Branford house for dinner with 6 extra people for a perfect sunset dinner
• getting lost in the town forest with Makili and Remick
• mushroom hunting with the Russians
• getting to see Tuan when he came back as a college student.
• watching Remick in his certainty that he is a big kid ALL the time. ie. trying to swim with no help and no life jacket.
• Makili going through the chute at Barters' Creek for the first time with Caroline
• running in the fountain on a HOT day in NYC with Gabrielle and Sam
• a really nice unplanned back porch dinner at the McCall's.
• thrifting with my sweet friend Mary.
• eating Mary's homemade from their own cows frozen yogurt.
• meeting my brother and his family for stolen moments in a deserted park in West Virginia
• flying kites at the top of Agamenticus.
• hiking with Morgan, with holes in her boot in February
• water gun fights in the yard
• Raph's homemade slip and slide.
• Makili's amazing growing skills in the greenhouse.
• Mitchell school playground
• making saurkraut with Mary
• discovering Mackey Skate Park
• a lovely, restful trip to Pittsburgh in November in which train spotting was an actual activity
  
• my parents introducing the kids to the Washington Monument in Washington DC.
• Common Ground Fair
• a really late night trip with Becky to hear Blue Grass with Camille and Stephane.
• Nutcracker with Makili and Ann.
  

Sequins and glitter, balloons and a union

Raph and I brought in the new year at a gorgeous sparkling wedding with candlelight and sparklers and music and glam. We spent the weekend without children, being pampered and glamorous like all the rest of the clan, and watched two people for whom we care greatly commit themselves to each other. What better way to bring in the new year than a celebration of love.

A family trip to the movies.

My parents are in town, which has been lovely. We went to the movies last night to see We bought a Zoo, which I loved. The 4:20 movie was sold out, so we had to wait for the 6:45 movie, which might have been a bit too late.

During the previews, both kids screamed each time on ended. "Mom, is it over? What happened?" For every preview.

Then my dad bought the giant trough of popcorn, which immediately demanded the full attention of the children, particularly Remick, who ate twice his body weight in popcorn. Raph took him to the bathroom twice trying to ward of the inevitable, which came near the end of the movie, when Remick started screaming, "Will you wipe my bum?" At this point Makili was asleep on my lap.

So Raph took Remick, and when we found him again after the movie, Remick was at the video games, with his socks pulled up to his knees, with his little tush hanging out holding a bazooka.

I eventually couldn't carry Makili all the way to the car, so I put him down and he was walking, but I realized after he ran into a door frame really hard that he was walking with his eyes closed.

It was pretty funny.

holiday elving

Nevermind that the mess is overtaking my life. We're making stuff together! We have had such a fun time this year elving. Raph figured out that there were 24 spaces between the ballusters on the railing (who sits there and counts that?), so we made pom-poms for our advent calendar. I'm going to fancify it a bit more next year, with glittery clips and ceramic numbers, but I have really enjoyed the pompoms. And then, there are the ornaments! Salt dough and wood mostly this year. Total love.

Moments at Grammy and Opa's house.

We had a really great time in Pittsburgh with my parents. We visited a bunch of museums where we say dinosaurs, dug for dinosaurs, made our own collection (which happened to be dinosaurs that were red and yellow.)

We had mellow mornings together
Evenings of Dora and snuggles
And lots of attention for both my boys, so that their momma could put her feet up:)

All in all it was a terrific visit.

Hmmm

Makili just asked me how to spell "All drains lead to the ocean."

I was really pondering where he might have heard this, and it just occured to me it was probably Nemo, which he hasn't even seen lately.