FYI

If you happened to read through this yesterday, I posted more pictures, etc. in the middle of what was posted before to try to keep things somewhat chronological :) Just a heads up to give it another scroll through!

Cold as an Ice Rink

The "Dancing Goalie" is back in action! This year, with all new pads!
All the gear is provided--and shared--for the season.

The boys started hockey today . . . B was supposed to begin last Wednesday, but with the tornadoes and all they decided to cancel. After we got the floors pulled up (see below), we had barely enough time to get to the rink for jersey hand-out. 

Our neighbors' little guy was playing the game before G's, and I hadn't even thought to bring blankets or find hats (most of which I've already stored away for winter). Thankfully, they left their blankets with us, good neighbors are great! We cheered as our dancing goalie only allowed two goals past him, and came off with a big win for his team.

In the land of giants . . . I like that his karate helmet and his hockey helmet
are both red :) It's easier to keep track of him!

The boys are in different age brackets this year--that means they don't get to play on the same team at the same time. That means that we were sitting outside in cold, drizzly, misty, windy, freezy cold, open-air bleachers for most of the day. I did talk one of the coaches into giving B his jersey early, so we could run home and grab some food between games (and hats!)

B's first game was rougher than his brother's in many ways. The kids on the other team are the same ages, approximately, but they were really BIG kids. Three were taller than Caelan! B played defense to begin, but switched to offense for the third period. He came home with a bleeding elbow, bleeding knuckles, he got hit in the gut with a puck, and was pushed and elbowed all over the rink, but he scored his team's one and only goal (so it wasn't a total shut-out), and he was stoked! :)

Oh What a Night :(

So yesterday is the first day in weeks that we were able to stay home and not go anywhere. The kids were in the doldrums a bit because of Grandma leaving, which made them stir-crazy and snappish. At work, his first day back, Buck's store did Christmas numbers in April with sick calls galore. He also did our grocery shopping and arrived home wiped out. 

About midnight, all the fire alarms started shrieking--they're wired together throughout the house. I figured the boys' battery was shot again, pulled the thing by memory in the dark without my glasses on, and the shrieking subsided--momentarily (and not a single kid woke up! Ugh!! doesn't make me feel great about a real emergency in the middle of the night . . .)

When I returned to the battery cupboard, I noticed the dishwasher was sitting in a puddle of water. Two of our close friends' families have their kitchens torn apart (for 5-6 months!) because of leaky dishwashers, so I've been hyper-vigilant about ours. When we bought the house three years ago, we had to replace the dishwasher (pump hadn't been run in 18 months, it busted, new machine for us). Well, the new machine has already been repaired twice (under warranty) and makes so much noise when it runs (and never dries) that you have to practically shout to be heard over it. Earlier in the day, I noticed the brackets had come loose and the whole thing was tipping forward when we opened the door. I told the kids to let it be; when Buck came home he drilled it back in place, and then I started the cycle.

Back to the water . . . just to be sure, I ran downstairs to the classroom, and wouldn't you know it, the fire alarm was running water! I grabbed a towel, unfastened the fire alarm which started everything beeping like mad again (the sounds changed from all at the same time, to more like they were chasing each other in circles through the house, each taking a turn in the shriek relay--it was awesome) :( 

Soooo, Buck came down with a bucket and a screw driver. He poked holes in the ceiling around the detector box (the water wasn't inside the box, just dripping in a circle around it). Good thing we learned to repair ceilings at our friends' home last fall :) The carpet was a bit wet, but the weirdest thing is, the detector isn't under the dishwasher--it's five feet out in the middle of the room. So . . . was there water running through the floor and the ceiling?

This morning while Buck was at work, I remembered our neighbors recently had an issue with their dishwasher too. I asked how they'd dried out their floors, and Mark came over with a fan to take a look. He helped pull up several boards and trim along with the soaking pad below. At the same time Buck texted to say our other neighbor Mark (there are four of them :) was bringing a dehumidifier over later. "It's good to know Marks!" texted my husband.

I've been emailing the repairman who has fixed our oven, washing machine, and dryer 10x. He estimates a fix would cost $225 . . . for a 3-year-old, 2x broken, leaky, noisy machine. Blech! It's maybe $75 more to just get a new one. Not the appliance I had planned to replace AGAIN before we move sometime next year, probably. Anyway . . . 

The water ring looked much more large and yellow last night.
A patch revealed that it likely had had a similar issue before.

The kids were super helpful fighting back the mountain of leftover dishes, washing them by hand. We have enough paper left over from the party to hopefully suffice until we can figure out what to do about the floors--which according to what I can find online have long been discontinued :(

Boogers!!!

Birthday Every Day?

My mother-in-law and sister-in-law arrived for a visit on a Tuesday--we almost immediately whisked them off to our boys' first ever little league game! Auntie Z cheered excellently, as did Grandma.

The next day we went to the zoo for the morning--afterwards, we celebrated Gabby's birthday early at The Olive Garden. We had our own little table in an alcove to ourselves!

The next day, was her real birthday. We began with gifts at the table and blina by Grandma J. When my bro and sis-in-law arrived, we went to the zoo again! Then we came home and sang and ate cake and got ready for karate black belt graduation--where they sang happy birthday to Gabby once more, very special!

On the following day, we welcomed friends, neighbors, and family into our home (thank you, Lord, for bringing out the sunshine!) to celebrate the four black belts and two April birthdays :)

The very next day, the boys once again had a baseball game. Buck had a new neurologist appointment crazy early in the morning, so I went along, and we made it into a breakfast, shopping at Trader Joe's, and buying gifts date. Before the game, we presented his mom with a little birthday song and gift--matching gear to wear to the baseball game to cheer on her grandsons! Once we were there, the girls' friend E was teaching them some signs in American Sign Language. Her mom, my friend who is deaf, turned around to see us all making the sign for "weird." The look on her face when she asked what we were doing, cracked me up! Later when, Grandma was silly dancing and singing around the living room (trying to get a reaction from Z), Lindsey just shook her head and made the sign for "weird"--hilarious!!

We took a party break the following day, unless you count birthday shopping at the mall :) Gab had some Grandma money and she spent every last penny. Grandma also hooked the Crew up with new shoes (new cowboy boots for G$). Auntie Z tried on some cute new jeans at H&M . . . I said, "How do they feel? Can you chase boys in them?" Without missing a beat, she said, "I hope so!" LOL!!!! Afterwards we visited a local museum to see the various traveling exhibits, and got Grandma's favorite local ice cream, before heading home so Buck and I could grab a quick dinner out together. We stayed local because of the weather. Grandma was going to take the kids to karate, but Buck and I both took our car keys with us on our date--duh!!

But, the next day, we headed back to the zoo, watched a movie, and then went (by request) to Grandma's favorite local bakery (and ours too :) We surprised Auntie Z, as we had her mom, with an early birthday celebration! We snuck in a gift and candle while she wasn't looking. The bakers were so excited, they sent us home with a box of 2 dozen donuts, just because they like us! :) We planned to go to hockey, but there were tornadoes and it got cancelled, so the kids got to experience their first black belt class. We stayed so Buck could watch the girls spar the big belts!

And wouldn't you know it, the NEXT day was my husband's birthday! We ate donuts (of course!) for breakfast, he took the kids fishing while I caught up on some things around the house. His mom made him creamed tuna on toast for lunch (and the kids liked it too :) Later, we headed back to the baseball fields . . . when we pulled up, Z said, "Again?!!" Lol . . . I think we baseballed her out--and it was cooooold! So she bundled up in one of Caelan's creations and a snuggie, while Grandma J borrowed Gab's new hat from Maga. We were quite a sight!

Birthday Pics

This may be the only picture blogger decided to put in chronological order . . . so breakfast at the top, then to the bottom and read your way up for the day's events.

Quite a crowd to watch Gab open her gifts! I guess I did get a pic with both Aunt Lindsey/Linseys in it, even if it wasn't quite what I had in mind :)

The kids wanted to give their dad his birthday gift early--a new glove so he can play catch with the boys!

Big sis baked, frosted, designed, and decorated this year's birthday treat! The candles glowed the color of their bases. Cool!

Reading to pass the time

Orange flowers from her dad

Good morning to our birthday girl! She opened a Star Wars LEGO figure of Rey (from Star Wars). Then Grandma made her blina :)

Black Belt Graduation

They did it! After 18 months of classes three times each week (plus a few bonus training sessions, private lessons, and several tournaments), our crew earned their black belts! It was special to have both Aunt L's and Uncle C and Grandma J all in attendance for their big day. 

We were proud of B for continuing with his form, despite getting mixed up in the middle of it. The instructors recognized that he kept trying, he didn't give up, and performed his second form with even more intensity. He pulled more than a couple tears from Grandma and Mom, and possibly Dad, but we all cheered plenty loud when they called him up to be black-belted :) (I made up that verb).

The instructors invited parents out to tie on the black belts for the first time; we thought this was neat, and appreciated Grandma snapping pictures so we could remember. Uncle C provided a video, which is awesomesauce!

It was a looooong day . . . we started with breakfast and birthday, we zooed (I made up that verb too :) with Uncle C, Aunt L x 2, and Grandma, then we had cake and gifts at home, and then after all that, they had graduation. Whew!

And the next day, there was a party to look forward to!

Party Time

I've posted these elsewhere, so I'm sort of skipping through the details (because we have a kitchen to reassemble and all . . . grrr). Here are some moments from our busy open house!