I'm a little late on the 'Happy New Year' greeting, but you're in for a long post! Our New Year's Eve was a quiet one. Normally we go to a party hosted by one of Tom's fraternity brothers - complete with a face painter and balloon maker - but our sick kids put the kabosh on that. We ended up at home for the first time in about 4 years...it was nice. Nice not to be on the roads, nice to have a quiet game night with the girls, nice to ring in the New Year in our jammies. Here is a picture of our New Year's Eve dinner - appetizers, sparkling cider, and a delicious chocolate truffle cake.
Lately, there have been a few unusual phrases being said at our house. Things like:
* I'm going to crush you!
* You're goin' down!
* Get ready to be destroyed!
* Eat my dust!
You wouldn't really think that any 'family bonding' was taking place if you heard this coming from our family room, BUT... Grammy and Grampy bought us the Wii for Christmas and it's so much fun for the whole family! It gets used almost every day & has been a great 'toy' for all of us. A little friendly competition and a little exercise too - we're loving it! My shoulder is sore from trying to beat Tom at tennis - it still hasn't happened. Tom has had a sore neck for almost a week. (He blames it on sleeping on it wrong, but I'm not so sure!!) We bought the girls the High School Musical sing along for the Wii and even Tom is taking turns with the microphone. Ooooh, he'd hate to see that in print!
The girls also had their first swim meet of the season. Tatum has a boy on her team that is really making her work hard. Tatum and "P" are always neck and neck at the finish, so Tatum was a little nervous about how she would do. We couldn't have asked for better results. "P" took first place in 2 events and Tatum took first place in 2 events. They were both happy when it was over & can't wait til the next meet. Here's a peek at one of their photo finishes. "P" is in the lane closest to the camera & Tatum is next to him in the darker swim cap.
Taylor is with the older kids this year and she is smaller than most kids her age. She doesn't have quite the power that the others have, but she did take 1st in her heat in backstroke and 1st in her heat in breaststroke. She has amazing endurance and can't wait to race Tom at the cabin this summer. Honestly, Tom is worried! Here is a video of her backstroke race, she is in the closest lane with the green swim cap.
Just this past Sunday, we had a taste of spring-like weather. The snow fort was shrinking in the 41* weather. But, Tom and the girls worked hard to make the sides thicker and added a look-out tower on the side. Much colder weather is on the way this weekend...now if we could just get some more snow!!
