we are iced in!!!!!!i.e.-NO SCHOOL!!!!

okay, so when chris and i went to bed last night we were pretty confident that the sleet, ice, snow mix that our fabulous weather forcasters here in st. louis called for-was not going to happened....oh it happened and is still going on and is supposed to for the next 36 hours! let me express my joy in the snow day we are having today following our oh so wonderful presidents day celebration on monday! snow days with 8 inches of snow that you can sled in are a blast-ice not so much! we started our day with scrambled eggs, toast and juice. we have had a guitar hero competition, hide the dice game (which then turned into throw the dice as hard as you can and hit your brother or sister), star wars galactic hero figures war, a game of monopoly, a few races of mario kart on their nintendo ds's, while i was in the shower a pillow fight-turned chase through the house ensued-i quickly jumped out as i heard screams followed by a few tears shed (no major injuries), a game of school, and taking care of their webkinz on the computer...all of this and it is only about 12:30. not sure what the rest of the day will hold but i'm thinking maybe a movie on pay per view or some quiet reading. i'm pretty sure that the ice brings out some bad behaviors in my kids-but then i have to remind myself that they are just that-kids- and they are creatures of habit-they have been totally uprooted from their normal schedule and they cannot get outside to run off energy. a few minutes ago i was pretty sure that my kids saving grace was that i was able to get up and go to my 6:00 am kick-butt workout class, that helped me destress and energize me for the day. when i left this morning at 5:45 it was starting to sleet-when i came out of class an hour later and had to skate to my car that was covered in a sheet of ice (which i used a cd case to scrape the windshield) i was pretty sure i would come home to cheering kids with a school closing....i was exactly right! with more ice and sleet to come i'm wondering what tomorrow may bring...i need to invest in an ice pick and crampons for the kids shoes!

celebration of presidents day!????

as a group of us parents gathered last night to watch our adorable children play in an indoor soccer game, a few of us moms were talking and discussing the important matters of the day...the ingredients for the perfect smoothie(after school snack), the process and paint colors we have been using in redoing some of our houses, tips on great sales in stores around the area...etc...and one hot topic of the conversation was what in the world we did with our children on this wonderful day off! we have come to a unanimous vote that presidents day is not so much our favorite holiday(kids day off of school). yesterday in st. louis started out partly sunny, then at about 8:30 a.m. a 10 minute blizzard with whiteout conditions hit! it was then decievingly sunny and beautiful(with freezing temperatures and gusty winds!) as the blizzard is hitting we were anticipating enough snow that our children could play in it or go sledding-something to do on their day off!-not the case. there wasn't even a dusting! next idea, go somewhere that is kid friendly-so we ventured out to yucando(an arts and craft making place) after 2 hours of painting and crafting, we had created masterpieces!...in a room filled with tons of kids many whom were hacking, coughing, sneezing...need i go on, and there was a waiting list for many others to join the fun. these were the conditions at all of the kid-friendly places throughout st. louis, as every child was off of school yesterday. i am not a parent that is extremely excited about taking my kiddos to an indoor play/craft place when there is an epedemic outbreak of the flu hitting our area hard-and knock on wood-we have remained healthy! so what is there left to do, too cold for outdoor play, too germy for public places, and trying to find something that 2 boys (6 and 10) and a girl (7) all want to do...it left me and many moms wondering...as one mom stated"why do we celebrate our presidents?"-i pointed out that there are many great sales-but that may not win the holiday over for us....we just wish that we could vote to move it to a warmer date...maybe when we're all getting spring fever and there is that 75 degree day in april when we wish our kids were off of school so we could take them to the zoo or park! what do you think?

Happy Birthday Tristan!

what a weekend! friday was tristan's 6th birthday! his request was an evening with family, imo's pizza and cookie cake! i have to confess that i have never made a cookie cake before and so i was a little worried about how it would turn out-all agreed it was great and tristan requested that i make one every night! after we were all completely stuffed tristan opened presents from everyone...a few favorites were guitar hero 3 and a really cool star wars book that gammie got him (its a pop up and the lightsabers even light up!)

saturday morning we woke up early and got ready for tristan's big 'friend' birthday party. we headed to monkey joe's (a bounce house/slide party center). tristan had 19 friends from church and school and i think that they all had a really great time. they ran, bounced and tumbled down slides for and hour and a half and then we went into a party room where we had cookies, cupcakes and presents. tristan's friends were so generous and gave him everything that he wished for and more!

after the party everyone went in all different directions. bradley had a soccer game in the afternoon followed up by baseball practice in the evening. lainie went to a friends house and chris went to practice for the church talent show....so tristan and i went home and spent the afternoon building ALL of the lego sets that he got from his friends!

this is new for me.

ok, so i finally took the advice of friends and the time and sat down to create this blog. it is not such an easy thing to do. but i think i may be starting to feel like i'm getting a little too old for my space-hey it was a great idea and i reconnected with a lot of friends but as i hear teenagers around me talking about their my space pages, while my friends were talking about their blogs it made me feel like i should look into this blogging thing. as you can teel i do not capitalize-it drives chris crazy- and sorry to those of you that it drives crazy but i feel like i can type a lot faster this way.

So, we have been in birthday-mode since christmas! it actually started right before christmas....my sister and i took my mom to vegas for her birthday (she turned 50 this year!) it was a blast and neither nichole nor my mom had ever been. we had so much fun, my mom won $360 bucks on the nickel slots and now she is hooked! the week before christmas we celebrated kathy's birthday (chris' mom). the week after christmas we started going to lainie and tristan's friend birthday parties and we have had one every weekend since new years! lainie's birthday was january 18th and she turned 7. she had a high school musical party (of course) and got way too many presents-the only downside to having children right after christmas-

this friday is tristan's birthday and he will be 6. on friday night we are celebrating here at home with family and ordering tristan's absolute favorite - imo's pizza! on saturday morning we are having his party at a fairly new place to st. louis called monkey joe's. it's filled with bounce houses and giant slides. he invited 16 little friends so it should be lots of fun....pictures to come! chris is in beverly hills this week on business-really hard trip huh? did you know the actual zip code is 90210? i thought that was just a show! i'm trying not to be too bitter seeing how last time he was in california (laguna beach) he was sending me email pictures of his lunch on the beach with the beautiful turqouise ocean and i was waiting for branches to snap and our power to go out while waiting out a terrible ice storm,..fortunately no ice forcasted for this week!