Broadway Babies.

This weekend we took the kids to see one of the family friendly productions at South Coast Rep in Costa Mesa. Tim and I are already season ticketholders to their regular shows, and have really enjoyed every one we've seen. And we figured, if we're going to raise the kind of kids who will eventually be season ticketholders themselves, we need to make an investment now.

The show was called Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, based on a children's book about Chinese fables. The kids did a great job of sitting and paying attention and enjoying it. Adam was a little fidgety, and Ellie was a little underwhelmed, trying to pretend that she was too grown up for a play for kids (she's seen Hamilton, after all!) But they had a fun time, and we had a great time taking them.

Our return to routine has been pretty good. Both kids were thrilled that their classmates had had given them Valentines and their teachers had saved them. We had some good baseball practices and a couple of basketball games (though baseball opening weekend was rained out - okay by me as Adam had two sports in the same hour slot on Saturday.) Because the kids were gone only three days, and not a whole week, the teachers weren't required to give them any of their homework or class work. Since I was just calling them out for a personal day each day, I didn't even bother to ask. However, Adam's teacher gave him his regular home work packet from the week before to complete along with the rest of his work this past week with a note attached.

As you can see, Adam wasn't super jazzed about the additional work load. But, we did get it done and turned back in (though I did ask if we could have the weekend to get it done. What's the worst that could happen - he gets a B in first grade?) His teacher was very understanding, and his amendments to the note made her laugh as well.

Ski Bunny Chronicles

We had an absolutely beautiful, fantastic trip to Montana! The rental house we stayed in was a dream. The kids were right in calling it a mansion. There were five bedrooms with ensuites for all the couples on the trip, and then an eight person bunk room with its own separate lockers and bathroom for the kids to store their items. They LOVED it. We had a downstairs game room, and then an open upstairs main area with a big great room and fireplace, a chef's kitchen and a dining room table that fit all of us. The trip was eighteen of us - ten parents and eight kids, and everyone got along like a dream. Lots of coparenting, helping keeping the kitchen cleaned and the kids fed and the skies headed downhill.

The snow was great, and we had one beautiful clear bluebird day. Ellie is really turning into a serious ski bunny - she cried on the last day because she wanted to do more skiing.

Adam had a rather hit or miss trip. The first day he only did a half day, and then complained about how boring it was. We put him in full day ski school the next day and got a call around 10 that he'd fallen and wasn't hurt, but was refusing to put his gear back on. By the time I got the message and relayed it to Tim, Adam was back out on the slopes. This is only video we got of him over the weekend. 

Because then on Valentine's Day, which was our scheduled day off, he woke up at 1:30 in the morning throwing up. Initially we thought it might be altitude sickness, which affected him badly last year, but as the hours went on and he kept getting sick we realized it was a stomach bug. So he spent all of Valentine's Day and the 15th lying in our bed, trying to keep down Cheerios and watching a Teen Titans marathon. Tim and I took turns with him on Valentine's, and then on the 15th he skied in the morning and I went out for the afternoon and a final run with Ellie Belles, who took off like a shot on a slope that last year was much too tough for her, despite being a green. 

In between we did some sledding, lots of puzzles, lots of Minecrafting for the kids. They also made each a whackload of cute Valentine's. We did apre ski every day and they got hot chocolate while we had hot toddies and overall, just an amazing time.  Now if only we could manage a family vacation that doesn't include Adam throwing up. 

Catch Up

Wow, poor neglected blog!

January has been both a slog and a blur. The kids went back to school, which has been fine. It's less rainy than it was last year at this time, so most days after school we go to the park and screw around with our friends for an hour or so.

They also both started up playing basketball, which is going mostly okay, though again, not sure that either of them has any sort of killer instinct for the sport. Ellie does more running than she did when she was playing soccer, but does a lot of standing around in the key. She did however, go up a level in gymnastics and is really enjoying being pushed out of her comfort zone again - she's back to practicing her walkovers in the back yard, and doing cartwheels at recess.

Adam's success on the court depends solely on how tired or hungry he is (even if we urge him to sleep in on weekends, and feed him right before the game, there's only so much one can do with his noodle arms) but he's hanging in there.

He's also started baseball practice, which definitely feels like too much some days - we've missed more than a few of the baseball practices because they conflict with gymnastics or basketball or piano... or just because everyone is exhausted. The season hasn't even officially opened yet - thankfully basketball will be ending right as baseball starts up. Turns out, these kids aren't two sport athletes, and we are barely hanging in trying to schedule ourselves as a four sport family.

Meanwhile in January we had Tim's holiday party, where the company bought out California Adventure for the evening and set all the nerds free. We got to eat a lot and ride lots of rides, and even though we're old, we managed to hang in all the way until they kicked us out at 1am.

We went back to our hotel and slept for a few hours, then were up and out by 7am so that we could be at Disneyland at opening, and get a spot in the virtual queue for the new Star Wars ride. Our friend Victoria works for Disney, and she generously signed us in and got us all set up for a fun morning on the new Star Wars land rides.

I won't lie, even as someone who has only seen a few of the movies, I was a little freaked out when we walked in and all of the Storm Troopers were there, making sure we didn't escape. Victoria and Rob were fantastic Disney hosts - I hadn't been to California Adventure in probably fifteen years, and it's been five or more since we were at Disneyland, so I joked that I had no preferences, I was just going to let them lead me around like I was everyone's dumb kid. I did however, make them all ride on the tea cups, just because there was no line!

Meanwhile, the rest of the month has been fun 40th birthday parties, dinners with friends and lots of lazy weekend time. Tomorrow we head back to Montana for our second annual Big Sky ski trip. The car is picking us up at 5am, but have I started packing? I have not. Not a single thing. Do we as a family own our own winter clothing? We do not, other than everyone having a parka, and us owning at least four winter hats. Last year I blew out the seam in my 25 year old snow pants, so I don't even have those! And Tim informed me that he'd rather I not try to wear my ski boots from 1997, after multiple stories of friends (and Gigi) in ancient ski boots that broke out from under them. He says he doesn't want to take me to the hospital on vacation, which I guess is fair. I still feel like those boots might have some good wear left in them, hate to abandon them too soon! The good news is that it frees up space in my boot bag for all of the other necessities. Like the velour sweat suit I intend to wear every night apres ski and shower. Please everyone cross your finger that the fourth time is a charm and Adam doesn't vomit at any point during our trip.