Almost Too Good to Be True!

Months ago when we heard Disney on Ice was coming to our area, my good friend Jetta asked me to look into tickets for us and our eight daughters.  When I learned that a block of 10 tickets would cost hundreds of dollars, we quickly abandoned the idea.  THEN we saw a little flyer at the library explaining how the completion of a simple winter reading program would earn us one free ticket for each child.  We easily met the reading requirements and exchanged our charts for 8 valuable Disney on Ice tickets with great disbelief in this amazing deal!  Maybe the librarian did arch her eyebrow at me when I told her just how many tickets I wanted, but no other catch!  We went on the day and time we wanted and had great seats.

So here's our Girl Club, plus Dave, about to pile into Jetta's big 'ol Suburban this morning.  He debated about going along, but decided this would be a special experience to share with the girls and Jetta and I were happy to have him be our chauffeur and escort with 10 kids in an unfamiliar and very crowded place.  The rink full of ice skating princesses had the girls mesmerized.   Dave was glad he went and said watching each kid's very vocal and excited reaction was the best part of his day.

The hour and a half show told 3 popular Disney stories-- The Princess and the Frog, Cinderella and Tangled.  It was all fun to watch, but we agreed that the stunts Rapunzel and Flynn Rider did while danging high in the sky from Rapunzel's long "hair" were the most spectacular.  At the end, every Disney princess made an appearance with their prince for a grand finale involving lots of fancy skating and fireworks!

Once we safely navigated our way out of the stadium, and its myriad of vendors and little girls dressed up as princesses, we made our way out to a fun lunch.  This whole day was a blast and went off without a hitch.  And it all happened because of the generosity of our public library.  We can still hardly believe it!  :)

Hands-On Hamster

The pet shop folks told us that we had to give little Cutie plenty of time to adjust to the whole new world we were about to throw her in.  They suggested 3 to 5 days of just getting her used to us by talking to her through her cage bars.  So, with great restraint, this is what the girls have been concentrating on.  Cutie knows all about Ella's second grade class, friends and teacher.  She's listened to Delia "read" her stories each afternoon.

Since our home life can be pretty much summed up in one word right now-- "Hamster"-- we decided to go with the minimum number of suggested days to not hold her.  This means today was the day to finally release Cutie from her cage into the eager hands of the fam.  

To make her as tame as possible, we're supposed to hold her at least once every day from here on out.  I don't think this will be a problem.

  

I've never had a pet hamster either (though I remember having great fun with one belonging to a grade school friend), so I find myself getting just as much of a kick out of our new addition.  We also tried putting Cutie in her ball to run around the room and this was completely delightful!  She only got about 10 minutes of practice before the girls were designing obstacle courses for her!  

Meet Cutie Pie

The VM Family is now plus one-- a fluff ball of a Syrian long-haired hamster named Cutie Pie, Cutie for short.  

I am happy to report that this new addition was brought to us thanks to a book!  Each night, as Ella reads a chapter aloud to us, we've been falling in love with Humphrey, the title character of this Humphrey the Hamster book series we recently discovered.  Humphrey lives in a classroom and tells hilarious, first-person (first-hamster?) narrative of all the lessons he learns.  Humphrey is so amusing and we are learning so much about the proper care of hamsters.  Dave and I agreed that we're in a good place to add a new pet to the mix.

The girls were thrilled when we walked out of the pet shop with this fuzzy friend in her ventilated cardboard box, along with everything she will need to be happy in our home.  In the time that we've been home, these excited kiddos have not moved from this watchful perch outside Cutie's cage.

 We have to wait a few days to hold her to give her time to adjust to all the change in her little life-- but once the no-hold time expires, watch out!  We are going to have one spoiled hamster on our hands!

The girls have promised complete responsibility for their new hamster, and we actually believe she won't be very hard to take care of.  She's expected to live for a few years and when the time comes to say goodbye to Cutie, we might be ready to go back to our first loves in the rodent family-- guinea pigs!

Two Weeks of Life...Abridged

So, since it's been almost 2 weeks since I've posted, I thought I'd give you the past few week's VM Life highlight reel.  Here is what's been keeping us occupied and happy these days:

1.  Downton Abbey.  It was about time I got addicted to this show.

2.  A new Bible Study on James.  It's so fantastic, I can't wait to do the lessons each day.  On Tuesday mornings, my beloved Women's Bible Study co-coordinator and I jump up and down celebrating God's amazing Living Word.

3.  Marshmallow shooters.  Dave had a junior high lock-in this weekend and we spent Friday afternoon cutting and sanding enough PVP pipe pieces for each of the 25 students to make, decorate and use a marshmallow shooter while they stayed up all night at church.  The girls each got to make one too and thus Lily has been eating way too many marshmallows.  They're okay for dogs, right?

4.  A new ECE class on Preschool Curriculum.  I'm one week in and I love it!  I can use every single thing I've read and written about so far.

5.  Collecting freshly-laid and still-warm eggs and staying up late to play American Girl Dolls.  Though the girls had a day off yesterday, I did not.  Jetta was so wonderful in insisting the girls go home with her family after church on Sunday night and stay at their house until yesterday afternoon.  It's been a whole year since Dave and I had this kind of break and it was awesome!  I got nearly the whole week's work done with all the hours of peace and when I picked up the girls they were running around outside in just their undies (in January!), with all their friends, covered in head-to-foot mud.  Who enjoyed Jetta's sleepover offer more, I wonder.

6.  "Malaria pills" and "typhoid immunization"--words that were actually a part of the conversation Dave had with his doctor today about his upcoming trip to Guatemala.

7.  Short haircuts for us 3 girls.  I tolerated long hair for about 6 months, but just had to go back to what feels most natural and comfortable-- the wash-and-go, chin-length bob.  From the back, or when snuggling under a blanket together, Ella and Delia are indistinguishable with their matching hairdos.

And here's a random picture to match the random vibe of this post.  While Dave caught up on the sleep he lost staying up all night, I took the girls to Color Me Mine to get them out of the house.  We had vouchers for free studio fees and a free mug, so it worked out perfectly!

"Great Job, Dad!"

This week Dave had the privilege of being the elementary school's chapel speaker.  The girls' school theme this year is "Put on the Full Armor of God" and each of their chapel speakers have been addressing specific pieces of the armor.  Dave was assigned the Shield of Faith and felt he came up with some memorable and hands-on ways for the kids to remember the function of the Shield of Faith.  Dave does talks like this all the time and I don't usually post much about the day to day details of his job, but from this chapel talk came a funny conversation that I wanted to record.

On the way home from school, Delia shared her pride that her dad was the pastor in chapel and that he gave her and Ella a special shout-out.  Here is more of their exchange:

Delia: Daddy, you did a GREAT job today!

Dave: Thanks, hunny! What would you do if I did a bad job?

Delia: You wouldn't ever do a bad job.

Dave: What would a bad job look like?

Delia: Well...if you would have said that we should listen to Satan and do the things he tells us to do.  That would probably be a bad job.

And here is the card Delia made for him as soon as they got home.  Dave may not have done a bad job, but according to Delia, he was having a pretty bad hair day! :)

Snow Much Fun!

Without family visitors or a vacation planned for this break, we set a goal to enjoy three things specifically: 1.  A day in the city, 2.  Try ice skating and 3. A trip to Yosemite to play in some snow.  Yesterday we celebrated a Grand Finale to Christmas Break 2012 as we crossed the Yosemite trip off the list.  A trip to the mountains in the winter is always a challenge, but we quickly agreed at the end of the day that whatever slippery and snowy road conditions we had to endure were definitely worth the winter beauty and fun snow we got to see and play in.  It's been a while since we've been to Yosemite just the 4 of us and didn't have any visitors we needed to show falls or photo-worthy spots to.  The plan to have no plans other than to play and enjoy winter was what made this trip especially fun!

  

First stop at Yosemite always has to be the breath-taking tunnel view.   The pic below shows the impressive icicle clumps hanging off the tunnel.  

We were going to take a peek at Bridalveil Falls, but then watched others literally sliding down the path on their butts and decided it was a little too icy for us to brave.  We've already had one wipe-out on this path a few years ago!  The half-frozen creek was really cool to see, though.

We ate our lunch with Yosemite Falls in the background.  Upper Yosemite Falls was just a trickle that seemed to be accumulating in giant snow pile at its base-- another cool thing to see.

I think this little church is one of Yosemite's hidden gems.  In the winter it really looks like a postcard!  Admiring it yesterday, the girls made plans to get married here.  :)

Another stop was at Curry Village where we watched the ice skaters on the rink and warmed up by the fire a bit.

 A stroll through the Ansel Adams Gallery inspired me to try converting some of our pictures into black and white.

 As we took a little hike through the village, we stopped to check out the Ahwahnee teepees.  This made us feel thankful again that we live in the day and age when we do!

Our hike was supposed to end at lower Yosemite Falls, but a fun-looking snowy meadow at the base of Half Dome distracted us.  We played here for a long time, making snow angels and snow men and having a kids vs. parents snow ball fight.  When we tried to get our hike going again, the girls said, "Do we have to see another waterfall?  Can't we stay and play in the snow?"  Yosemite Falls is one of the world's most magnificent waterfalls, but Dave pointed out that, to our girls, snow was the greater novelty.  We skipped the falls and let them keep playing.

On the way back up and out, we stopped a few more times.  The above meadow was full of white trees and was just starting to get this cool fog rising over it.  And the river below was full of snow-covered boulders and was looking especially beautiful. 

  

With Anna and Heather a few years ago we discovered that the Tuolumne Meadows is a super place to sled and play in the snow.  It's a higher elevation, so the snow is crazy deep.  While walking around, I fell in up to my waist at one point.  

Because the snow is SO deep and fluffy here, it made my attempts at one last family pic via timer extra challenging!  The best picture of the day (and possibly ever!) was caught when I tried to get into the picture by taking a flying leap over a HUGE snow mound, sliding into Ella and knocking her into a full-on face plant right as the camera clicked (above).  Don't worry, she was fine and found it as hilarious as we all did.  The pic below shows a more successful attempt-- notice how she chose to stand by a more solid Daddy in this version, though! :) 

Ella's Starry Night

As you may have seen in the Christmas post, Uncle Kyle gave Ella this awesome kit for making her own Starry Night masterpieces.  Yesterday was her first attempt:

The kit came with a booklet about van Gogh, where we learned that he and Ella have 3 things in common: they are both Dutch, both have minsters for dads and both discovered their love for making art in their childhood.  The kit also included what is needed to recreate van Gogh's work: stickers to block out where the stars would go, a couple different paint rollers to give it the brush stroke look, a stencil to paint the black town parts and a box of pastels to add the details.

Starry Night has always been a favorite painting of ours.  The girls' star and moon themed bedroom was inspired by it and their ceiling is painted in a similar style.  Ella took the print off her wall to look at for inspiration.

And, ta-da!, here is the finished product.  This was such a fun thing to keep Ella busy most of yesterday.  The materials in the kit are reusable, so Ella is already talking about how she's going to make her next one differently.  She's pretty excited to send this first attempt along to her gift-giver, so look for a work of art in your mailbox soon, Uncle Kyle! :)

An Icy New Years Day

Today was SUCH a fun day!  One that exceeded all our expectations!  I love those kind of days.  One thing on our Christmas Break List was to try ice skating-- for the first time for the girls.  I did lots of research and decided this outdoor rink in Sacramento, right outside the capitol building, looked like our best bet.  Because today was Tuesday, we even enjoyed their Family Night deal and got 2 of our 4 entrance and rental fees for free!  

 What seemed to make this rink stand out was its 2 hour skating slots, with a Zamboni break in between to smooth the ice.  While we waited to enter for our time slot, we took great delight in watching the Zamboni make the ice gleam for us.

The girls were a mixture of excited and nervous to try ice skating for the first time.  When they first stepped on the ice, things were kinda crazy.  They expected to just know what to do, but had no balance, no footing, no clue and I, having not skated in probably 12 years, nearly went down with them.  But, it did not take long for us all to get the feel.  I should mention that Dave has also not skated in over a decade, but got right out there and owned the rink like a professional hockey player, even busting out the backwards skating moves.  A rink full of wimpy winter Californian ice skaters probably looks exactly as you imagine. That we clung to the wall, moved like snails and fell repeatedly made us fit right in with the rest of the crowd!

I'll tell Ella's ice skating story first.  She caught on pretty fast and needed just a few loops around the rink with full support before she was able to go just holding onto one of our hands.  For reasons I'll explain later, Ella, and not Delia, was my skating buddy most of the afternoon.  The picture below was my view for most of this experience.  Isn't it a nice one? :)

When Dave took some laps with Ella I could tell from his beaming smile how proud he was.  He gave Ella back to me and said, "I feel as happy as when the cute girl would agree to skate with me at the roller skating party!"

 Though still wobbly, by the end of the two hours, Ella was able to go on her own a little bit.

Delia totally cracked us up.  She was a little too fearless about tackling the ice completely on her own.  Her bravery would be admirable if she weren't completely confused about how ice skating actually worked!  She flopped all around like a rag doll and made her parent partner practically carry her weight (which is why Dave needed to take her).  She wouldn't just calmly go straight either, she'd jump and twist and bend backwards.  When Dave asked what she was doing, she replied, "I'm trying some fancy ballerina moves."

  

 Finally, Dave and Delia found the most satisfaction in just skating this way.  And, for Delia, the faster the better.

Yes, we had our share of spills.  I type this with a heating pad on my back from all the ways the girls wrenched it as they went down.  And Ella's little booty was so sore she could hardly climb the ladder into her bed.

But Delia only took one break and when I asked Ella to take one, she replied, "NO!  Don't make me stop.  I LOVE ice skating!"  We stayed on the ice from the moment they opened the gate to the moment they shooed us off for the next group.

Over some warm Panera Bread soup for dinner, we basked in our blessings once again.  Our kids are so cool; we truly love hanging out with them and watching them excitedly try and succeed at new things.  Here's to many more family adventures in 2013!