More Pics from Lysa & Laine Visit - Dec 2011

Lysa sent me some more pics from her December visit:





I love the pics of the kids trying to catch the "snow" at the Polar Express show.  And that Santa Shamu photo is pretty darn cute.


Aunt Lysa and Laine had some Christmas presents for the family.  Amelia got a baby whaley that she loved - Josh got a baby dog that he loved too.  Neither child would go far without their new snuggly animals.

January in the Park

 Blogger is great...but I am having some technical difficulties with this post.  So if it looks weird - that is the problem.

Having said that...

I took the kids to Landa Park mid-January.  It was a perfect day to go.  A bit overcast and gloomy, which kept the crowds away despite being a day off of school.

I got some cute pics:




At the park the kids literally took to the trees.  Gabriel isn't in too many photos as he spent most of his time trying to find better and better challenges to climb.

By this last photo Gabriel was done "posing" - even though he hadn't posed much...at all.  So he made a face.  I guess I still love him though...  :)

Pinewood Derby Fun

Simon had a blast at his Pinewood Derby race last week.  He and dad crafted a unique car - The Water Bottle.

Simon had the most consistent car at the races...came in 3 every time but once.  Yea!  (out of 4) :)

He received a certificate for "Best Use of Imagination".

The Great Closet Clean-up

The girls had a huge walk-in trash can in their room, aka "The Closet". 

One day I spontaneously decided to torture myself and attempt to tame the beast.  It took 6 hours of uninterrupted work - 8 if you count the total time with a few breaks. 

It tested my sanity and probably endangered my health...but I successfully completed phases 1 & 2.


 Phase One: No before photo, but basically that pile in the left photo was covering, no - mounding - over the middle space of the floor.  Clean out = 4 bags of trash and 8 empty boxes.

I condensed all that into 2 "keep-able" boxes - shown in the right photo.

That may not seem like a big deal but it was a nice accomplishment.

Phase Two: Now it was time to tackle the shelves on either side, under the shelves and along the back wall.  These are the "before" photos.  This phase took the bulk of the time and added an additional 5 trash bags and 3 large bags of Goodwill items.  (All the trash bags were 13 gallon - not to be confused with those small Walmart sacks.)  I think that phase yielded an additional 8-10 empty boxes.

Can you believe that such a small area could possibly hold so much trash?!?!?!?!  We are talking loads of old papers, candy wrappers, half-eaten food (eww), broken toys, rinky-dink toys that are like from a happy meal - although we never get those so I am puzzled at how we acquired so many of the toys, etc.

The last photo on the right shows the "after" shot.  Notice how clean (vacuumed) and empty the floor now is. 

The girls were so relieved that I was cleaning out their closet they didn't even question what was in the trash bags.  They just hauled them down to the garage.  That NEVER would have happened if they hadn't been as fed up as I was.  I guarantee they won't miss a bit of it.

Now they are ready to begin the build up again....nooooooo!!!