:: normalcy ::

Normalcy. Something I'd been craving for weeks and came to a head last week during the fourth business trip Seth took during the month of January. I had overcommitted myself. Grad school homework, 27 handmade hockey team posters to make, being present on the hockey jamboree committee, attending Owen and Alden's conferences, starting my field experience Laura MacArthur elementary in a first grade class that is chocked full of behavioral issues....oh, and then there's going to work, making dinner, playing with the boys making sure the boys were still alive, doing laundry, making lunches. It was literally too much and I lost my damn mind on Wednesday. By Thursday, I was extremely exhausted, Alden had been sent to the principal's office for disrupting naptime at school 3 days in a row, Owen had been sent in the hallway for not listening in class, our house was a flippin' train wreck and all we wanted was for things to be normal.

The living room became the poster cutting zone.

The dining room became a multipurpose poster design, homework, hockey gear and laundry area.

The sitting room held a permanent fixture of Lego pieces allllll week.

And the kitchen....welll...I have no words.

If you know me at all, you know I cannot live like this.

I decided Thursday evening that the posters needed to wait, despite their looming deadline, and we needed to get back to our normal lives. The boys and I cleaned the house, put in some laundry in, made a real dinner, made school lunches ahead of time, sat down together and ate, gave them a bubble bath, read stories, organized what was left to finish on the posters, and went to bed at a normal hour.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh......deep breath.

Friday morning, I felt so much better! We started a school behavior chart in which after earning five days of good school behavior, they can choose a treat for our family. Seth flew in, picked them up from school, and reported that they had excellent behavior at school. All they really needed was for both Seth and I to be present and active. What goes on at home has such a definite effect on kids' behavior at school.

This is all they really needed; wrestle time:

And I finally finished those damn hockey posters!

:: relaxing up the shore ::

Seth and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary with some good friends this weekend at Bluefin Bay/Lutsen in Tofte, MN. I believe this is the 5th anniversary we have spent with our pals, John and Megan.....it's kind of tradition :-).

We started the Friday off with a bang when we met up with some other friends, Tom and Liz at the Poplar Inn Pub in Lutsen. We ate, we laughed, we played Zoomie Zoomie (boy, it's literally been since early college the last time I played that..) and then we popped over to Papa Charlie's for the BEST music by one of our favs, Timmy Haus (the best one man band out there) and we danced and danced....and danced our little hearts out. 

Saturday started with yoga for the ladies and a workout for the guys. Best. Yoga. Ever. And then a walk back to our place on the lakewalk.

We then all headed up to Lutsen to downhill ski; something I haven't done in at least 10 years and  something Seth has never done :). John was kind enough to be patient with our amateurish attempt at skiing and show us the way. After several times down the bunny hill, we were feeling confident. We then conquered a full run and were feeling even more confident. That's the point at which we found ourselves on an intermediate run by mistake. All I can still picture is Seth flying past us at 50 mph, leaving behind a cloud of snow, being centimeters from taking out a 5-year old, losing all control, and finally crashing.....debris everywhere. And shortly after, the ski instructor comes barreling down the hill, scolding Seth, ending with, "chill out, man". Poor Seth. 

All in all, though, we had a great time, but our time was cut short with a severe change in the wind and all the the lifts being shut down. We came and we conquered (kind of).

We returned back to our abode, a bit battered, and relaxed in the outdoor hot tub (so glorious!).

and then went out for a nice dinner at Bluefin Grille with Tom and Liz.

I was sooo tired by the end of Saturday, but Sunday was a brand new day! We yoga-ed and exercised again and had a nice breakfast to create a good base for what was going to be consumed for championship football day! I was also glad to have a moment to take some pictures with my actual camera :)

Then, we rallied and went out to watch the two football games. We cheered, we ate, we bet on the game and commercials...... let's just say John and Megan ended up winning $22 from us in a double or nothing bubble hockey game. Nice job guys. 

We had such a nice, relaxing weekend. Much needed and well-deserved!! Until next year!

:: birthday love ::

Some final birthday love for the momma...

:: 57 ::

Have you ever wondered what 57 lit birthday candles looks like? It goes a little something like this:

It takes a many minutes to light.

It melts ice cream cake.

It burns the giver.

It surprises the receiver.

It lights up any room.

And it threatens to set off the smoke alarm!

Happy 57th Andrea!

:: bad combination ::

Don't try this at home. It is never a good idea to try to fly a remote control helicopter off your head......or this may happen:

Then, I heard Seth quickly say, "I'll go get the scissors!" 

Luckily, I stopped that idea in its tracks.

:: rookie league ::

Alden is not much of a team sport kind of guy, yet. When we tried Net Busters (soccer), last year, he just wanted to do it by himself, and soon, not at all. This year, when the idea of hockey came up, we knew he just wasn't ready, even if Owen started when he was four. However, Woodland's implementation of a non-commital rookie league team for all first year players was the perfect idea. Each week we bring him up to the ice to skate and he has just wanted to skate on the pleasure rink by himself. No team. It is amazing how quickly these little ones pick up skating.

BUT, last week, look what he did!

That's him standing in the middle looking at the camera. 

And that's him scooting along in the back.

And look, he's skating so fast, the picture is blurry. :-) You get the point. The original deal was 5 minutes with the team and he skated for 30 minutes! Go Ald!

:: new year's bowling ::