Vicariously.

We returned from our vacation and "real life" smacked me straight on. This week has been...long. And I'm only midway through. We got back from fun and family time and returned to Jeremy working 48 hours in a row, less than 12 hours together on a busy, busy Sunday and then I returned to working 12 hour days amidst Jeremy's additional 24 hour shifts. The next day we'll see each other is Friday- a good 5 days since the last. And all of that is amidst endless loads of laundry, kids who are sick now, a sinus infection for me, and all that comes with trying to catch up from last week. Boo, this week - you can head on out of here and let me move on to next week.

So, I'm living vicariously. On Sunday we took a (VERY COLD) bike ride as a family around Lake Padden. The kind of ride where we stopped at the only two bathrooms and had to spend 10 minutes with our fingers held under the hand-dryers just to barely feel them again. And it was beautiful. And crisp. And so nice to spend time as a family again after we lived it up so much together. I'm living vicariously through my own bike ride for this week.

Vacation fun day

Our time in Whistler was amazing. It struck me that skiing with two kids does in fact get easier with each passing year. Everything about the trip this year was perfect - the weather, the snow, the kids, the sleep, the skiing. We cram ourselves into a tiny bedroom and we basically all sleep in one bed together for a week and it seems every other year someone had a cold or was still nursing, or nightmares, or restless sleep, or woke up at 4am every morning. But not this year. No way. This year was our golden year. Perfection with a capitol P.

We skied 5 days this year, but we took off one day so the kids could "rest". Little did we know, we have just been building up their strength and endurance so a day "off" meant running around the village, going iceskating, out for cocoa, down to the new trampoline place, out for rootbeers, on to the bakery, back to the hot-tub, and then saving a little energy for a movie night. Phew. I think skiing might have been easier.

They had a great time iceskating. However, upon placing our feet on the ice, all of us realized that Evie is a natural and the rest of us are a hot mess. Especially Parker, who likes to excel at everything he does. We had some tough moments out there as he looked like a deer on a frozen pond and Jeremy and I did our best to hide our laughter as Evie literally skated past him on one foot. Oh, my. It's not easy to be outshone by your three year old sister. He took it in stride. After an hour. Sort of.

Everly has taken to just plopping down wherever she is when she feels the need to take a quick rest.


And as if all that ease and flair on the ice wasn't enough to show Parker who's boss, she then took to ice dancing. And I captured a tiny bit of it on video...

On to the jumping trampoline place. Where they both got to show off some new moves and Parker tried doing some tricks with a foam snowboard. They got all sweaty. And rejuvenated. How does that work?

 Enjoying some cheeks full 'o rootbeer.

 And then Everly and I snuggled her hands warm on our way back to the condo and Jeremy took this sweet photo of us. And then he managed to capture her reaction when I tried to give her a kiss. Such a snarl!

A bluebird day.

When the kids wake up with the sunshine, the flipside is being able to easily catch the first chair. So we did today. We were on the tenth chair up the mountain on the sunniest day of our trip. We never waited in line, and the kids skied so fast down the runs that we had to tuck at times to keep up with them. The sun followed us all over the mountain

Highlights:

Parker and Everly skied a 7 mile run at the end of the day. Incredible.

On a really icy run I told Everly "Make some turns - it will be easier" to which she replied "That's not easier! This is easier!" and proceeded to take off and ski straight to the bottom, going 90 miles an hour.

Parker found every jump, every tree trail, every opportunity to ski a wall that he could manage.

 

Everly asked me to take off her gloves so she could "dig some bloogers" and when I told her that's not polite, she said "Oh, excuse me. Please take off my glove so I can pick my nose. Is that politer?"

 

And at the end of the day, we had worn them out so much that Everly was too tired to even think about walking the last 50 feet to the condo. Sometimes one just has to lay down on the edge of the sidewalk.

Whistler

We get to join my parents at their condo in Whistler every year in February. Per usual, we get to ski with the kids from open until close, warm up in the hot tub every night, and watch a movie before bed (code for wind the kids down so they can fall asleep in a heap of exhaustion).

We've spent the last three days skiing all day, every day, so I have a bunch of pictures that look like the same photos over and over again, but they're actually over the course of several days on different runs on different mountains. The common denominator is that we're always having a great time.

My highlights so far:

Three year old tiny Everly was reprimanded by the mountain hosts ("Slow down!" they kept yelling) as  she skied WAY to fast down the lower runs. It was well-deserved - she was skiing too fast for the run and took about 20 feet to come to a stop before she called over her shoulder "Sorry!" Ha ha ha ha

Parker made his way into the trees (as usual) and found himself headed off of a seven foot drop. Which he launched himself over. And landed. Be still, my proud mama heart.

The sibling love-fest going on amidst this fun vacation mode. Parker and Everly share every run, every chair ride and love each other so much. Parker snuggles with her at night (so.much.patience) and carries her around the hot-tub for hours. So, so sweet.

it was a ChineseNewYearValentine's kind of day.

 Yesterday was a big day in our house. Parker's school learns Mandarin and all of the kids learned songs and plays in Mandarin and performed them by class. I was so proud of Parker and all the Kindergarteners learning three songs in addition to all of their introductory words. We did some participation in the audience and it was hard!

And then, of course is was Valentine's Day (or Valemtime's Day as it's called in our house). Two cutie little happy Valentine's who poured over cards and sweets from friends. Smiles all around, all day.

Playdates and Preschool.

I can't believe how fast time flies. It seems like it was just yesterday that I was amidst a flurry of beginning of school activities and now we're halfway through the year. As if I didn't realize how much they've grown already, today we had a twofer and Everly had a fun Valentine's Day party in her class and Parker had a big boy playdate after school. Good gracious! They're getting so big!

Write on, Valentine.

Fifty Valentines decorated, addressed, signed and sealed with a kiss.

sunday.

Sunday lived up to it's name and brought a cloudless blue sky. The kids and I celebrated by snuggling the morning away, making Valentines, and heading to the park. We did have a three hour reprieve when the car broke down, which is always interesting when dad is at work, but with the most gorgeous winter day one can  ask for, nothing can get us down.

Everly dressed for the 35 degree park with a swimsuit, hat and sunglasses. Parker always puts on appropriate attire and rode his bike all the way around the loop by himself for the first time.

Robot Party

Parker loves a party. He loves a gathering of friends, games, decorations - the whole lot of it. But a birthday party for this boy on or around his real birthday in January is a little too much. It's just after the holidays where we've done and experienced and gotten so much. So we delay it. We've always had his birthday party with friends about a month and a half after his real one. There were other 'big things' this year - this is the first year he has invited friends from school, had kids who came dropped off with no parents, and we also had games in addition to a little craft. He loved every minute of it. The seven kids who came were remarkable. Such sweet, well behaved and caring friends. They ran around and played and crafted and ate a snack and sang Happy Birthday. It was a perfect day.

 Grandma, our cake-maker extraordinaire delivered these beautiful robot 

cake-pops to the amazement of the party goers.

 The kids painted ceramic robot piggy banks first and then we baked them to set the glaze paint. They had tons of fun and then we sneaked a few pennies in so they rattled when they left. :)

 We had robot snacks and then ate robot cake-pops and sang Happy Birthday to a boy with a huge smile.

We played robot beanbag toss and pin the battery on the robot before we ate the snacks.

 Parker opened some very thoughtful presents.

 They filled bags with delights from a pull-string pinata.

 Some of the happy group. :)