Happy (Chinese) New Year!

We celebrated the Lunar New Year on Saturday. That is what the Chinese New Year is...the lunar (ours is the calender, I guess) Billy told us all about it!

To celebrate, we ate dinner with chopsticks (which the boys now say they want to do with each meal), had fortune cookies (of which Jessie tried to steal from everyone!) and played Chinese checkers. I am not even sure why anyone else still agrees to play me, since I am undefeated and the undisputed champ!

Then we read what our zodiac signs were, and it was very funny! Some of the descriptions were right on.....and some were completely wrong. Billy's was the most close, and I hope mine was the most off.

Billy - Horse (proud, leader, argumentative and bull headed!)
JJ - Roster (clean, neat, vain, concerned about outward appearance, popular)
Mickey - Tiger (Maniacal, mean, organized, punctual)
Minnie - Pig (lazy, fat, slovenly....but well liked!)


We even did Jessie....she is a rabbit. We will have to wait until next year to see if the description fully matches her personality!

Oh nooooo....

The Mothman has been sighted in Virginia!

Pinewood Derby

The best night of the year for Cub Scouts.

Both boys made it to the winners bracket before being eliminated (and luckily they never had to race!) And great fun was had by all.

Plus, don't they just look so handsome in their uniforms?

A new adventure....

Snowboarding. We live so close to the mountains, we thought it would be important for the boys to have exposure to snow sports....they have chosen Snowboarding. Billy is in his second year of lessons....and JJ just his first. They are both picking it up pretty quickly...and are having a great time learning!

Apparently in this weeks lesson, they will 'graduate' from the bunny slopes and take the lifts up the mountain. Stay tuned for that report!

The Christmas Jar 2011

Last year at SSES, we attended a talk given by an author of the book, The Christmas Jar. The premises of the book is to collect loose change throughout the year and give it to someone or something in need. The story really resonated with us, and so we have brought that tradition home with us and made it our own. We have found that we collect enough change to donate 2x's per year....so we have a Christmas Jar....and an Easter Jar.

We spend some time discussing some worthy recipients for the Christmas Jar 2011(and yes, we are about a month behind on the donation...but better late than never!)and the boys finally settled on The Wounded Warrior Project. When the money in the jar was all counted, it totaled $32.26 and off the donation went. Although not a huge amount of money, we do hope it will make a difference to some brave soldier and perhaps his/her family somewhere.

Sickly

We have had a lot of sickness in the family lately....JJ is home from school today, Billy missed last week. And, it is compounded by a dog who thinks it is her mission to make sure everyone in the house stays up with her all night.

But, it is hard to stay mad at her when she consoles poor JJ in this manner....along with his beloved Teddy!

WAW!

This stand for 'What a Week'!

We first found out that the boys did really well in their Reflections Art competition at the district level. In the dancing entry, Billy placed 3rd in the district, and JJ was 2nd in their respective age groups. And get this.....JJ place FIRST in the district (that is all the city and county school combined) for his 'My Menagerie' book! Which means his entry goes onto the state level to compete. We are proud of that accomplishment as a result....but mostly proud of how much work he put into the effort. For his age, he could have drawn the pictures and had someone else type the words....but not our JJ....he wrote every word, and drew every picture in the 13 page book. Now he wants to publish it!

Now to brag on Billy....to try out for the school play this year for a role outside the chorus, everyone had to sing a solo song in front of teachers and other peers trying out for roles. Again, being as proud of the process....we were so glad Billy was brave enough to audition.....but get this, he got one of the roles.....The play is named The Prince and the Penguin, and Billy will STAR as General Patton Penguin!! He is so excited because he is going through a major military phase right now....and hopes he can dress up in camo for the part! Although we do not have the full script yet, Billy will have a number of lines in the play....and likely a few solo snippets!

Mickey and Minnie are not sure where the boys get these artistic talents...but in this case, the apples are falling pretty far from the tree!

Happy New Year!

We are a little behind with this post....but we have been busy. A new puppy, back to school, marathon training, the flu!

Our tradition on New Years Day is to open our 'time capsule' that has a variety of information from the year before....height and weight of the boys, a list of favorites from the year before and goals for the New Year. We did pretty good in 2011, it was quite a year. For 2012, we all plan to train Jessie into a great family dog and incorporate her into much of our family life. We can't wait to take her hiking and camping! We are also all going to work hard to complete our respective distance for running races in Virginia Beach: Mickey and Minnie the marathon....Billy and JJ the final mile.

The boys are also excited to start snowboarding lessons, and both want to keep progressing in Cub Scouts!

Other than than in 2012, we all want to come up with a new family hobby. What that is, time will only tell. In 2011....it was camping. Speaking of which, it is our goal to go at least 3 times this year.

Hopefully 2012 will be just as grand as 2011!

Jessie

Mickey finally agreed to us getting a dog. He wrote us a letter and gave it to us Christmas morning. A short excerpt: "I may have lost my mind, but here it is in bold letters....'YOU CAN GET A DOG WHEN WE GET HOME'! He went on to list conditions, and finished with this note: 'It's important to take our time and find the right dog. Don't just run out and get the first cute one you find'"

Then I (Minnie) went on to tell them this process might take months and that we wanted to be sure we found the best fit for our family.

48 hours after we returned home, we had Jessie. We went to the SPCA on the afternoon of December 27th, just to let them know what we were looking for in a dog. 10 puppies had been released that morning....rotwiller, lab and German Sheppard mix. We had Jessie the next night....and by the 29th they were all gone. We fell for the first cute face we saw....but I think we are pretty lucky. One week later, she is such a wonderful addition to our house....lots of fun, doing well with potty training, has not destroyed anything yet....but she keeps us up at night a bit. But, that soon will pass as her little bladder gets bigger! Finally another girl in our house of 3 boys, 2 boy cats and me. Jessie makes a perfect fit!

Christmas #2

We had another Christmas in Virginia.

JJ got a huge bear from Santa....and a great globe to study his obsession: Geography

Billy got a Nerf Gun and all kinds of fun things.

Merry Christmas!

We spent Christmas week in Ohio and had lots of fun doing cool things and seeing family members. Here are the top 5 things:

Billy:

#5-3: All equal....seeing cousins T & B, Cousin Dude and Mom Mom and Pas
#2) Nerf Gun fights
#1) Dad agreeing to get a dog! (there will be a future post)

Favorite Present: Repelling Gear


JJ:
#5) Going on the roof
#4) Build a Bear
#3) Cousin T & B
#2) Carrige Ride
#1) Learning jokes and wrestling with cousin Dude!

Favorite present: Eeyore hat