Happy Birthday JJ.....8 is great!!!

JJ turned 8 this year. And we celebrated a few times. And, since he asked for money for his birthday to go to Great Wolf Lodge....we will celebrate again when we go there this summer! Here are some highlights: School....where Minnie took in Strite's Doughnuts for he and his classmates: Then his birthday dinner, where he wanted to have steak and eat on our good china and get dressed up and be 'fancy': Now in his minecraft sweatshirt, a birthday gift! Getting ready to eat his favorite...cupcakes! And with cousin, sir cuss a lot, whom he shares a birthday with. In Ohio:

Shamrock On!

Billy and JJ both did races at Virginia Beach over St. Patrick's Day weekend. JJ ran a mile in 11:48. Here he is in action: And Billy ran a whole 8K....which is just under 5 miles. He did it in 1 hour and 2 minutes!!! Here he is after the race with Billy, who ran it with him.

Finally....A Snow Storm

We waited all winter and have had very little snow....but on finally, on March 6th.....we got 18 inches and had so much fun playing in the white stuff! Much fun was had by all.....but most especially, J-Wow!

International Night

The boys worked hard and presented Wales at the SSES International Night. They maned the both, talking about the Welsh Dragon, Love Spoons and King Arthur and were busy handing out Welsh Tea Cakes and Daffodil Bulbs. One of the organizers of the event told us the next day that the Wales table 'was a big hit'! Top three things the boys learned / liked about Wales: Billy: 1) Most of Wales is small towns like G-Ville. Many houses have names based on geography or location instead of a street name. 2) Tea time is cool....and Tea Cakes are great. 3) The stories about King Arthur are neat, but I do not think they are real. JJ: 1) I like the Dragon on the flag, and the story about him. 2) King Arthur lived there. 3)It would be fun to have tea every day...but I would have lemonade instead because I do not like tea.

JJ gets 'Romantic'

JJ had a 'writing prompt' at school the day before Valentine's Day. He had to pick out a handful of the sweetart heart candies with short sayings on them....then construct a story. His teacher suggested that maybe they try and be 'romantic'. So here is what he came up with (the sweetart words I will note in italics). Part 1: Talking to a girl: You are my true love, sweetheart. You are my favorite girl. Will you marry me? Say Yes. Come on, Wink Wink! Doy you like me? Part 2: Talking to Dad: Dad, why won;t you let me marry her? I love her! You told me, Dream Big! I did dad. Part 3: Finding a wife: I found her at the pond. I asked her to dinner. She was so dreamy. We got married. Since that day, we have been happy. I said, hug me BABE! My dad says every day, High Five! We all lived happily every after! So, what do you think.....has he got MAJOR or ZERO Mojo?????

Happy Valentines Day

We had a fun Valentines Dinner, complete with heart shaped pizzas and yummy red velvet cupcakes. Although, the pizzas ended up looking a lot more like Ohio than hearts! Each family member wrote out reasons why they loved each other. Some highlights: Mickey to Minnie: You are not a Communist Billy to Minnie: You do not let minecraft take over our lives JJ to Billy: You introduced me to prepping Minnie to Billy: You picked out J-Wow! Such wonderful reasons, don't you think!

A State of Mind

Its Friday....and the boys were especially 'squirrely' this morning. Must have been all the sugar from V-day last night. Here is a highlight from each boy's sate of mind: From Billy: We were discussing the perfectness of J-Wow and how lucky we are to have her. Billy said she has the exact amount of wrestling and fighting in her for him, Mickey and JJ.....but also cuddly enough for me. He then said she also has the perfect amount of watch dog in her to keep us safe. To which I replied, 'Sometimes its too much watch dog (I am pretty sure the neighbors hate her because she incessantly barks at them). Billy's reply....."Mom, you will be happy about that when doomsday comes! From JJ: This winter has been very mild....yet that has not stopped the kids from getting out of school for 'weather' or at the very least multiple 2 hour delays. It has become a running joke that they never go to school.....if it is too sunny, it might blind them and thus, early release! I do not think between the delays and scheduled days off and early releases and our vacation that they have been to school a full week since October! So, today, facing almost a full week (scheduled early release on Tuesday), JJ was especially dreading a FULL DAY and asked me in all seriousness if there was a chance they could get out early today. When I said No....it is going to be 50 and sunny, he then wondered (again in all seriousness) if I would call in a bomb threat to school!