Happy Birthday Tyler! And Happy Valentine's Day!

2 days late, but Tyler turned 17 Friday! He got lots of bucks and nice cards, thanks to all. He chose to eat at Space Aliens, so that's where we went for dinner Friday. Grace and I made him a cake.....I'm really lucky he let me take his picture holding this cake, he is anti-camera these days.

Grace and Ben went out to play in the snow this afternoon.  They look like bank robbers with their ski masks.  Don't mind Ben's girly scarf and mismatched gloves...with 4 kids you'd think I could match a pair of gloves, but no such luck.


And I assume that Matt is having fun in Montana skiing...I've tried to call him several times but he hasn't answered.  I did get this lovely picture sent to my cell phone.

Gracie's Valentine's Day program

The first grade had a cute little valentine program tonight.  They sang songs and did actions.  Of course Ms. Thing acted her little heart out!  She wanted her hair curled so I spent about 15 minutes on it with the curling iron.....and by the time we left for school it was almost flat again LOL.  She didn't inherit any of my crazy curls, which may be a good thing!  She did her own 'makeup'...pink eyeshadow and lovely sparkly lip gloss. 

Off topic...check out this loaf of french bread I bought at Wal-Mart the other day.  I cut off the end and the whole loaf had a big hole in it.  Unfortunately we didn't get to have garlic bread that night.

Matt had a basketball game tonight too.  Tyler and Rich went to it so I could stay home and get Grace ready for her program.  They won by 8 points and played really, really well!!!  Rich said it was the best he's seen Matt play.  He had 9 points and must have heard our last lecture about playing defense because he had quite a few steals as well.  He leaves for his ski trip tomorrow...thanks Grandma C and Grandpa J for the ski trip contributions, Matt says he appreciates it very much :). 

Sign of spring?

We saw the oddest thing today.  There were about 20 robins flocking around the tree in our backyard!  In the snow!  They must have their climates or hemispheres confused, because there will probably be about 3 more months of winter here.  They were pretty though!

All 6 of us went to the movie Avatar this afternoon.  It was really good!  All of the kids loved it...Grace wasn't over the moon for it, but it WAS almost 3 hours long.  She was more freaked out by the previews than by the movie...there were some really scary trailers!  I think the movie industry needs to cut prices a little bit...it cost our family of 6 $80 to see a movie (counting snacks).  Ridiculous!  After the movie we went out to eat at Perkins with our gift card from Grandma and Don (thanks!!).  It was a good Saturday!  Tomorrow we plan on church, Iowa basketball game at 11:00, and the Super Bowl....GO COLTS!

Coming soon...ski trip!

Ok, just for Matt.  He is going skiing in Red Lodge, Montana next weekend with his confirmation class.  It's actually almost to Yellowstone.  I think it's about 7 hours from here.  He's really excited, even though he's never been skiing!  He will definitely have to take a lesson or two, but he's pretty quick with picking things up.  The town looks beautiful, we may have to take a drive over there this summer.  Really, Yellowstone is only 7 hours away, who knew?!  If anyone would like to contribute to the Matt Kinney Ski Fund, he is taking donations ;).

They had a better game last night...Matt's team won 36-22.  Matt had 4 points.  His feet are feeling much better since he's been wearing the ankle braces. 

Grace went to her friend Carli's house yesterday after school for a play date.  She really, really loves playing with other girls...too many boys here!  She didn't go to school today because she was up part of the night coughing.  Nothing major, just a little cold.  I signed G up for soccer today...it is outdoor soccer in April and May.  I am fairly sure it will be freezing and snowy in April and May...should be interesting!

One week from today Tyler turns 17!  Holy cow!

Happy Birthday Rich, Matt bball, Ben cleans

Rich's birthday was Saturday....43!  He bought himself a new hat over Christmas, which was his birthday present.  We got him a neck massager and let him pick what to do Saturday, and he decided that he wanted to go to the Y with the kids.  He worked out a little and I walked around the track with the little kids a bit, then played some basketball.  Then Rich took the little ones swimming. 

Lucy decided to burrow in a comforter and take a nap :).

Matt had a game tonight....possibly one of the most frustrating games of them all.  He had 3 points and played well, although he fouled out (2 were illegal screens :(  ).  A few of the boys on his team can play ok, but my gosh, some can seriously hardly dribble!  I feel bad for them but it's hard to watch.

When I got home from the game, this is what I found:

Yes, that's Ben wearing rubber gloves and cleaning the toilet.  Not sure why, but he decided that he wanted to clean the bathrooms, which was ok by me!