February Winter Fun

Austin won the quarterly award for this class this quarter.   They are announced after Mass each quarter.  Sydney has tried really hard to win it this year. It's hard because they only select one student per class each year.  Austin has worked really hard and is always well behaved at school.  He was lucky and won it this semester. 

The month of February was very busy with basketball games.  They had like 14 games in February. It's fun to watch the basketball games. Austin has gotten better and everyone has enjoyed the season.  We had the end of season basketball party at our house.  We ordered pizza and had cake.  Everyone had a great time.

We also went skiing as much as possible.  Austin and Sydney love to ski.  Austin loves it even more. I have gotten better and have made it off the bunny hill.  We took the kids sledding at a local park this year.  We went several years ago and Austin remembers it.  We finally took them back.  They had fun.

Sydney attended the annual cheer clinic. She has fun performing her cheer at the basketball game. The basketball game is crowded but it's worth it to see her so excited. 

Brian had to fly out to LA for work.  It was short trip but we miss his while he's gone.

We have also found out the Sydney is lactose intolerant like Brian. We have been trying to avoid milk for her. She loves Nutella so it's hard for her. 

Austin's 9th birthday

For Austin's birthday this year, he decided that he wanted to have a snow tubing party.  I was nervous about the weather. Austin always likes to do something different for his birthday.  We had never went to a snow tubing party before. 

This winter has been mild. It's a bummer for skiing.  However the day of his party, it was cold.  The temperatures were in the teens.  The kids didn't seem to mind though. Everyone had a great time!  We had about 20 kids come.

On his birthday, he went to school.  Then after school, we went skiing.  Skiing is Austin's favorite activity.  We all skied for a few hours then went to IHop for dinner.  Austin loves breakfast for dinner so it worked out.   Austin also loves smiley faces.  He makes them all the time and he even had to add one to his basketball birthday cake.

Brian traveled to Las Vegas in January.  With all the activities of ski club, basketball and soccer the kids were okay with him being gone. Luckily it was a short trip as well. 

Brian coaches Austin's basketball team.  He's been busy with that. Austin and Brian have enjoyed it too. Sydney continues to do soccer, basketball and piano. She's busy.  She has started to love basketball again. Next year she should be able to be on a team that plays games.  Right now, she just practices once a week.  That makes us happy.

New Year's Cruise

We left Saturday afternoon for our cruise.  We flew to Houston first then to New Orleans.   Brian had a basketball practice Saturday morning.  Then we finished packing and got ready for the airport.  Our flight was at 6:30pm.  We flew to Houston.  Then we only had an hour layover in Houston for our flight to New Orleans.  Luckily he had no issues and our flight was on time.  We arrived in New Orleans at 11:30pm.  Then we took a taxi to our hotel. We stayed at Hampton Inn Convention Center.  It was a great location and they were very nice.  We even got upgraded to a bridal suite room.  It’s the biggest hotel we ever had. 

On Sunday morning, we had a nice breakfast at the hotel.   Then Brian found a street location that was nice for pictures.  We took an Uber (Brian knows how do to that, me not so much, lol).   We got a family picture then we walked around the city.  We walked down to the Mississippi River. It was very foggy.  Then we walked and saw some street performers.  We stopped at a store and the kids got a headband and necklace for New Years.  Then we went to Bourban Street.  The kids were not as impressed with that.  They had several slushy machines all with alcohol.  That greatly disappointed Austin. 

Then Austin kept seeing a trolley and he really wanted to ride it. I wanted to ride it too.  It did look cool.  We found out how to get on and we rode it just a few blocks.  That made Austin very happy.  Then we took an Uber back to our hotel to get our stuff for the cruise ship. 

We were annoyed when going though security with they took half open water bottles.  We always travel with 4 water bottles and empty them before going though security at the airports.  I didn’t think it was a big deal with the cruise.  We have cruised multiple times before without issues.  Then we went to get on cruise they were not giving Lattitudes members priority boarding.  They were just sending everyone in the same line.  Again not the biggest deal but still annoying nonetheless.  Once on board, we headed up for lunch.  We explored the ship.  Brian and the kids did the ropes course.  I didn’t have the right footwear and was fine just chilling and watching them.  We had dinner at the main restaurant. 

On Monday, it was a sea day.  We went swimming. It was a little cool but we still had fun swimming for a bit.  We also did the ropes course.  Austin and Sydney also did the spider slide and the bounce jump.   Austin and Sydney enjoyed watching some TV in the room as well.  They don’t watch much TV at home so they enjoyed this chill vacation.  It was also formal night so we got dressed up for pictures and had them taken throughout the ship.  Then we enjoyed dinner. 

On Tuesday, it was New Year’s Eve.  We docked in Cozumel.  We went to Playa Mia.  We enjoyed it there.  We went to the floats out in the ocean first and climbed on them.  Brian, Austin, and Sydney climbed on the inflatables and jumped off.  I was not as brave.  We played out there for over an hour.  Then we back to the beach and the kids played in the sand.  They really enjoyed it.  Then we checked out the pool, slide and playground.  We ended our time there on the beach.  It was a great day! 

That evening we chilled in the room for a bit.  Then I took the kids up on deck to play.  Brian and I had a miscommunication.  I thought we would just be up there for an hour then we would nap.  Brian thought since we went up there we would not be napping.  Brian and Austin were on the ropes course for 2 hours.  Sydney and I didn’t have much to do.  Finally they got down and we got ready for dinner.  Dinner was not very good.  After dinner, we went up to the buffet for snacks.  We walked around the ship trying to keep everyone awake until midnight.  I was not felling well but wanted to make it to midnight.  We were on the top deck on the ship watching the cruise director smash 2019 ice sculpture and put in the 2020 sculpture.  Then I knew I had to get to a bathroom.  Luckily I made it in time before I vomited everything I had that night.  It wasn’t a great New Year’s for me. 

On Wednesday, we were in Honduras.  We booked a shore excursion for horse back riding.  We thought it sounded cool and the kids were excited about it.  We had a 45 minute drive to it.  Once we arrived, we checked in and got some information (trying to sell us stuff) we got on horses.  The horses were well trained and knew exactly what to do.  We walked around the park then they went into the water to in island.  That was a cool experience.  The water was deeper than we all thought to get there.  But the horses did great.  Sydney said this was the highlight of her trip.  After horse back riding we hung out at the beach until the transportation took us back to the ship. Unfortunately it was raining a lot so there was not much to do.  We also bought the pictures they took of us while horseback riding. 

On Thursday, we were on the private island in Belize.  We enjoyed the beach for a long time.  The kids made a deluxe sandcastle.  They searched for shells in the ocean then collected them for their castle.  The worked on it for hours.  They played a lot in the ocean too. They also checked out the little splash pad area and the pool.

On Friday, we docked in Costa Maya.  This is Austin’s favorite port.  He loves the waterpark there.  We were undecided on weather to do it because we were only in port until 1:30pm. But since Austin loves it so much we did it.  When we arrived it was extremely windy.  In fact, one of the ships were not able to leave the day before because of the wind.  We luckily were able to dock and get to the waterpark.  At the waterpark, they have ziplining. Sydney and I had never done it there before.  Last time we were there, Sydney didn’t want to do it.  This year she did. It was cool! After ziplining, we did the zip roller coaster which was fun too.  The only crazy part is it lands in the water.  We got wet!

Then we checked out the long lazy river and the pool.  We went to the kids play area with some slides too.  Austin and Sydney played together on the little slide area.  Then Austin and Brian went to the big slide area. Sydney was not interested in doing the big slides.  Sydney and I played Marco Polo in the big pool.  Then it was able time to leave.  Brian and Austin came over before they did one more big slide that went straight down.  After they were done, Austin wanted to do it again.  Then Sydney wanted to do it.  So Brian took both kids down it again.  Then we went back to the ship. 

Saturday was a sea day.  The kids had also gotten into Deal or No Deal gameshow while on this cruise.  Some guy gave them a used card and they enjoyed playing with that.  Brian even came up with a game that if they had a match on the card, he would give them $5.  They really enjoyed that.  It was cooler on Saturday.  But that did not stop Austin from going down the big waterslides on board.  It was freezing. I had my coat on but Austin was going down waterslides. That crazy kid.  Sydney enjoyed climbing to the top of the rock wall. 

We had a great cruise vacation.  It was relaxing and we got to do a lot of fun stuff.  We do a lot of cool things all the time but our schedules are always on the go.  Sometimes I wonder if that’s what we should be doing but it works for us.  We have very little relaxing time.  Brian works so much so it was great for us to reconnect as a family without much internet and enjoy each other.   

Christmas

Christmas Eve we had our friends over and the kids exchanged gifts.  They got Austin and Sydney laser tag game which they liked.  Then we finally made Christmas cookies.  We had been so busy we barely fit it Christmas cookies but we did just in time for Santa.  Then we went to church.  After church, we went to McDonald’s for dinner. We are continuing the tradition. 

That evening, Brian’s mom and Mike and my mom all came over to spend the night.  Brian’s mom was in town this year.  Also this year, things were all set which was so nice.  It was much less stressful.  The kids left out carrots for reindeer and cookies and milk for Santa.  They went to bed fairly quickly and Austin got up at 4am. 

He worked on his book report until he was able to wake up Sydney at 6am.  At 6am the kids went downstairs and opened their gifts.  Austin received a big drone, hot wheels car wash, pet penguin, game, and CD player.  Sydney got a new kindle (she broke her old one a few months ago), unicorn hair styler, and penguin.  She also got unicorn string art and Frozen lego set.  They had a great Christmas.  My mother and I made breakfast that turned out great.  I didn’t burn the cinnamon rolls this year.  After breakfast my mom went home.  The kids played with their toys.  Then we went down to her house for dinner.  It was a great day. 

After Christmas we had to get all the decorations down since we were leaving for a cruise on Saturday.  Brian took down the Christmas lights the day after Christmas because it was 60 degrees and we were leaving.  We didn’t want to leave them up while we were gone and have to deal with taking them down once we got back.  Brian goes to Las Vegas after we get back so it’s going to get busy once again. 

Christmas Activities

We went to a local farm and picked out our Christmas tree.  The kids always get to pick out the tree. It's their responsibility to cut in down and drag it back.  It's a lot of work for them. It also develops team work.  They found the perfect tree.  

We started our family Christmas activities with Lake Farm park.  We always enjoy doing the breakfast.  The kids love eating breakfast and it is less crowded than at night.  After breakfast, we saw Santa then the kids made their wooden toys.  All the wooden toys go under our Christmas tree each year. It’s neat to see them every year.  This year Austin made a frog and Sydney made an angel.  They really take their time with them painting them perfectly.  The kids rode a pony after their toy making. 

Also in the beginning of December Austin had his first basketball game.  It was so fun to watch.  They even won.  Brian does a great job coaching them.  Sydney has also started basketball.  She doesn’t get to play games yet but she’s really liking it too. 

The school had its annual gingerbread house contest. The kids enjoy making their gingerbread houses.  Sydney also had a piano recital the same day so we left the gingerbread house making early to take her to that.  Austin stayed at the school with some friends.  He hears her play piano every week so figured it was okay for him to miss it. 

Another fun night is when Santa comes to our house in a firetruck.  It’s always so fun.  The kids were outside screaming when they could see the flashing lights.  He even came early this year.  Santa even bought them a present.  Austin got building domino blocks and Sydney got a stuffed animal.  They were so happy. 

Austin and Sydney also performed in the school Christmas concert together.  It was great for them to be in it together.  It only goes until 3^rd grade so unfortunately this was the last year of that.  They each sang two songs with their class and then they did one with 2^nd and 3^rd grade.  They made sweatshirts this year to wear at the concert.  The whole class matched.  I helped with each of their sweatshirts.  It was cute. 

Brian and I each went out in December.  We usually don’t go out much together.  We enjoy spending time with the kids so we usually do things as a family.  A group of parents went out on a limo bus to downtown brewery.  It was a lot of fun!

The Cavs put on winter fest at the Q (Rocket Mortgage Field house)  each year for season ticket holders.  Luckily this year we could go.  We got there early so we could ice skate.  We know that ice skating gets busy.  We ice skated for a while.  The kids are getting good at it.  They are not as good as skiing but getting there.  Then we even met Zivic.  Then we had some dinner and made some cookies.  Austin and Sydney made an ornament for the tree as well.  It was a good night. 

I helped with Sydney’s Christmas party at school.  They played a game and did some crafts.  Then they decorated cookies.  Austin didn’t have a Christmas party.  They had a Grinch day which he liked as well. 

We went out to see a Kent State basketball game with some friends from basketball.  Austin and the boys enjoyed watching the game.  Sydney and the girls played most of the game. 

We ended all of our Christmas activities with Mr. Kringle’s Inventionasium.  We were bummed because the talking tree near it was not working.  However the Inventionasium did not disappoint.  The characters are great.  They have fun doing all the stations.  Sydney gets more excited about it but Austin still enjoys it too.  They even got to make a toy and bring it home this year. The problem with the toy was it didn’t stay together well.  They loved making snow.  And seeing Mr. Kringle is magical!  They got a stuffed dragon to bring home as well. 

After Mr. Kringle we went to a Cavs game.  We even got upgraded seats for this game.  They were probably the best seats we had.  They were 13 row behind the visitor bench.  It was even a good game and the Cavs won.  We truly had a magical holiday season!

November Fun

At the beginning of November, we had teacher conferences.  We are always worried about Austin since he’s had trouble hearing but so far things are going well. He’s also getting all the special help he needs to hopefully catch back up.  Sydney’s conference was quick and easy.  It appears things come easier for her.

Winter sports also started.  Sydney decided she wanted to play indoor soccer at a local soccer club with some friends. She had to try out and made the team.    Austin started basketball with Brian coaching.  This year they will play games against different schools so that’s fun.  Austin continues to play tennis once a week.  Sydney continues to go to piano lessons once a week.  To say we are busy is an understatement. 

Brian also had to go to China for a week for his big build at work.  The kids are always sad when he leaves.  We kept busy with all the activities though. And before we knew it, he was back home. 

Once he got back from China, he spent the weekend putting up Christmas lights.  It’s always a time consuming project.  He kept him awake and the weather wasn’t bad.  They were put up that weekend. 

I hosted Thanksgiving again this year.  My mom came over.  I made the traditional Thanksgiving menu with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, rolls, and cranberry sauce.  Thanksgiving is Austin’s favorite meal of the year.  He loves it!  Sydney got a GI virus the Wednesday before and we were worried we would have to postpone Thanksgiving.  Luckily it was a quick virus and she was fine by Thursday.  However Sydney doesn’t like the food like Austin.  I think she only had dinner rolls and corn. 

Thanksgiving evening we went to see Frozen II at the movies.  It was very good movie.  We all liked it.  We think it’s better than the first one. 

We found out that Brian is lactose intolerant.  We also had Sydney tested too. She is also lactose intolerant.  We are trying to avoid milk products however that’s been a challenge for her.  Most of the foods she like has lactose in it.  She has started on almond milk with no issues.  I hope once things calm down I’ll be able to figure out stuff she can eat.  She doesn’t like the chewable lactaid pills and she can’t swallow the pills.  So she knows if she eats something with milk, she’ll have a bellyache. 

Some girls from girls scouts and the moms went to see the Nutcracker.  Some second graders were in it.  It was very cute. 

October Fun

October has lots of fun fall activates.  This year,  the kids loved the drive in.  With it closing soon, we made sure we took them to see the Addams family.  We saw it too weekends in a row because one was trunk or treat.  It was so much fun for the kids.  Drive in twice for Addams family.

Austin finished up flag football.  He's had a great 3 years of flag football but this year is the last year.  Next year, kids play tackle football.  Austin is not interested.  The last year was nice because his team won the championship. 

Sydney finished up outdoor fall soccer.  She has fallen in love with soccer.  It's definitely her sport.  Some of her friends are doing an indoor league.  We signed her up for that.  It's going to be a busy winter. 

We took the kids to boo at the zoo.  They still love going so we made sure we took them.  This year, Austin was a tube man and Sydney was princess Jasmine.  We also went trick or treating at my mom's house.  The weather was so terrible this year.  I didn't even go out in it.  Brian took the kids in the cold rain for 2 hours.  He's such a great dad! 

With football being done, Austin has picked back up on tennis.  He goes on Sundays.  He enjoys it.  There was some talk about Sydney trying tennis too but she decided to stick with soccer. 

I took the kids to treat or treating at the Q (Rocket Mortgage Field house but i like the Q better).  Brian was at a coaches basketball meeting so he couldn't come.  We met Jordan Clarkson.  They did a few crafts and got some treats. 

Brian has taken Austin to some Cavs games.  We only have 2 seats to half the season this year.  It works out with the kids busy school and activity schedules. 

On Halloween, the kids had truck or treat at school which I did with another mom.  It's fun to see them.  Then I did Sydney's classroom party.  Then Brian took them trick or treating around our neighborhood with the neighbors.