Happy 2011!

A few happy shots from the holiday break!  I love these goofy flowers!  Oldest two kiddos ganged up on me for Christmas and made this bouquet.  They know that I love anything loud, bright and colorful.  Ok... so they might have used the word "obnoxious", but I know they *meant* colorful!  I also have a very poor record for keeping plants alive.  The little green thing next to the colorful posies seems to have made an exception to my care.  Probably because it hardly ever needs water...  A colorful bouquet that doesn't need water, what could be better?  The BEST part... these posies are duck-taped to pens!  'Cause I manage to lose mine all the time!  Loud, colorful, easy-to-care-for AND useful... love it! 

Oh!  Sassy second kiddo saved the very best POLKA DOTTED flower for an antenna topper!  No photo yet 'cause this is a quick-'cause-I-gotta-write-out-bills post.  But lets just say, even *I* can find my car now!  (Just one more thing I frequently lose...)

And, speaking of sassy second kiddo... she and I have both been dreaming of making capes!  Big, long, sassy capes!  Kiddo chose black velvet for the outside and red stretchy velvet for the inside.  Have you ever tried SEWING yards and yards of velvet together???  It slithers all over the place!  The two-hour pattern turned into a monster project.  We were up until 12:30 finishing the bugger so that she could wear it to school today!  And we cheated A LOT on the bottom... we just COULD NOT get the layers to play nicely with each other.  But it is gorgeous!  She wanted a cape big enough to wrap her friends into.  It fit the two of us together nicely with room for more (had there had been anyone else awake past midnight).  Hmmm... needless to say, plans for my cape do NOT include yards of velvet.  And it will be a tad more obnoxious colorful.

And one more happy thought from vacation!  Skiing!  We got about 18" of beautiful white stuff the day after Christmas.  I love this line-up of fun gear!  We spent several days out trecking around in the woods.

My sister visited from California.  She gets excited about anything active and has been known to ski with large backpacks full of camping gear.  Can we just say that she is in *slightly* better shape than me?  I kept up bravely for the first couple of days, but by day three, I was wimpering and begging for a slower pace.  Yup, I slowed her down on that last ski.  Besides, I was a little worried about breaking my neck on some of those hills.  Guess I should have been worried about standing still on flat spaces though... I only fell three times.  Once for a hidden stump on one of those hills.  The other two times, I was standing still and got too excited talking with my hands.  Go figure...

But we got some surprise extra time with little sis!  Chicago airport shut down just in time to cancel her flight back and she was stranded on the east coast for four more days.  Aw shucks....  (insert happy dance here!)  Thank goodness I had recovered from the first round of abuse exercise and was ready for more!  We got one more day of crazy sister time!

And my ski team kids!  Love the sister grins!  And sweetie special third kiddo exploring the track behind my skiers! 

Youngest kiddo is my nervous-Nellie.  She needs to be eased into new activites and is very scared of learning new things in front of people.  She's been skiing for a couple of years now, so I didn't stop to think that *skate skiing* is new for her.  (Skate skiing is a very fast, graceful form of skiing used by competitive skiers for racing.)  And we missed the first couple of ski practices after Christmas because we were playing with my sister.  Those were the first team practices on SNOW.  Before the holidays, practices were all spent running.  Yup... tears.  She was sure that everyone else would be skiing gracefully past her while she fell. 

So we got to practice an hour early and sassy second kiddo gave youngest kiddo a lesson.  By the time the rest of the team arrived, my nervous-Nellie was managing a pretty fair skate-ski.  AND... three other jr. high kiddos were brand new to skis.  Yes... brand new to SKIS.  None of them had two years of experience balancing on long, skinny, slippery things.  There was the cutest line of new skiers following the coach around the track that day.  Like little ducks in a row!  Sooooo... that smile stayed on youngest kiddo's face all afternoon!

Ok... that's the happy thoughts for today!  Have a happy day!