Bouncing Off the Walls

Welcome to a new week - we enjoyed a great holiday on Monday.  

I was literally "Bouncing off the Walls".  I had some serious energy and just had to get it out.  

Sam and I did a fun art project this week.  We made snow globes.  Let look at these up close and personal:

Here's Sam's:  He painted a Santa Claus sitting in a chair at the North Pole.

And here's mine:  I painted Mrs. Claus' house. 

In other happenings this week - we enjoyed some yummy ice cream with mom and dad.  It was sunny and warm that day and we enjoyed just soaking up the sun on the bench outside the ice cream place.  We were wishing we had our sunglasses on!

Here we are with mom, finishing up our ice cream.  

Sam Alert:  My faithful followers will remember that I love to be active.  Give me some outdoor time and I am a happy camper.  But in the winters my active moments are a little more calm and quiet.  Mom and I love to do yoga together.  We've been needing a yoga session and finally made time for one after school/work this week.  Here we are.  My favorite part on yoga on our backs is being able to hold mom's hand while we do our thing!

And in this picture (the lighting is awful) we're doing a hamstring stretch.  

Ah - yoga is great!  

 Sam Out - have a great week!

Winter-Ness

We're deep in "Winter-ness".  

It's cold outside and there is still lots of snow around.  School is in full-force and we're keeping busy and out of trouble (mostly!).  

We did manage to do a couple of fun things this week.  

Here we are with dad - oh how we love our dad!

And here is a family selfie.

We had date night with mom on Friday night.  (This is a cell phone photo and it doesn't import correctly - so turn your heads - - - or imagine that we're laying on our sides.  Which ever you prefer!)  We went out for dinner and did a little shopping.  We shared a shake three-ways.  Who knew you could get a neapolitan shake - chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry all in one - and not all mixed together. Each flavor all in its own section of the cup.  We were in heaven!

Dad's back was feeling good enough for a little wrestling this week.  We're all blurry because we were moving sooooo fast!

I got to go to one of my friend's birthday party.  They had a guy come from a local tropical animal place and he brought snakes (from tiny to humongous) and tortoises and lizards and tarantulas and all kinds of things.  It was so much fun!

Sam Alert: Hey everyone.  I had a good week too, except that I got sick on Saturday.  Just a little fever and just a sore throat.  I'm already feeling better today.  But this was how I spent yesterday evening.  Me and Mary Poppins on the dvd player!  A great way to be sick!

Sam out - talk to you soon.

Back In The Swing

Well Blogger is having troubles tonight - it won't let us upload any photos.  But that's ok, because we didn't really have any photos from this week.  This was a REALLY long week!  It's hard to come back from 2 weeks of time off to getting up really early every morning, working hard all day, homework, a school read-a-thon, Robotics, Spanish, and Chess lessons, and fitting in some sleep.  We're getting back in to the swing of things.  Maybe next week we'll actually take some pictures!

Have a great week everyone!

And A Happy New Year!

Goodbye 2013 ~ ~ and Hello 2014. 

We started our New Year's Eve off with some bowling. 

Sam is still using the ball ramp, but he's aiming and pushing it off all by himself now.  Here he is after a strike.

 

And I'm bowling without a ramp - it's harder than it looks!  Here's dad helping me with my finger placement.

 

Ah - dad and Sam.

 

Oh - me and mom.

 

Here's how we ended.  Neither one of us beat our best scores, but we had a really fun time!  (I'm Bones and Sam is Stitches, in case you're keeping track.)

 

We had a super yummy New Year's Eve dinner - mom was forced (by us) to abandon her Fondue tradition in favor of some delicious Surf 'n Turf.  We ate prime rib and shrimp and lobster.  Mmmm, mmmm, good!

 

We also made our New Year's wishes/toasts with some yummy sparkling apple cider.  

 

After dinner, we played lots and lots of games.  A little Go Fish anyone?

 

 

We celebrated our Countdown around 8:30ish . . . .

 

. . . . because we were getting up early the next morning to go shooting with Grandpa L and Uncle Noley and dad.



 

Here we are having some lunch.  It was a nice warm, sunny day out in the desert.

 

Two good shots!  

 

We also spent some much needed time at the local Bounce House this week, getting some energy out.  

 

We climbed and jumped and slid and bounced, for a long time!

 

This is truly one of our most favorite things to do!

 

It's so hard to catch a good picture because we move so fast when we're there!

 

We spent the rest of the week playing games . . . and having a sleepover at Uncle Noley's house.

 

We also built robots . . . .

 

 

. . . . and made lots of Lego creations.

 

 

Happy New Year Everyone!

 

Sam Alert:  Howdy y'all.  Mason and I both went to Chess Camp this week.  We had a chance to take a lesson from a Grandmaster through our school and we both had so much fun.  I think I'm going to get to take lessons with him this year while Mason does Robotics again.



 

We had a very enjoyable New Year's.  Mom handed over some noise makers and we managed to make even more noise than usual!

Sam Out - See you next week!

Merry Christmas 2013

Our Christmas week was great - hope everyone else's was too.

 

We started out with a play - The Cat in the Hat.  It was great!  We loved the fish - he was a puppet and he was great fun to watch.  Here we are at the theater.  We're lucky enough to get the same great seats every year!  Plus we got to ride the light rail train from our house up to mom's office to meet her for the play.  Talk about a great day!

 

After the play, dad treated us all to lunch at Hires - mmmm, mmmm, good!  It's now one of our most favorite restaurants.  

 

We finished up all of our shopping and mom and dad got our secret Santa gifts off to our angel family.  On Christmas Eve, we remembered to put out some special food for the reindeers.  

 

We also got to do a fun scavenger hunt to find our new Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve.  That was really fun!

 

We still enjoy our little train that runs around the base of our Christmas tree.  Watching that train run just never gets old.

 

We also read Christmas stories before we went off to bed.  Each one of us got to pick a story and read it to the family.  This is a picture of Sam reading "Santa's Stuck" to us.  He read the whole thing all by himself.

 

And then, finally - - - Christmas day came.  Here we are headed down the stairs.

 

We got a couple of great family gifts this year including a new basketball standard and tickets to see Mary Poppins this summer.

 

I really wanted some Skylander figures this year and Santa came through - - along with lots of other fun gifts including some games, lots of books, and a robotics kit.

 

Sam really wanted the "Game of Life" and Santa followed through.  He also got lots of books, other games, and a marble set and a science/circuit kit. 

 

Here we are playing with our new Aquabots - they are robot fish that really swim in water.  We even put them in the bathtub with us the other night.

 

 Here are Sam and I exchanging gifts.

 

 Our family and friends spoiled us again this year - thank you everyone!  We got so many great gifts.

 

 

 We pretty much spent the entire rest of the week in our pajamas just playing around the house.  Here we are playing Sam's new Life game.

 

We also got some Hexbugs that are really super fun to play with.

 

Here's dad and Sam setting up his marble maze.

 

We did manage to get dressed for a few hours on Christmas day and headed over to have dinner with Uncle Noley and Aunt Christy.

 

Ahhhh - PIE!  Nothing better than kicking back, relaxing, eating ANOTHER piece of pie.

 

We earned some iPad play time this week too - Skylanders!

 

We got busy one afternoon and put away all of our Christmas decorations for another year.  We're already thinking about Christmas 2014.

 

Here we are in a rousing game of Battleship.  What a great week we had!!!

 

Sam Alert:  Hey everyone - Christmas definitely lived up to my expectations this year.  It was great to be with my family and to have lots of time to relax and play.  Here I am opening a gift.

 

And here I am just being Sam.  I love being Sam! 

 

Thanks to everyone for all your kindness!  See you next week.