Reading Night

This last Thursday Ali had a reading night at her school.  The girls had gymnastics before it from 5-6 so we had to cut gymnastics short to get over to Ali's school for 6pm.  We were a little late but we made it.  I'm glad we went.  It was a lot of fun for Ali and it was nice to see Ali stand in front of her class and the parents  and read out loud.  Her reading has really improved lately and she has started to become an avid reader like her sister.  As she stood up to read her part with her group I had to laugh at the group she was in since the other three children seem like giants next to our little Ali.  She did a great job and read very clearly.  She didn't even stumble when she got elbowed in the face!

Happy 8th Birthday Sofia!

Sunday was Sofia's 8th birthday.  I can't believe my baby is eight years old.  We had all the family over on Sunday to celebrate.  When we asked Sofia if she wanted a theme for her party she chose Paris!  I guess I should expect that from our multicultural girls but I was a little surprised.  It was fun though to put it all together.  Thank goodness for Michael's craft store to supply all the necessary items to transform our kitchen/ eat in space into a Parisian restaurant. (Of course I forgot to take pictures until near the end of the party but you can see how it was set up in the picture.)
 I made quiches and bought french cheese and baguettes.  The only item that took some real hunting for was the croissants.  I wanted real buttery flaky croissants like the ones we had in Europe.  You just can't buy them here in the grocery store so I started my search online.  Fortunately I found a wholesale business that is about 45 minutes from us where I could buy a box of sixty pre-proofed (which means I can put them from freezer directly into the oven) butter croissants.  I wasn't sure how they would be but I figured it was worth a shot.  They turned out excellent!  Now I'm happy that we have left over croissants so I can enjoy a little touch of Europe on the weekends.  Anyway, Sofia was very excited to see all the decorations.  We had everyone write messages to Sofia on the blackboard in the kitchen as well which she has been rereading every day.  Some birthday wishes were even written in French...way to go family!  We finished the day putting the girls to bed and telling Sofia all about the day she was born.  She was excited to hear about it and found a lot of it funny.  I can't say I found any of the day "funny" at the time but I know all the pain of child birth was definitely worth it when I look into the eyes of my beautiful eight year old girl.  Happy Birthday Sofia!!

Skiing

We wrapped up our winter of skiing with some nice new snow. Over the girls school vacation week we headed north to get in our final days of skiing. The girl's lessons were finished so it meant we could ski as a family. It was a chance to see how much improvement the girls made this season. I am happy to say they made big improvements. Our final day of skiing was with about seven inches of new snow. I was a little concerned with how the kids would do because anyone who has skied northeastern fresh snow knows that it is not light and airy but heavy as a rock. It is still fun but with the kids little legs I wasn't sure how they would do. They did great. We started off on a green trail which was "easy peasy" so we headed up to a blue trail. The kids did great on the blue. Sofia is starting to parallel ski and Ali is trying hard to bring her skis together. We decided to try them on the headwall which is a black trail to see how they did. Sofia was a little hesitant but did a great job and Ali tackled the hill like it was nothing. As we stopped part way down and looked up the mountain I told the girls how proud they should be but I didn't tell them until we were down at the lift that they had just completed their first black trail. I remember my first black trail and my brother lied to me and told me it was blue. Once I did it he told me the truth but had he told me up front I probably would not have done it that day. I didn't lie to the kids to get them to do the black trail but I definitely withheld information since I knew it would scare them. They were proud to have done it and now that they know they can ski a black trail the blues seem even easier. We did a few more runs and hit another black trail, this time one that was all bumped up. They did awesome! It was a great way to finish up the ski season!

Running with my girls

We have had a pretty easy winter for running which has been nice.  Ali had asked a few times to run with me but it just hadn't worked out.  We finally had a weekend when we were not driving north to ski and the weather was absolutely glorious for running so we had breakfast and then I asked the girls if they wanted to run.  They were hesitant at first which I didn't blame them since relaxing on a Saturday morning is great too but I eventually convinced them to run with me.  It was such an awesome run.  We ended up running 1.8 miles (2.9km) and the kids did great.  They ran single file with me on the outside of them and they would occasionally switch positions as to who was in front.  There was no arguing about who was in front it was just something they worked out themselves and it was seamless.  We had such a nice time chatting during the entire run.  It was a great way to kick off a weekend.  I look forward to running with them this spring.

Super Bowl and Birthday

Now that we are back in the States we can resume our tradition of celebrating the Super Bowl with Jason's brothers.  Fortunately Jason's brother, Graham, was in Boston on business so all the brothers could be together.  We will have to wait until next year when Graham and his family move back to the States so we can have the complete family together.  Jason and I made a plethora of food, way more than necessary, but isn't that part of the Super Bowl?  His family arrived and we broke out the nachos followed by pull brisket sliders, buffalo tenders and BBQ wings.  By the end of the game everyone was stuffed.  Unfortunately as I'm sue everyone knows the Patriots lost the game which was a bit of a downer.  Let's hope for next year and gathering the family together for another party.

With everyone in town for the Superbowl it was the perfect time to celebrate Jason's mom's birthday.  Dan and Diane came down to visit on the Monday after the Superbowl and we all went out to dinner.  It was nice to have everyone gathered around a table again and to enjoy each other company.  Happy 70th Birthday Diane!