School Is Going Well

Well, it is not a secret that both kids are very good students. Both of them are killing it with rocket math, going 5-8 above their goals. Kyra makes another killer with her spelling. Never mind she is doing all the words correctly on pre-test, so when she has 10 challenge words, she usually does about 8 correct even without looking at them.

So proud of both of them!

Pinewood Derby

Brandon did a great job with his car. Both boys went to Dax's Dad's workshop and cut out the shape of the car. They sanded it and painted it.
Of course, I could not imagine it to be any other color BUT orange :)

Flyers sticker on top and Brandon was good to go! Setting up

Watching

Results (funny how names of the boys rhymed - Brayden, Hayden, Jayden, Brandon :)

 I believe it is one of the times Brandon's car came first

 Award time

Bear den got trophy as fastest den, yay! (Jim, Dax, Brandon. Tucker, Ethan, Max's dad Trevor is in the back)

 Here is the baby!

Interesting how this child-parent event is tuned into parent event by some people. Some Dads who build/are carpenters for living could do absolutely crazy stuff with the cars to make them considerably faster. Micah's record was 0.53. Brandon's best time was 2.64.

In 9 heats he came once 4th, four times 2nd and four times first. So, although overall he was 10th out of 19 boys, he still felt good about himself - he did about 80% of his car by himself and did not lose wheels like last year :)

As always, good experience with scouts! Wonder what will be next year!

Basketball Is In Season

We had double header this past weekend. I do not mind basketball, I like how there is always action and I have to say even with my inexperienced eye I can see how much better boys play every time.

First game was 13-13 and neither teams could make it score, they went into overtime and watching them was nerve wrecking! (In a good sense, of course).. Brandon was like a ball, to and fro, to and fro.. After two games he said he was being considered for point guard (I think that is what it is called).

It is definitely great exercise, no doubt. I am glad Brandon is doing it this year :)
I am open!

 Team meeting

This Brutal Winter

I lost track of how many snow/ice days we had. Temperature is record setting - some states had as low as
 -25F (Iowa) at that time that we had -2F. C-R-A-Z-Y!

The last time we had cancellation because of this cold, what did kids do? Went outside to play 2 (!) times. Yip. Did not care for cold.

What do I have to say? Since November I am ready for spring!
Just pretty

For Mommy

I love my baby girl! Dedicated to me! Love me some her!

Kids Being Kids

7 and 8 year olds. It is all about butts and poop. Still. Even when we drive and look at car plates, if they see YBS, they WILL come up with something like Your Butt Smells. Really. I am sure we hear those words more than any other in this house.

Today I said "No poop/butt words at the table, just sit and eat, please". What could Brandon do? Right, he got up from his seat, did a step away and said "Butt, poop.. What? I am not at the table!" and they both went laughing. At least he is thinking :)

 I hope it will pass very very soon because I can not say how much I am tired of those words :)

Credit Score

I forgot to mention that when credit report was run for my new car, Pop told me my score - 735. I am ecstatic! I am in a great shape!

Eyes and Choices

Me and Kyra were lying in her bed snuggling before sleep. She looked at me with the lights off, just night light and said:
- Oh.. Your eyes look green. Not gray.
Me:
- Your eyes look gray in this light, not blue.
- Can you pick your baby's eyes when baby is born?
- No, you get what you get.
- Well, I do like my eyes blue. I would like to have brown now..
Don't we all wish we could change something about our appearances? Although, both of kids my kids' eyes are beautiful. Certainly, I can be biased :) but still. I would not have changed them for anything! :)

New Car

This time it was tough on the account of Ford redesigning Ford Escape. May I say I do not like it a single bit. It looks different, it takes so much useless room inside, I just did not want to get it at all and was resenting the whole idea of having to switch cars.

It would be 470$ to keep my present Ford Escape 2012 car. Ummm. Not feasible and just would not make sense.I tried new Fusion. I drove the one Pop has before and was not crazy about it. It is so much lower than I am used to. I could see those two were my only options so I had to pick or another.

Escape and Fusion would be the same price, so I had to choose. May be.. Just little may be the color of the Fusion was a little bit of a selling point. I loved the blue color. Could not wait to get it.

When we got the car, I did not have much time to figure out much because Brandon had basketball practice after supper. I came out a few minutes earlier the next morning to try to figure out the buttons.

This one does not have GPS or leather seats or moon roof, but now, after driving it for a few days, I must say I am absolutely in love with this car. It has so many tiny features that make things more comfortable. I love the bumps on 2 and 10 on stirring wheel. I love how much I can see in my back mirror vs Escape. I love that I have hiding spot between seats where I can put my cds (yes, I still use CD for music, not iPod. I love how comfortable seats are and how SMOOTH the car goes. Gliding, to be exact.

It took me a while to assign it to a gender. In the end I decided it is a girl. Is it silly? May be. :)

With this car I went even far and thought of a name. I could not find one, not Russian, not American. Kyra came up with the one - Sofi. Not Sophie, because that is too humanly cute :) But Sofi. Love this!

I like my fav space between seats in front of shift. There is secret place that you can't find unless you know it is there.

I just do not have navigation but the rest is the same

2014 Farm Show

We all were waiting for that day. Funny thing, school was cancelled because kids had early dismissal anyway at 12.30, so after giving 2 hour delay, LD was totally cancelled. We were worried that it would mean that we would not be able to go to Farm show, but roads were fine by afternoon, whooo-hooo!

Of course, we hit french fries, milkshakes and potato donut first. Brandon liked the donut and I have to say it did taste somewhat different from regular Giant donuts. 

This year butter statue was dedicated to 60 year anniversary of milkshakes. Crazy, huh?

To build something for 15 days? I know Brandon used to build something out of Legos for a couple of days.. But out of butter and 15 days??

You just cannot miss Butterfly House. One of my favorites. When you come in, they give you a q-tip dipped in Gatorade and apparently, butterflies like how sweet they smell/taste. This one, on Brandon's left arm did not leave him until an employee in the end removed it. His sleeve looked exactly like a wall in the butterfly house, I wonder if that was why it got stuck on Brandon for so long.

 At some point Brandon had 3 on his arm.

Bunnies! Who would ever refuse to pet a bunny? There were many bunnies, all different kinds in cages. It was fun going around and see different shapes, sizes and colors.

We looked at cows, roosters, turkeys, no pigs this year for some reason. Of course, sheep beat them all - this little baby is 2 days old. His momma had 3 babies and this one was the weakest so she totally rejected him. Owners took them to their house to raise, just put a diaper on him, made a hole for a tail and that was it.

He was soooo cute, still had trouble standing. Reminded me of Bambi at some point :)

Can't wait for next year to go again!

Brandon's Art

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE this picture. Brandon did it at art class. First he used the colors green and purple, then used pencil to outline the web, then glue and paint. Black spider with Sharpie. Did I say I love it?

Brandon's 2nd Basketball Game

Today was the second game in Conewago. Guys did a great job! They lost the game 22-18 but they worked so hard! Brandon was running up and down the court, making great passes and cheering his teammates when he was on the bench.
I was surprised how much I enjoyed watching the game and boys working it. So proud of my boy's hard work on the court!

Extreme Cold

Oh boy! Kids just had two weeks of school vacation.. Then they went to school for one day and then had one day off due to another snow storm.

Now they have school cancelled for tomorrow due to extreme cold temperature. Everybody on fb says it never happened before. Apparently, it is called "polar vortex". Airlines cancel flights and say their de-icing fluid is freezing in this weather.
My gosh, look at those temperatures. It looks like first predictions before they were talking about -48F.

With how wxcited kids for no school.... You would think they went to school for a month straight. I guess it is movie/blanket/coffee/book/board games kind of day tomorrow.

We ended up cleaning up basement and watched Monster's University besides just playing quietly. Brandon snuggled with me while watching and eating sun flower seeds :)

Kyra built this out of Jengas

Russian in Process

How happy it makes me to see how much Brandon wants to learn Russian. He asked for Skype password so he could talk to Baba. He asked for Russian keyboard on his itouch. He can spell his name in Russian and he totally can count till 10 with no help.

SOOOO proud of him!

Curse Word Rhyming

We were watching concert on TV and one word that Brandon heard was "damn" and he asked me if he did in fact hear a bad word. I said yes he did. At that Kyra said that Emma told her one curse word..
- Hmmm.. Which one is it?
- Well, Mom, it rhymes with kitchen but instead of K there is B as the first letter.

That is the way to learn them, huh? :) That is how fast time went. She already is learning curse words.. She is only 7..

Umm...Why?

Jimmy was telling the kids about procedure he had to get done. Then he said that when he went to the 2nd appt for check up, Head Dr did not like the way it was done before and did it again.
Kyra:
- Dad, why would a head dr do a procedure on you if do not have head injury?

I love her thinking mind so much!

8 Tooth Lost

I would have lost count if not for Kyra. She keeps it in order. Already 8!!

Oh Those Puppies!

Their favorites - roughousing with each other. Never gets too old. 

Just Back to School...Stop!

One day kids went to school and then.... snowstorm... another one.. 2 hour delay turned into snow day. One  thing it is snowy. But it is cold as.. I do not even know what to compare it with. It is VERY cold.

Brandon did not care. Got his hunting gear for warmth on and he is on the ball!