And Down the Stretch They Come

The kids have entered the home stretch - the last nine weeks of school! Didn't they just start yesterday?! Seth will be wrapping up his first year in high school (at least 5" taller - or so it seems - and with his learner's permit in hand) and Jenna will be wrapping up her last year at the elementary school. Steve and I went to a parent meeting for the new middle school and we're excited that Jenna will be opening a brand new, state-of-the art middle school when her class enters in August.

The kids will be on spring break starting on April 2 through the following week. Right now we don't have a lot of plans. We are planning to meet Sharon on Monday to go hiking, but other than that there is nothing on our calendar for that week - which is nice. I hope the weather is nice so we can be outside a lot.

I'm actually looking forward to summer break this year since we've had such a busy school year. It will be nice not having to keep up with schedules, homework, band, fundraisers, etc. Steve will have to travel some for work this summer - going to Michigan, Wisconsin and maybe Maine. We're going to try to get back to South Carolina at some point this summer. Jenna is planning to go to a Christian day camp the last week in June with some other kids from church. Seth was planning to go back to Fargo but unfortunately we think that trip is going to be cancelled due to low numbers. He will have band practices throughout the summer and is planning to go to Centrifuge at Union University in Jackson, TN with the youth group. I am looking forward to our family vacation in July - we're going back to Perdido Key on the panhandle in Florida.

Steve Turns 50!

We have had a fun weekend celebrating Steve's 50th birthday. The celebration began for Steve when he walked into his office Friday morning to find a sea of black balloons, black streamers, black decorations, etc. His co-workers took him out for lunch at Jonathan's. Friday night Steve wanted to use his birthday coupon for a free burger from Red Robin so we went there for dinner and stopped at Cold Stone Creamery on our way home for ice cream.

When we got home Friday night, the kids gave Steve his birthday present from us - his very own personalized Steeler jersey (notice the number on the jersey). We told him he had to wear it and be dressed and ready to go on Saturday at 1:30.

On Saturday, the kids and I hosted a drop-in for Steve from 2:00 - 5:00. About a month ago, I had a flash of creativity (which doesn't happen very often) and I came up with the theme "Counting the Years" since Steve is an accountant. His high school and college colors are the same (red, white and black) so those are the colors we used for decorations. The tables were simply decorated with bunches of red, white and black balloons and bowls of M&M's and peanuts and we had a marble cake and punch. Many friends from church, work and neighbors came. It was a fun afternoon. Some people brought "50 of something" for Steve - he received 50 M&M's, 50 jelly beans, 50 pennies, 50 prunes, a 50 foot electrical cord, 50 puzzle pieces, etc.

After the drop-in, Steve to go to Bucca di Beppo for his birthday dinner. My sister, Sharon and her husband, Brad joined us. After an hour wait, we had a great Italian meal. My sister and brother-in-law even presented Steve with a trophy for turning 50!

When we got home Saturday evening, Steve opened all his cards. I had been confiscating the cards that came in the mail.....so he had a lot to open!




Steve reading some of the memories family and friends sent in.

A neighbor helped me and Jenna make a tri-fold display. We listed places Steve has lived, schools, college, special places, etc. and put pictures on it.

Also on that table were special pictures from throughout the years, starting with his baby pictures.

Seth is Driving!

Seth got his driver's permit yesterday! Not too many kids get a car when they get their learner's permit.....but Seth did. We went to Steak N Shake for dinner and he got a 55 Sunbird.

Father-Daughter Dance

Jenna's school hosted a father-daughter/mother-son dance last night. Jenna was so excited to go with Steve. She saved her money and bought a new dress for the occasion and she would not allow Steve to see the dress until she was completely ready for the dance. (She even picked out what Steve would wear so they would coordinate!) They made an evening out of it and went out to eat at Olive Garden before the dance.

Since Steve and Jenna were going out, Seth and I went out too. We went to dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and then to Books-A-Million to look around. Seth was estatic that he found a book for just 98 cents! The evening wouldn't be complete without dessert so we went to Target to get ice cream (Ben and Jerry's!) to take home to enjoy while watching the Olympics.

GREAT WOLF LODGE

Last year on a whim I entered an on-line sweepstakes for a family package for Mason County, OH (right outside Cincinnati, OH). I ended up winning one of the 30 packages that included a three day, two night stay at the Great Wolf Lodge, a $100 gas card and four two-day passes to Kings Island Amusement Park. We decided we didn't want to use everything on one trip. Great Wolf Lodge has an indoor water park, so we wanted to take full advantage of that and then use the Kings Island passes another time. We finally made time to go this past weekend since the kids were off school on Monday for President's Day. The original plan was to drive to OH on Sunday morning but due to the forecast for that day for bad weather moving into TN and KY, we left Saturday afternoon and got a room at a Comfort Suites at the same exit at Great Wolf. This actually worked out better because we had a full day on Sunday to enjoy Great Wolf. We arrived at the lodge about 9:15 and they allowed us to register and use the facilities before checking into our room. Great Wolf Lodges are known for their indoor water park. It was a lot of fun! They have about four water slides - one which is automated and like a roller coaster - a lazy river, a wave pool, a regular pool, a kiddie pool and 2 kiddie slides, and 2 hot tubs.

On Monday morning we woke up to winter storm warnings and snow! And snow it did - it was snowing when we woke up (Seth even ate breakfast out on the balcony in the snow!) and it snowed all day without stopping. (It was still snowing Tuesday morning.) There was about 8" of new snow when we left on Tuesday. It was a lot of fun being inside an 84 degree room riding water slides and watching all the snow outside. We had to check out on Tuesday morning, but Jenna and Steve went to the water park for an hour while Seth and I hung out reading in the lobby. We had lunch at Skyline Chili before leaving Cincinnati. I was concerned about travel conditions, but OH and KY had the interstates clear and we had no problems getting back to TN.

We had a lot of fun at Great Wolf Lodge. Now we just need to make time to go back to Cincinnati to use our passes for Kings Island.

We got a kick out of the picture on the left. The door said the outdoor pool was open "weather permitting". The outside sign says "Danger..Pool Closed". With 8" of new snow outside these signs made me laugh.

SNOW DAY PART 2

Jenna heading down the hill! Look out below!!

Seth enjoying his turn down the hill on the wakeboard.

Sometimes we southerners have to be very creative in what we use for sleds!

Ice on our neighbor's tree this morning.

Getting creative in ways to get around on the ice. This is Seth in our driveway using his hockey stick and wakeboard.

Seth discovered the perils of sledding on ice without gloves. (Noticed he put some gloves on AFTER he messed up his hand?)

SNOW DAY

The forecasters didn't disappoint us this time. Their predictions of snow and sleet were correct! Schools were cancelled already yesterday at 5:45 p.m. in anticipation of the "major" snowstorm. (We have learned since living in the south that "major" usually means a dusting of snow - if that.) This time "major" meant "major". It started to snow in Spring Hill at about 10:45 a.m. and we got about a 3" accumulation. It's been snowing all day and around 4:00 switched over to sleet. I can hear the sleet hitting the window while I'm typing. In watching the late afternoon news, we might get another 3" of snow overnight. Thankfully Steve's office closed early and he was home before the roads got too bad. We all played outside for awhile. Jenna has been outside the most playing with her friends. Seth and some of the younger boys in the cul-de-sac cleared off an area to play hockey. All they needed were the ice skates! Today was the perfect day for a big pot of baked potato cheese soup and some crusty bread. I always like baking on snow days and made some chocolate chocolate chip cookies. We're ready to hunker down for the evening and play some Wii and watch DVD's. As long as the electricity stays on, we'll be fine.