Fun Stuff

Anisten has been off track the last couple of weeks and Rob hasn't had a terrible work schedule so we've been trying to make time for some fun family stuff.

One day we headed to the Syracuse Family Fun Center so the girls could do some jumping and then some family bowling.

Livvy hanging out on daddy's shoulders.  She looks so cute in this picture

The girls playing in a bounce house

Doing some bowling.  The girls loved their shoes and wanted to take them home

They do look pretty cute in them

The girls did really well (those bumpers help a lot!) and Rob and I, not so much.  We don't bowl often so when we do it's really just for fun and not for points.  I don't even want to tell you our ending scores (I lost..big time!)

On November 10th, this is what we woke up to...

The girls were in heaven.  Luckily it had snowed a few weeks earlier and we discovered then that the girls' snowclothes no longer fit.  So, knowing that this storm was on the way, we went the night before and got Anisten some new snow clothes (Aivree gets Ani's old ones..I know, sad to be the second child).  So as soon as breakfast was down, the girls got bundled up and headed out.

Rob went out shortly after to shovel the driveway and then play in the snow.  Once I got Alivia down for her nap, I headed out too (with whatever snow clothes I could find)

Here's Rob and Aivree rolling this huge snowball that would become the bottom of our snowman.  I guess that Rob tried several times to start this snowball with no success, but when he looked at Anisten she'd already started forming a pretty good sized one.  She taught us how to build a snowman. ;)

Ani working on the snowman's head.  This girl LOVES the snow.

Cute little Aivree hanging out with a small snow fort daddy made.  Her biggest issue is with gloves.  For some reason they never stay on, so she usually goes inside much sooner than Ani due to cold hands.

But today they both stuck it out for quite a while.  While the girls and I worked on the snowman, Rob was busy building this snow fort that turned into a snow tunnel/sledding hill.

We all had a turn getting inside the fort...

 ..and on top...

 ...and then crawling through the tunnel.  Pretty cool fort eh?

Here is our finished snowman.  He turned out super tall and big and I must say that he is the best snowman I ever had a hand in making.  We even used carrots from our garden for his nose(s) - We actually put two faces on him, so we could see him from the house and from the road.

 Instant love <3>

 It was seriously such a fun day.  We were out there for several hours until we got tired and hungry.  Anisten was so sad to be coming inside and she was out there longer than any of us!  We of course made some hot chocolate (although we all got kind of hot from all the hard work).  There's nothing better than playing together as a family.  The sad ending to this story, is that night some scoundrels jumped the fence and destroyed our wonderful Mr. Snowman.  Oh and they stole his scarf.  I was pretty furious that someone would want to do that.  I mean...why?  Anisten didn't know though, she just thought he melted.  Despite their meanness, the time spent was well worth it and that can't be taken away.

For family night the other night we got some discount passes to Get Air.  Rob took the girls there a few months ago and they haven't stopped talking about it since, so a repeat visit was definitely in order.  It's basically a huge place filled with trampolines to jump on, slide down and foam pits to fall into.  So much fun and a good workout too.

  The girls just loved running around and going down the slides...and of course, jumping

Here's Ani building a tower with the foam from the pits

Rob and I took turns holding Alivia so we could get some jump time too

Rob was quite the trickster with all of his front flips (triple one into the pits) and handstands and crazy high jumps

   I was able to do aerials and back handsprings and backflips, but for some reason doing front flips made me nervous.  Go figure.

 It was seriously so much fun and we are for sure going back again.

I'm so grateful for time.  Time to spend with my husband and children and family is more precious and productive than anything else I could be doing with my time.

Family is what it's all about