Skating and Sledding and Silliness

Our California kids enjoyed all the "s-es" that winter has to offer last weekend in Tahoe  -- snow, skating and sledding. Everything except for the slopes, which we're not quite prepared to tackle with three yet!

The "big kids" strapped on skates two days in a row at Heavenly Village, getting their "skating legs" and slowly progressing from baby Bambi on ice to somewhat decent little skaters who gallantly stepped away from the wall to make room for other little monkeys still finding their footing.

Joey looking especially retro and Swedish -- like the competing stripes?

 Thank goodness for chivalrous big brothers!

Toward the middle of their first session, they gathered enough confidence to actually go around the rink on their own -- over and over. Our backs rejoiced while we watched from the sidelines and played defense on Molly, who desperately wanted to join the fun herself.

Tim finally took her for one glorious spin... until the music stopped, and an ominous voice came over the loudspeaker, instructing everyone that "small children can not be carried on the rink, for the safety of everyone." Oops. It was still worth it for the photo op!

We decided that no wintry weekend in Tahoe is complete without sledding, and met up with friends Heather and Taki, and their kids, Nikos and Olive, who happened to be in Tahoe the same weekend.

We were so busy steering the kids away from the pitfalls of low snow levels -- exposed tree trunks and bare patches -- that we didn't pay attention to the biggest danger: a dangerously steep drop to the Cold Creek creek bed that runs next to our neighborhood. Joey and Nikos shaved a couple of years off our life by veering off our run and rocketing in the direction of the creek bed -- doubly heavy on a two-man tobaggan. Luckily they stopped in time, and we packed it up with no injuries more serious than a scraped chin for Joey!

We're thinking about tackling some more "s-es" next winter -- like skiing or snowboarding -- but we're happy with our baby steps so far!

Snow Day!

Greetings from Tahoe... better known as the land of snow pants, boots, gloves, jackets and inopportune bathroom trips!

We've waited a long time this mild, mild winter to enjoy some snow... but it was worth the wait!

Next adventure: ice skating!

Winter Sports Round-Up

In both high school and college, I was forced to round out my journalism skills by covering sports once in a blue moon... and I managed to write somewhat convincingly, even though my only areas of expertise are equestrian and aquatic in nature.
Luckily, I can draw on this training to recap a very busy couple of months here that have involved bouncing from one school gymnasium to another --  making for hectic weekends, but tired and happy little athletes.

Indoor soccer is a popular sport around here - both Joey and Clara play on teams with their school friends, Tim coaches Clara's team, and Molly and I are happy to cheer from the warm, dry sidelines (the multi-purpose room's stage). Here's our little duo - one veteran soccer player with three seasons under his belt, and one novice who was looking fierce with her headband.

The novice needed lots of help getting ready for her first game. Luckily, her older brother managed the task of getting her suited up with shin guards, socks, and his own outgrown soccer shorts, before their parents were even awake for the day.

Clara might be one of the youngest and smallest on her team, but she wins for spunkiness!

Clara had a strong showing her first game, running up and down the court until she was pink and sweaty, aggressively battling for the ball, but in subsequent games she began to wilt around the middle of the first half.  She's becoming less interested in the ball, and more and more fixated on her teammate Taylor's pink soccer socks, and how she can acquire a pair herself.

Luckily, our other soccer player is more than making up for his sister's nonchalance, by scoring a huge percentage of his team's goals. He's come a long way from his last season, when he preferred to stay out of the crowd of kickers -- he's even mowing down his opponents while duking it out over the ball! Oops!

Soccer's not the only sport where Joey's on the leaderboard every game -- our plastic, sun-bleached hoop in the back yard has apparently trained him well for his debut basketball season. He's a certified ball hog -- along with all the other boys on his team -- and he trusts no one but himself or his sidekick Andy to do the job of getting the ball in the basket. Luckily, they're a pretty awesome pair!

Finally, no season of the year would be complete without some consistent baseball practice, and winter is no exception. Joey and Tim have been hitting the ballfields with his two best baseball buddies, Andy and Isaiah, along with their dads, for several weekends in a row. And playing catch at home never gets old for either one of them... or for a certain little ball girl who seems destined to join the weekend sports derby sooner rather than later!

So did I do well? What impressed you the most? My use of the word leaderboard?

School Girl

We received Clara's school pictures last week. She's working both her angelic pose and her full-of-mischief pose here.

In other academic news, I asked Clara on the way home from school if she would like to attend another year of preschool, or start kindergarten instead in the fall.

She contemplated this seriously for a long moment, then announced, "I'd actually like to go to cow school."

"Cow school? That's not one of your choices, Clara. Preschool, or kindergarten?"

She huffed out a huge sigh that reverberated from the third row of our SUV all the way to the drivers' seat.

"Okay, fine. I guess I'll choose kindergarten since I've never been there before."

Celebrating Six

What do you get when you throw together a newly 6 year-old boy, 17 of his "buddies," two little sisters, and an hour of turbo-charged basketball, soccer and tag?

An explosion of exponential boy energy, best contained to our gym, where we hosted Joey's birthday party for the second year in a row. If it ain't broke, don't fix it... or, January birthdays have a way of sneaking up on this mommy, so a rinse, repeat birthday sounded perfect this year.

The scary part? This was all before the ice cream cake!

Joey is a professional friend collector, with "BFFs" from every corner of his world. There might be nothing more adorable than seeing six year-old boys launch themselves into each other's arms for "hello" -- there's nothing shy or reserved about it -- and that's exactly the way most of Joey's friends greeted him, along with a chorus of "Joey!"

He was surrounded by his best teeball friend, Isaiah, his best friend at school and another baseball buddy, Andy, his best friend from preschool, Drew, his best swimming buddy, Michael, his best neighborhood buddy, Sebastien, and his favorite playmates from kindergarten, Aiden, Devin, Isaac, Will, Ben and Rylen, and a friend he's known since babyhood, Lucas.

Joey's two boy cousins, Tommy and Marco, were essential to the celebration, too!

What a lucky guy! I hope he's always surrounded by this much love, fun and friendship!