February Break

I am not a fan of having a week of in February.  This week has been frigid.  We started with a cold day last Friday the wind chills in the AM were 20-35  below zero.  It really hasn't warmed up enough to do anything outside. 

I took the kids for lunch to Red Robin, Evan had a free meal from his birthday.  We were planning on going to Jim Kelly's Hunters Day of Hope on Saturday and it was cancelled.  We went to Outback with Marc's dad and my mom on Sunday.  Monday we didn't even leave the house.  Tuesday the kids wanted to spend some gift cards and it was a balmy 12 degrees.  I took Evan to the Ralph to go to the Bills Store.  He told me he wanted to live there.  It really is a beautiful store but we were the only customers in it.  He purchases a mini Lego Fred Jackson figure.  From there we went to Toys R Us since they had buy 1 get 40% off a Lego.  We needed to pick up a birthday gift.  Sara bought a diaper bag for her doll and Evan picked up a Lego Movie set.  They both used gift cards but I was disappointed we weren't able to combine it with some coupons we received for their birthdays.  They have recently added lots of exclusions to the coupons.  Lego's are usually cheaper on Amazon or Target and I don't buy them as Toys R Us unless there is a deal.  I treated the kids to McDonalds.  I am able to buy a Mighty Kids meal and an extra fry and they will each eat 3 McNuggets and be filled up.  Fortunately they are no longer interested in the prize. 

Today my best friend growing up came over .  She was recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer.  So we caught up for a bit and then Sara and I had hair appointments.  We  both had trims and I had toner put on to combat some of the brassiness that occurs from the highlights. 

Evan my non-eater came home and asked for two waffles, and then two more.  This was around 3:30.  I figured the kids wouldn't really want dinner since Sara joined him and ate 2 pancakes.  Around 5:15 Evan said he was hungry again.  So I made him spaghetti and Sara cheese and crackers.  Although some days he is eating much more he still isn't gaining weight.  He never sits still.  He loves to play Madden on his xbox.  He doesn't sit still though he jumps and runs around the entire time.  At his well visit last week he weighed in at 42 lbs clothed (1%) and 47.5 inches  ( I didn't ask what that was but when I checked the charts it looked to be around 45%).  Our pediatrician has no concerns he is just so slender.  We still struggle with pants that fit.  He hates adjustable waist pants.  This week he is going to have to wear his slim uniform pants.  I had elastic waist pants that he had worn for 2 years.  The were size 4 but they are finally way to short.  The size 5's are huge on him.  So he will be wearing 5slim's this week and it will not go smoothly.  Evan does not do well making changes.  He has always worn pull on pants so changing to zipper pants will be a struggle for the first few days and then he will accept it. 

I had the chance to run around a bit without the kids yesterday.  I went to Marshalls, TJ Max, Sears, Target, and JC Penny's.  I picked up some new shoes for me ( I am not a shoe girl the more comfortable the better.  Earlier in the year I splurged on a black pair of Coach loafer's I found at TJ Max and love the.  I found a brown pair on clearance at Marshalls unfortunately clearance is what I would expect to pay for 2-3 pairs of shoes.  Well I bought them and will be happy!  I picked up new play dough for Sara, a few short sleeve shirts for Evan and a shirt for Marc. 

We are headed to Niagara falls tomorrow. It is supposed to be -4, with a wind-chill of -35 .  I highly doubt we will leave the hotel.  It has a Keg restaurant ( a really good Canadian Chain steakhouse), a big pool, and views of the falls.  We also received vouchers for a Family Fun center that may be fun to do when we check out on Friday.  Although Niagara Falls is less than an hour away we have only taken the kids to the American side once.  It is so hectic with tourists.  Hopefully this summer I will take them for a day trip. 

When Marc and I were dating we would go to Clifton Hill each fall to go to the haunted houses, for drinks, and walk around. It was never that busy.   Once the casinos came the entire atmosphere changed.  It is not crazy all year long.  On the other hand the American side is dead.  Government bureaucracy has prohibited positive growth! 

7 Years Old

I am starting to feel like I blink and the year disappears.  We had a very busy Saturday.  Evan originally invited 6 friends to see Spongbob and to the movies and then added another, well it turned out we invited all the boys in the class and two from another class.  He ended up with ten friends here.  It was crazy but the boys had a blast and our house survived.

Loving his Buffalo Bills Football cards
 

We saw a 12:20 movie and then didn't return here until around 2:40 and the party ended at 3:30.    My saving grace was a Minecraft BINGO game I found online and printed.  It kept them completely engaged for about 20 minutes, we had cupcakes, opened gifts (they could have cared less)  and they played in the basement for a bit.  My observation is that boys with brothers are much more wild than my children.  There was many attempts at wrestling, some jumping on my couch, and some wildness.  Girls are much easier!!  Evan received a few Lego's he had already had and some Minecraft figures he had already.  He also received Battleship, a PacMan game, and some gift cards.  I returned some of the gifts to Target on Sunday and he said he barely received any presents.  The concept of gift cards hasn't hit yet.  Marc did take him to Toys R Us where he had $70 in gift cards and he didn't find anything he wanted.  He wants these little NFL lego figures that are very pricey.  I told him with the $40 he received from a friend and the $10 Grandma gave him that doesn't need to go in his bank account we could go to Ralph Wilson Stadium's store and pick up the figures.

The stadium went through some massive renovations this year and we drive past it every time we go to Target.  The retail store looks amazing and never seems to be busy.  While we are off next week on our February Break I will take him.  I asked him what his favorite gift was and it was the boxes of vintage Buffalo Bills cards (Jim Kelly era) and the Riddell NFL tracker mini-helmets  (to me they look like the helmets we could of bought in a gum ball machine when we were little).  We used a mine craft theme and I had no idea what to do for a cake and did one on a whim and I ended up impressing myself. 

One of the most exciting parts of turning seven has been a surprising change at dinner the past two nights.  On Sunday I cooked pork chops and Sara asked if she could have Spaghetti so Marc made her a separate meal.  Evan started eating pork chops, buttered noodles and peas and looked over at Sara's and told us that looks pretty good.  Then he asked if he could have some.  Whoa... this is a big deal because he never offers to try anything new.  We gave him half of it off of Sara's plate which didn't make it look that attractive and he tried it and then proceeded to eat all of it and told us it was pretty good.  We felt like we had won the lottery!  Tonight I made cube steaks for the Sara and put it on Evan's plate, he has eaten these twice before and said they were ok.  Well he didn't say a word and ate all of it along with mashed potatoes and broccoli and pineapple.  He then asked if tomorrow we could have spaghetti again.  Wow two new meals to the repertoire added in two days I am giddy and they are both easily made. 

I wish I could figure out a way to easily add the pictures and video's from my iPhone to this blog I haven't been using my camera that much lately and my close up vision has been changing (Thank you 40's) and if I am not careful I often get blurry pics!  Any advice??