Meet Neil Armstrong

Tadpole chose a biography on Neil Armstrong for his January book report.

This particular book report is an oral report where you dress up in character. 

Tadpole did a run through for me the night before.

I think he is the cutest Neil Armstrong ever. Sorry Neil, but he's just so cute.

A Day In The Life

"What's so funny?! 

I'm wearing and astronaut hat while listening to Percy Jackson and riding an exercise bike."

My Hero

 After the Bomb Cyclone came the cold. The temperature has dropped to the single digits again in the 3 days since the storm. On day 2, disaster struck-

dripping from a light fixture in the kitchen sink at 9:00 p.m.

Pops takes insults on the house personally. He grabbed a ladder and an ax and started chipping away at the roof. He had already raked the roof to prevent ice dams- but somehow one had managed to form.

 He next made a gallant excursion to our dark and cold attic to find the pool of water. Over the phone, he gave me instructions on where to ram a knife in the ceiling to relieve the puddles of water that had pooled above. In total I punched 4 holes to drain the ceiling.

In his excavation of the attic, he discovered the root cause of the ice dam. There are some pipes that run between our two sky lights that warm the roof and cause the snow to melt and seep between the cracks of the shingles. 

Pops jumped back onto the ladder with no coat or gloves and hacked away at the ice in sub-zero temperature. 

I love his determination, perseverance and grit. 

He is the best one.

My hero.

Dare

Pops had 2 bags of candy. 

I dared the Toads that if they ate their bowl of chili, they could have all the candy they wanted. I might add that it was the most delicious chili ever and that our kids are nuts if they thought this was going to be challenging.

Jaws is cool. He liked the chili and ate 3 bowls. Abz conceded that it was good and actually at a bowl of chili that she normally wouldn't. It was a hard pass for Tadpole. Little Chief and Superkid were determined to muscle through to get unfettered access to sugar.

It was all fun and games at first...

But it got it got serious pretty fast.

LC choked it down (with plenty of drama and insults for Pops' cooking) in about 10 minutes.

This kid is not a quitter, but it was a long drawn out battle to choke down every bean.

There was wretching, gagging, laughing, crying, heavy breathing and even sweating.

But ultimately it was watching the kids at the other end of the table double-fisting candy into their faces that ultimately inspired Superkid to consume his last heroic spoonful consisting of 4 beans (which he microwaved 3 times because the thought of eating them cold was unbearable but they had cooled too much between consumption attempts).

But seriously...

It took more than an hour and about a gallon of water to accomplish this great feat. We're so proud of our kids for eating and entire 1/2 cup of chili (good grief).

They definitely should be handsomely rewarded.

I'm just waiting for the "Parent of the Year" award committee to come to the door and make their declaration now.

Bombogenesis

This is no ordinary Nor'easter. It is a Bombogenesis. That is what you call a storm that generates really rapidly and the air pressure drops more than 24 millibars in 24 hours, creating hurricane force winds and coastal flooding. 

Pops participated in the New England custom of sweeping the grocery store for storm essentials, including hash browns, bacon, orange juice, candy and Raisin Bran. We were all grateful for a hearty breakfast to help us weather the storm.

Then the kids took their chances in the storm, it was wicked crazy.

By the end of the day we had over 2 feet of snow and a bonus snow day at from school tomorrow. Life is good.

New Year's Eve

We continued our musical marathon on New Year's Eve. We watched Music Man and Oklahoma tonight. Over the last week we have watched, Sound of Music, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers and Fiddler On The Roof. We also watched the Back To The Future Trilogy. We also played a new game Tadpole got for Christmas, Dragonwood. It is really fun.

Glama text to see how we were spending our New Year's Eve so she got this montage of craziness...

Jaws was the first to crash- he made it until 10. Little Chief was determined to make it to midnight this year. He even went to the sink and splashed water in his face on a few different occasions. He made it until about 11:15. He finally is out of his misery...

This crowd made it all the way to midnight...

Pops' table cloth was the first casualty of the New Year.

Shake It Move It!

There's a new law in town.

You gotta get up and dance (or exercise) for 30 minutes every day before you can access your electronics.

Everyone's favorite option is "Just Dance"

I might get a dancing and singing group equal to the Von-Trop family out of the deal.