Moving On Up

There have been so many exciting changes in the church this year- but one of the most exciting at our house is the new policy that starting this year all kids will advance to the next age group starting in December instead of their birthday. This has huge implications around the Toad homestead!

That means that Superkid is immediately elevated to office of Priest! He will be the youngest kid ever to bless the sacrament in the Hingham Ward.

Additionally- Abizella advances to the Miamaids which qualifies her both for church dances and Youth Conference! She is bummed to miss out on being a Beehive for two full years, but I think she will like the benefits of Miamaid-hood.

AND- Tadpole scores big! 

He gets to skip his last 8 months of his Primary career and go directly into Young Men's! 

Also, he is Hingham Ward's youngest deacon. 

He is PUMPED.

They Clean Up Good

The Coolest Dude

Okay this is about 90% about Superkid re-living our glory days. 

Having Superkid on the swim team makes everything come full circle for Pops and me. It has taken every once of our self-control to play it cool- we just want him to love it like we did. 

It is SO important. 

So- definitely the swim team jacket embroidered with his name! 

SUPERKID IS A SWIMMER!!! AND HE LOVES IT!!!

He wears it EVERY DAY.

And going to the swim meets is the emotional pinnacle of my existence.

Superkid dove in and swam the first leg of the 200 IM, the 50 Fly. It was SO good and SO fast that neither Pops or I could believe it was actually Superkid! He is improving incredibly fast!

He's in the top lane...

He came to the bleachers to give us the run down of the event. 

We were at the edge of the bleachers getting the play-by-play!

He's all cool dude.

Ski Bunnies

Now it's Tadpole's turn! I think I love these middle school ski trips better than anyone else. I'm DYING I can't go with them. But I think part of the fun for them is being all grown up and managing the ski slopes independently.

I tried to not helicopter too much...

But I did sit in the parking lot until the  buses pulled out.

Abz stuck it out with Tad and sent me a few pics.

Their favorite part is the $20 to blow on lunch.

I think this one is a natural skier!

I even got video footage of Abz skiing down the whole slope backwards. 

I couldn't be more proud!

Top Bunk- Top Dog

Superkid's super-growth nearly made the top bunk buckle under the pressure. 

He got shuttled to the bottom bunk. 

He's not pleased- 

but the new occupant is pleased as punch!

Off To A Good Start

Now this is how to start a new year! The weather is brilliant! In the 50s! 

Pops and I took a long morning walk, the younger Toads went up to the school to play tennis and Superkid went skate boarding. Afterwards we all went to the Curhan's annual New-Year's party. I was too busy eating and chatting that I forgot to take pics.

This evening Little Chief grabbed his art kit and started a sketch. 

Pretty soon the others walked by and wanted to join in the fun.

We're all trying to hang on to the fun family times we've had these last couple of weeks. It's been really good to all be together and to have some time to chill out. I love this family of mine!

Happy New Year!

We did New Year's Bob Ross style...

Pops drove to Waltham to pick up our favorite Chinese New Year treats!

Pops took the big kids to a church party- the rest of us elected to play games and watch movies. And you know what?! We all made it to the ZERO HOUR!

This was the first year EVER all Toads made it!

It was a major party-

But it went south fast.

We actually lost our connection to the Time's Square live stream at the zero hour. Exasperated Jaws exclaimed, "I think this tradition is a DEMOCRAT!"

So we all went to bed.