Skiing at Brundage

The moment we have been waiting for all season. Our first trip to the ski hill. We decided to rent used skis from Greenwoods for Pennington for the whole season. Pennington was really excited to go get sized and pick up his new skis and boats. Pennington also got a Lucky Bums backpack. Basically it is a backpack with a handle to help parents pick their kids up from off the ground and two ropes to help guide them when skiing. He also got what we call an edgee wedgee. Basically it helps to attach the tips of the skis together so they can make a good wedge. Obviously this makes 100% sense to someone who skis and probably no sense to someone who doesn't.

Sidenote: Pennington has been having some issues remembering to use the bathroom so we have been using skiing as a reward for good behavior.

We went skiing at Brundage on Sunday as a family. Poppy came along as well. We decided last minute to put Piper on skis. She actually did better than Pennington did last year. She lasted longer, had better balance, and didn't really cry.

Pennington did AWESOME... the lucky bums and edgee wedgee are key. So helpful and really made all the difference. We only skied the bunny hill but Pennington went on the chair 10 times and I think Piper went 7 times. Below are some pictures of the kids skiing.

Hanukkah Havurah Party 2012

On Wednesday we had our 2nd annual Havurah Hanukkah Party. A Havurah is a group of Jewish families that get together. Our group has several families with young children. This year the turn out with about 3 times as big as last year. Lets just say it was minor chaos but the kids loved it. I think we had 13 kids and 10 adults over. We had dinner, lit the candles, had a gelt treasure hunt, and played Hanukkah Pictionary. Below are are few pictures of some of the kiddos eating dinner and playing pictionary at our party.

Hanukkah at the Cabin

We decided to spend the last night of Hanukkah up at the cabin. This Hanukkah has been a lot of fun this year. Most of the gifts our children got were either things they needed like skis, coats, socks, underwear, etc. or educational toys like a cash register, puzzles, Melissa and Doug toys that are education but I have no idea what they are called, arts/crafts, etc. As expected the kids loved opening there gifts. I just love watching my kids problem solving how to put puzzles together.

One thing I love about spending Hanukkah at the cabin is getting to light the my favorite menorah, the Moose Menorah. Below is a picture of our beautiful menorah.

Ice Skating

What does Dad do with a 2 and 3 year old when Mom is out of town? Go ice skating.

Hanukkah - Pennington's Class

Last Thursday myself and another mother (Rebecca) who has a daughter (Lucy) in Pennington's class went to talk to Room 5 about Hanukkah. Our goal was to talk more about the symbols of Hanukkah rather than religion. We talked about what the candles symbolize, how we play driedel, and what hebrew letters look like. I was really impressed about how much the 3 to 5 year olds already knew about Hanukkah. I realize some of them could have been making things up but a handful of them already knew what a Shamash was and said they had there own driedel at home. Weird right? Half of you probably don't even know what a Shamash is. In case you were wondering it is the "helper candle" that we use to light the other candles. Overall, I think it went really well. I think Pennington enjoyed having us come into his class. Sorry I don't have any pictures to share. I was focused on trying to