Happy Inauguration Day!

What a day in history today is! I think it is very exciting to be a part of this historical day. Besides watching the inauguration, I thought throwing an inauguration party was the best way to celebrate this day in history. You know me, I can make a party out of anything!

I tried to stick with a red, white, and blue theme for dinner. We had spaghetti on blue plates with garlic bread, cherry kool-aid, and red, white, and blue jello.

The kids spent a half hour playing with their jello. They loved them! What did you do today to be a part of this special day?

Ohio Snow

So this is our snow in Ohio that came last week...barely an inch or so. The kids were happy to have just enough to play in and I was happy that it didn't interfere with driving or school. I guess this will have to do because I don't think we are going to get much more.

Owen desparately wants to play like all the other kids, but he hates the cold. He can only stand it for five minutes at a time and then begs to go inside. He takes after his mom.

Ashleigh and her neighbor friend played outside for three hours straight. By the time they were done, the grass was completely cleared. Snow pants work wonders!

What a difference! This is an old Christmas photo of the snow in Iowa over Christmas break that I just now got downloaded off my camera. Trenton's uncle helped him build this great fort. I guess we're lucky that we can enjoy lots of snow at a distance once in a while without all the disruption it causes in daily life.

Chuck E Cheese Fun

There is nothing better than an afternoon at Chuck-E-Cheese. While visiting my Mom for Christmas, we decided the kids deserved a little fun. There were such troopers during all the Christmas traveling. The train was Owen's favorite.

This was Ashleigh's favorite of course.

Owen looked so minature on top of this giant horse, but he smiled smugly the whole time loving every minute of it.

Cincinnati Children's Museum

My neighbor and I bought museum passes for Christmas and my kids love it there. It was money well spent for once! I love how it looks like Owen is climbing up Clifford's back because if there was a way to really do it, he would have.

Owen's favorite part of the museum was the train exhibit they have right now for Christmas. He has recently developed a love of trains. He spots them everywhere we go and says, "choo-choo." It's adorable.

Owen bravely took a train ride with just Ashleigh and loved every minute of it.

Bowling

Ashleigh's Daisy Girl Scout troop went on a bowling outing this week. Ashleigh had so much fun dropping the ball on her turn and cheering her new friends on. She was scared during her first few turns and had to have me help her, but she quickly came out of her shell and just had fun. If you have ever went bowling with a bunch of 5 year old girls, then you would know that it takes a very long time to play two games because they all literally drop the ball just past the line and watch as the ball barely moves down the lane. There were several times when I thought the ball was going to stop in the middle of the lane.

Doesn't she look cute in her bowling shoes?

The girls went up in groups to support and cheer each other on. It was very cute!

In honor of Ashleigh's new found sport, we went bowling as a family on New Years' Day. We had a lot of fun despite Dad smoking all of us with a millon strikes and spares. Next time we'll leave him at home :) By the way, since when was bowling so expensive? It cost us $24 to bowl.

Christmas 2008

Santa found our house early this year so that we could visit our extended family for Christmas. Owen's favorite gift was his tool bench. Ashleigh's was make-up and Trenton's was an airsoft gun. Santa also brought them a sled and shovel with hopes we might see more snow in Ohio than we did in Kentucky. Ohio has yet to see any this year.

Lucky for us there was plenty of snow in Illinois and Iowa for Christmas. The kids had fun making a snow fort with Uncle Andrew (but I can't get the one picture I took of it to upload for some reason).

Illinois got hit hard with an ice storm just before we came, which made the snow there too hard to play in.

My highlight was coming home to find gas for $1.36. I don't know whether I should be so excited because I know it is a sign of terrible economic times, but I did a little cheer when it cost less than $20 to fill my van's tank! Let's hope our food prices catch up with this huge decrease in fuel costs because groceries are through the roof! Good thing I had a lot of preparedness items on my Christmas list this year because I am afraid it is going to get worse before it gets better.