Sledding with our friends!!

Mattress Races!! Rondy Fun!

Fur Rondy is in full swing this week and there is lots of outdoor fun to be had.  We went to be entertained by the crazies in the Mattress Races.  

People dress up in crazy costumes and race down a hill.

To come crashing into the finish line.

 It looks like a people bomb went off.  Crazy costumed bodies go flying every which way.

 Some of the groups even flew past the four methods to slow them down (rubber inner tubes, carpet scraps, hay bales and a huge snow berm) and crashed into the crowd.

One of the guys from the "Monkeys Jumping on the Bed" group came over for a photo op. with Torsten.  I thought he would be scared but he thought it was hilarious!!

The crazy things we do for winter fun in the Last Frontier!!

I was just sad that we missed out on the Outhouse races that were later that day!  ;)

Sick day with creepy Flat Stanley

Lauren was so excited last weekend to bring a "Flat Stanley" out to our condo in Girdwood for the long weekend.  She had been asking her teacher if she could do it all year and finally remembered to bring it home.

We went out to Girdwood, and then she got sick......

So she spent her long weekend on the couch, reading books to Flat Stanley. 

It wasn't exactly the adventure she was looking to report on.

(That Flat Stanley, by the way, creeped us out a little bit.  Lauren told us he had given one of her class mates nightmares.  I have since volunteered to make Lauren's teacher a new Flat Stanley.)

Hockey daddy!

Haakon has been playing on a "old man league" hockey team.  Usually he plays too late at night for us to come and watch but the kids and I were able to come out and watch him one evening.  

Haakon getting the puck on a drop.

Pulling attitude with the camera lady.... 

  

because he got put in the penalty box. (some things never change.... :)  )

Being a good bad example for Torsten. ; ) 

Haakon going in for a shot....

He scores!!!!!!!!!  Yay Daddy!!!  (It was a pretty crazy shot that he made!)  

The kids had a blast watching their dad play and score!  

Happy Valentines!!

We had a pretty fun Valentines this year! 

I made everyone a yummy breakfast using one of my sisters delicious recipe's of "Risen Waffles"

 Torsten made a dinosaur themed Valentines box.

Lauren made her very own Barnyard themed valentines box using a barn that she had painted earlier this year.  It was pretty creative!

She ended up using the pouches that they made in class though.

One of Corinne's favorite Valentine gifts was a sticky mustache.  Her friend gave them to the entire class and they took some pictures of everyone.  I thought that was a pretty hilarious idea!

That evening we made yummy valentines cookies and decorated them. 

The boys snuck out to the store and came home with a surprise for the girls.  Beautiful flowers!!

It was so sweet!  The girls loved their tie-dye roses (?!?!?)  that the boys picked out for them and I loved the huge bouquet of tulips from Haakon.  He knows that I always love the non-traditional flowers!  My favorite part was that Haakon had the boys tell him everything that they loved about Mommy and then the girls and wrote it down on a sweet little card.  The messages were priceless!

Happy Valentines Day everyone!!!

Iceskating on a beautiful day!!

 We went ice skating on the rink at our children's Elementary School on a beautiful Saturday.

 We came straight from hockey practice so Torsten was already in his gear.

The boys played some hockey.

Some friends joined us that have a super sweet and energetic dog named Smudge.  All the kids took turns getting pulled by Smudge as she would chase after a ball across the rink.

 It was pretty exciting to watch them jet across the ice and then let go just before so that they wouldn't hit the boards.

 Doing some relaxing ice skating as my belly gets bigger!  Hard to tell in all the gear.

Extra curricular...

 We kind of feel like we have been spending all of our evenings driving kids back and forth to various practices and activities.    This is an extremely normal job description for parents but it doesn't mean it doesn't wear a person out every now and then!  Besides piano lessons, Honor Choir, gymnastics and down hill skiing every weekend, we also have these other fun winter activities keeping us busy.

 Torsten just started a "Learn to Skate" hockey class which he absolutely loves!

 The girls are in their second year of participating in the Jr. Nordic Ski group,

and they love it..... most of the time.   It can sometimes be hard driving children to activities that they aren't very excited about going to (and let you know it).  They always make up for it when we are driving home and they tell me how much fun they ended up having.  It makes it all worth it!  ;)