Snow! Well, a sprinkling.

 We got a wee bit of snow.  It didn't stick to the roads, but to the lawn and cars.  Sadly, it snowed on Saturday night, and Sunday morning Dan and I both had to be at Branch Counsel, so that took off another hour of possible snow-play.   The kids were terific though. They ran around for the 30 minutes they could and then we were off.  They managed to get some fun in before we had to leave for church:

What the front yard looked like.

Josh, making a snowball while Marian scrapes enough snow from the van to make her oown. 

Callie is working on a snowman. 

It was a group project with the neighbors. 

I have no idea what Delaney was doing! 

Levi had a great time playing with his little buddy, Marshmallow. 

The completed snowman! 

And the snowman they made at church on someone's car as they waitied for Branch Counsel to end!  I love my kids!

A Night at "The Lockup"

A week or two ago we had a girls night out. I was a bit hesitant, as we were taking the train to Hiroshima and going to a place called "The Lockup".  No one knew how to describe the place, so I had some reservations.  Still, I was up to try something new, and several trusted friends were going, so on that frigid, almost-snowy evening, 11 of us moms headed out to have a good time with no children in sight.

It was quite the evening! The Lockup is a Halloween/jail themed restaurant where your table is in a jail cell and your food is haunted house fare.  Half way through dinner they lights go out and there is screaming and sirens and monsters that run down the halls and into your room.  Good times.

It did end up being a lot of fun and it was great to be able to go out with a bunch of awesome ladies. I ended up staying out later than I can recall doing in a loooong time!

Me and my friend Steph, riding the train and ready for a good time!

We have arrived!

The spooky hallways with "jail cell" dining areas.

The hostess.  She needed a volunteer to put the handcuffs on before she would take us to our table.

The menu is upside down, but totally worth the effort to look at it up close.  The pictures of dinner are fun, and the descriptions are awesome.

This was my drink.  I don't know what the eyeball was, but apparently it was edible.  I did not eat it.  The drink was cranberry juice and ginger ale.

My friend's drink was a bunch of different flavored fruit juices in test tubes with a pipette she could use to mix them in her glass.

A salad that looks like a mummy!  So cute!

I ordered the "Hash Brown Jenga"!  And it was delicious!

I also got the Dracula-killing Okonomiyaki, which was pretty good.

I was sad I did not order the flaming creme brûlée, but the description was questionable.

This was someone else's drink.  Not too appealing!

This is what you found when you went looking for the bathroom.  It nearly scared the.... well, you know... out of my friend.

Then the scary costumed people ran down the hallways and into the rooms, most people shrieked and screamed.  But not our room.  The ladies at our table jumped at the chance for selfies!

So this stuff happened

This kid finally got a hair cut.  He wasn't growing it for a fashion or social statement.  We were all just too lazy to do anything about it. 

He sure cleans up nice, doesn't he?! 

There was the annual Daddy Daughter Dance.  I was a slacker and left for my Mom's Night Out before they did, and I got no photos.  Delaney was sweet enough to make sure I got this one. 

And this picture.  I love these girls!

A Field Trip to Iwo Jima

 Dan had an amazing opportunity last week to go visit Iwo Jima.  You may have heard of it?  The little island where the famous raising of the flag occurred?  Well, Dan was lucky and got to fly out and see it.  I was a bit jealous.  He did have a neat experience and he said it included about 8 miles of hiking.  It was a gloriously beautiful day for it as well, and he came back a lovely shade of scarlet.  He also brought me a baggie of sand from the beach, as well as some lovely photos which you can now enjoy.

Party at the Bowling Alley

Our friends had a birthday party at the bowling alley.  Since there are cheesy fries at the bowling alley, I was all over that.  And there was cake.  The kids were happy to go, since there were cheesy fries and cake.

There was also a face painter.  She was really good!

I wanted the pink vampire face, but Rylee wanted the tiger.

Which came out super cute! Rylee loved it.

Marian brought her book, and was just waiting on the fries.

Callie and Delaney bowled and had a good time.

Rylee spent most of her time hanging around the face painting and missed out on a lot.  But she loved her tiger face.

And I had to drag her from the play room when it was over.