Last night Lex had a friend sleepover and Eve had a friend late-over. I love that idea. She did all the fun sleepover things, but went home right at bedtime. Eve actually had one friend over all afternoon, then just as she went home the other friend came over for the lateover. Needless to say, Eve was tired today!

Icy potions. Eve and her friend decorated the snow outside and “sold” potions to… well, I guess all the people in their imaginations. :)

Daisy stayed out of the way!

I baked banana bread (front) and chocolate chip banana squares (back). Banana-riffic!

When the sleepover friends were here I took everyone out to Ziggy’s where they have pizza and a little arcade. Whenever we go there the kids want quarters for the arcade, but I always say no. Usually we are just picking up pizza anyway. This time fun mommy came and doled out quarters like they were going out of style! The kids were in heaven!

There was lots of foosball playing. These four were louder than the crowd of teenagers nearby. When the teenagers left I saw one guy shake his head and say to a friend, “Man, I wish I had their energy!” I wanted to tell him, “Enjoy your teenage energy kid! Middle age comes fast!” :)

There was also a lot of pinball and skeeball, but my pictures of those didn’t come out well. :)

The claw!

Let me tell you about this machine. The claw! Eve’s friend poured most of her money into it, despite all of our advice otherwise. She eagerly anticipated each grab and was genuinely disappointed each time she did not win. When we were all out of quarters and ready to head home, two boys, about Lex’s age, came over. The first kid puts in his quarters and wins the exact toy that she had been trying for all evening. We were so surprised and she was so disappointed! Then, his friend puts in quarters and he WINS too!! I couldn’t believe it! Despite all of us telling her that those machines never win, she lost and then watched the next two kids win. Poor girl!

Fun mommy came home with us and let the kids all have ice cream sundaes for dessert! Why not, right? Nothing washes down pizza like ice cream sundaes!

We capped the evening off with Shaun the Sheep. Lex was worried it might be too babyish (claymation, after all) but he ended up laughing the hardest! Good times!

The kids were in bed by 9:30pm and asleep by 10:15pm. Not too bad. Up at 6pm this morning, of course. I was really liking the lateover idea this morning when everyone was tired and my kids just wanted screentime but Lex’s friend doesn’t know how to play Minecraft and didn’t want an hour of screentime. Everyone was a little fussy with one another. But we all got through and have happy memories of sleepovers and late overs! Eve is going to her first ever sleep over next weekend. I’m not at all ready for that, but she’s excited!

I quit caffeine this weekend.  Again.  It sucks.  I’m not cranky, fortunately, just so, so, so tired!  I got some nice mint tea, locally grown and all, from my Secret Santa which has served nicely as a hot beverage replacement, but it’s not the same.  And, um, I seem to have succumbed to the frozen pretzel/kiss/m&m treats in the freezer.  I blame my caffeine deprived brain!

The upside, and the one and only reason I’m doing this, is that my wrists are feeling better!  Not perfect, yet, but I no longer wake up with fire hands.  I cut back on the caffeine earlier this week, which helped, but decided to go completely without for awhile to see if I could get the wrists completely pain free.  We’ll see.

I have been feeling like the grumpy gus around here for the past few months, with constant reminders to the kids that went from gentle to angry. They have been getting more and more slack with their contributions and it was making me crazy. At family meeting this weekend, the first in a month, I brought it up as a problem and they came up with really great solutions! I’m so pleased… so far. The first step was they each wrote up a list of all the things they are supposed to do in a day, both regular daily stuff like brushing their teeth, and specific contributions like folding laundry. The plan is that if they do all of the things on their list, without any reminders, then they can earn extra screen time at the end of the day. Screen time is the only thing that motivates Lex these days. Eve decided that she wanted money instead of screen time, so we came up with a rule allowing them to turn in unused screen time at the end of each week for cash. We’ll see if either of them ever use that rule! I was really pleased with how quickly they came up with solutions and how well the process went. I hope the plan works because I could do with a lot more stuff-getting-done and a lot less me-nagging-constantly!

Lex’s list. We are working on draft lifts so far. Lex’s checkboxes didn’t print for some reason. Once they are finalized we’ll reprint and laminate them.

Eve’s list. I like how they each thought up, typed, and formatted their own lists.

This silly one wanted to be in a picture with her schedule. At the last minute she made this face. Aren’t you glad I’m sharing it with you? :)

You may notice that I’m working with my old sweet little pink Canon point-n-click. My phone, revived from it’s dip in the snowbank, decided to quit again a day later. I think some wayward water molecule was bopping around in there and finally found it’s target! The good thing (and super annoying thing) is that the phone seems to work ok, but the screen won’t turn on. I can turn the phone on, hear the startup sound, hear email and text alerts, but can’t see or do anything because the screen won’t turn on. :( Alan brought it to a guy today who may be able to fix it. Fingers crossed.

PS. Mom, thanks for your inspiration with this new routines idea. The kids came up with great ideas, but with my input to focus on positive rewards, not negative consequences, they brought their ideas around to your original suggestion to me. I love that they got their on there own instead of me telling them how to do it. :) Thanks for the original idea!

Last night was New Year’s Eve. In typical family fashion we hung out at home and did our best to stay awake. Mema and G’Tom were here and we all watched Clemson kick-butt on the field. We had tacos for dinner. Yum! Apparently I haven’t made tacos in eons because I had to explain to the kids what tacos were and when Eve heard that you put a bunch of fixings out she decided to add a few of her own as well.

Go Clemson!

Eve was hard at work writing a story. I made her put down the computer after awhile and join the real world.

Nutella tacos, anyone? Eve says nutella and cheddar cheese is delicious. I’ll stick to my beans and veggies, thank you.

We kept another Family Fun jar this year and enjoyed opening it up and reminicing about our year. We got passports and went to Niagara Falls and the great mirror maze and all sorts of fun things!

Family fun jar.

So many fun memories!

We played a few games, but no one was confident in our abilities to make it until midnight this year. The kids both wanted to, but Eve kept saying, “I’m not going to make it, I just don’t think I can do it.” :) Alan and I were ready to put them to bed many times, but they insisted on staying up. :)

This girl beat me at memory over and over!

At one point Alan picked up The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy and started reading. He and Lex love that book! Eve and I colored on the floor while Lex snuggled with Alan.

The boys

The girls

It’s almost midnight. You can do it! Neither of them are actually sleeping,just playing.

I kept suggesting we put on a ball drop or count-down or something, but the kids wanted Alan to keep reading so instead he set the alarm on his phone so we didn’t miss midnight! :) When the time came we all said hooray and went to bed. Total party animals we are!

This picture cracks me up because it looks like Eve is bursting out of the TV. :)

Happy 2016 from this crazy crew! We made it. Barely!

So, I was using my phone today -inside!-, uploading these photos, checking email, etc. and it was working well. Then, suddenly, the screen went black and it won’t come back! Like some wayward water molecule that was bopping around inside finally found it’s mark and boom – lights out! So I again have no phone, and that is why I cannot rotate those last two photos! You’ll have to tilt your head to see our crazy faces.

Today we did not much of anything. It was a lovely day, sunny and 30s, but no one went outside. I worked on my puzzle and puttered around the house all day. Alan and Lex had their faces buried in the computers and/or TV. Eve had a friend over and they played happily all afternoon. I suggested several fun outings, but no one was interested. Oh well. Happy New Year!

Here are the lovely snow pictures that almost destroyed my phone!  Fortunately, rice to the rescue! 

Have you ever turned the camera on and been surprised that it was in reverse mode?! Usually a surprising and awful view of yourself! When it happened this time I thought, "hey, that's not such a bad look" so I snapped a picture... then dropped the phone. D'oh!

Alan's new toy.

Snow angels!

More snow angels, and possibly some snow snacking going on with Miss Eve in the front there.

Sledding on the tiny hill across the street.

I’m so excited that my phone works again!   Hurray for rice! Think I can still eat it for dinner?  The rice that is, not my phone.  😁

Today has been a very bad day for water and electronics. This morning I took my phone out of my jacket pocket to photograph the beautiful, snowy day (snow! we have snow at last!) and the phone slipped from my hand, right into the snow! I picked it up and wiped it off and thought all was ok, but after I came inside and it warmed up… not so good. We stuck it in rice for 5hrs but when we tried it again it was even worse! Alan said to give it 24hr hours and then we would have to call it dead and get a new one. I think most of you know that I hate dealing with new cell phones! Blah. Just this time last year we went through a ton of nonsense in the process of getting me a new phone (and switching services). Fingers crossed it miraculously works in the morning!

This evening Lex was very excited to use his new bath ball (scented, colored, fun!) in the tub and take his new Aquabots in the tub too! He thought the bots and the blue water would be fun. His Aquabots have been running since Christmas morning and seemed to have bad batteries, so we took them out of the water, dried them, and opened them up… to discover corrosion! That’s not supposed to happen! One was corroded, but the other was ok. We cleaned it up, put new batteries in both, and tried them again. No luck. We worked on it for over an hour but cannot get them moving again. Lex was really, really sad!

Alan announced it was a bad day for water and electronics and perhaps we should all just go to bed. Ok, really I suggested everyone go to bed. :) Tomorrow we’re hoping for an electronic miracle with two swimming Aquabots and one functioning phone! A girl can wish, right?!