A lot can happen in two weeks...

Oliver got on track with his daily reading and earned his own email account on gmail! He would love a fan club, if you are a friend or family member, email me and I'll share it with you! Obviously, Oliver has a lot to learn about communicating, but he is good at typing on the keyboard and this is a great start for him!

Henry was behind (since the beginning of school - yikes!) in his homework and finally caught up over winter break! Whoohooo, Henry!! We hope that he can stay on track now that school is back in session.

Alek came and went (as teeangers do) a lot over the two week break. When he wasn't gone, he was texting or sleeping. LOL!

The kids and I baked lots of goodies and fudge (yum!) - see, I do possess a cooking gene and am really not allergic to the room in our house called the kitchen. ;)

Santa came to visit... and Henry remarked that he understood why Santa didn't leave as many presents this year when he calculated the cost of the Wii games that appeared under the tree.

We rented and/or went to a dozen movies:

The Other Boleyn Girl
88 Minutes
Eagle Eye
The Women
Don't Mess with the Zohan
The Dark Knight
Bedtime Stories
Step Brothers
Fly Me to the Moon (boys)
Space Chimps (boys)
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Capsian
Horton Hears a Who

We went sledding (see previous post/pix) and enjoyed some of the weather, when Old Man Winter allowed. Watched the Vikings (subsequently following the "one and done" mantra last night) play on TV. A little laundry and cleaning, here and there.

Slept in.

Spent an overnight at the Holiday Inn waterpark in Otsego.

Visited with friends and family.

Worked a few long days - well, JP did, with UPS.
Got to eat Bloedow's twice because of JP's long days and driving through Winona!

Ate out, quite a bit - the only place I didn't get to that I was craving was White Castle. Another time.

Today was back to routine, getting up early, kids out the door, packed lunches and all. I put Henry's fortune cookie (from Saturday night's take-out) in his lunch today and he came home all excited... he wanted to know when we were planning to go on our cruise! I said, "why?"

And he showed me the fortune:
You will soon be crossing warm waters on a fun vacation.

Little do they know that we are leaving to Cancun in less than two weeks!! Yes, it will be a surprise for the boys. We do NOT plan on telling them until we are at the airport. I cannot wait to see the looks on their faces when suddenly they realize that their bags are packed in the back of the truck, and they get to play hookey from school for a week.

So if you chat with the boys, mums the word!!

Giggle. Oh, how I love a surprise!