Disney on Ice and Sledding!

By Miriam:

Today Daddy and I went on a date to the Disney on Ice!  And it was at the Van Andel Arena.  And I had so much fun!!!  My favorite part was when the princesses came out and they did every princess except for Aurora.  I saw Minnie and Mickey and Goofy and I saw Donald Duck and Pinocchio and his nose grew longer and longer every time he said a lie, but he only said a lie once.  And then there was a big whale and his Dad got swallowed by the whale and then Pinocchio he got swallowed by the whale, but then he hit the whale inside him and the whale felt a little tickle and then the whale's mouth grew wider and wider and wider until Pinocchio and his Dad flew right out of the whale's mouth!

In the princesses I saw Ariel and Belle and there was one that I didn't know her name, but her name is Pocahontas.  And Ariel and Belle were my favorite, favorite princesses.  And Ariel had shorts or capris (I don't remember what they are), but they did look like her tail.  And she had her regular shirt that was purple!

I got a crown with Mickey Mouse ears on it and I got cotton candy.  I saw a hat that did look exactly like Cassie's hat and her grandma made it, and I was like "what?  why would someone make a hat that looks exactly like the hat that Cassie has?"  So then we saw that it was Cassie and Tyler and Uncle Jeff!  But not their mom.  And then went out for dinner to a pizza place called Big O's and the McCauls came with us.

The End

By Peter:

While Daddy and Miriam were on their date, me, Esther, and Mommy went sledding at Mulick Park.  We saw my friend Jacob there with his dad and sister.  On the first time down that Jacob's dad and his sister went, they went flying off the sled and Jacob's sister was crying.  Then I went down and I went over their sled and when I got to the bottom, I fell off and my face hit the icy snow.  I got a scrape below my lip and a worse one above my lip and my lip was bleeding.  I wanted to go home, but then I felt better and we stayed.  Then we went on a different part where it was smoother and smaller.  There was a jump, and I went over it.  It was awesome!!!  After we went sledding, we went to McDonald's and we got McFlurries.  I got an Oreo one and Esther got an M&M one.  Mommy got nothing.

By Esther:

As Peter said we went sledding and when we got to Mulick there were a lot of Calvin students sledding too. When we were about to leave Peter's friend Jacob found a student ID with a dorm room key on a lanyard.  Mommy called the office at Calvin we brought it to the security office.

Winter Break

This weekend the kids had a winter break from school.  Friday was supposed to be an early dismissal day, but it ended up being a snow day!  We had already arranged for them to each have a friend over in the afternoon, and since the roads weren't too bad, we were able to keep those plans.  They had a great time with their friends!

Saturday was a nice, relaxing day.  Sunday was the Daytona 500, which is the start of the NASCAR season.  We had our traditional group of friends over to celebrate the big day.  The girls watched a movie in the basement while Peter and the adults watched the race upstairs.

Today we had a fun and frugal day.  Esther had received 3 different Krispy Kreme coupons with her school valentines, so we headed there first.  We arrived when they we giving out their free samples, so we got those and also used the coupons.  Of course I had to buy a donut for myself, but 8 donuts for $1.16 seems like a pretty good deal to me!

After stuffing ourselves with 2 donuts each, we headed to Patterson Ice Arena to use a Groupon I had bought for open ice skating.  The kids had never been ice skating before, and they did really well!  I was glad we had only paid $9 for the four of us instead of the usual $28 it would have cost, because they lasted just under an hour and then they were ready to go.

Our final stop was McDonald's to use gift cards that Grandpa and Grandma had sent the kids for Valentine's Day.  I just had to pay for my lunch, which brought our total spending for all that fun up to about $14.  We were talking about it and I cracked up when Esther said, "Money Saving Mom would be so proud!"

We got home and headed outside for some sledding.  Our neighbors let us use the hill behind their house and we have spent hours on that hill this winter!  It's the perfect size hill for us.  It actually got up to about 40 degrees and it was sunny, so it was a beautiful afternoon to be outside.  We also went into the woods to identify animal tracks.  We saw deer, rabbit, raccoon and maybe some fox tracks.

Tomorrow it's back to reality.  Only another month until spring break!!!

Peter Plays Basketball

Today was Peter's final basketball game of the season.  This was his first time playing basketball on a team and he seemed to enjoy it.  It was a league through school for 1st and 2nd graders.  He had a great coach and a nice team of boys.  They won the first 6 games and lost the last 2, but they played really well and had fun! 

Here are a few pictures from today:

 

Florida, part 4

After we left Disney the second evening, we drove back to my parents' place in Venice.  We spent the last few days there, just relaxing.  It was cool, so we didn't swim.  We did go for walks, play games, color, do crafts, go out for ice cream, and just have a great time hanging out together.  Juan and Karen also brought a pinata for the kids, so we had a good time watching them hit that until it finally broke!

Grandpa and Grandma filled the pinata 

with money, small toys, and candy!

Playing Yahtzee!

Check out the matching shirts!

We saw some wildlife while walking in mom and dad's neighborhood:

Karen zoomed in... we weren't really this close!

We went to Dairy Queen on our last evening

Sunday it was time to say goodbye and fly home.

The kids were excited about going on a plane!

Puppy held Casey's phone so Peter and Esther could watch a movie.

We arrived home tired, but also rested and refreshed.  It was an unforgettable week!  We are so grateful that my parents are willing to host us and that they spoiled us by taking us to Disney this year!  It was a great week, and we made lots of wonderful memories together.