House of Estrogen

2014 Snow Days, One and Two

Yesterday was our first "snow day" of the year. In my using the term "snow day", do not make any hasty assumptions that there was actually any snow, or ice, or sleet, or hail, or anything that bore any resemblance to snow. No. School was closed due to the "threat of inclement weather." To be fair, the forecast was for snow to start about noon. It seems like that might warrant an early release, but instead, the school system shut down completely. We saw our first snow flake about 5:00, after all kids would have been home had they gone to school. "Snow day" number one was a bit of a letdown for those looking forward to a winter wonderland. Instead, I (thankfully) went to work while JC drove all over town to every Target, Sears, Home Depot, and Kohl's he could find in search of rock salt, snow boots, gloves, and hats for the girls. He was only marginally successful in that quest. I can only assume that most of the population of our county was doing the same.

Today though, for snow day number two, we actually got snow! Pretty snow! White snow! Cold snow! Snow! Snow! Snow!  That whole "snow day" thing started to make sense.

We trekked over to the park where we found most of our neighborhood on the big sledding hill.

The girls had a ball.

J.C. did too.

One of my neighbors was getting in the action sledding with her kids.

J.C. walked over to me, took my camera, and said, "Go ride with Addie!" To my puzzled look, he responded, "You always say you should be in more pictures. Go sled. Blame your friend Allison! She's the one who says you should get in the picture. He had a point, so I hopped on the sled with my little.

We smiled, we laughed, we had fun... and then... we crashed into a tree. Oops. I think next time I'll stick to photography.

As we started to grow weary from hiking back up the hill over and over,

we took a break from sledding, ...

visited with our neighbor's cute shivering dog, ...

had a little snowball fight on the bridge, ...

and posed for a picture.

Then it was back home for popcorn, hot cocoa, and warming up in front of the fireplace. Now THAT is how a snow day should be. Although it hasn't been announced yet, I suspect we will have "snow day" number 3 tomorrow. I don't know how much snow will be left, but maybe just enough for a few more sledding runs.

An All-Star Weekend

Imagine you have a daughter who is a gymnast. Now imagine that the entire US gymnastics team is coming to your hometown for a weekend to train at your gym and do a workshop with your child. Next, imagine that Gabby Douglas and Nastia Lukin are staying at your house sleeping in your youngest child's bunk beds. That's huge, right? 

Jump rope isn't an Olympic sport (yet) and doesn't have the following of gymnastics, but in the world of jump rope, the USA All-Star team is about as prestigious as it gets. The All-Stars are a group of 20 elite US jumpers who go through rigorous try-outs each year to make the team. They range in age from about 17-27.  It is a huge honor to be chosen to represent USA Jump Rope on the All-Star team. Elise's coach is a former All-Star, and one of the athletes from Elise's gym was named to the team this year.

A couple weeks ago, the newly named 2013 All-Star team came here for a retreat. We were fortunate enough to host two of them in our home. The girls had fun making the athletes feel welcome.

The gym honored them by having each All-Star attach a signed vinyl star to the "Wall of Fame" in the gym.  This guy has some serious flight power. I'm thinking a lot of these jumpers would make great basketball players.

The girls who stayed with us are both members of the Jumpin' All-Stars team out of Brighton, Michigan, and they are both new All-Star team members this year.  Jump rope has taken them to Isreal, South Africa, Brazil, and all over the U.S..  The opportunities they have had through jump rope are incredible.

It was so fun for us to host. I think J.C. was a little overwhelmed by the level of estrogen here in the House of Estrogen over the weekend with two extra girls, but he was a good sport about it. We had breakfast with them each morning, and then dropped them at the gym for a full day of jump rope. By the time they got home each evening, they collapsed into Addie's bunk beds, sound asleep before their heads hit the pillows.  They got to experience a true Southern winter while they were here. They arrived to a 70 degree day wth the bay doors open at the gym, everyone enjoying the gorgeous weather. That night, the temperature dropped about 40 degrees, and we got about a quarter inch of snow. These Michigan girls thought it was hysterical seeing all the Southerners out sledding and making snowmen with snow that hardly even covered the grass.

Despite the crazy weather, it was a great weekend for everyone and such a treasured opportunity for Elise to be able to attend a workshop with all 20 All-Stars. She has previously attended workshops taught by a few All-Stars, but having the entire team here was a real treat.

Nina posted this picture to Instagram with the caption, "All-Star jump rope people in my house!!!!!!!!! :)"  Elise and Nina were so proud to be hosts.

I took a few videos Saturday afternoon at the workshop and performance, but they were really lousy. I seem to have a knack for hitting the record button twice and only capturing a couple seconds of video. Instead torturing you with those, I thought I would post videos of a couple of All-Stars I really enjoy watching.

This is Nick Woodard. He has actually "retired" from the All-Star team and isn't on it this year. He is just so much fun to watch though. Elise has attended a workshop with him once before.

 

This is Chaz Robinson. He is currently on the All-Star team and is so talented. His flexibility blows my mind! YouTube won't let me embed the video, but here is a link: Chaz Robinson.

I love that Elise is able to learn from such talented athletes, but honestly, it was a fun, exciting, rewarding weekend for all of us.

Sledding, Take Two

We still haven't gotten any snow to speak of, but the girls decided the skating rink conditions of our driveway would make for perfect sledding.

Yes, we're the mean parents who forced our kids to wear helmets while sliding down a sheet of ice. Nina was none too pleased about it, but she complied.  Addie had no complaints, and after she split her chin open, I think she appreciated the need for a helmet for the rest of her head.

Until the "chin meets ice" incident, Addie had a ball. Her cackle in this video cracked me up.

 

Eventually, the whole neighborhood discovered that our icy driveway made a pretty nice sledding hill.

It doesn't look like any of their parents are as mean as us. I'm OK with that though. We already have one kid with a broken leg. I'm all about injury prevention measures right now.

Today's sledding was definitely more successful than last week's sledding fail, but I'm really thinking we may need to take these poor children up to the mountains one weekend, so they can sled on some actual snow.

Sledding Fail

My poor Southern snow-deprived children... they were certainly determined.

Hoping for Snow... Got Ice Instead

Alternate Title: "This Has E.R. Visit Written All Over It"

Our driveway and street were replaced by a thick slab of ice today, but the kids (and J.C.) didn't seem to care.

Excuse the weird black/white/green color tone in some of the videos. Not sure what happened there.

If you're using an RSS reader and can't see the videos, click here.

 

Top Ten Photos of 2010

 
My friend Tracy over at Sellabit Mum posted her top ten photos of 2010. I loved her post, so I decided to do the same. I am linking up with all the top ten photo posts over at You Capture. Some of these are my favorites from an emotional side... the time, person, feeling, or event captured. Others are my favorites from a technical photography point of view. It was an interesting exercise going through all my photos from the year and trying to choose ten. There were a few that jumped in my head the minute I decided to do this post. For others, I had to comb through all my photos, weighing all the contenders. I chose about eight and felt done. I wanted to do the challenge right though, so ten it is.

  

 

 
 
 

 

 

 

 

 

X-Games Here I Come!

Let me set up this video for you... the girls and I went to a park today to do some sledding. Someone had built a ramp out of snow at the bottom of the hill so that you could catch a little air at the bottom. The girls looked like they were having so much fun flying off the ramp that yours truly decided to give it a try.

 

Maybe I should leave the sledding to the kids!

 

Let it Nose, Let it Nose, Let it Nose!

 (heads-up to rss readers, there are videos embedded, so click here to see them)

We woke up yesterday morning to 5-6 inches of white stuff on the ground - about half snow and half sleet, but it was pretty, nonetheless. Addie woke up very excited to see the "nose" (switch around a few sounds in "snow", and whatdya know... you get "nose"!)

 

We outfitted Addie ala Randy in A Christmas Story...

 

 

...and then we were off! We've spent all weekend sledding, tubing, tromping around in the snow, drinking hot chocolate, and getting warm by the fire.

 

 
  
 
 

We raced a mini Iditarod...

...and had occassional mishaps...

 

... but mostly, we had a lot of fun!

 

With the leftover inner tubes that were supposed to be party favors for Elise's swimming party that was cancelled, we were able to equip most of the neighborhood with rings for tubing.

 

Addison's favorite activity was riding in the "boat".

School is cancelled tomorrow, so we may have one more day of winter fun before we begin to thaw, and that is plenty for me!