Superstar Caroline

Caroline was superstar for 2 weeks this time because of the snow day interruptions. She loves being superstar. Mimi and Papa came and ate lunch with her the first week and Gary and I ate lunch with her today. She is the lineleader and also got to bring pictures to share on the superstar poster on the door. I sent quite a few pictures to school so Caroline could choose what to put on the poster...she used them all!! I think there are 30 pictures of our family and friends on the door. So cute. Love Caroline's class and teachers this year who make them all feel like superstars each and every day.

the overloaded superstar poster

so happy to eat with her daddy

yummy school lunch with our superstar!!

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day is not a huge holiday around our house but Gary seemed to do it up right this year for all the Zyriek ladies! Gary and I had a nice night out on Saturday night with dinner and a movie and the ability on Sunday morning to sleep past 6:30 am!! The kids stayed with mom and Dan and we picked them up on the way to church. We saw The King's Speech, which was a fantastic movie. Pardon while I digress a moment on the current selection of movies at the theatre...THERE IS NOTHING GOOD OUT THERE!! We have not seen a non-kids movie in months. Seems everything is about satanic cults, slash em up movies, or i cheated on my spouse movies. Finally, a decent flick with a historical message and it was very well done.

Back to Valentine's day....Anna's class enjoyed pajama day on Friday for their party. Luckily the snow days did not interrupt the previously scheduled day for parties. The kids enjoyed exchanging cards and candy and the cupcakes and cookies were great too. Fun to see the kids giggling about who gave them what type of valentine.

Caroline's party was unfortunately delayed due to the snow day on Thursday. Because Caroline has friends in her class that come to school 3 days a week, the parties are usually on Thursdays. It was rescheduled for Tuesday of this week. The kids had a fun time and were on a sugar high when we all waved goodbye. I'm sure the teachers loved getting them down for naptime after that!!

On Monday when the girls and I arrived home, there were three beautiful arrangements of flowers on the counter with cards for each of us. The girls were so excited and wanted to take pictures and put them in their room. So fun for Gary to do that for the girls.

Overall, it was a fun day....cannot believe the stores have Easter stuff out already but we have to quickly move to the next best thing it seems like!!

Happy Hearts Day!

celebrating at anna's party....the kids got to wear pajamas!
heart shaped cake the kids made and decorated for gary and me

anna with her flowers from daddy

caroline was so excited about her pink and purple flowers

fun at caroline's party

Snow Day #459

We sure have had a snowy winter or rather a winter filled with all kinds of crazy weather which then benefits the kids with a day or two or three off from school. The girls were let out of school on Wednesday at 11am (Caroline was sad because it was supposed to be her Super Star lunch day....but we are going to make that up next week) and then waited for the snow to start. It started coming down before 1pm and snowed for about 6 hours or so. Luckily I left work in plenty of time to avoid the craziness of the 2-3 hour commutes home that several of my friends and family endured.

The girls were anxious to play in the snow today (at least for a bit) and so Gary rigged up a sled for them to use in the front of the house. It was an oil drip pan... a bit redneck if you ask me and I guess our neighbor took note, because he promptly came outside and offered us a real snow boogie board fit for 2 people and offered to let us trapse through his backyard to the golf course across the street from our house. What a great idea!! The girls loved the sledding as did Gary. Gary claims he has never sledded before. As someone who has the need for all things fast, this was right up his alley. After many, many trips down the hills, we retreated back to the house for hot chocolate and board games by the fire. Attention MLGW, yes we used our gas logs for the first time in a long time and please do not penalize us with a $500 utility bill!!

Wishing the girls would go back to school tomorrow...only time will tell. Our street has cleared out and the ice has melted. Keeping my fingers crossed as Anna has her Valentine's Party tomorrow and it is pajama day!!

headed over to the golf course for sledding

anna loved it!!

a family of snow angels

sweet sisters sledding

a morning of fun!

Ferdinand the Bull

Thursday evening the Orpheum hosted another one of their Family Series productions and this time it was the children's story, Ferdinand the Bull. A special treat before the play started was the reading of the story by Leann Tuhoy as was seen in the movie the Blind Side. She read the story to Michael Ohr after he came to stay with them. She read the story in her classic southern voice. Of course Anna then asked me if that was the whole play. Not so fast....the play was an hour and was done very well. The kids loved the humor and the various characters. Definitely worth our time and since we bought the tickets on a Groupon deal, it was only $25 for all of us! Can't beat that for a family night out at the Orpheum.

Superbowl & the tooth fairy

We loaded up the family and headed over to the Davis' home for their annual super bowl party. They have the perfect house for entertaining and had incredible food. The girls were excited about hanging out with other kids and we were looking forward to the game, even though we really did not care who won (just not the steelers, please!!). Deep in the fourth quarter of the game, Anna comes out from one of the kids' rooms and says she was knocked in the face accidentally and of course her tooth is hanging in her mouth. After much coersion on my part and flinching on Gary's part, I pulled her tooth! She was so excited. She has not lost a tooth in over 6 months and was ready to have a visit from the tooth fairy. Such a fun way to end super bowl Sunday! As an added bonus she finally got to add her name to the tooth chart at school!

anna showing off the new space in her mouth

added to the tooth chart at school, finally!!

Daddy Daughter Dance

Gary surprised the girls tonight by taking them to the Daddy/Daughter dance sponsored by our athletic club. The event was held at the Great Hall in Germantown and was catered by Coletta's Italian restaurant and there was much dancing to be had. Gary said Caroline filled her plate with cheese and cookies (mind you there was pizza, ravioli, pasta, etc.) and then she was enamored by the chocolate fountain. Anna said the food was yummy as well. The girls joined Gary on the dance floor for the dance contest. Gary said they were "tapped" by the judges to exit the floor not too far into the contest. Not sure Anna quite understood that when Gary was "out" the whole family was out...she kept dancing away for a while until Gary finally convinced her it was time to exit the dance floor. Of course then she was embarrassed but all was good and they came home with goody bags and stories to share. So glad Gary was able to spend time with just the girls. Special memories indeed. Of course when I shared with the girls that Daddy had a special night planned Caroline asked if they were going to Chuck E. Cheese. I said no and said they had to wear nice dresses and then Anna said "Are we going to someone's wedding or some old person's birthday party?" Nice guesses, girls and glad we could hopefully live up to or exceed your expectations!!!

all dressed up and the girls still don't know where they are off to!!

the always popular "silly face" pose

sweet sisters

Electricity presented by Grandpa

I so generously signed up my dad to do science experiments in Anna's 2nd grade class this year. He agreed graciously to do this as long as the material was on what he knows best. I can't think of any type of science that my dad can't conquer, being a PhD in Mechanical Engineering and a Master's in Aerospace Engineering from Cal Tech...nerd capital (just kidding, dad). However, my dad prefers not to work with earth science or biological sciences. So with second semester in full swing and my dad's kind of science on the agenda, Dad was slated for his first experiment with the eager 2nd graders. Dad did a lesson on electricity and based on the comments from Anna, the pictures sent by the teacher and a few e-mails I received from other parents, he was a hit!! He sat on the floor with the kids and they were very engaged. Anna thought it was great and can't wait for him to come back. Dad said they were very smart and interested and he wished his college students at U of M were half as enthusiastic and engaged in class as Anna's class! Kudos to Mrs. Kolznak for having an awesome class and thanks to Grandpa for bringing science to life. I really do remember when Dad would walk down the street to Campus School from his office at U of M and do science talks with my classes. Now we are on the 2nd generation.

anna learning about electricity

dad with the kids

great speaker to the budding scientists

anna with grandpa, so proud!