"we did chase too!" {that week when it was really warm in winter}

"we did chase too!"

...

i blame the 100th day of school.

they're dalmatians.

you should have seen under chase's shirt.

hahahahahaha!!!!

i can just imagine them now with the markers...

cade: "let's be dalmatians!"

brennan: "yeah, i'll do your back if you'll do mine!"

chase: "me, me, me, me, me!"

cade: "do a stripe on his face!"

brennan: "dots all around"

cade: "more on the legs!"

really loud laughing,

yelling,

and belly chuckling.

these boys make my life so so great.

i'm the luckiest girl ever:)

dear mom and dad, i made them carry their own skis. love, em

nobody cold.

nobody crying.

everybody asking to come back.

WIN:)

...

first we went to the 

wrong side of the mountain.

parked.

put all of their snow gear on.

walked across the parking lot.

walked across the the snow to the ski shop.

walked up to the stairs of the ski shop.

found out we were in the wrong spot.

but we needed to neck warmers and goggles 

so we just got them there and got their lift tickets.

walked down the stairs, back across the snow.

back across the parking lot.

left all the ski stuff on.

drove to the other side.

parked.

walked across the parking lot.

walked across the snow,

down the elevator to the ski school.

found out we needed to go to rentals first.

went up the elevator,

walked across the snow.

down a flight of stairs into the rentals.

stood in the rental line.

where brennan slammed max's head into the wall.

she cried a lot.

it was not great.

got the kids outfitted for snow boots and skis.

walked up the stairs.

in ski boots.

carrying their own skis.

b/c in my family ya carry your own crap.

no disrespect to the equipment of course;)

have you ever done this?

my least favorite thing as a kid.

THE

WORST.

and while i was watching my kids hike up a flight of stairs

with their skis in their arms,

and ski boots on their feet,

with me hauling up the back end hands free except for a bag with their regular shoes,

i was laughing so hard.

full circle.

i had come full circle.

i was so proud watching them carry their own crap.

thanks mom and dad for teaching me to carry my own crap.

because now i don't have to carry my kids ski stuff:)

insert angel choir singing here.

because i know they can carry it themselves.

so we walked up the stairs,

across the snow,

{note: watching an almost 6 yr old and 4 yr old walk in ski boots for the first time i quite entertaining}

down the elevator to the ski school for the second time,

and check into ski school

where they tell us 

it's time to take off all of their ski stuff.

oh MY!

it was the funnest day.

i just kept thinking that this would be really awful if i was carrying and chasing chase around.

which made it fun b/c i wasn't and so it was just fun.

is it friday yet?

brennan keeps asking when is it ski school day again?

i

can't

wait!

thank you andrea and amanda for watching chase.

LIFE SAVERS.

only 2 more sleeps 

until ski school day:)

cha cha cha

doesn't it just 

make you 

want 

to 

be 

4? 

cha cha cha.

chocolate with extra sprinkles {homemade donuts}

lunch.

'cause sometimes

ya just gotta. 

homemade donuts

grands homestyle biscuits.

poke hole through middle.

canola oil in pan.

couple of minutes on each side.

dry on paper towel.

dip in melted chocolate almond bark.

sprinkles.

you're welcome:)

ice, ice baby

drip.

drip.

drip.

that's what the ice castles were doing last monday night.

by the time we left, brennan and max's coats were soaked.

at one point i asked my father in law how quickly can a person get frost bite anyway?

because my toes were definitely feeling like they were on their way.

but when you're getting 6 boots,

6 gloves,

snow pants for 5,

hats,

coats,

digging your snow pants and snow shirt out of the depths of your closet drawers,

you're just not always thinking about boots for yourself.

so off i went to the ice castles in my chucks.

good times.

i have never seen anything in winter so amazing.

us and 3,000 other people thought so too;)

can't wait to go back next year.

{max was terrified}

if you're ever going to throw a Tangled party...{max turns 4}

linsey showed up at my house at 10:08am 

and started braiding 

9 yellow yarn rapunzel braids,

while i made gift baggies 

and a pinata on my kitchen counter.

i give you,

max's 4 year old Rapunzel party.

thank you pinterest:)

my favorite decoration:

rapunzel's hair sweeping through 

the front door and into the party.

i left it up for three days i loved it so much.

5 yellow rectangle table cloths tied together.

things to know about the braids:

it took 2 things of yarn to create,

and about 3 hours to braid them.

after the 2 hours it took to get them cut apart and separated in the thickness that i wanted.

thank you linsey.

you are a braiding goddess.

when the little party princesses arrived the first thing they did was decorate 

the braids with flowers i took off of different leis from zurchers,

and old plastic jewels in my craft box from the basement.

sean and i were armed with hot glue guns rotating around that table for a good half an hour.

then came the moment where we put all of the hats on,

and

the

hats

all

fell

off

the backs of their heads.

and all of the girls were crying/whining/frowning about their hats falling off 

{b/c the braids were so heavy}

and i thought to myself,

"i should have listened to that girl on pinterest that used hair clips."

i was bound and determined to make these braided hats work 

after all of the hours spent in making them,

so we fancied up a good way to put the hats on sideways, 

with one strap behind an ear,

and the other in front and off to the side,

and taught the girls how to hold their heads just right so they wouldn't fall off,

and vwallah, problem solved:)

go us.

okay, not really, but it worked ok for at least half of the party.

the other half of the party the decorated braided party hats stacked up together on the banister.

still my favorite party favor i've ever sent home with kids.

I WANTED

one:)

and the girls LOVED decorating them.

my homemade pinata:

one old ALL detergent box.

covered in regular printer paper,

and pictures of flynn rider i found online through pinterest:)

took me 5 minutes and a $5 bag of tangled candy from walmart.

HUGE HIT.

literally.

with a frying pan.

hahahaha!!!!!! 

 below: TYING UP FLYNN

the girls laughed SOOOO HARD through this part.

tying up FLYNN with rapunzel's hair.

OH MY

it was hysterical!!!

i had 3 rolls of yellow crate paper,

and each girl took turns going around 4 times.

by the end we had multiple girls with crate paper going around at a time.

FLYNN was such a good sport;)

at the end the girls counted down and then "flynn" broke out of the hair.

again,

hysterical.

THE SMOLDER: 

painting:

i traced the sun before hand on canvasses i bought from walmart.

3 pack canvasses were $3ish each.

i also bought a massive pack of paintbrushes of all sizes.

pin the nose on Flynn Rider:

free coloring page online that i had blown up 

at office max for about $4.

colored the noses and cut them out from a website i found on...

wait for it...

wait for it...

ok you guessed it.

pinterest:)

photo booth:

for our party guests as they were leaving.

complete with flynn's nose to hold up over their own.

party favors:

rapunzel cups with water color paints inside.

'cause ya know,

it's Rapuzel's AND Max's favorite thing on the planet to do!

pinterest is just 

so 

SO

clever.

i found her passed out on the couch at 6:15pm.

that's what i call a success!

and that's when i decided 

that you only get one awesome themed party in the gibson home.

and it's when you're 4.

because it's magical,

and they love and adore it.

after that,

we are farming them out;)