Pizza and french fries

As much as I have always wanted Dyleva to speak Spanish, Jeff has always wanted to pass down his knowledge of skiing.

We decided to take a long ski weekend with family.  

Even me.  

We started small; magic carpet and bunny hill.  I was content with that.

Pizza and french fries down the hill.

Cool.  I can do fast food.

My goal was mastering getting on and off the lift by myself, so I was able to take half of Dyleva, while Jeff had the other half.

By the second day, I had it down.  I did however one time miss the dismount and jumped to my death.  Good news though!  I survived!  

Jeff thought Dyleva was ready for more.  More challenging hills.

They went down big hills!  And survived!

It was a beautiful weekend, and had a lot of fun with the cousins!

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Dylan's second language

In our house Spanish is spoken intermittently and inconsistently.  I used to be really good about only speaking to Dyleva in Spanish.  I do still; but in reality it is just not practical when I'm the only one doing it and they are rebelling against it.

Whatever.

The other day Dylan comes up to me, and says:

"Mami, my charmander is an ex because he hasn't fully evolved.  But once he becomes a charizard the gx is better.  Unless hes a mega, that's the best."  Or something like that.

What?

I just look at him.  "Okay honey."

Well he's bilingual.  I just never would have guessed he'd speak Pokémon.

Pokemon sculptures and tattooed hair

Today was one of those rare days where I stopped, listened, and found tranquility in the house.  

Odd.  Because Dyleva is with me.  Always.  But the fact that they weren't asking me for anything or bickering made me suspicious.

So I put on my spy goggles.

I tiptoed through the kitchen into the dining room and I discovered suspect number one.  At the table.

Sculpting Pokemon?  Awesome.

He was so proud.  

"Mommy!  Come look at this one!  Doesn't he look just like vcdfxgyd?"

And he actually did!

"And look mommy, I did ydgfhdgc and iifkdbvncxvx also!"

Check out these amazing Pokemon sculptures created in the peaceful atmosphere of the Wagner house.

Eva's later sculpture

***
After praising Dylan up and down for his creativity and ablility to occupy his time without annoying his sister, I set out to discover said sister.

Spy goggles back on.

I journey into the living room.

I find Eva in the corner, tucked in by the heater vent.

She is dyeing her Barbie's hair.
What?

She got a tattoo kit for Christmas from a family member that stains her skin with horrible chemicals.  

I immediately expressed my displeasure (Eva, I don't want that garbage on your skin again!)

So now my resourceful daughter is using it to dye her doll's hair!  Excellent!  Way to reuse Eva!

Just please don't dye the American Girl's hair......

In lieu of the ball

This entry is a little late, but Dyleva had a really fun New Year's Eve day.

Originally, the plan was to do something outside.  It was pretty cold.  The majority voted that idea down.  Wussies.

So we went bowling.

It was so much fun!  They turned all the lights off and had colored lights on, like a disco.  We had two lanes; one for adults, one for children.  





We played three games.  During the games, they brought us a ton of food. (None of it healthy......).



And the cerveza and lemonade was flowing!



Dylan is a little competitive like his Daddy.  He was getting a little upset if he was bowling bad.  



Eva on the other hand, was more like me.  She didn't care either way.  But she was really cute, trying to give her cousins pointers.  In her typical know-it-all fashion. 



We opted out of the nighttime thing because every New Years Eve ends in disaster.  So we just decided to hang at home.


Jeff was happy.  The Bills made the playoffs.  


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Adios 2017!

Sub-zero temperatures

Winter has definitely arrived!  The cold has annoying kept us away from doing anything outside.  

Finally, it has paid off!  Snow day!  I mean...Frigid cold temperature day!

Building a snowman and playing in the snow was out unfortunately, but I knew from Christmas break that I had to keep my ninos busy.  

Or they would burn the house down.

We woke up late and had a slow morning.  Nice!

After breakfast we did yoga.  Star Wars yoga!  Namaste.

Since  their teachers knew about the day off ahead of time, they actually sent home quite a bit of homework.  We knocked it out mid-morning.

Well, Eva dragged it out a bit longer so Dylan got free time.

Then we had lunch and RWR time (read,write,rest).  When we call it that we get less protests, and sometimes they actually do fall asleep.

After resting a bit and reading together, we did crafts.  We played new board games, and eventually dinner and a movie.

There were no explosions.  There was no fighting.  Not bad for a day cooped up in the house.

The house that is still standing.

Strong!

We have been so busy this break, just trying to order things, and fit everything in.  Cleaning, undecorating, organizing.


Today we took a break to play.


We went to Strong to the Museum of Play.  
I truly love this place but always forget how exhausting it is.




I will say- maybe its because Dyleva is a little older- I felt they actually came away with something this time.

my little vegetarian

In the past, there is SO much to explore, that they run from here to there, and never truly engage in anything.




Not today.  Like seasoned visitors, they went in with an agenda....and enjoyed what they chose to interact with.

Eva chose the more creative options, Dylan, the more physical.  

The Ninja Turtles were the theme of the visit.  Very cool, Dyleva had a lot of fun exploring today!

Battleship!

Fun!

Holiday Madness

8.5

That is my Christmas rating for this year.

Stressful, but not down to the last moment stressful.  Everything was planned and organized; only a couple days exhaustion endured.

Sickness hit the house early this year, and exited in time for caroling.  Also an extra point for white Christmas.

Every year I tell myself it may be the last Christmas to make magical, so I want to remember it and make it special for Dyleva.

Dylan started the season right away with the paper chains, and then Eva followed suit.  Seriously, there was like 35 links on the chain.

After the tree was erected, that weekend we did the fire truck Christmas parade.  Always a favorite, but this year especially loud!

We added Christmas cheer to the inside, and outside of the house.  So much that Dyleva has said on more than one occasion, that our house is their favorite Christmas stop!

Dyleva wrote their letters to Santa, which Enano delivered and responded to!

We have done gingerbread houses, Xmas movies, holiday crafts that become gifts for our friends, wrapping, music around the clock, gone to look at the lights to music.

This year, we went to the Nutcracker with their cousins.  
It was the children's production- very beautiful, and very long.

I kind of push the the traditions.  
So much that this year I found myself stringing popcorn by myself.  In the corner.  In the cold.

Dyleva is growing out of some of it.





It is sad.  It is more Dylan grudgingly participating than Eva.  He has a Pokemon agenda.  But still, I know it will not last forever.  

Eva did voluntarily agreed to wrap the majority of my gifts this year.  

And like five days before Christmas, I realized, COOKIES!  We didn't make any cookies!  What are we supposed to leave Santa?!  A last minute crisis averted.  Both Dyleva came to my rescue in need and we baked up three different things.  

Only two unburnt.

We closed in on Christmas Eve with our annual caroling this year.  We had an awesome time!  This year we had a bus!  Everyone was healthy, and no bus breaking down.

There was even time for some fun in the snow!

Successful outing!

Christmas eve was at Aunt Jill's house.  It was very nice.  There was a lot of family, but always ends with a visit from Santa.  

We woke to a plethora of gifts under the tree.  Dylan chose the largest box to start with.

He opened it to find another box.

And another box.

And another.

Finally, the smallest box contained a ton of Pokemon cards.  Then he was content, and didn't want to open any more.

Eva was a bit more passive.  She opened mostly clothes and books, and such.  She got to all the toys last.

But of course, the most excited to open his gifts, is Marley.

We ended the day at Grandma Candy's house, where the generosity flows crazily every year.  Thanks, Mom

Later that night...

8.5