::sledding or bust::

Our Saturdays, sadly, are usually pretty boring.  They end up being lazy days filled with a little bit of Wii time, movies, coloring, you know, stuff like that.  Sometimes we go out to dinner, but not too often.  Last week I decided that we've had enough lazy Saturdays!  We needed to do something fun.  So I told the kids that next Saturday we would do something fun.  They wanted to know what, but I didn't know yet, so I just told them I didn't know, but something fun.  Sometime during the week, sledding was decided.

The weather was perfect!  The snow was not.

Since we have NO snow here in Perry, we thought Mantua (which is a higher elevation) would be a good bet for some sledding.  We went to the "sledding hill" up there, and it was a rock hard hill of chunks of ice.  Bad idea.  We tried it (with me on the back and the three kids on the front) and it.was.scary!  If any of us had fallen off, somebody would've gotten hurt!  The snow wasn't soft at all!  So then we told Matt he maybe oughtta pull us behind his 4 wheeler.  Well, all the fields up there were pretty much melted, and we weren't too sure about the terrain, so Grandma & Papa Snowman's backyard was where we ended up.  It was SO fun!  I rode with Chloe for a while, and Matt whipped us around the yard (he might have flung me off into the pine trees), and it was just plain fun.  The little boys were less excited about the ride.  Coop rathered to ride on the 4 wheeler with Dada, and Port liked Matt to pull him on the sled by hand.  And Ave just stayed inside with Grandma :)

It didn't go according to plan, but it was fun.




In other news...

The kids started their "jobs" this week.  Matt and I have talked on and off about doing that with them for a while (jobs and allowances).  I was never excited about it because I didn't want to feel like I couldn't do it (I know that sounds ridiculous-even as I'm typing it I realize that), I thought they were too little, and I didn't want them to have to pay for everything with their own money from then on like when I was little (when I started getting an allowance, I had to pay for everything I wanted with my own money-treats, friends birthday party presents, everything!  I just don't think that's fair or realistic.  Anyway, we came up with some age appropriate jobs, and....this week was the week.   So far it's working out pretty well.  Even Coop's makin' some money!  They're excited to get their work done (make their beds, clean up their dirty clothes, show good manners (Porter!), read, etc), and they LOVE that they can make money and even double their money.  They get paid double if they do their jobs with a happy heart and with nobody having to ask them to do it.  It's kind of fun to go over their charts with them at night before bed.  We put little stickers on them, and they get excited when we add up their money for the day.

Also...

We have parent/teacher conferences this week (today and tomorrow) for Chloe and Porter.  I love to go and hear all about how they're doing in school.  I don't love that I get to take all 4 littles with me by myself because my appointment times are before Matt gets home from work.  So that's where I'm off to in a few minutes.  Chloe's is today.  Hopefully the other kids (Bubb) are good.

One more thing...
I talked to my dad today.  We talked about different things, and he mentioned that he was going to Alaska in June with my Grandpa to go Salmon fishing.  That's one thing that comes to mind when I think of my grandpa-fishing.  I think it's precious that they're going on this trip-just the two of them.  I wish I could go to see him enjoy his trip (I have no interest in fishing of Alaska-other than Barrow, but that's a whole other story), but I'd just love to watch him fish and love it!  Dad said Grampa's always talked about going, and has never been.  He's going to be 80 this year, and he's finally going to Alaska to go fishing.  I love it.