Break time is over

Our holiday break is coming to an end. I'm happy Brendan returns to school tomorrow morning, though we've had so much fun the past two weeks. (Actually, Brendan's break started three days early because of a stomach bug followed by a snow day.)

On New Year's Day, Grammy and Papa left after spending a week with us. We loved having them and the kids enjoyed the endless attention. Needless to say, Papa spent most of his time playing the kids in air hockey.

Grammy and Papa with the kids on New Year's Day

The kids spent the rest of New Year's Day playing in a small tent we set up in the basement. They were eager to put their new sleeping bags, gifts from Aunt Jenn and Uncle Kenny, to use.

On Friday, Ken took the boys to The Fridge, a refrigerated toboggan run in Oakland County. It was Ryan's first time. The boys absolutely loved it. Unfortunately, devoting 90 minutes only lends itself to two rides down the run. Think of it as any amusement park ride: long lines exist and patience is required as it takes quite a while to move the equipment from the bottom of the run to the top again.

Ryan loves wearing the ski goggles. The toboggan run gave him a real reason to do so! Ken reports he didn't take them off once in the 90-minute visit.

Today, it was my turn. I opted for bowling instead. Brendan first bowled at age 3 as part of a preschool field trip. I thought it was time Ryan try. The Super Bowl offers smoke-free bowling until 5 p.m. each day, yet it still smelled of smoke. Yuck. We worked our way through it, though. The boys had a good time. Thank goodness for bumper bowling! I managed a few strikes and a couple of spares. The first game was better for all of us!

Brendan celebrates his first spare!

Last night, Brendan invited his friend Luke for a playdate. We ran around outside briefly (it was still cold yet sunny). The boys played before dinner, then enjoyed watching The Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Brendan has been asking to see this movie since it debuted last summer, but we weren't so certain we were ready. We've tried hard to make sure the movies and shows our kids watch are truly age-appropriate. (Did you know that kids don't grasp the difference between fantasy and reality until age 7?) Though we both love Star Wars, we were a bit concerned it may be too violent for our sweet Brendan, who often gets scared by intense movies.

He seemed ready for this one, though. We have two Clone Wars books, so Brendan was thrilled and surprised that he already knew the storyline. He loved every minute of it, and now he'll be playing with his action figures and Lego Star Wars ships for days and days. I wasn't keen on the violence, but at least it's not of the bloody and gory type. And having a friend next to him to laugh about the whole thing gave it all a lighter feeling.