skiing

Three days after Christmas we celebrated Lauren’s 11th birthday! Dave took her, Sophie and her friend Michelle skiing. Despite the terrible conditions they had a lot of fun. Sophie switched over to snowboarding last winter and according to Dave, she’s really picked it up. They both really love it.

That night we all went out to dinner at her favorite Mexican restaurant in Manayunk. Lauren’s friend Naomi joined us and then had a sleepover. Overall, it was a pretty good birthday!

Skiing at Blue Mountain
Lauren, Sophie and Michelle
The gang at dinner
The birthday girl!

Since Lauren’s birthday always falls during the school break and a lot of friends are away, this year we had her birthday party with friends the first weekend in January. She decided that she wanted to do something at an arcade, so we went to Dave and Busters. Talk about stimulation overload! She had a blast and it was exactly what she wanted.

Like me, she likes to stretch her birthday celebrations for as along as possible. We did a pretty good job this year 🙂

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Two days after Christmas we got loaded up and headed to New York for a few days of skiing. We got an Airbnb in between Hunter and Windham mountains with the Morris and Townsend families. We also celebrated Lauren’s 10th birthday while we were there. On the 28th we had a little party with pizza and cake and a competitive game of Kids Against Maturity.

While Ally and I hung at the house enjoying some quiet time, Crystal and the dads took the kids for three days of skiing. According to Dave, Sophie and Lauren have been doing really well and they both “graduated” to ski poles.

Unfortunately there was one pretty big mishap. Crystal was taken out doing down the mountain and hit her face on John’s ski boot. She broke her nose and hand and will need surgery to fix both when they get home. She’s been a trooper, but was out for the count the rest of the week.

The birthday girl!
with her new skateboard
new fancy boots!
sister love
Crystal, Sophie and Lauren
Crystal, Lauren and Bella
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It’s mid-February and I’m officially done with winter. January felt like it was 147 days long. But we’ve been keeping busy trying to enjoy all of the fun things about winter (which I keep having to remind myself exist).

Dave has taken the girls skiing several times and we did a ski weekend with some friends in the Poconos. Both girls are getting pretty good and both really love it, which is great (Dave is in heaven). I’m still happily sitting inside with my book by the fire 😉

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Here’s Sophie helping Lauren get her ski legs at Spring Mountain.

We also had to say good bye to our au pair, Lydia, who ended her year with us in January. It was so sad to see her go. The girls were pretty bummed, especially Sophie. But, just days later we welcomed Lina, our new au pair from Sweden who will be with us the entire year. The first two weeks were a tough transition for the kids, but I think we’re all settled in now.

Here’s Sophie and Lina

Philly has been consumed with Eagles fever. On February 4th they won the Super Bowl, the first time the team has ever won, beating the Patriots, who won the last five yeas. It’s pretty much the only thing people are talking about and the media is covering. Last week Philly had a celebratory parade, which was just nuts. The City pretty much shut down and hundreds of thousand of people came in to watch the team parade down Broad Street.

Here we are all wearing our Eagles gear. And a the best shot I could get of the parade. The city was just a sea of people and it was impossible to get close to Broad Street. People were climbing anything and everything they could to get a good view.

At the beginning of February Lauren decided that she wanted to get her hair cut again – very short this time. She loves it, and so do it – no brushing drama!

Here’s the cutie and her new ‘do.

I just keep reminding myself we’re just a few weeks away from spring break and the Bahamas!

 

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This winter the girls started an indoor climbing class at a local rock climbing gym. Sophie loves it, and Lauren likes it, but “it isn’t really her thing” (in her own words). 

Lauren making her way up the wall
Sophie looking proud after climbing all the way to the top. 
The girls have also been skiing – Sophie quite a few times, and Lauren for her first time. Sophie is totally comfortable and can bomb down the mountain (green and blue runs) by herself. Lauren needs to get her ski legs still – but there will be time for that. 
Goofballs on the ski lift
One of Lauren’s first times down the bunny hill. 

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The year we hosted Christmas for the first time! We had a relatively quite morning with Mom Mom, Pop Pop, Dave, me and the girls. And around 1pm a crew of both Sharps and Rainers came over for a total of 26 people. We successfully we pulled it off! Here’s what the house looked like before the madness:

After Santa left off of his goodies

Table for 26
And the table filled with family! Everyone fit! 
Sophie’s big present was a set of skies that she got to use right away. Dave took her the day after Christmas to Spring Mountain. 
The hip ski chick

Doing a pretty good run down the hill

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We’ve had a pretty mild winter until the end of January, when we were slammed with over 2 feet of snow. Sledding in the back yard was in full swing with all of the neighbors coming over to enjoy the hill.
Lauren with some neighbors

Snow bed.
Sadly, Lauren ended a day of sledding by slamming right into our swing set. She knocked three teeth loose, but not stitches were needed, thank goodness. 
Dave has also taken Sophie skiing a few times this winter. She’s getting pretty good. They moved from the bunny hill to a green hill during their last trip. 

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This winter Dave took Sophie to Spring Mountain (more of a hill) to try skiing. She got the hang of it pretty quickly, with Dad as a guide, and enjoyed 2 days this winter skiing down the mountain.
Sophie Skiis 
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We have found ourselves in a very cold, very snowy winter. In the last month school has been cancelled at least one day each week. On two occasions last week I took Sophie into the office with me. She was actually really great and an office hit – a good distraction for everyone 🙂 
Here’s a shot of a day where I had to pick her up early from school. All of this snow fell between 9am and 2pm! 

Last weekend we decided to take advantage of the weather and went to Camelback Mountain in the Poconos for a mini ski vacation with our friends Don, Ally and their son Oliver. We enrolled Sophie in ski school for the first time. Here she is before getting on to the skis. Unfortunately she lasted about 45 minutes in ski school before she was over it and Dave had to go pick her up. I think it was a combo of the cold, not knowing anyone in the group, and being uncomfortable on the skis. We’ll give it another try next year and see if it takes… 
Now that she’s in the Primary pre-school, Sophie has to make Valentine’s for her entire class of 22 kids. We got started on the project early so we could work on them all week – and we definitely needed to. Of course, tomorrow is Valentine’s day and school is already cancelled, but I’m assuming they’ll reschedule the exchange, as I’m sure we’re not the only family who has spent a good amount of time on these! 

And Lauren is becoming a real little kid. She’s eating with a spoon now, and definitely wants to do it for herself, rather than being helped. Ready for Montessori I guess. 
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