A Very Merry Un-Birthday

Between endless snow days trapped inside and a few bouts with various illnesses, the girls have been keeping busy.

And keeping me busy cleaning up after them.

After helping throw me a very successful birthday party last Saturday (cake- check, decorations- check, wrapping presents-check), they found their true calling in life.

PARTY PLANNERS EXTRAORDINARIE!
Their ultimate speciality- birthday parties (and often the un-birthday kind).

Whenever I walk into a room, I'm certain to find bits of wrapping paper, scissors, tape and loads of 'gifts' all over the floor. They are just bursting with creativity and birthday wishes and feel the need to share it with us all.
Last night, they set up their 'party' and got everyone around the table to pass out precious presents.
Josh got the #1 prize- Hello Kitty bandages. Just what he always wanted. Promise.

Thanks girls for keeping life FUN!!

Signs of life...

Signs of spring.

After SEVEN snow days since January,

and February being the fifth most snowiest month on record in Kentucky

-EVER-

all I can say is-

Hurray!

Snow Day #7

Two stinkin' inches.

That is all it took to shut the schools down. The roads were perfectly clear by 10 AM.

Ah, whatever happened to the two hour delay?

June 3 is the new "last day", for now.

I'm all about getting time off from school, but it really has gotten out of control this year!

We'll be having swim meets on school nights!

Pinewood Derby and Blue & Gold Banquet

Three boys
Three cars
Three times the fun!Brynn and Kaitlyn enjoyed the Boy Scouts of America's birthday cake. 100 years of scouting!Race time! Every car raced on each of the three lanes one time. Their three times were added together for their final race score.Matt: #15 Green/Viper
Josh: # 16 Black/Cardinal
Trey: #21 Orange/Flame This was Josh and Matt's first derby and Trey's last.
In one heat all three Jackson cars raced at the same time!It was hard to get a clear picture when they were moving so fast!Trey and Josh's carsMatt's car after his third raceMatt was our BIG winner!
2nd Place Overall Speed Winner His car advances to the District Race in March.Josh's car was awarded 'Most School Spirit'.Trey's car was 'Most Deadly'. (I am sure all the skull decals helped him win that!)The speed and design winners of the Tates Creek and Pioneer Wards.This little one will benefit from his big brothers' previous car models. By the time he's eight, we'll have found the perfect design!What a night! Great job boys!

Thirty-three

Rich informed me that this is my 'Larry Bird Birthday'.

That's not a bad thing since he's one of the greatest basketball players of all time.

After a brief bit of research, I discovered that 33 is also:

The coming of age of a hobbit in J. R. R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and

the namesake of the private club, Club 33, located in Disneyland's New Orleans Square.

It looks like its going to be a really, really great year.

It has to be after I got to celebrate it with my seven most favorite people, enjoy a gorgeous Hello Kitty cake selected by my two darling daughters, watched my oldest three sons battle it out in the Pinewood Derby, devoured a delicious dinner at Chili's and received so many cards, calls, texts, messages and gifts from those I love. Thank you!

Life is pretty sweet, if you ask me. I don't mind getting older one single bit. Thirty-three sounds like the perfect number to me.

Surprise Guests

We were home on Saturday afternoon, taking a rest between basketball games number 2 and 3, when my cell phone rang. It was my little brother Jeff who lives in Milwaukee.

"You up for some visitors?" he asked.

"Where in the world are you?" I exclaimed.

"Indiana." He said it with a nonchalant tone, like they were practically in the neighborhood.

Jeff and his darling wife Sarah had been to the Chicago temple and thought a trip to Kentucky sounded fun.

Impulsive, crazy and totally fun- that's Jeff.

They text Sarah's boss on the drive down to see if she could get Monday off. Otherwise they would have had to head back north just hours after they arrived. Thankfully she didn't have to come to work on Monday, so that extended their quick trip to just 36 hours.

They got to our house at 10:15 PM Saturday night. We had pizza, watched the Olympics and stayed up way too late visiting.

Sunday we rested, celebrated the holiday, played games (Pass the Pigs and Murder in the Dark) and took a drive down south to Madison County.

Monday we went bowling and bid them a snowy farewell as they headed into a winter storm.

12 inches of snow dumped on them from Louisville to Indianapolis. Their average speed of 25 mph and they saw a total of 52 cars slid off the road. They continued northward and the weather cleared. They finally got back home to Milwaukee after an arduous 10 1/2 hour drive.

While the whole thing was a bit wild, it was SO MUCH FUN to have them even for just a couple days.

We miss you already!

Presidents Day

Presidents Day here in Lexington was cold and snowy, but we had Jeff and Sarah here to brighten things up. We only had time for one activity before they headed back to Wisconsin, so we went bowling.

We got there at 10:30 AM and had the place to ourselves, which was great, except the one employee insisted the girls get rental shoes. This was a first, as they have always just worn their socks.

It was an intense round. Matt got a strike on his first bowl. Jeff got a turkey (three strikes in a row) and finished with a cool 151.

True these things were awesome, but there must have been some magic the girls' tiny rental shoes, because they put up some insane numbers. With my help and some serious luck when rolled the ball forward from between our legs, they got a strike, strike, spare, strike, spare. They bowled a whopping 137. Impressive. Especially when you are only three! The girls (BK) CRUSHED their big brothers!Jeff's turkeyOff to Milwaukee, Wisconsin!