Before the rain

They say it is going to rain tonight and tomorrow. 100% chance, so I thought I'd post some winter fun photos from the past week. Princess Eee's arm is healing VERY well, so two more weeks and she can do everything again, ie: ski. She'll still have a cast but a shorter one so maybe we can even fit a regular long sleeved shirt over it. She's not happy about wearing her big brother's clothes which are roomy enough to fit over her arm and keep her warm too. She is not the tomboy that her little sister is, so the oversized boy clothes are a bummer for her. The dr. took off the ace bandage that was around the bottom of her cast and replaced it with more hard cast material so now we can draw on it. Princess Eee is more than happy to let people sign it or draw pictures. Except Cupcake. Cupcake was allowed one tiny mark and no more.

The boys all had a halfpipe competition today. Our home mtn did not have the pipe ready yet so they had no practice time before heading to a different mtn this morning to compete. They came home with two golds and a silver. If anyone would like to help her child (or mate!) with any self esteem issues, bring 'em to compete in snowboarding in NH. If you are the only guy in your age group (Jason), then you win! And if there is one other kid (Zippy!) who is way better than your kid, he'll still get second. And if your kid misses the age cut-off to move up a group by three weeks (#1) and therefore is competing against kids who are all younger, he'll have a darn good shot at gold too. Okay, in all fairness, Zippy rode great for his 3rd time EVER in a halfpipe, and J did some spinny tricks which most "old" guys don't try too much of b/c the falling part really hurts when you're old and have already broken almost every bone along the way, and #1 rode beautifully I heard. He was so excited about his run when he got home. Lots of air and a 360 too. Best of all they all had fun and didn't get hurt.

Yesterday we all went to the mountain. J and The Spark went for a little snowshoe with Princess Eee pulled behind in a sled while Cupcake and I went skiing. She took her first (and second, third and fourth ride up the high speed quad and skied down the rather long run for someone her size very happily. She's definitely getting the hang of it. My favorite part is when she realizes there is someone she doesn't know on the lift next to her, and she has to turn her head and shoulders all the way to the side to see around her helmet and goggles to check out who's sitting there. Then she'll give a mittened wave and a quiet "hi." The Spark also took her first non-parent snowboarding lesson and had a great time. She's getting hooked and now wants to ride more than ski. :) Three down, two to go!

Here I am with The Spark and Cupcake at the sledding party last weekend. Princess Eee was over on the bigger hill with friends b/c the little hill wasn't thrilling enough for her. And she didn't break her arm until a few hours later at home.

This is #1 accepting his gold medal today:

At lunch yesterday on the mountain:

Cast signage. Notice the princess dress over the bulky sweater:

Zippy riding a rail:

#1 on the lift. Ten years old tomorrow!

The Spark and best friend riding to school together after ski lessons last week:

I will post birthday pics soon since #1 will reach double digits tomorrow. We're just going out for a family dinner after his hip-hop class. He either wants stuffed shells if the Italian restaurant is a) open on Mondays and b) has stuffed shells, or he wants Thai so he can eat a zillion orders of their beef satay sticks. I just want a good drink to celebrate a decade of parenthood and especially surviving the first ten years parenting this one! Can't wait to know what the next ten have in store for us.