The Borsts Visit

Kim, Jeff, Ella and Jack came up to visit us on MLK weekend.  Jack had a game on Saturday morning, so they arrived on Saturday afternoon just as the kids were waking up from their naps.  That day was pretty mild, but it had snowed on the previous days, so we decided to go out and play in the snow.  Cameron, Ella and Jack were all super excited to go out.  Leah was not so interested in putting on all of those layers just go out outside, but she wanted to be with the big kids.  Since all the kiddos were going out, the adults put on our snow stuff and headed out too.

Uncle Jeff and Leah

Leah with Auntie Kim

Mama trying to pull Cameron and Jack in the sled.  It was pretty tough because the snow was deep.

Boys on the sled

Tim took over pulling the sled and got a lot farther before he dumped them / gave up pulling.

Snow cutie!

Another snow cutie, thigh-deep in the snow

Tim fooling around with snow

Siblings will still be siblings - Tim and Kim fooling around in the snow

Sled vs. scarf... hmm, who will win that one?

Leah only liked the snow when she was either being held above it or when she was standing in the driveway.  Auntie Kim made little snowballs for Leah to hold.

She liked throwing her little snowballs too!

She may not love being out in the cold but she sure is a cute snow baby!

Beautiful snow girl

Climbing the snow mountain (aka the plow pile at the top of our driveway)

King of the Snow Mountain

Sledding down the snow pile sometimes isn't fun when you faceplant at the end

Cameron learned from Jack's mistake (this time, although about two sleds later he went face first into the snow)

Tim decided that it would be a good idea to start a fire.  He dug out the fire pit, then dug out the wood to start the fire.  He did use a fire starter log as well to make it a little bit easier.

Matches were not enough so Tim brought out the MAPP torch to get the fire going.  It worked!

Ella and Kim waiting for the fire to start

Daddy and Leah Bee

A branch of the Christmas tree helped to keep the fire going

Ella and Cameron sitting on the Christmas tree, watching the fire

Leah and Mama hanging out on the snow covered stump-seats, watching the fire

Mama and Leah

Leah and Ella playing in the snow

Hanging out in the snow by the fire, not too bad

Ella is so silly!

Borst Family photo

Walker Family photo

Hanging out by the fire

We came inside after everyone got chilly enough and had some dinner.  Tim made chocolate mousse for dessert and it was soooo yummy.  Leah agrees!

After dinner we had a dance party in the kitchen.  Here is Ella showing off her sweet moves!

Jack and Leah boogie

After dance party time, it was time to read a book in front of the inside fireplace.

Jack and Leah snuggling

On Sunday, the big kids went ice skating and then headed over to the mall to play at the Tree play place.  Leah took a nap and then she and I went to meet everyone there.  We played for a while, shopped for a bit, then came back home for dinner.  We had such a fun visit and loved having them up for the weekend!

Christmas Recap - After Christmas Fun

For New Year's Eve, we decided to have a quiet evening, just our family.  We got some fun stuff for dinner and as a special treat, let the kids have whatever color milk they wanted (I know, we are pretty crazy!).  Cameron asked for blue milk, Leah for purple milk.  Both of them were amazed when they actually got the color that they asked for.  Cameron spent the rest of the night asking how did Mama make his milk blue.  After Leah went to bed, Cam got a special treat of playing games with Mama and Daddy.  After he went to bed, Tim and I watched a movie and watched the ball drop.  Not our most exciting New Year's, but we enjoyed it.

We decided to take advantage of New Year's weekend and get some stuff done around the house, including getting rid of our Christmas tree.  Since we have a fire pit in the back yard, we just hacked up the tree and dragged it back there to be burned in the spring time.  The tree without most of its branches looked pretty funny!  It works great for getting it out of the house without making a total mess.

Cameron and Leah having a blast in Cam's explorer tent.  Cameron couldn't be bothered to look at the camera because he was too busy playing with the lantern.

Cameron has a book of science experiments.  We usually just read experiments as bedtime stories (wow, that sounded really nerdy as I typed it!) and always mean to try them, but never get around to it.  New Year's weekend we figured we would give a couple a try.  One of the experiments that Cam has really been wanting to do was to make a volcano.

Leah helping to add some baking soda

Cameron is excited to actually be doing an experiment, instead of just reading about it.

Adding the mixture

Our blue volcano!  Not quite the huge explosion we were going for, but the kids thought it was pretty cool.

We also did balloon races (with balloons taped to straws, racing along strings).  After the races, Tim asked Cameron to pop the balloon while Tim took a picture.  He was hoping to capture the balloon popping on a picture.

It didn't work, but we did get Cameron making this silly face

Leah showing off her Patriots outfit.  We made sure to put pigtails in her hair, otherwise she definitely looked like a little boy.

It was a fun weekend!

Christmas Recap - Christmas with the Kinsellas

On Monday night Paul and Ang flew into Syracuse.  Everyone came over to our house for dinner and hung out the rest of the night.  Cameron requested that Uncle Paul put him to bed and we learned that Uncle Paul is a total sucker (or else Cam is very convincing) because the bedtime routine that normally takes 15-20 minutes stretched out to about an hour.  Cameron loved spending the extra time with Uncle Paul, reading lots of book and hearing some new stories.

On Tuesday night we went over to Nana and Poppa's to celebrate Christmas.  We had our usual appetizer dinner, and it was completely delicious and way too much food, as always.  After dinner it was time to open presents, but first we took a family picture.

Oh, and we had to clean up from dinner.  Cameron and Uncle Paul were on dish drying duty.

High fives for awesome dish drying!

Meanwhile, Poppa and Leah were on dancing duty.

Dancing is pretty much Leah's favorite thing to do, but it looks like Poppa is having a pretty good time too.

Finally, time to open presents!  Cam and Leah were very excited.

Looking in their stockings

Helping Uncle Paul and Aunt Ang open a present

Cam and Leah working on a present together

Nana and Poppa bought Cameron and Leah light-up spinners at Disneyworld.  They really liked getting them at Christmas.

Leah's spinner has Tink on it.

Leah opening up her very fancily wrapped gift.  It was diapers from Uncle Matt and Aunt Gina.

Helping Aunt Gina open a present

One of Leah's presents was a big kitty cat bank.  She asked everyone for money to feed her kitty.

Cute pajama boy waiting for his next present

Mama and her little elf

 
Kisses for my favorite first baby bear

We had lots of fun and the kids were so good.  Leah even went to bed in the crib at Nana's and Cameron laid on the couch so we could stay and chat for a bit.  It was such a nice Christmas and we wish we could get together with everyone more often!