The Super Bull

 We headed to Gig Harbor to enjoy the Super  Bowl with my folks.  I've grown up in a sports family.  We listen to sports, play sports, talk about sports.  My Dad had 3 brothers and 1 sister and between the 5 of them they had just about every traditional sport covered.  I grew up with 3 brothers and between the 4 of us, we also covered a lot of sports. 
Now, having our Hawks go to the Super Bowl was a lot of fun because lots of people were talking sports around these parts.  Other Moms at the playground, kids at school, etc.  We didn't have to feel lonely when checking out nfl.com every day--those were our boys in the main articles!  When your team goes to the super bowl, you get to read about them for two weeks while all the other teams sit on the sidelines! 
Now, my Darling Dearest happened to have grown  up around a lot of Denver Broncos fans.  And he himself has been a professed Denver fan.  He was gifted a Bronco shirt and pair of socks for Christmas this year to celebrate his team.  However, he's been a local Seattle boy for 14 years now.  These Hawks have grown on him.  He was a bit torn over the Super Bowl.  He basically said that it was a win-win situation for him.  I knew his true colors would come out during the game....




I had to post these pictures of my Dad who does not often smile for photographs.  I think it made a difference that Nora was the one taking the pictures.

 Of course, we had some Super Bowl food involved in the day.  Seahawks Strawberries.  They were so fun to make.

 Dr. Pepper Cupcakes, a la Pioneer Woman.

 Skittles!  To celebrate number 24.

 Plenty of gear being worn.

 In addition to the sweet stuff there were (non-Buffalo) chicken wings, veggies, brown sugar bacon wrapped smokies, chips and amazing bacon-cheese dip and whiskey bbq sliders.

 We were not hungry for long.

 And root beer floats for the second half!  That reminds me of Tadd's new favorite joke.  "What do Seahawk fans do when the game is over?" 
Wait for it....
Wait for it....
"They watch the second half".  Hahahaha.

 Henry wasn't too excited about any of it.  Interesting bit of trivia.  The only two times in Seahawk's history that they have been super bowl contenders--Tadd and I have had a baby boy.  Ezra was 1 month when the Hawks played the Steelers in the Bowl.  Henry was five months for this contest.

 Hey!  That's our team in the Super Bowl!

 So--he may have been wearing blue and orange--but Tadd was on his feet jumping up and down yelling "go, go, go, go!" when Percy Harvin opened up the second half with an 88 yard kick off return for a touch down.  I received a dozen or more text messages from family and friends during the course of the game.  Every one of them ended with phrases such as "Poor Tadd!"  "How is Tadd doing?"  "Tell Tadd sorry!"  His brother even texted me to keep sharp objects away from Tadd.  Little did they know how not sad he was feeling.

 Caroline and Grandma spent the 4th quarter making confetti.

 Counting down the final seconds.

 "What in the world is going on????"

 I told my kids I'd take them to the big parade if our team won....but I didn't follow through on that.  My wiser half talked reason to me for two days straight until I realized that he was right.  Taking four kids down town amidst the alleged throng of 700,000 by myself would not have been smart.  Instead, we watched the festivities from our warm home and were thankful not to be out in the cold.  As it was, poor Daddy took 2 hours to come home from work because of all the bus congestion.  Thanks honey, for being so smart and for switching teams : )  

It was a fun football season.  And, I can't believe I'm saying this, it's almost a relief to have a break from it for the next several months.  As for the spelling of my title--Caroline made signs for the big game that she hung all over Grandpa and Grandma's house and the first one said "Meet the Super Bull". 

He's a 5 Monther

 His official 5 month birthday shot in the chair.  His eyes are all red and swollen because he's having some serious eczema issues and he just tears at his eyes to scratch them.  He does the same to the top of his head which is full of cuts from his fingernails.  I just can't keep up with cutting his nails fast enough! 

Here he is in his Bumbo with his favorite teething toy.  He popped his first tooth through last Thursday--one week after he turned 5 months. Its partner tooth is still trying to break the surface--so he's pretty grouchy from all that pain.

 A few days before he turned 5 months I took the kids into the local Picture People studio to get some shots of them all together.  They gave me this CD of thumbnail shots to share on facebook or my blog--but they are pretty grainy so that I can't illegally print them and have them be any good : ) 

 Our appointment was right at nap time, and then they called us back 30 minutes late--but he was still all smiles.  I was so happy!

 He just officially sat up by himself without support last Wednesday.  This is the age when things start happening and happening fast.  It's so fun and yet, so sad, all at the same time.  Teeth, sitting, getting stronger, eventual mobility, food--yikes!

 I love the way his hand is on Ezra's face.  It turned out looking all lovey-dovey.  But really Ezra was yelling "Ow!  He's ripping my ear off!!!!" and the picture lady was all "You're fine! just smile!"  Haha.

 My boys.  Eight years ago Ezra was that size.  Eight years--so short and so long.  Eight years ago when I thought to myself "Ahh, my years of motherhood are just getting started.  I will be enjoying this for a long time to come."  Naive, I tell ya.  I had no idea how fast "a long time to come" goes!

A Puzzling Matter

Lately we've  been into puzzles.  That sounds healthy and smart, right???  Haha.  That's not why we've been into them.  Although, they are a fun way to spend family time together with no screens involved.  Fun, that is, if you like being driven crazy one small piece of cardboard at a time.  And if you enjoy seeing just how dumb you are.  And how you lack spatial reasoning.  And if you enjoy reaffirming that the part of your brain responsible for mathematics is totally missing.   But maybe those are just personal issues.

I bought a couple of cool puzzles for Christmas gifts to all the kids.  Cobble Hill makes lovely puzzles.  They are labeled for different ages and then they have ones like the below pictured labeled "Family Puzzle". 

 It comes with three different sizes of pieces--large, medium and small.

 The obvious idea is that the small children can enjoy a puzzle that offers a challenge to older children and adults as well.  The issue here is that I joyfully worked away at all those large pieces and then left the harder stuff for the kids.  It was so satisfying to be successful for once!

 This particular puzzle made us all hungry for candy!  The colors were so vibrant.

 There were a lot of puzzling breaks taken--Chess and "Bop it" were the other popular games of the winter break.

 This is another puzzle we worked on over break.  It got finished because we were able to beg some  help from Daddy.  The puzzle I showed you at the top was about 75% worked when it got mostly ruined.  I didn't have the heart to keep at it and packed it away for another day.

Puzzles and Chess and what not are great winter time fun.  However--while the east coast is freezing and buried in snow, we are having a mild and dry winter--so the kids have moved on to bike riding, shorts and tank top wearing and outdoor fun.  Last week I caught them laying out on beach towels in the sunshine two separate times.  Not that it was warranted--being about 40 degrees--just shows you what kids with webbed toes will do.  I'll leave you with this gem:

Just in case you're wondering, the cute girl in the middle is supposed to be the subject of the photo--not the cluttered counter tops and refrigerator covered in school papers.

Blue Friday

Happy Blue Friday ya'll!

 It's pretty fun to dress up our own personal lineman in his football gear.

 Man, do I love his chubs!

 "Put me in coach!  I'm ready, I'm ready!"

 Go Hawks!

 Last week we were super excited to have a Saturday playoff game.  Saturday games mean that I can make football food.

 And there are enough of us in our family to have a football party without even inviting anyone over
: )  That sounded a little anti-social, sorry. 

 

So, individual chocolate cream pies might not exactly be deemed "football food" . But the "individual" makes them a little more manly, right?  And when you're eating them alongside potato skins and bean dip they're not really lady like.

 Our Bronco-fan-Daddy just might be switching sides...

If our dream of a Broncos-Seahawks superbowl comes true he'll have some tough decisions to make.  Either way there will be  at least five of us joining the 12th Man!  Go Hawks!