We should just not have school on Mondays in February

Snow days have swallowed up the East Coast for the last three Mondays in a row.  Next Monday the schools are closed for President's Day.  So, in my opinion, we should just go ahead and call off school on Monday the 23rd and just let it be 3-day weekend February.  : )

We kept busy this Monday with Legos.  LOTS of Legos.  Uncle Jack passed on his extensive Lego collection to the boys.  It took a lot of hot water, soap and bleach, but we cleaned them up and got to playing.  The boys really like the Lego Movie right now, so it's great timing.

We also made brownies, watched the movie Hook (awesome 90's classic....) and saw some deer right outside our window!

Thousands of  Legos!!!

Diving in

Building

T on his highest tippie toes to mix the brownies

"I love chocolate!!!"

Ben is big into writing and rhyming words.  So, house and mouse it is!

Trying to get in a workout on the elliptical while they're entranced by the movie

Our deer neighbors

Snow day

This is the story of the Blizzard of January 2015 that never actually showed up in southwestern CT...

As the news channels predicted epic storms and the state was shut down, we made sure that there was enough milk and bread in the house, batteries in the flashlights and Netflix movies in our queue.

Turned out that it was just a regular old snow day.  But we still made the most of it.  : )

Dinner with superheros

Wake up to snow.  If you can still see the lamp posts then it is NOT a blizzard!

Watching the driveway get plowed

Waaayyyy too much time on the LeapPad 

Playroom got destroyed

We made cookies

Lots of cookies!

Some sort of tracks in the snow before shoveling the walk

Dinner is done before nap is over = score!

Indoor baseball with a 2 1/2 year old - not advised!

"Surfing" on the "Batboard" instead of getting dressed for school the next day 

Christmas 2014

We had a 4 day Christmas extravaganza here at the Cali house.  It started on Wednesday night for Christmas Eve dinner at my aunt and uncle's house.  Then Christmas morning at our house, Christmas dinner at my mom's, and then finally Christmas with Mimi and Papi on Saturday.  The boys were showered in so many wonderful gifts.  They should be all set with toys for a lifetime!  It's good to be the only grandchildren in a big family! ; )

Thank you to everyone who sent gifts, food, cards and lots of love our way.  The Christmas spirit was alive and well in this house!

Silliness :)

Merry Christmas from the Cali Family!

The REAL Santa

Every year the boys' school sponsors a Santa breakfast for the kids and their families.  There are munchkins and coffee, music performed by the music teacher, adorable red and green little kid clothes (except for my kids - I mean, it's enough just to get them dressed and out the door, right?!), and of course Santa!  This year the party was extra special for me since Santa happened to be the man I consider to be the REAL Santa.  He was at every family Christmas party of mine since I can remember.  I have a picture of my sister and I sitting on his lap where I am probably 18 months old and screaming bloody murder.  I mean, we go back!  When my grandmother passed away 2 years ago, the party stopped.  So, it is just extra special for me to see my own kids with this person who has given me such magic and Christmas spirit my whole life.  What a gift!  : )

Christmas tree shopping

We got our tree today. While many of our friends like to cut down their own tree on the farm or out in the woods, we are very much on the other side of that fence! Just this side of having a fake tree, we like to go down the street, point out the one we like, and have someone else wrap it up and put it on top of our car for us. The boys don't know any different and they had fun this morning running around to pick out a tree.