Happy birthday, Wyatt!

     Wyatt is officially 8 YEARS OLD.  Crazy! 

Kozel Family Tradition:  The birthday person gets to use fancy toilet paper. Wyatt was pretty excited to see this when he woke up this morning!

     On Friday, we had the Tuels over for a pizza/movie mini-party to kick off the birthday celebrations.  We watched the first part of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone and the kids played some.  Wyatt picked out Superbowl-themed cupcakes for dessert. 

Oh, Seahawks...why can't your colors be white and ivory?

Once the evening had progressed and everyone was zonked, the Tuels went home and left Ted here to spend the night.  The boys had fun looking at an I Spy book before conking out around 10pm. 

     On Saturday Wyatt had two basketball games.  Ted cheered Wyatt on during the first and Grandma and Papaw came to the second.  Both were barn-burners, with us losing by ONE in the last seconds of each game.  Boo.  Wyatt was bummed, but at least we had birthday party #2 to look forward to in the afternoon! Nona, Papa, Aunt Anita, Amelia, Bennett, Shelly, Shon, Bailey, Lizzie, Uncle Mike, Aunt Lorraine, Lisa, Mikey, Great Nonnie, Grandma, and Papaw came to celebrate with us. 

A lot of people in a little townhouse.  Good thing we're all family!

Wyatt wanted cookie cake again this year.  He ate it on our "special day" family plate we made at the Wow Factory. 

           Today, on Wyatt's ACTUAL birthday, we had a two hour delay.  Wyatt was thrilled!  After school we went out to his favorite restaurant, Rio Grande. 

While I was snapping this picture, we heard, "Kozels!"  The Tuels were just finishing their meals!  They stopped over at the table to say hi and wish Wyatt a happy birthday.  :)

Always gets the same meal:  beef enchilada, beans, and fries. 

Lily was pretty happy about her food coming to the table!

As the restaurant staff was singing, one of the waiters grabbed a spoonful of the whipped cream and smeared a bit on Wy's nose.  Good times!

     We came home and Ken and Wyatt spent the rest of the evening building a new Lego treehouse.  It was a good day.  Happy birthday, buddy.  We love you! 

Snow Days, Snow Days!

Happy February!  Well, this is our second snow day of the week and it's only Tuesday!

For posterity, let's recall our recent school schedule:
January 1--NO SCHOOL (holiday)
Jan 2--We had a full school day!
Jan 3--NO SCHOOL (weather)
Jan 4-5--weekend
Jan 6,7, and 8--NO SCHOOL (weather)
Jan 9 and 10--full school days
Jan 11-12--weekend
Jan 13-17--full week of school! (Sort of...)  I had an observation 1/2 day, a full day of training, and a 1/2 day of special activities followed by an early release, so I was only in my "classroom" for 2 1/2 days this week. 
Jan 18-19--weekend
Jan 20--NO SCHOOL (MLK holiday)
Jan 21, 22, 23, 24--NO SCHOOL (weather)  Wy had a 2 hour delay on 24th but I was off!
Jan 25-26--weekend
Jan 27, 28, 29--NO SCHOOL (weather)  I had to go into school for a 3 hour training on the 29th, but Wyatt had no school at all.
Jan 30--2 hour delay
Jan 31--a full school day!
Feb 1-2--weekend
Feb 3 and 4--NO SCHOOL (weather)

UNBELIEVABLE!!!!  Talk about some quality family time!

How on Earth, you ask, have we managed to enjoy this much time together without some sort of felony occurring?  We've filled up these days with trips to the WOW Factory to paint pottery, the library, Eat n' Park, the movies, WVU basketball games, and various playdates with the Tuels and our neighbor Pepper.  To be fair, we've also each had a few bouts of time out.  Most of these days it was too cold to really play outside, but we were able to go out a few times.

Snow bunny!

I can't believe I've lived without Carhartt's until this year.  I was sweating even on our negative degree days!

The dirt pile is an epic snow slide!  No sled needed!

        On Monday, January 27th, Grandma and Papaw surprised us by getting a hotel room in Morgantown so we could use the pool!  We were SO pumped to swim, so we zoomed on over once they checked in.  Much to our surprise, the hotel had drained the entire pool and refilled it the night before, so the temperature of the water was a solid 62 degrees.  That's not too bad for a breezy spring day, but it's pretty frigid for a pool!  The Tuels had joined us, so the adults watched the kids run back and forth from the almost boiling hot tub to the icy pool and back.  They started using the pool as a dare.  (e.g. "I double dare you to stay in the pool for 14 seconds!!)   We decided to look for other options.  So, a couple of phone calls and a few minutes later we were off to another hotel.
      The new hotel's pool was MUCH warmer, and we had a blast with the cousins.  After a nice swim we all went to BW3s (with Grandma and Papaw taking a slight detour--oops!) and then Wyatt spent the night at the hotel with the grandparents.  The next morning I bundled up Lily--it was -8 degrees out!- and we met Wyatt and the GPs back at the hotel for breakfast and a morning swim.  Another great time!  Once we checked out and came home I realized my engagement ring was missing its diamond.  AAAAAAHHH!!!  Amazingly enough, the hotel sales manager found it on the floor of our room!  I bawled like a baby when I picked it up, and I hugged the manager like I was on one of those "reunited" shows and she was my long lost relative.  The diamond is now safely tucked away in an envelope awaiting a new setting.  Whew! 
       So, that drama over, we return to our regularly scheduled snow days:

To commemorate our first snow day of February, we made snow cream.  It is a very strange version of chocolate ice cream.  

Enjoying the snow cream.   Ted and Sophie tried it today and they liked it, too. I'd like to make it next time with fruit juice instead.

Enjoying a WVU basketball game one weekday evening in January.  It didn't start until 7pm, but what did we care?!?  It's not like we had to go to school the next day!

Lily dressed herself one morning and added stickers on her pants for a little pizzazz.

This is Wyatt's attempt at looking like a "weird alien".  It's weird, I'll give him that.

          The forecast is calling for a wintry mix tomorrow morning, so we'll see!  When we were out and about today most of the roads were still fairly terrible.  I'm sure Wyatt wouldn't mind having his birthday off, too!