February Happenings!

In February, Christine turned 11!!! We celebrated her Birthday in New Hampshire at a hotel we stayed in. We were down there for a Karate Tournament- she also ended up having a cake at home too. We decided not to do a "friend" Birthday this year for Chris, much to her Chagrin- To make it fair we've decided that we will take every one's 11th Birthday off from Friend B-day parties- At any rate it was fun to celebrate in a hotel and go in the Pool when the weather was in the mid 20's outside-

These are pictures of the Karate Tournament Christine and John participated in. The Tournament was at Franklin Pierce College and it was Christine's first time competing. They both took 2nd place for Forms- it was pretty exciting!!!

Grandma Burek turned 86 the same day as the Tournament, so after we drove to Greenfield, MA and celebrated her special Day with her and John's Mom! We went out to dinner and had cake later at her Apt. She looks GREAT at 86 doesn't she?!!!!!


href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSFqSW0TMXhrBu_OnkpKwGPpcyLXWr7u7R-T4OWCCFygN-t9u4D8x066dBiySXQUNf7Z8ORISlprOadio9aTMLHSgytYpnqGzzODp14ARJU_9R7RyfMHtmWe9IxX-bNWv9btbxbY8fMQA/s1600-h/IMG_0861.JPG">




February also brought a ton of snow! We lost power at one point for about 3 1/2 days! We heated our house with our gas fireplace, heated water on the stove to have hot water, put our refrigerator items on the deck in coolers- We were in survival mode! On day 3 we took the kids to a community pool for some fun, but also for showers!




John also celebrated a birthday in February- he turned the big 37!!!It's become tradition that I make Grandma's Chocolate cake for Birthdays. It's a recipe that Grandma Burek has made for years and is so delicous - It's actually the recipe on the back of Hersey Cocoa! This cake is usually gone within a day at our house and John's Birthday was no exception this year.


We had a Ward Game Night at church which was fun. We played board games, ate snacks etc. We showed the slide show that we were suppose to show at the Christmas dinner- It was a Year in Review for our Congregation and Lisa Guerrette did an Awesome job putting it together-


We went out and spent a night at Betsey and David's and caught up with some of our Kingman cousins- Bruce, Erin and kids who were visiting from Cape Cod. It was great to see everyone and we put on quite the "Rock Band". I think we performed "Living on a Prayer" better then Bon Jovi ever could (LOL).




February also brought a "Friend Reunion". We met up with 4 of my oldest Friends and families at Cocoa Key Water Resort in Danvers Mass. It was a fun filled weekend and great to catch up with everyone!

I cannot believe I haven't posted here in 1 1/2 months- yikes! I need to catch up! I think Facebook has seriously distracted me. At any rate- all is well at our house. We still have deep patches of snow, but also have bulbs popping through our flower beds and actually one crocus in bloom! I am currently on a 14 day stretch of vacation and have lots to accomplish- we'll see what I get done- hopefully some catching up on our blog! The girls are doing well and growing fast. Caroline is always coming out with some sort of funny expression, yesterday it was "Mom, I think my tonsil is coming out of my tongue" and "Mom, when we have 3 more kids, can they stay in my bedroom?"!!!

Valentines Day!

We had a fun Valentine's Day. Chris had two of her friends from church Chloe and Nina over Friday night for a sleepover. They didn't get a whole lot of sleep, but had fun. We spent the day sledding on our homemade snow hill, ice skating etc. John and I enjoyed an afternoon movie while the kids played at our neighbors. It was "The Man in the Moon" a 1991 1960's flick with Reese Witherspoon- cute movie and Reese was just a Teenager. We all exchanged our Valentines and of course got lots of candy- Yum! John and I got a babysitter that evening and headed to So Portland for dinner at Romanos Macaroni Grill- We got there and there was a 1.5 hour wait!! We had to do something contructive with that time, so went to the Circuit City going out of Business Sale! In fact we bought a new TV as ours died recently. We got a great deal!!! John and I had a nice dinner just chatting away with no interruptions. He had a free cake coupon that Romanos emailed John for his B-day (which is the 19th) so we couldn't resist. John begged the waitress not to do the singing thing, but she didn't listen! I brought our babysitter Jaanna home and she wouldn't let me pay her - "No Kadi, I want to do charity tonight!". She is such an Awesome Babysitter- the kids just love her as do we! All in all it was a great Valentines Day!

Happy 11th Birthday Christine!

This year we celebrated Christine's Birthday a little differently. We planned a short trip to NH so she and John could be in a Karate Tournament. We decided that even though her Birthday fell on Sunday, we would celebrate it on Friday because how cool would it be to have a family party at a hotel??? John and I also unfortunately both had to work at different times on her actually Birthday (although we did manage to get another B-day cake in together, this time from scratch). So we swam in the Hotel Pool, ordered in Chinese, had Boston Creme B-day cake (Christine's choice) and Chris opened her gifts. It ended up being lots of fun!
These are the top 10 things we love about Christine(in no particular order):
1. She's a great Big sister and advice giver.
2. She is Musically talented and plays the Sax and Clarinet really well.
3. She loves the Gospel of Jesus Christ and because of that makes pretty good decisions.
4.She's pretty smart and was the only girl in her class to make High Honors this Quarter.
5. She loves to read and asked for books for her Birthday.
6. She has a "No hurry" attitude (although it sometimes drives her parents crazy)
7. She loves Birds and can identify quite a few of them.
8. When she puts her mind to it, she can be a huge help around the house.
9. She has progressed really well in Karate, even though it hasn't always come easy to her.
10. All in all she is just an Awesome daughter- We love you Christine!!!!

CPR on the last remaining Gerbil!

So it's about 2:20am and I am working, actually taking a little break at this time, so thought I'd update the Blog a little bit. Last evening, John went to put a empty Paper Towel roll into Mackenzie's (Christine's Gerbil)cage and found her to be cold, but still alive and barely moving. We think maybe she has had a stroke because she isn't really moving one of her legs. Christine is bound and determined to save her Gerbil's life so she was doing CPR on it before I left for work. She was so excited, because it actually revived for a little while. Last I talked to John at 10:20pm, the Gerbil is still alive, but still very sick...... I tried talking John into possibly putting it out of its misery but he's such an animal lover, he can't do it. All I can say is that I really hope that Mackenzie has passed on to a better life before I get home in the morning. She lived a good life, but now it's time for her to join her sister (Jasmin)....... I'm wondering how do we have a proper Burial for Mackenzie when there is 3 feet of snow on the ground?????? Any suggestions?????

Crazy Caroline!

We have some pretty funny conversations with Caroline- Thought I'd share a couple We have had lately-

Caroline: "Mom, did you know I know someone from Washington?"
Me: "No Caroline, who do you know from Washington?"
Caroline: "You know the guy on the back of the Dollar Bill, he's from Washington"
Me: "You mean George Washington"
Caroline: "Yeah Mom, I told you I knew someone from Washington"
__________________________________________

Caroline: "Mom do you think next time I can have pink eyes?"
Mom: "What do you mean by next time Caroline"
Caroline: "You know when I get a makeover"
Me: "You mean pink eyeshadow?"
Caroline: "No Mom I mean I want my eyes to be Pink"
Me: "But Caroline I love your Blue eyes"
Caroline: "Well actually I want one to stay Blue and one to be Pink"
________________________________________

A couple days after the Presidential Inauguration, out of the blue Caroline emerged with this tidbit of info that we were totally unaware of (ha,ha,ha)

Caroline: "Dad, did you know we have a New President"
John: "Oh really Caroline"
Caroline: "Yeah Dad, it's Barack Obama"
We're so happy we have such an informed 4 1/2 year old!

Christmas

We had a nice quiet Christmas this year. Christmas Eve we had our traditional Polish meal. Kielbasa,Perogis etc and then headed to the Congregational Church in town for their Candlelight service. We had never been to a Christmas Eve service as our church normally has their Christmas service the Sunday before Christmas. The Congregational church is 206 years old and has so much traditional New England character. We know the Pastor of the church and he read the kids a neat story during the service. The kids thought that holding the candles was pretty cool, John and I were just trying to make sure that they didn't light anything/anybody on fire (ha,ha,ha). I was disappointed that I was on my 2nd week of Laryngitis and couldn't really sing any Christmas Carols.....At any rate it was a neat service where we were able to worship with people from town and remember the true reason for the season, Jesus Christ. The kids slept till 7AM Christmas morning!!!! It was great! We opened gifts had a big breakfast and spent most of the day in our PJ's- it was so relaxing. One of the best gifts I received was not having to go into work Christmas night as the census on our Unit was really low- Thank you Cardiac Patients! We watched the movie "Elf" Christmas Evening and laughed hysterically- it is such a funny movie! All in all, it was another wonderful Christmas.