In advance of the big Kreiling ski weekend, we had to check out the ski resort.... Here are pictures of Maddy & Katie's first time on skis. Katie is more of a speed queen and goes swooshing down the slope. Maddy prefers the overly controlled snowplow zigzag! We had a great time and after the lesson and some time on the bunny hill, they were curious about the ski lift and "real" hills, so off we went. They both had a great time and so did Mom!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK!!!!!!





Always the leader of the pack!








Never one to miss a good adventure!









Eagle??? What eagle??? How come everyone is so excited???




And of course the best big brother!




Happy Birthday Nick! You are a great cousin!

Ahhh - the anticipation! The girls got sleds for Christmas, unfortunately we don't get much snow in Philadelphia... So when we got a bit of snow even though it was about 15 degrees outside, we HAD to go sledding.




Finally sledding! It was a bit of a challenge - as you can see, the ground isn't even covered with snow. :)




And down the hill we go!





The aftermath!!!



Good thing we did go out - all the snow is gone today.

Stay tuned for the next installment of winter in Philadelphia which should include the Kreiling and Little family skiing in February! :)

Happy Birthday Craig!

I don't know what came over me (you know, the one who hates to be cold...) but this morning when we woke up and were thinking about what to do for Craig's birthday - out popped "Let's go tubing!" I think maybe it was the fact that since it is finally cold here, the ski resorts have a billion commercials playing on the radio and I had to listen to them all the way home from North Carolina... Marketing at its best! :) Even I have to admit it was tons of fun!











Here we are headed up for our first run down the hill. They have a nice conveyor belt to get you to the top of the hill.







The slopes were a bit slow, so we found that if we tied all of our tubes together we could fly down the hill better!







Maddy heading down the hill...






Had to add this one just to prove I did join the family! :)







After an afternoon of tubing, it was time to warm up with some hot cocoa! (Don't know why this one stays sideways...)






I guess there is more to the Poconos than heart-shaped bathtubs!

What more could you ask for in life - a snow day while your cousins are visiting???? :)

Yes, with that tiny little dusting of snow everything is cancelled.....

Here is a picture of the boys with the new hair cuts.... Hope Aunt Laura did OK! :)

The boys miss Mom! Oh and I guess I should add that Walter does too!

Christmas at the Kreilings

First, Joe was in the Polar Express pagent at school. He played the little boy who takes the trip on the train. Here's a shot of him on Santa's knee.

Here's our Christmas tree -


And the boys making mashed potatoes for Christmas Eve dinner -

I thought I'd try actually posting to this blog to see how the tools work. Here's a neat site that someone sent me the other day.

weatherbonk

It does I nice job of combining several different types of information into one page. There are also links to skibonk and golfbonk at the bottom of the page.

This one's for Eva - the boys wanted to learn cross-stitch so we bought them some beginner kits. Here they are working on their stitches.

While we were at Dad's for Thanksgiving, we stayed at the condo on the beach. As you can see, the dogs had a great time playing fetch in the surf while the kids built sand castles. Man, it's good to live in the South!









The big treat, beyond Thanksgiving Day itself, was a trip to Magic Quest. If you don't know what Magic Quest is, check out the website, but it's a really cool interactive place where you perform quests and try to become a Master Magi. The boys had been there once before, but it was new to the girls and Walter. Walter said his legs hurt afterwards from all the walking and running you do to find your ruins.




The great thing about Dad's condo - other than it's ocean front and free! - is the way the coast is situated, you get both sunrises and sunsets. This one was a doozey!

Here are the long awaited Thanksgiving pictures! The boys finished up the cooking and we had yummy turkey and mashed potatoes, rolls that the kids devoured, and various veggies and salads. It was a great Thanksgiving!

Here is a bit of Christmas cheer for everyone

It does a heart good! Maddy and Craig are learning to play the guitar together. I'm not sure who enjoys the lessons more! :) They are currently working on Heart of Gold.















Also, I meant to post this last month and forgot about it... Katie is always a trooper when she has to do all this crazy medical stuff. Here she is smiling through her latest EEG.

While we are waiting for Amy to post the pictures from Thanksgiving..... (hint, hint), I will give a Maddy and Katie swim/diving update. Maddy got 8th in this weekend's diving meet and she didn't even get points for her third dive. It was supposed to be a half-twist, but she did more of a front splat which doesn't get any points... Poor kid was pretty red, but came out of the pool smiling! Katie dove for the first time this weekend and got 5th place - awesome, considering that in diving the girls dive in the 11yr and under category, so most of the girls are older. They are both loving the diving. Mom is OK with it until they both have to try an inward dive...

As for swimming, they both did awesome as well. Maddy is loving it, but needs to be about a foot taller and six inches wider in the shoulders! :) She is such a peanut compared to the other swimmers. Katie is holding her own, but not sure she wants to keep swimming. She came in 3rd in the 50 Free with an awesome flip turn last weekend, but insists "swimming isn't for her..." Go figure...

Sorry no pictures, but it is really hard to get diving/swimming pictures. You'll have to wait for Amy to post those Thanksgiving pictures...

Also, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Amy!!!!!!!!!!!!

One of the advantages of homeschool is that you can take a day off whenever you want! :) Friday was a beautiful day, so we headed to the beach with Grandpa. I'm not sure who had more fun - the dogs or the girls.

A couple of pictures that are overdue for posting. Also, Kristin you were incorrect - Nicky carved the elaborate pumpkin and Walter carved the other one! Here are the boys in their Halloween costumes.




Here's the birthday boy opening his presents Thursday morning - he received a scooter and metal "put-it-together-yourself" safe (wants to keep some things safely away from his brother!) from Nana & GPaZ; the Hannah Montana and High School Musical CDs and the movie "Cars" from his mom, dad & Nicky.



The school had an assembly on Joey's birthday with Fish the Magish. The teachers conspired to have Joey called to the stage to assist with a magic trick. Joey held up his hands and Fish pulled a ribbon out of his hands. That ribbon just seemed to keep coming and coming out of his hand!

We had a very nice Halloween. We went trick-or-treating with some new friends that Maddy and Katie met. We have a VERY good neighborhood - the kids came home with tons of candy, crayons, playdough and even money! Plus our neighbor does games on Halloween, so they enjoyed hanging out next door and playing games as well. All in all a good time was had by all.