Uncovering the past

Grandma and Granddad have been decorating their house in England.  When they stripped the wallpaper they uncovered this little gem from the past.

I don't recall who wrote about Snoopy and Mickey Mouse, I am guessing Barry based on the letter 'M' below, but this was a pretty old discovery.

No Auto Spell Checker !!

Hair cut again!

Many things drive me crazy, one of them is my boys having crazy long hair and they get some crazy cow-licks every morning. So, after we got back from Leadville, the first thing i did was taking them for a haircut!

Tyler was warned that this was his last time to go on the "car" in the shop!!

Check out that rat's nest at the back of his head.. 

Looking a little better

His spiked up hair

Cody's turn. Equally crazy rat's nest

All done cutting!!!

Let's put some gel on

A bit of blow dry

Anti Gravity hair!!

Looking cool

Cute smile

Wink wink!!

Presidents Day weekend in Leadville

After the good skiing in Eldora, i was keen to keep improving on Tyler's skiing. And we found out that they had a 4 day weekend off during Presidents Day and booked a weekend away at the last minute to go ski at Ski Cooper!!

We also invited the Chandrasekaras at the VERY last minute. :)

After some not so nice road conditions, we got to Leadville to a cute little cottage. After unpacking our stuff, we hurried out to catch the last few hours at the Mining Museum in town. It was a cute little museum with a walk-thru replica on an underground rock mine. The kids somehow were rather freaked out by it, even though i kept telling them we're not really under ground!!

When we got back, we started making some dinner while waiting for the Chandrasekaras to arrive. After dinner, we relaxed...

The next two days Tyler, Damith and I spent our time skiing at Ski Cooper. Tyler and I spent the first day practically doing the same 2 runs nearly all day. On the second day, after Damith had finally admitted he doesn't actually know how to snowboard, he tried out  skis and found that he's a natural on them! After a couple of hours on bunny slopes, he also joined us on the green runs. We managed to do nearly all the green runs that day! It was an awesome day surrounded by beautiful views of snowy mountains all around!!

Alan and Cody on the other hand, spent their days exploring the Mineral Belt trail with Sabrina and Siobhan. They also spent a lot of time building snowman and snow mazes!!!

At the National Mining Museum

Inside the mine replica

The the elevator miner

checking out the fake horse

Checking out parts of the museum

The kids watching TV

We relaxed too

First day on bunny slope to make sure gear is good!!

Tyler ready to take on the green runs

Not sure what Cody is doing..

Kids at meal time

Cody and Siobhan playing with snow man

Tyler and I on 2nd day of skiing

Tyler and I near the chair lift

Tyler and I after day of skiing

Damith joined us on the slopes

Tyler wanted to play in the snow too

All in all, it was fun but relaxing weekend.

Here is a video of Tyler at the end of the day skiing. He felt so comfortable that he performed Oppa Gangnam Style all the way down the mountain! Crazy kid!!

Cody Completes Kumon Reading Level 7

Cody has been working on his Kumon for just over a month and he has finished his first level.  So far he seems to enjoy doing it, and likes to race Tyler when we go to the Kumon location.

On to level 6a -Reciting With Pictures, Rhymes (this one should take a month to complete as well)

Cody visits the library

Cody came with me to the library and for once was eager to get his picture taken.  Here he is sitting on the bench on a cold snowy day.

Daddy, check out my fake smile

Snowman on the back deck !!

We got our first big snowfall of 2013 today, and the boys were eager to go and build snowmen on the back deck.

They spent most of their time asking me to load the wheelbarrow up with snow, and then using the brush to clean up the snow on the deck while I built the snowmen.

Check out our snowmen

Chinese New Year Banquet 2013

A few days before Chinese New Year, i was feeling a little under the weather and had in fact, spent the Saturday buried under my covers desperately trying to get better! I was feeling a little sad as i had planned to bake some of my usual Chinese New Year cookies and stuff. Oh well...

I finally felt good enough on Sunday to bake a cake. Hish found out that i was baking my own birthday cake and came to help. That somehow translated to going to get our nails done and rushing home to finish up the cake!! :) We got it done just in time to take it our Chinese New Year Banquet!!

We had our annual Chinese New Year banquet at Pho Basil which is a rather new restaurant. I had gone there for lunch and thought they had a rather nice setting and potentially good food.

About 15 people showed up for the event and we had a good time. Food was not bad, but not great! Maybe i have to just accept that i'm never going to get awesome Chinese food around here, eh??!

Our cold dish

At dinner

The kids checking out oranges and red packets

After the meal

The asian group

Greg whose birthday was on that day honored us with his presence

The group!

We're engaged! (again!!)

More details to follow!! :)

Update : Here is the story...

I came downstairs in the morning and saw all the furniture pushed to the side with a chair in the middle of our living room. I, of course, thought the kids did it. I asked why and was told that if i sat down on it, i'd find out.

As i sat there, Alan walked up, went down on one knee and popped the question with a ring in tow(the same ring he proposed with the first time). It was our 10 yr anniversary of our engagement!!( i forgot.. hehe)

I said yes while the kids all looked on in curiosity!! :)

My 37th Birthday

My 37th birthday landed on a Thursday, so we opted for a low key affair. I was woken up by Tyler and Alan bearing gifts, flowers and cards! :) Tyler had drawn me a birthday card and he read and explained to me! :)

Tyler reading my card

Birthday cuddles from the boys

And when i got downstairs, there was even a birthday cake!! We blew the birthday before we left the house for school and work!!

Singing Birthday song!

Blowing birthday cake

During lunch time, Alan took me out for my birthday lunch at Rincon Argentina in Boulder. It was a new place and turned out to be super cheap! As Cody was not feeling well that day, he was also there to celebrate with us.

At birthday lunch

Alan and Cody

Throughout the day, i went on to receive birthday wishes from nearly everybody i know which i found to be really touching!! Thanks everyone!!!

For dinner, i figured the kids might enjoy a night out at a restaurant, so we went to Rock Bottom Brewery.

Oh, here's my present from my 3 boys!!

#99 Rider out of 100,000 in January 2013

I have been riding the Expresso bike for some time now and depending on how much time I have I always try and improve my ride times.

This month I was the 99th rider out of 100,000 in terms of miles/calories, so not too shabby as I completed nearly all of the rides and the official report was rode 270.9 miles and burned 14869.12337962963 Calories (amazingly accurate calorie count !!!)

This month I am sure the total will be a lot less.

Savage Revenge - 20 Mile slog to the finish

Ski Day with Mommy

Alan has always been the designated person to take Tyler skiing. But this weekend, Alan thought it would be good if i took him. I can barely take myself skiing, but i thought sure, i'll take up the challenge!! Got to get tougher if i want to keep up with the boys!

Anyways, we headed to Eldora and got there just in time to get the last parking spot in the closest parking lot. After getting suited up, we trek to Indian Peaks Lodge to get some tickets and skis for Tyler. After what seemed like forever, we finally got everything and was ever eager to get skiing!!!

We started the morning off with Tenderfoot magic carpet. It was super windy that day but Tyler didn't seemed to bothered by it(even though he did get blown over once) and mastered going down the hill almost instantly. We must have done it about 15-20 times in the morning before it was time to get lunch.

After lunch, fueled by new energy, Tyler surprised me by suggesting we take the chair lift!! I was like, rock on!! That saved me the effort from trying to convince him! I guess the little hints i dropped all morning must have worked after all! ;)

I personally am afraid of chair lifts and i tried to explain it to Tyler how it's done but when we got to the top, he skied off the chair lift like a pro!! Unbelievable! Anyways, the rest of the day, Tyler basically spent it zooming down the hill and each time he got braver and faster. He crashed a few times but when i suggested we left, he always miraculously "recovered" from his crash! :)

It turned out to be such a fun day for the two of us and what warmed my heart the most is when he said to me, "This is so much fun, Mommy! So much more fun than staying at home!!" I think he's ready to take on real ski runs and i look forward to more Mommy-Tyler ski days!!!

Tyler all excited about getting his skis finally

Somebody's ready!!

Going up Tenderfoot magic carpet, look how windy it is

Lunch time

More skiing after lunch

Tyler nagivating the slopes

He gets braver and goes faster on steeper hills

The big crash

On the chair lift!!

This is how Tyler skis down the hill

This was one of the bad crashes