No snow

What would make two young boys tune out the world and stare at the news as if it was the best show they have ever seen? The chance that they might actually miss school because of snow. Yep, for 30 minutes yesterday my two boys stared at the news hoping and hoping that the weather forecast would call for some snow or at least enough ice to delay schools. Sadly, that was not in the forecast and they had to go to school on time today.

I know not to get my hopes up so when they call for snow or ice I just go about my business as if it won't happen. That isn't the case for two young boys with visions of sleeping in, snowball fights and sledding. The slightest mention of snow sends them into a frenzy.

Today, instead of snow we got a light rain and a cold, cloudy morning. We'll have to wait a little longer for the next winter storm to head out way. For now, the boys will put their news watching on the back burner until they hear mention of snow again and then you will find them glued to the screen in hopes of hearing those two words - school's cancelled.

Don't Axe me.....

Sometime in the last ten years, most likely coinciding with the arrival of children and the tightening of the finances, I started not caring what brand of deoderant I used. Mostly, I buy what's on sale or what I have a coupon for without regard to the brand. The things I want in a deoderant are simple 1) it has to be a solid (I hate the sticky roll-on stuff) 2) it has to smell nice (or at least I have to imagine it smells nice since I can no longer smell) and 3) it has to work. I don't care if it's Secret or Degree just as long as I'm not smelling bad.

Sometime in the past month an odd thing has happened at my house. Holden has started taking interest in personal hygiene. Most specifically the way he smells. Now up until this point, Holden has been a child who had to be reminded to brush his teeth, put on clean underwear and wear deoderant.

Two weeks ago Holden came to me asking for some new deoderant. I offered him several choices from my stash of deoderant but none of them suited. Apparently I am out of the loop when it comes to deoderant choices for boys because no longer will Degree or Dry Idea suffice. It has to be something that smells good. Something that is cool to wear. It has to be Axe.

I am all for good personal hygiene and so I reasoned that if it's Axe that makes him want to wear deoderant than I will buy him some. So on a trip to Walmart, we went to the deoderant aisle to purchase some Axe. I didn't realize the stuff came in so many different scents including a special limited edition. It took him quite sometime to decide on one. He then carried the deoderant around the store with him as if it were his most prized possession.  I can remember when he use to do the same thing with Legos or a Matchbox car.

A few days ago, Target had an ad for Axe value packs. If you purchased two value packs of Axe for $5 each, you got a $5 Target gift card back. Well, since I had a coupon for $1 off  and I can't pass up a bargain, I figured I would make Holden happy again and buy him so more Axe. So we headed over to Target where Holden proceeded to pick out the Dark Temptation body wash value pack and the Dark Temptation deoderant and body spray value pack.

I didn't realize what a bad, bad mistake I had made until we got home. Holden hurried upstairs with his new purchases. Shortly after a hazy cloud of vapors appeared to fill the house and followed by Holden. Can I just say that even though it was 45 degrees outside, we had to open the sliding glass door to air out the downstairs so that we could all breathe.

So I suppose I could be upset that Holden is showing a bit too much interest in smelling good these days but I'm not sure what's worse that or stinky underarms.

Making a gingerbread house

My mom always makes a gingerbread house with the kids. I am glad she enjoys doing it because honestly it's something I don't think I would do well with. First off it's a pain to put the whole thing together. You have to have a lot of patience which doesn't happen to be something I have a lot of. Second, it makes a huge mess. And last the kids generally lose interest right at the end and decide that it's okay for someone else to finish up the project (which includes cleaning up the mess).

This year it actually went pretty well and the boys stuck with the decorating until the house was all but done. Most years the boys just put the candy on until they get bored but this year Harrison even tried to decorate the house with the frosting. I think mostly he just wanted to squeeze out a huge blob so he could eat it but at least he acted like he was trying to help.

Here's the work in progress:

And the finished project: