Here Comes the Boom!

As my kids get older, they really enjoy having their own spending money.  They each get an allowance and often request money for birthdays so that they can save for something that they want.  This Christmas they each ended up with a little money from grandparents and saved up allowances and birthday money.  William and Henry bought games to go with their new Playstation.

Tessa bought this:

It's a Furby Boom.  I don't even know what to say about it.  It talks to you in a mix of gibberish and English - the more you talk to it, the more English it speaks.  She named it Duh Bo (I think - it means Crystal Something or other in "Furby" but it sounds like Dumbo when it refers to itself.)  There is an app on the iPad that you can use with it - it bathes and feeds and lays eggs and all kinds of crazy stuff.  It seems like a cross between Elmo and a Gremlin.  It kind of freaks me out.

There is also a movie called Hear Comes the Boom that Jay has been wanting to watch for a while.  He coincidentally decided to watch it with the kids after we got home from the Wright Family Post-Christmas Extravaganza and they seem quite enamored with it.  I am hearing lots of laughter from the family room.  I, however, had had enough of the Booming for a while so I think I will abstain.

I wonder how long the Furby Boom will last until it accidentally loses it's batteries.  I don't think Tessa would fall for that trick.

Merry Christmas!

Quite alot has happened since William's birthday.  Tessa had her school opera (she was a dancing elf in Elves Got Talent) and her holiday dance revue.  Since I bug Jay to give me pictures and video of these events and it never seems to happen, he got me an iPhone for Christmas.  I guess this means that I will always have a camera with me and am now responsible for images and video.  Fair enough.

We have had a nice holiday.  For the past two years our little family has been felled by the stomach flu in the days leading up to Christmas.  Not this year.  I was ready - it was going around the school and other than Tessa having a little bout of it a few weeks ago on a Saturday, no one else was sick.  A Christmas Miracle!

The boys got a new Playstation and have basically done this all day:

Well, they played their new games all day, other than to take a movie break after lunch.

Tessa's big gift was the American Girl Campus Snack Cart.  It is pretty cute.

They each got a few books and two family movies.  Nice and easy and not too much.  It is nice that they are older now and Christmas doesn't involve cleaning out the family room so we can make room for all the stuff that they receive.

Jay is off the entire time the kids are off and we are having fun.  It finally stopped snowing and warmed up a bit.  Life is good.

Merry Christmas!

Will.i.am

Today is William's 10th birthday.  I worried a little that his actual birthday would be a little anti-climatic because we had done most of the celebrations over Thanksgiving weekend.  On Friday, we went out to lunch at Huhot, a Mongolian Barbeque place.  It is yummy and the kids love picking out all their noodles and stuff and mixing their sauces.  We also went bowling.  William has created quite the tradition of going out to lunch or dinner and bowling with the family for his birthday.   Every year I offer him the option of a party and every year he chooses otherwise.  Easy for us, that's for sure.

On Sunday, he opened his presents.  His main present from us was a 1886 Morgan Silver Dollar.  His request.  William is eccentric.  But he loves his coins.

Today we had a Coldstone ice cream cake.  He had to get checked out school this morning because he tweaked his neck somehow and wasn't feeling great, but an ibuprofen and a heating pad helped and he seems fine now.

Happy Birthday, William!  We love you.