We headed over to the other side of the state to spend the weekend at my Dad & Peggy's. We got there Friday afternoon. While Samantha napped we decided to play Monopoly. Marc ha never played before, so it was fun to teach him. We kinda taught me too. ;-) I ha always, apparently I always played the "nice" version. The way I always played was if someone already owned a property in a color, I didn't buy any if I landed on them. Well, I can tell you, that is NOT the way we played! We played the "mean" way. Everyone bought whatever property we landed on and as the game progressed, we made deals with each other to trade properties. After a marathon game for 3 hours!!! my Dad wiped everyone out and caused all of the rest of us to go bankrupt! It was interesting and fun!
After Monopoly and dinner, it was time for the kids to open their Christmas presents from Grandma and Grandpa. Marc got a really fun game called "Shut the Box". There are tiles number 1-9 an 2 dice. You roll the dice. Whatever the total of the dice, you have to turn over tiles that total that number. Once you roll a number that you can't turn
over a tile for, you are done with your turn. The object is to turn over all the tiles an "shut the box". Very simple, yet very fun and addicting!!
After opening presents and playing with them for awhile, we all headed for bed, we had a busy day ahead of us.
We got up Saturday morning and headed to Lowe's for another one of the Build and Grow sessions. The sessions are designed for kids grades 1-5, but they had enough kits there that they let Samantha make one too.
The kids with their finished ball toss games. Very fun!
After Lowe's we headed over to a
Coney Island restaurant for some yummy breakfast. After breakfast we went to
Cranhill Science Center. We (the
Stoufers) LOVE hands-on science museums! We like the idea that the kids are learning while they play. :-) This museum was a little less hands on than the ones we usually go to, but still fun. There was a big, traveling dinosaur exhibit there. Included the exhibit was a hands-on kids area. There were bones buried, Big, magnetic puzzles to be put together, book to read, regular puzzles to do, an dinosaur figurines to play with.
The sign for the exhibit was too good of a photo op to pass up. ;-)
After the museum, it was too early for dinner, so we headed back to my Dad's house to chill out for a while. After some chill time, we headed to Buddy's Pizza for dinner. It is ranked one of the top 5 pizzas in the nation by Food Network. After a 30 minute wait in a crammed lobby, we sat down to eat. Think Samantha liked it? ;-)
We got up Sunday morning an played and had lunch then hit the road home. It was a very fun weekend spent with family.
Out our back slider.
My yard stick told me we got about 16 inches of snow! The tv station said the official snow fall for Cedar Springs was 17 inches.
After some breakfast and some play time, we all bundled up to go out an see what the blizzard had brought to us. When we opened the garage door (we had to go out the garage door because it was too hard to go out the front door) this is what we found.
After some shoveling, climbing, and playing (about 15-20 minutes), all of our cheeks were bright pink and we were all freezing so we went inside to warm up and have some hot chocolate.
My little angels making snow angels.
Daddy thought it would be funny to bury Marc in the snow. Peanut Marc was worried that Daddy would cover his head. He said it was really cold being buried under all the snow so he didn't stay there long.
It was definitely something I don't think I will ever forget! I am very thankful that I have a job that allows me to be home the same time my kids are and that Marc has a job that allows him to work at home in situations like this. :-)
