A Birthday and a BFL Champion

Want to feel old?

Wake up and realize that one of your daughters is 17 years old today.

Of course, that also makes you want to lock the door, bolt the windows, and tell her that she can go outside when she's 30. Until then it's probably best to lock her in her room and hide her away from those terrible boy-things.

Ah, but since that simply isn't possible (well, at least not legally), you might as well sing "Happy Birthday," grin, and realize that your daughter is but a year away from being a woman.

Yes, we just celebrated Alyssa's 17th Birthday.

And as is the tradition in our home, the birthday boy or girl gets to select what we're having for dinner.

As a vegetarian, Alyssa decided upon veggie filled sub sandwiches.

Of course, I am NOT a vegeterian. So I was sure to fill mine with a fair share of the cooked flesh of dead animals...



I'm pretty sure it included pieces sliced off a cow, a pig and a turkey.

And as is also the case, almost no one in our family wants a traditional birthday cake for their birthday.

Alyssa wanted a really big cookie.

And here it is, complete with her ham of a sister Nalani sticking her head in the picture...



Nalani made sure to brush her hair out of her face before posing, of course.

After singing "Happy Birthday" to Alyssa, Malia just decided to but in and make it her responsibility to take the candles of the cookie...



Which meant that Kekoa and David just had to do the same...



Their cousin Tyler was enjoying himself last night...



He was just grinning at all the noise and nuttiness that comes out of our children.

Alyssa had a nice little stack of presents to open...



She really enjoys books about art and loves independent movies.

For some reason Cari got her a book about soup...



Maybe it's vegetarian soup or something.

Alyssa was saying that there once was this can of tomato soup that was famous for 15 minutes or something.

We had no idea what she was talking about. There's no animal flesh in tomato soup.

Anyway, here's the whole family together for Alyssa's Birthday...



Today was also an important day in that it marked the unveiling of the official Bicoy Football League Championship plaque...



Including the newest name engraved on the list of champions of our fantasy football league...



In addition to the unveiling of the newest Champion added to the permanent plaque that remains with us Commissioners of the BFL, we also held the formal presentation ceremony of the Bicoy Football League Championship trophy that the winner may take home and display on their mantle...



The formal and elaborate ceremony consisted of our tossing the plaque on the lap of Cari's brother-in-law as he sat on the couch eating a piece of Alyssa's birthday cookie...



Ah, the grandeur, pomp and circumstance of the Bicoy Football League.

The Weather Outside is Frightful!

Slightly warmer weather makes things worse!

Go figure.

As bad as sub-zero temperatures can be, you can still get around town rather easily and safely. When it warmed up above freezing for the last half a day - and what would normally be snow was instead rain or freezing rain.

Then the temperatures dropped a few degrees and that water turned into a sheet of ice. Add to that another 8 inches of snow that are expected today, and, well, you get a really big mess.

Here's the online headline on our local newspaper...



It was so bad that pretty much everything was cancelled this Sunday morning. Churches cancelled mass. Malls closed. Even the sunday newspaper will be delivered Monday morning.

On a day like this you pretty much just hunker down at home and ride out the storm.

That made for a fun day with all eight people trapped in our house!

As you can see here, Alyssa was absolutely overjoyed that Mom wasn't grocery shopping and instead kicked her off the computer...



For Bretty it was business as usual as he assumed his normal position on the floor in front of his beloved Wii video game system...



And when Kekoa tired of playing with his own toys, he invaded the room of his little sisters...



David was just lounging around and decided to see if he could make popping noises with his finger in his mouth.

As you can see, even the cat thinks that was a bit strange...



Malia and Nalani each decided to dress up as their favorite Disney princess.

Malia dressed up as Snow White and Nalani as Cinderella.

Of course, with three older brothers always around the corner ready to attack them, the girls made sure that they were ready to defend themselves.

These were princesses packing heat...



Eventually David, Bretty, Kekoa and Nalani realized that while heavy snow and ice isn't much fun to drive on - it can be a real blast to play in...



But poor Malia has been really sick all week and mom made her stay inside...



She was such a sad little girl. Sniff.



But Daddy gave Malia her very own bag of potato chips. It's amazing how a little junk food seems to make things at least a little bit better.

Everyone heading outside also made Alyssa grin from ear to ear...



Mostly because there was no one around to bug her when she finally got on the computer!



Cari's parents were going to see Senator Hillary Clinton speak today - but even that was cancelled.

Cari and I did go with them to see Senator Barack Obama earlier this week.

Here is State Senator Dave Hansen (Cari's Dad) followed by Governor Jim Doyle...



They were walking out into the crowd just before the man of the hour, Senator Obama...



It was a full house on the UWGB campus...



And here's a very rushed and blurry picture as I reached down and shook the Senator's hand...



The real reason I wanted to see Obama is because of this...



Yes, that's Barack Obama's 1979 senior class photo as he graduated from high school in Hawaii.

Senator Obama was born and raised in Hawaii. He's a local boy through and through! And he's running for President!

Unfortunately, he went to Punahou School.

Probably couldn't get accepted into Iolani.

Iolani no ka oi!

The Newest Addition to Our Family

It's official.

We are once again true-blooded Wisconsinites.

How else can you explain our incredible excitement about the newest addition to our family.

Just take a look at this little monster...



Craftsman.
9 horsepower, four cycle Tecumseh engine with electric start.
6 speed forward transmission and 2 speed reverse.
15" snow tires.
28" clearing path and 21" height snow intake.
12" serrated auger and 12" impeller for extra throwing power.

Real men don't use snow shovels.

Real men use power tools to throw snow 40 feet in the air!

Yeah baby!

One of the Cool Things about Wisconsin...

Yes, I mean cool, not cold.

Today was a relatively warm day in the upper-20s and there was a nice layer of snow on the ground from earlier in the week.

That meant only one thing. Sledding!

Of course the down side of sledding is that you have to walk up a big hill to start...



Cari hasn't gone sledding since she was kid (she says she can't remember the last time, but I assume she must have gone sledding at least once when she was small!). In either case, she was raring to go today...



She really got into it, but of course had to act as a ferry for Malia...



But when Cari wanted to sled on her own, it became my job to take the little girls down the hill...



Here's my view of the ride just before pushing off...



Kekoa in Hawaiian means "courageous warrior" or "the brave one" - which is pretty much how our son Kekoa approaches all of life.

Which also includes sledding apparently...



Eventually Nalani wised up to the fact that if she really wanted a fun ride, it wasn't going to be with Mommy or Daddy.

She had to get on with Kekoa...



Grandma showed up unexpectedly and brought another two person sled, so Bretty and David jumped on together for ride after ride...



But most of their rides seemed to end the same way...



Unfortunately, the yucky thing about snow is that you have to clear it from your driveway. Interestingly, I find shoveling snow much easier nowadays than I did when we lived here some 6 years ago...



Oh wait, that's probably because I'm not in the picture above.

It's great that all our kids are 6 years older. It makes my shoveling duties much, much easier.

Earlier in the week the younger kids (Alyssa doesn't do snow) headed outside to make a few snowballs.

Nalani got a bit carried away...



But if you're building a big snowball, you might as well turn it into a snowman...



Kekoa made his own...



And everyone posed in front of the big one...



But our son David, well, his snowman was a bit unique...



And they had the audacity to question my sanity!