Elsie's 12th Birthday and Superbowl LV

 HAPPY  BIRTHDAY ELSIE!

I can't believe she's 12 years old.  Such a great girl!

Elsie wanted a triple decker cake and Mommy came through.  It almost looks like a giant marshmallow or roll of TP.  :)

Elsie wanted to have her friends over for her birthday.  We decided that was ok, so Perri and Brook came over for the afternoon.

Elsie's biggest Christmas gift...

Check out that air!

Only Elsie would ask for a Cricut Printer for her birthday.  It's really neat though.  You can print and cut out all sorts of neat shapes.  She loves it.

On New Year's Eve we brewed Root Beer.  Unfortunately, it never fermented, so was very flat.  This didn't stop Owen from making slushes out of it.  He will eat ANYTHING with sugar in it.

Ready to party on New Year's Eve!

Sarah and Elsie put together a sweet charcuterie board for our party.  We played board games and video games most of the night.  The kids both made it to midnight.

It snowed overnight, so we woke up to a new year and about 6" of snow.

Elsie, Perri, and Brooke played all afternoon, and the next afternoon too.

We've been rooting on the Chiefs all season.  It's finally playoff time!

I got down the old tricycle.  I can remember when it was huge for Elsie and we had blocks on the pedals.

Last weekend it rained and the kids decided to play outside anyway.  Elsie borrowed a poncho from our camping gear and Owen modified a trash bag!  :)

For the first time in at least 10 years, I brewed a batch of beer.  Stunk up the house properly, but it sure was fun.  In about 3 weeks we'll see how it turned out.

Yesterday was the Superbowl, and even though it was UGLY, we had fun building up to the game.  Grandma Cas was supposed to come up for the game, but the snow kept her at home.  Elsie made some awesome cookies...

...and we put up our traditional shrine.  Unfortunately, it didn't help.  The Chiefs got throttled 31 - 9.  :(

January was pretty uneventfully.  Of course the Chiefs advanced to the Superbowl, which was awesome.  Aside from that the kids have just been doing school and we are both still working from home.  We had one baseball practice at an indoor facility, which was nice to get us out of the house.  Elsie started school in person last week again and she's really liking that.  Looking forward to better weather and getting outside.

See ya,

Ryan