"Bucky happy, Alice sad"

At the last hockey game, we got a chance to go down and meet Bucky Badger! Alice was very excited about this at first, and wanted to give him a hug, she said. But when we actually got up close, she burst into tears. Bucky, like most of the big dogs in our neighborhood, is apparently most appreciated from a distance!

Hockey!

Alice LOVES going to Wisconsin Badger hockey games. She likes the ritual of getting macaroni-and-cheese pizza beforehand, showing her ticket to the security guard as we find our seats, watching cartoons on the JumboTron, and jumping on the Bounce House they have at the arena between periods. But as she tells us over and over again, her favorite parts are definitely "Bucky Badger, the band, and ouchies!"

'Ouchies' are what she calls it whenever a hockey player gets checked into the boards or a fight breaks out. Daddy also enjoys all the 'ouchies.' Mommy, however, doesn't think that cheering for 'ouchies' is a good thing, and has to explain to Alice that it's not very nice to crash into someone else, and that we should ask to make sure the hockey players are ok.

Izzy takes Alice for a walk

We're not sure who was in charge here, or who had their tongue out farther!

Shoveling

Despite a couple days of 60degree weather, we recently had a pretty good snowstorm. Although her heart is in the right place -- and it's fun to have her try to help out -- Alice spent all of her time shoveling snow back ONTO the sidewalk, making more work for Daddy!

Grocery shopping

We thought we'd kind of retired the blog, but we've had a lot of requests for 2yo pictures and stuff, so we'll try to get some pictures up over the next few days. Here's a very long video of Alice grocery shopping with Daddy. This is pretty much how all shopping trips with Kirke go - Alice does all the work, and occasionally gets distracted by helium balloons.

Christmas Chocolate

There has been much to be joyous about this Christmas season-- Grandma Sandy is getting healthier, Kirke and Sarah have had lots of vacation days, and Alice discovered chocolate. We have had the distinct pleasure of seeing lots of family so far, and we look forward to seeing more this week!

Christmas Mustache.....

Kirke has very fond memories of his father's very bushy mustache. Unfortunately, his prior attempts to grow one of his own have required some photoshopping. This year, I am happy to report that his mustache, while not entirely bushy, was visible to the naked eye. Happily, Mo-vember passed and the experiment finished.