Children's Museum

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Maia's Kinder Concert

Part 1

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Part 2

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Part 3

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Part 4

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Children's Museum

A little summer fun at the Children's Museum. 

http://youtu.be/KiMHI3BTkBU

In Which A Guided Tour of My Filthy Car is given

Tour part 1: http://youtu.be/K7ZPRJ56uBg

Puddle Jumping

After oh, so much snow and cold... And with one of the slickest mornings yet earlier this week, we finally got some beautiful sunny days.

Just by comparison, it was about 42 degrees as we explored the puddles in the driveway, coatless and overjoyed. I even left the front door open to get some fresh air in the house (as I admonished myself,  as many a parent has done to their kid: "what, are you trying to heat the outside?")

How can you not on a day like today?  It's been a rough week for most of us, Maia has had tummy troubles for the better part of two weeks which ended up with a late night vomit, which is why the three of us played hooky to enjoy this day together. It felt like exactly what we needed. Even worth me going into work for 4.5 hours on a Saturday to make up for it).

Here's hoping Spring will be heading this way soon!

Winter Fun

A little thanks to Google+ Auto Awesome feature, here's a cool little mashup of P on the snow bank!

Winter Days

Winter being what it is... we have lots of energy to burn on days it's not great to play outside. So I bought a membership to the children's museum. We've gone enough now that things aren't new, but familiar and very much still fun. And different things become more interesting as kids grow up a little more.

The kids got a marble run for Christmas,  so this giant version made a lot more sense this visit.

Maia could rearrange things in the construction area to her heart's content.

And we always love to put on a show.

Maia loves the pet care area, and asked one of the staff If she could help organize the kennels.

Parker has tremendous patience on the spinning table.

and the dentist office was back!

But Parker was equally fascinated with the elevator.

Polar Vortices

It's been a wild winter here in Michigan. It started early, snowed a lot and got really, really cold.  So cold we had "cold days" instead of snow days. Cold days would be called if wind chills got down to -30º. They did. With 45 mph winds.

Did I mention the wind? And the snow?

Seven days of cold and snow days since the first one on December 21st. So despite all the lovely fluffy snow we've been having (and my relentless efforts to move it from my driveway, resulting in two stuck moments on the way to school, so far)... it's often too cold to play outside.

But we have had a few days to shovel together,

and explore.

As it turns out, the cedars (or overgrown Arbor Vitae as we believe them to actually be,) are a fantastic place to explore when snow covered.  I remember thinking, when we bought the house, that climbing through those trees as a kid would have been magical. My kids seemed to have thought so. 

I'm fortunate that they are learning to be helpers and they shovel with me (albeit briefly), and they are adjusting to the temps. So much so, perhaps, that one balmy day in the high 20s, Maia declared it was nearly spring, and she didn't need to wear her coat anymore, she wasn't cold at all! Really! And she ventured down the driveway to pull back in the trash cart before starting to change her mind.

Alas, I think we have a ways to go before we'll see something as welcome as this year's spring.  In the mean time, I will continue to be grateful for the snow blower my dad found for me. And how pretty it all is.

Festival 2013: Porta-Potties

Just ran across this little gem from June 2013. This was actually round 2 of this little ditty. The first version was sung to me in the car on our way to Festival, and was prompted by me reminding the kids to use the bathrooms at home before we left, because Festival only has porta-potties.

Well. Apparently someone had some important observations about porta-potties.

Merry Ice-mas!

Winter started early this year, and was not gentle with us.  By early December, snow plowing companies seemed not to be answering their phones or returning inquiry calls. So I often find myself snow blowing at 10 pm, after little ones are settled in bed and clothes are laid out for the morning. I silently apologize to my neighbors, and thank my dad for finding me a reliable and effective snow blower. 

Winter offered an additional challenge, however. An Ice Storm. And on December 22nd, I woke up to no power. It appears it had gone off in the wee hours. This was the day I had set aside to plow through all my laundry (having had sick kids in the preceding days) and to wrap all the Christmas gifts while the kids were with their dad.

Fortunately, the temperature in the house didn't drop too quickly. It was holding at about 65º in the morning so I started what cleaning I could do without electricity. I also learned that my gas stove will not work without electricity, but my stove top burners will.  I also learned that I did a poor job at plugging in my electronics the night before because just about everything was dead.

Then I got a call from Ray: Major issues with the back up power supplies at the hospital data center, he had to go in. Could he drop the kids off?  I'm happy to spend time with the kids, but, Hmm. We'll need to re-figure the wrapping gifts part.

We had a nice time playing outside in the snow and ice.  We made stove top hot chocolate and grilled cheese while I fretted about the fridge and freezer contents.  By the time the kids left in the evening, the house had dropped to about 63º and I frantically attempted to box and wrap as many presents as possible before my daylight was gone and I was left with flashlights. The children, of course, had creatively relocated my LED lantern, and most of my flashlights for play.  Power restoration estimates were set for December 26th at 11:00 p.m.  About 500k people were without power in the surrounding states and Canada.

That night, I had a lovely dinner and hot shower at my sister's, and she helped me clean out my fridge to move the contents to my back deck. That night, I slept in fleece pants a heavy sweatshirt and wool socks. When I woke in the morning, it was 56º and I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep there again if power wasn't restored.  I got to work very early, just to be somewhere warm, and was grateful my kids were able to sleep in their own warm beds at their dad's.  

At lunch time, I rushed home from work to empty the freezer, putting those items on the back deck. After work, I rushed home to make use of the little available daylight to pack up ALL the gifts and wrapping paper and supplies, all the food I needed to cook, the clothes and toiletries for the next few days for myself and the kids; all with the intent to move into my sister's until maybe the 26th. It was now 52º in my house, which was better than I expected, but I cursed the previous owners who took out BOTH real fireplaces to replace them with two fakers that are completely useless in the event of a power outage. My sister helped me clean out the fridge and get that on the back deck too. I opened taps to help keep the pipes from freezing, and I worried.

I fretted about Christmas, and made plans to have my Christmas with the kids at my sister's while they were with my brother-in-law's family. I was stressed and exhausted and trying to look on the bright side and be flexible.

I baked my sweet potatoes and wrapped presents until Ray called to tell me he'd gotten an alert from the back-up hard drive that there was a power surge.  Dare I hope?  It was 10:30 pm and there were 2 presents left to go...

Around 11, bleary-eyed, I drove home to find my house, indeed, with power!  Hooray! I better start this laundry!

The morning of Christmas Eve was amazingly, indescribably beautiful. And I couldn't have been more grateful to all the hard workers who were involved in repairing downed lines and restoring power.

Merry Christmas!

Just a little singing...

She sings this one fairly often, and I've been asking her to take a video of herself singing it.  I love to hear her Spanish!  She's been reluctant, but I told her the truth: when she's 10, it'll be really wonderful to look back at this video of her 5 year old self, just 4 months into learning Spanish.

If you're wondering about a general (very general) English translation, the song is this one... although Maia is changing up the sweets in subsequent verses.