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.