Two kids, two books, two cats

Warmest spot in the house

Jingle has found a new place to sleep - right in front of the vent under the kitchen sink.  Of course, it's also right where I want to stand when I'm working in the kitchen.   And I love her total lack of modesty...

Ants

Rudy got an ant farm for Christmas.  Ant farms these days are high tech - LED lights and all!  He had to special order ants because it's way too cold here to find any, and he still had to wait for the special order to arrive until it warmed up wherever they are shipped from!  The ants are crazy cool to watch; they have giant pincers and we can see them 'chewing' their way through to make their tunnels.  We all check in with the ants every morning when we come downstairs to see what they're doing.  

School ski trip

The kids' school has an annual ski trip for 5th-8th graders.  Brady was a little apprehensive about being set free on the slopes with his friends, but also really looking forward to it.  I was a chaperone, which basically meant that it was my job to transport kids to and from the mountain and also to 'be a presence' on the slopes (aka - ski wherever I want all day by myself!)

I crossed paths with Brady a few times and all was well.  But after lunch, I stuck close by for a bit - and good thing.  He wiped out and totally blew out both of this ski boots.  The plastic toes detached and the heels were holding on by shards of plastic.  Of course, it happened on the blacks which are a fair distance from the ski lodge.  I had to ski down to the bottom and then ride the lift at the top before I could talk to ski patrol.

They were kind enough to hook us up with a snowmobile, rather than making Brady hike back to the lodge.  Not only did we get to ride on (me) and behind (Brady) the snowmobile, but they also gave him free equipment rental for the rest of the day.  Crisis averted!

 

Snow days at home

We had two reasonably sized snow snowstorms this year, which is just about the right amount for me.  Enough that we can appreciate how pretty it looks and get outside for some fun snow play and hole up at home together.  We did all of the above for the storms this year!

A few rounds of Settlers:

Cat snuggles (and goofy faces from brothers)

We put out birdseed and the cats were endlessly amused watching the birds and squirrels.

One of the storms was pretty close to blizzard like - so windy it was blowing sideways most of the day!

It didn't keep these guys from playing outside though!  Sledding was no fun with the snow blowing in their faces, but they still had a blast playing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

He was outside so long he had icicles in his hair!

 

A little TV and reading time.

Lots of baking!  I think in one storm alone, we had 3 loaves of bread, a batch of English muffins, and two batches of cookies.  

James and I learned our lesson in PA and shoveled several times throughout the day.  Beats dealing with it at the end!  You can see how much it was snowing and blowing!

 

Charlie likes playing in the snow when it's done snowing.  She was NOT a fan of it blowing in her face or sticking to her paws.

 

The animals were happy to hunker down anywhere cozy.   We found Jingle curled up in the ski clothes bin and Bell hiding out in the pile of coats on the floor of the coat closet.

 

Another round outside; this time with some sledding! 

 

 

Of course, you can't have a snow day and not build a fort, right?  And then spend time inside the fort reading...

 

Worn out!

Chocolate orange cake

Brady was inspired by a rash of Food Network shows we'd been streaming.  It worked out well for us - his creation was an orange cake with chocolate ganache (and a wedge of vanilla frosting for James).

Auction stools

I got to help Rudy's class with their class project for the school auction.  They were painting a set of four stools to be auctioned off as part of the 'art from the heart.'  Fourth graders and paint - wow - what a mess!  One poor girl spilled her entire cup of paint down the front of her jumper.  Bet her mom was thrilled.

Snow ski day

School was cancelled because we got so much snow that the city roads were a mess.  The highways, however, were completely cleared.  We took advantage of the school snow day to hit the slopes.  It was perfect - fresh powder, but a warmish sunny day with virtually no crowds!