Sledding and Such

My family was able to come up and visit over President's Day weekend this year and we had a blast!  They were able to come up on Thursday night, so we had them for an extra day! I had warned them that with all of the snow we had gotten the previous weekend, we wouldn't be able to go and see as many things while they were here.  But Evan was thrilled with the snow and was hoping it would stick around long enough for him to play in it.  And it did...

The happy kid himself

Megan, Nathan, and Mom built this amazing snow slide down our back steps and the boys had soooo much fun on it.  It started out as a slide...

And turned into a pretty impressive sledding hill!

Grandma and Grandpa took Alan to dollar night at the Children's Museum.  Alan had been asking about it for weeks...  and is now telling everyone he meets about this "huge climbing thing..."  and is frequently asking if it's dollar night again. :)

They also made this nifty snow fort.

The next day we did go sledding.  

James is a little unsure...

The conditions weren't all that great, as the hill had been well sled on, and was pretty icy.  There was a dusting of fresher snow on top.  It was a little tricky getting back up the hill at times.

Apparently still a little unsure...

The big kids

Feeling a little happier with his uncle Nate

It took a lot of concentration to get back up :)

But it was all worth it!  After every time Alan sled down he would turn around and call up... "Did I steer?"  It was hilarious. I'm not sure what he meant by it, but we just reassured him that he did, and he seemed pleased with himself. :)

He was quite fearless and had pretty good body control.  He would lean way back and stayed on the sled most of the time.

A pretty cute one of a boy and his aunt.

Dad was in charge of helping James get back up the hill.

And Grandma helping out Alan

There seemed to be a fair number of crashes as well, especially on the races, but everyone was a good sport. :)

And here is an attempt at a few videos that we hope work...

The funny thing was when it was all said and done, the boys just wanted to sled more on the slide (which had an easier way of getting back up. :)

In addition to all the sledding, we had a fun little birthday celebration

And James thoroughly enjoyed the cake. :)

We had a great visit!  Thanks to Grandpa for helping to fix the humidifier and Nate for getting all the snow off of our roof!  (That was quite a project that I can't believe we didn't document via pictures!) We also enjoyed valentines chocolates (marshmallow...I think??), played some great games of Headbanz and Monopoly Deal, and got all the scoop on Downton Abby. :) Thank you, family, for making the trip up here!  We had a blast.

Valentine's Fun

I just saw this was listed as draft in my posts.  Guess I never published it.  We didn't take pics of our valentine morning breakfast, which was a hit. but here are some other fun activities!  It was a very full day! We went to a valentine party in Weston, I had a dr appointment, and a friend watched our boys and we went out to a fun little Italian Restaurant.  It was sooooo good. Then later that evening, Grandma and Grandpa Foulk and Megan, Nate, and Evan all came up to visit.  Talk about a packed and totally fun day!!!

Covered in Snow

Well, I thought I'd post some pictures to document our big snow storm of the year.  It was quite an adventure!  The governor actually passed an executive order making it illegal to drive during the blizzard.  Crazy. I guess the technically winds weren't sustained for long enough for it to actually count as a blizzard, but it was definitely blizzard-like conditions.  It was pretty cold and soooooo much wind.  I think we got about 2 feet.  It was hard to accurately measure with all of the drifting, but there was a lot of snow.  Most of it occurred overnight, so there was not much of an opportunity to shovel in shifts.  We were mighty grateful for our nice neighbor who came over with his snow-blower and helped dig us out.  It saved us hours of shoveling time! 

In the morning, the plow got stuck at the end of our driveway. Scott went out and helped dig him out.  They were there for a good long time!  Unfortunately, after getting stuck, the plow never came back!  But another neighbor has a quad with a plow front, and was able to widen the road for us a little. :)

Our back porch door.  You can see some of the drifting.  The crazy thing was even our downstairs back door (which is under the deck and usually gets no snow) had a foot of snow in front of it because of the drifting.

Alan wanted to go out first thing.  It was bitterly cold though and he didn't last too long.  James had no desire to come out at all.  Which was good because there would have been no where he could have walked.

Cars

Picnic table. :)

Digging out the cars.

 Even though this storm technically dumped more snow than the storm in 2011 that came right after we moved in, it hasn't seemed as bad in the aftermath.  There is just more room here to put the snow than we had in our old house.  And it has been pretty warm most of the time since the storm so we have had a lot of melting.

The boys have had tons of fun playing in the snow on the warmer days since.

James mainly loves stomping in the mud puddles in our little turn around area.

And Alan loves climbing on the plow piles. :)

Life these days

Here are some pictures to document some of the everyday happenings in our life the last couple of weeks.

Nothing like a few cookies to welcome home Dad!

This game never gets old. :)

This was before our most recent snow dump.  Back when you could walk in our yard.

After the snow melts: mud time.

Alan learned about goals in joy school and worked quite hard on his goal for several weeks.

Cousins in their matching shirts. :)

We've been cutting out Alan's nap during the day.  Instead he gets to do a chore with me while James naps.

It's actually been working well. (We are not good at doing chores in the morning!)
He is doing a great job in the afternoon when he has one on one attention and we're not trying to get out the door.

This was a joy school activity that went over pretty well, so we did it again during chore time.

Apparently washing the fridge was more fun than washing the floor.

James has become quite the talker! It is amazing to me how quickly he is learning.  It must really help to have a big brother around.  He loves to yell "ready, set, go!" and run with this little push toy.  In fact, he and Alan spend significant time running around this couch in the basement each day.

Groundhog's Day puppet!

Alan has been asking me why he doesn't have a scarf.  One day he went outside before me and when I came out, I found that instead of a coat, he decided to wear one of my scarves.  It was pretty funny.

And on those days when we really need naps, this is what happens. :)