first snow play of the season

It snowed today! First time of the season that it has snowed enough to play in. The kids and dogs went out this afternoon and enjoyed it. You can see Jack is growing up.

It is amazing how much more tan Jack looks in the snow. It is mostly because his hair gets darker when wet, but also because we're seeing him next to the stark white snow. Here is a c picture I took last week to compare:

What a cutie!

some pics from the last couple of months

Happy New Year!

Some winter pics (for our holiday card):

Kestrel on her way to the bus one morning in the fall (our house in the background):

In the Butterfly Garden at the Strong Museum of Play (Veteran's Day):

Kestrel at one of the swim meets early in the season (late October):

ice

We woke up this morning to ice covering everything outside. School is cancelled, which would have been the last day before winter break.

first snow of the season

The other day we woke up to some snow on the ground. First snow of the season! Later, Kestrel spent a while outside playing in the snow and building this snowman.

The kids are trying to make snow angels.

more snow

We got some more snow today. Kestrel was out of school anyway for parent/teacher conferences. She and Cooper played out in the snow for a while this afternoon. Harrison played with them for a little bit, but he got a little too excited out there.

i think puppies like snow

It was hard to get him to stay still for a picture.

We had quite a bit of snow last night. The kids are home from school today. Harrison is enjoying romping through the snow.

just what are they planning?

Today we were driving by a lake in a nearby neighborhood, and noticed more Canada Geese in one spot than we've ever seen before. We turned around to get a closer look and noticed even more. This picture only shows a few of all the geese that were there. I couldn't fit all of them in the shot. There had to be more than a thousand. I thought it looked like they were having some kind of a meeting, making some sort of big geese plans. If you look closely you'll see they are all looking in the same direction.
By the way, Kestrel and I have been reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. Can you tell?

up a tree

We had another nice day today. Not as warm as early in the week, but bright and sunny. We went out to the park again with Harry.
Kestrel just can't pass up a tree to climb. Here they are in the favorite climbing tree at our park.

Sick of puppy pictures yet? Too bad.

january thaw

I don't know if this weather is technically a January thaw, because I think that is supposed to be late January, but it was so warm today (for winter). Just last week we has temperatures in the single digits. Today it was in the 60's!
We jumped at the chance to get out to the park after school. The kids rode their bikes and I walked with Harrison. It was great to be walking outside and in the park. Unfortunately, I forgot the playground is covered in wood chips. Harrison is obsessed with eating non-edible things, such as wood chips, rocks and other more disgusting things. Ah, the joys of a puppy! So, we had to keep him on the grass. Some friends of Kestrel's showed up, along with a boy Cooper's age, and they all had fun playing. Kestrel was enjoying showing off her puppy.

snowy

We got a lot of snow yesterday and last night, about 5-6 inches. My friend Nancy had the girls over for a holiday get together last night. Despite the snow, almost everyone came out. When we went to go home, we realized our cars were covered with snow and we all had to clean off our cars. When I got home there was too much snow I couldn't get up my driveway, so I was out there at 1:30am shoveling the driveway so I could put my car away!

Crazy girls Trish and Amy out in the snow late last night.

Kestrel and Harrison playing in the snow this morning.

happy valentine's day!

Just found out they cancelled school again tomorrow! Happy Valentine's Day...

drifts

I took this picture out of our front door last night, to show that our steps are completely buried by the snow drift. Paul didn't like my picture, so he went outside (which I wanted to avoid) and took a picture of the front of the house, below.

I guess I should have taken pictures during the day, but I didn't think it about until late. We had a little blizzard here yesterday. The city stopped trying to plow in the morning because they couldn't keep up with the wind, although it kept snowing all day. School was cancelled yesterday and is cancelled again today. We did make it out of the house yesterday and drove (through unplowed streets) to a neighbor's house a couple of blocks away for a playgroup (we were the only ones we showed up). We were literally driving over big snow drifts, and got stuck a couple of times, but eventually made it through the snow with my trusty all-wheel-drive Subaru. I figured we weren't going far and the worse that would happen was that Paul might have to walk over and shovel us out. Paul was home because his office decided to close when they stopped plowing. Pretty much all businesses were closed.

So everything is calmed down today (aside from the stir crazy kids stuck in the house). Its actually a nice, sunny, blue sky day, with a foot of snow and huge snow drifts on the ground.

sledding

She's going down backwards in this one

I took Kestrel sledding this afternoon. There is seriously only one hill in town, and everyone sleds on it. It snowed last Tuesday, but a lot of the hill was bare just due to people sledding and walking up it. Still, there were a few patches left with enough snow to sled down. I went a little reluctantly, because I thought I'd be cold and tired, but once we got there I had a good time helping Kestrel sled, though I didn't actually sled myself. I helped her carry that sled up the hill over and over, though. There is something about being active in the cold weather that really makes you feel good!

FYI - I added pictures to the post on Jan. 28th about Kestrel cheerleading, so check it out.