Snow and Ice

One day in Vermont, the kids got to spend an afternoon playing in the snow.  They were having a good time and once our neighbors let their dogs out, they had a GREAT time!

The whole time the kids were playing, I enjoyed the view of Stowe Mountain, where Thom John was downhill skiing and Grummy and Pop Pop were cross-country skiing. After we'd had enough playing, we drove up the mountain to meet up with the others.

We took a gondola ride from one mountain to the other so we could go ice skating!

Taking a break for the zamboni:

Last weekend

My oh my was it cold last weekend!  Luckily we had a lot of indoor plans to keep us busy.  Clare went to a bowling birthday party for one of her classmates...

Saturday night, we enjoyed a visit from Grandma, Grandpa, and Aunt Mary for a little Valentine's Day party.  The kids were up pretty late so we stayed indoors and cozy Sunday morning with specially-shaped pancakes to celebrate Valentine's Day :-)

I took the kids for a quick trip to the library (hence, Clare wearing pajamas and the bed-head hair) but the librarian started to bring out crafting supplies and the kids settled in for some Valentine's crafting fun:

After we came back from the library, the kids watched a movie and played while Thom John and I got to work on a very special project - splitting up the kids' bedroom!  Now they sleep in their own rooms!  We're still organizing and we need to get Sean a big bed (he's still in a toddler bed!!!) but once we do that I'll be sure to show room makeover pictures!

The kids had off on Monday so we went on a jaunt to Barnes & Noble - Clare earned a new book from her sticker chart.  Of course, the kids ignored the books and beelined over to the Thomas table.  They played for a good long time before it was time to go home (in the snow!) and eat lunch and take a lovely, long nap.

When we woke up, we had snacks and go ready for work and school on Tuesday :-)

Just playing and skating

Today at home it's super-cold - almost Montreal cold - which reminds me of the afternoon after we visited the Cider Press on our trip to Vermont.  After a good lunch, the kids just wanted to play outside in the snow and they got a bonus playmate - the family in the condo next to ours had not one, not two, but THREE friendly dogs.  Only one really wanted to play with the Sooy kids in the snow, though and the kids were happy to play with him, too!

After an hour or so, Daddy let us know that he would be done skiing at Stowe Mountain in a little while.  So we got into the car and met up with Thom John, Grummy and Pop Pop (who had been cross-country skiing all day) and explored the resort at Stowe Mountain.  We took a gondola from one part of the resort to another...

and we rented ice skates for Mommy, Daddy, and the kids!

It was slow-going at first but the kids were starting to kind of get the hang of skating towards the end of our time at the ice.  Plus, after awhile the kids were getting pretty hungry - the cold will do that to you!

Blizzard of 2016... part two

The kids' schools were closed on Monday and with two kids at home, two feet of snow on the ground, and an "alternate" train schedule in effect, I got to stay home with the kiddies.  We started off the morning pretty lazily, watching cartoons and playing tennis and bowling on the Wii.  On Sunday, I saw posts on Facebook from other local mommy friends that there is a big hill over at the local high school that makes for great sledding.  I took the kids over at mid-morning to check it out and it was AWESOME!  The hill was just the right for all ages - there were kids from toddler to high-school there having a good time.

The kids' last run after two+ hours of sledding and climbing up the hill - they went together this time and wiped out spectacularly!  That was the end our of sledding fun.  Afterwards, we went home and everyone napped for a couple of hours!

Blizzard of 2016

Winter Storm Jonas hit us last weekend and left us with about 20 inches of snow.  The kids were super-excited to play in the snow and help us shovel out(!)

After chores, we went over the playground to play on the snowslide!  Sean got the first turn but then the kids happily took turns...

Sean and Thom John started work on an igloo:

Sunday morning was bright and sunny and the day was actually pretty warm so the snow started to melt almost immediately!

We went to the backyard to make a snowfort

and a throne for the snow queen inside the snowfort

and a Basilisk (or "Basilips") to guard the snow fort.

The kids and Daddy worked more on the igloo and started another igloo so we ended up with a little igloo village in our front yard.

We went inside for hot chocolate (with marshmallows!) and crafts.  Then the boys watched football (Sean's so into the playoffs!) while the girls watched "Frozen"