Day 1586 | Slippers

Just a boy with his slippers.  

Their name is Slush (yes, just one name for both) and their birthday is April 30th. What? Your slippers don’t have an assigned birthday? That’s weird. 

Day 1585 | It’s Snowing!

We enjoyed a pretty lovely snowstorm today. It started coming down around 2pm and just kept coming. Nothing like the great blizzard of 2016 in DC but fun nonetheless. And it stopped early enough that we *might* actually still have school tomorrow. That would be pretty crazy.  

Day 1584 | Snow Day #5

Yep. That’s right. Another one. We’ve had school called off five of the last six days. That’s crazy. Today’s culprit? Ice. 

The boys and I managed another enjoyable day together. We even braved the slippery sidewalks to grab a treat from our favorite coffee shop—walking is safer than driving, right? 

With two more possibilities for snow this week, maybe we’ll just keep tacking on more days off.  

Day 1583 | Muscles

This guy has been hitting the weights pretty hard—but only with one arm. It’s an interesting strategy but it seems to be working for him. 

Day 1582 | Puzzle Time

After the great puzzle disaster of 2019, we’ve bounced back and have been enjoying puzzling again. The whole family got in on the action tonight. I love a good puzzle.  

Day 1581 | Giggly Crystals

The boys were back at school today (woohoo!) and the temps are rising ahead of the weekend (double woohoo!). We decided to make a last minute trip to visit Grandma and I didn’t take any photos all day. Oops. 

Here’s a close up shot of the “giggly crystals” we made on our science snow day, though. They’re pretty cool. 

Day 1580 | Snow Day #3

Man, we really took advantage of another snow day. By not leaving the house, the boys and I did three science projects, read a chapter book, practiced piano, played some serious Playmobil, set up the pulley again, and watched a movie. All without changing out of their pjs. 

Oh, and school is cancelled again tomorrow. Tonight is supposed to have the coldest temps yet. I’m thinking we’ll brave a quick outing, though. We can only take so much of this trapped inside thing. 

Day 1579 | Snow Day #2

It really should be called a cold day, I guess. No snow today but man the temps dropped quickly (and it wasn’t warm to begin with). We did manage a trip to the grocery store. It turns out you still have to eat when it’s cold. And Chris and I even snuck out for a dinner with some neighbors (it was planned before we knew just how cold it was going to be)—thanks for watching the boys, Mom! 

No plans to leave the house tomorrow. It’s going to be real ugly out there. Fingers crossed we still like each other when this is all over. I will say, we miss the days when Chris got snow days, too. That’s the real downside of this. Nothing is quite as much fun with a quarter of our team absent.  

Note: This was a screenshot of the temperature when I went up for bed. Wind chill of -42. That’s no joke. 

Day 1578 | Snow Day #1

That’s right. Today was snow day #1 of at least three this week (school is already cancelled through Wednesday and I’m guessing Thursday will go, too). This snow + cold snap is turning into a second winter break and the boys don’t mind one bit. 

Today was the warmest day of the week (I think it was a windchill of -8 degrees when we ventured out) so I did force the boys outside for some sledding. We bundled up and we’re actually a bit too warm for the activity—I know, I was surprised, too. 

Think warm thoughts for us as we try to stay sane locked in the house for the next few days.  

Day 1577 | Video Games

Chris has been thinking about buying a Nintendo Switch for a very long time. The boys already know how great it is from playing at their cousins’ house. Today was the day. He finally decided to pull the trigger. And the boys were pumped. So was Chris for the record.  

We had a fun afternoon of playing Mario Kart and Mario Party as a family. See? Video games can bring you closer together! 

Day 1576 | Easel Work

Robbe’s favorite work at school right now is the “easel work”. Basically he can draw anything he wants on an easel. The availability of the easel has the power to make or break his day (sometimes other kids want to use it, afterall).

Most days he’s lucky enough to come home with a rubberbanded tube of paper that we admire and then store in a cardboard box. Today he went through all the archived easel works and decided he wanted to display some of them. 

He picked his top three and then we found the perfect place to show them off. He was very proud. 

Day 1575 | My Co-Worker

I’m one lucky lady to call this little nugget my co-worker. His equipment is outdated and noisy but his cuteness and one-liners make up for it.  

Day 1574 | Mall of America

With a day off of work + school and no plans, we headed to the Cities for the boys’ inaugural trip to the Mall of America. I’m not sure they fully appreciated the magnitude. They’ve only been to a regular mall about three times in their lives, but they did have fun at Legoland. We spent about 45 minutes studying every set they have on display. Then, when it came time to select something (we’re not going to force them to walk away empty-handed after all), they wanted to find Pokemon cards. Are you kidding me?!?

So we found Pokemon cards and they were as happy as they could be. I don’t understand kids.

Day 1573 | Reading

Chase has become quite the reader. What a crazy process. It always amazes me how kids learn. It’s like one day they’re not reading and the next day they are. I could listen to him read forever.  

Day 1572 | Baking

What’s the best way to kick off a holiday weekend? Bake some yummy cookies, obviously. I put the boys to work this time, though. Chase was in charge of melting the chocolate and both boys helped with the dumping. And the cookies didn’t disappoint, once again. So delicious.

Day 1571 | Eagle Puzzle

Chris likes puzzles. Chris likes eagles. Because of these two facts, I thought this eagle puzzle would be the perfect Christmas gift for my main squeeze.  Little did I know that this puzzle would almost break him.

Reasons this puzzle was the worst:

1. The edge isn’t an edge. It’s a squiggly line. You don’t event get the immediate gratification of completing the outside border right away.

2. It’s basically two colors. White. Brown. That’s not fun.

3. There are only four puzzle piece shape variations. The colors wouldn’t have been that bad…there were some subtle feather and vein patterns that were visible on most pieces, after all. The real HUGE problem was that almost every piece could fit with every other piece because there were only four piece variations. Those subtle feather patterns could only go so far to differentiate when 20 brown pieces fit in the same spot.

In the end, the 550 piece puzzle was completed. It took about 10 days. Was there an overwhelming sense of accomplishment and pride when the last piece went in? Not really. You see, even though all the pieces have a place to call home, we’re still not sure they’re actually in the right spot (because of item #3 above).

Chris finally had to just walk away. It’s been a few days since he “completed” the puzzle and I’m happy to report that his spirits have improved. It’s probably going to be awhile before we’re ready for another puzzle, though.

On an unrelated note, is anyone interested in a super fun puzzle to take on as their next challenge? Free to a good home!

Day 1570 | Playtime Throwback

You won’t believe what the boys unearthed from the basement today...the trains! I know. I was shocked, too. When Chris found out his comment was, “I wouldn’t have guessed that in a million years.” Needless to say, it’s been *a bit* of time since the trains have been out of their drawer tucked into the bottom of the toy shelf.  

Seeing those tracks brought back a lot of sweet memories—especially of time spent playing in red house. I’m glad they’ve reappeared. And I’m excited to see what the almost-five and almost-seven year olds can create now.  

Day 1569 | Church Singer

The little guy got his first shot at stardom yesterday at church. I wouldn’t say the performance really showcased his personality, but it was adorable!

Day 1568 | Winter Scooting

If we can’t play in the snow (ugh), at least we’ve got scooting as an alternative winter activity. Specifically, the highlight of today’s adventure was ice-scooting. It was pretty impressive.  

Also, isn’t this photo amazing? I love everything about it. Except for the fact that Robbe’s helmet *might be* a bit small for his growing noggin. Ah well...you can’t win ‘em all.  

Day 1567 | Motorcycles

We didn’t bowl but we stopped by the alley to ride the motorcycles. It’s definitely an EC highlight with the under-seven crowd.