Happy Winter

Our week kicked off with nine inches of new snow!

Finley had his first swimming lesson without me watching.  I took a quick picture of Finley & Aiden as I left the pool area.  And also reminded Finley to Go under!  Get your face wet!

He listened!  When I returned, he was a blur jumping off the side of the pool.  Woo-hoo!

Hadley has a weird pre-bath ritual.  She picks the sock-fuzz out from her toes.  This is not a learned behavior (no one else in our house does this), I think it's an instinct.  An instinct she got from her Auntie.

Both feet are thoroughly checked.

Grandpa & Grandma gave Finley an air hockey table for Christmas, it arrived and has seen a lot of action.

Finley & I ran errands with a movie star.

The kids like to FaceTime with Grandpa & Grandma.  They are in Cancun for their annual two-week winter get-away.

FaceTime from the beach...crazy technology.  Even crazier, my kids don't know it any other way.

Crap.

Patrick worked this weekend, so the kids and I went to Family Fest at the Sports Center.

Hadley wasn't totally sure about feeding the goats, I love Finley's supportive touch on her back.

The Family Fest was a bit 'trade show for children' with booths and activities for kids. The vendors know what kids want - free stuff! We won't need to buy toothbrushes for a year.

Finley really liked the martial arts booth.  The instructor was very sweet and a former kindergartner of mine!  She was one of my original babies!

 Free ice cream.

There was a DJ and a wide-open space for dancing.  My kids were NOT bashful.  

Gangham Style came on, the breakdancing came out.

The Hokey-Pokey with every local mascot.  Finley had a blast!

If there's such a thing as 'perfect winter weather' we had it this weekend.  Temps in the 30's, sun and plenty of snow to play in.  On Saturday, the kids and I hiked our neighborhood trail.  They insisted on taking the lead, not ideal for taking pictures.

There was a little begging, Turn around please!

Finley loves his new face-mask.  It's completely practical for under his snowmobile helmet and our extreme cold days, but, yeah, otherwise, not so cute.  Is he smiling or not?  He makes me guess. It drives him nuts because I can tell - he IS smiling in this picture, it's all in his eyes.

Deep snow + short legs = resting

Snowballs!

 Finley took his snowmobile out for a ride.

Once upon a time in a little house, in the little woods...

...lived a little old crazy-lady.

The swing set might be MORE fun in the winter than summer.

The kids went down the slide on their bottoms...

 ...on the Zipfy mini-luge...

....and the old-school sled.

Snow-eater.

Happy winter!