Saturday Morning Chatter

Luke:  I don't want to grow up.
Mommy: Why buddy?
Luke: Because being a firefighter is going to be hard.
Mommy:  You will go to special school to teach you everything you need to know to be a firefighter.
Luke: In high school?
Mommy: No, after high school.
Luke: Oh, they will show me how to do the fire hose?
Mommy: Yes!
Luke: High school is probably going to be easier than kindergarten.
Mommy: You will like high school, mommy did.
Luke: How did you learn to be a mommy?
Paige: Yeah, how did you learn how to make sandwiches?
Luke: Did you learn in school?
Mommy: No they don't much teach you those things in high school.  It is called on the job training. But I did go to school to learn how to do my other job and daddy learned how to do his job in school.
Luke: Oh yeah, you learned how to write the instructions, right mommy?

TWO WEEKS PRIOR:
Luke: Mommy, what do you do when you go to work?
Mommy: I work at a place that makes radios.
Luke: Oh cool!  You make the radios!
Mommy: Well not exactly, other people make the radios.  I do other things.
Luke: (Disappointed that his mommy is not cool enough to actually make the radios) what things?
Mommy: I work in the office on the computer.
Luke: What do you do on the computer?
Mommy: (quick, how do you explain logistics to a 6 year old) I do the paperwork.
Luke: Oh, yeah, like the papers that comes in the box when you buy it.  It tells you how to put it together.
Mommy: Something like that (I saw an out and I took it!)

Cute picture of the kids...I mean the two kids and the daddy. 

She is dead serious with this look.  I had to hide the phone because she kept asking me to take pictures of her.  Someone doesn't have self esteem issues.

Happy St Patty's Day -

To celebrate, Luke decided to find all the green stuff he could gather around the house and  open a "green" store.  He said, "What do you want?  It is all green!"

Vermont -

We headed to Mount Snow with some friends this weekend to get the last of our skiing out of our system for the season.  The kids had a ball...we all did.  The kids were in ski school 9-3:30pm each day.  The friends we went with had kids the same age as Luke and Paige so they were in school with their friends which the kids loved.  Luke did great.  At the end of day one, the older kids went with the dads to the top of the mountain for a green trail.  Luke really loves it!  I was a bit worried about Paige as she ended her lessons at Blue Hills with a bang (see previous post) but this time she was a trooper.  I think the program was that much better.  She loved all the snack and lunch breaks. She also loved being in the class with her buddy, Peter. 

The dads had their fun, skiing the first day and snowmobiling the second.  The moms also managed to get out on day two.  This was quite a feat for this mommy - first time on the mountain.  Should I be embarrassed that my 6 year old can ski better than me?  I'm learning.  I think next season will be my breakout year...HA!

All in all, a great weekend to get away and have some winter fun. 

Ready for day one, all smiles -

The little ones "team yellow" -

The big kids on their way up the mountain -

 

The dream team -

In action -

Hill outside the condo, kids loved playing on it after ski school was over.  As if they hasn't been outside enough -

uh oh, looks like someone hit the wall, or should I say the snow -

So cute, Peter pulling his little brother up the hill -

Snowboarding? but didn't put down the trail mix -

Loved the sledding before dinner -

Re-fueling -

Loved even more roasting marshmallows and making smores after dinner -



Winter Weekend at Papa's -

We started the February break with a long weekend at Papa's.  The kids were very excited for a winter weekend on the farm. And we definitely got it.  It was COLD COLD COLD.  The kids were troopers.  We went to a winterfest on Lake Winnipesaukee, it was literally ON the lake.  Kind of strange but kind of cool.  The kids were lovin' the free hot dogs, french fries and hot chocolate.  Luke did say "this is a short festival, right Mommy?"  He wanted to be sure we were getting into the warm car soon!  And I don't blame him.  It felt like below 0 with the windchill.  We did get to go on a sleigh ride which was cool, although the PETA card carrying mom felt really bad for those poor horses :(

We also made it out for a nice walk down to Manning Lake.  We walked out on the lake to visit some ice fishers.

It was nice to get away and relax a bit!

Valentine's Day!!

 

Valentine's Day fun at Paige's school -

 A little performance -

 Cupid's angel's -

You know your kid is a redneck when...

Luke was getting dressed today and was deciding which pants to wear.  Paige said "Luke, you only need to wear jeans when you dress up, like at a restaurant or something."

Being home without power for a couple days give you lots of time to have some great conversations as a family.  Here is one of my favorites:

Luke:  "Mom, do you think a raccoon is smarter than you?"
Mom:  "You know buddy, I'm going to have to say that I'm probably smarter than a raccoon."
Luke:  In a surprised voice, "REALLY???  I don't think so, I think a raccoon might be smarter than you."
Mom:  "I'm still betting that I'm probably smarter than a raccoon."
Luke:  "Well, why do you think that?"
Mom:  "I can talk and a raccoon cannot"
Paige:  "Oh, yeah, mommy can talk"
Luke:  "I don't know, I still think a raccoon is smarter because they can come up from behind animals and attack without them even knowing they are there.  That is super smart, right Mommy?"
Mom:  "Yeah, you got me there, that is pretty impressive"
Luke:  "But who is cooler, you or a raccoon?"
 -If I'm not smarter, I'm definitely not going to win the cooler argument.
Mom: "I'm pretty cool, Luke"
Paige:  "Oh yeah because you paint my nails sometimes, that is really cool"
Luke: "Yeah, but a raccoon is REALLY REALLY cool!  They have a mask around their eyes and they have sharp teeth"
Paige:  "Yeah the mask is to help them see in the dark."
Luke:  "NO PAIGE! That is not why they have the mask.  If they didn't have the mask they wouldn't be able to have sharp teeth."
Paige:  "Oh yeah, that 's right Luke."
Mom:  "You make a compelling case Luke, sounds like I am neither smarter or cooler than a raccoon."

Count on kids to keep us grounded on exactly where we stand.

Blizzard Nemo 2013

This is what we woke up to on Saturday morning ...

 

 

I honestly do not know how many inches we got.  We lost power Friday night around 9pm so didn't have much communication with the outside world.  We were saving our phones to txt with people so couldn't stream the radio and didn't have a battery backup radio. 

Considering the temperature, we quickly went into survival mode.  Jay devised a plan (which ended up saving us!) by which we sectioned off the kitchen and family room.  The gas fireplace did a good job of heating those two rooms.  Boiling water off and on also helped a lot.  Go on the other side of those sheets and it was a good 15 degrees cooler. We got our "tent area" as the kids called it up to around 50-55 degrees.  The rest of the house was in the 40s.  The lowest I saw it was 41.  It hovered in the mid 40s during the day. 

We also had the gas stove which helped so we could still cook hot meals. 

The kids did great, all things considered.  I think they thought it was fun being home together.  A little adventure -

 The sheets -

 Fridge quickly became off limits -

 One highlight of the weekend was when the closet door was open and Marley was on the other side of the sheet and crashed right into it.  We all got a good laugh at Marley's expense -

 Our savior!  We really wouldn't have been able to stay in the house without the heat from the fireplace. We turned it off at night but had it going all day long -

 Lots of books and hanging out by the fire.  We also played lots of board games and made our own version of Pictionary to play -

 Day two - spirits still high -

 We started calling this the "war room" -

 Average temp in the house -

 All the food went outside in coolers.  We taped off the back door and only used the front.  We surely looked like hillbillies with our food on the front porch!

 Wearing hats in the house became a must by Sunday morning (the coldest time) -

 I was glad the kids got hot dinners by candlelight.  You can't tell here b/c of my great camera flash but it was pretty darn dark when the sun when down -

 

We did make it outside to play at least once a day.  It was hard to keep the kids from wanting to enjoy the snow but also hard to get them warmed up after they came back in.

 Our street -

 So happy to be outside but after an hour was so ready to come in, look at his little red face -

 Sunday was sunny.  Look who was enjoying the sun.  Did I mention we looked like hillbillies?

 Always ready to come in and get warmed up after playing in the snow.  Doesn't everyone take a rest in the laundry basket?  Did I mention we looked like hillbillies?

 

All in all, it was a fun little experience.  We were definitely cheering though when the power finally came back on!