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! 

Snow Day - No Problem!

Don't mind if we do....have a little fun on our day off school and work! No one was disappointed when school and even mom's work was closed today. We bundled up and headed over to a friend's house for some skating fun on their pond. 

 

It snowed all day but didn't amount to more than 4 or so inches.  We headed home around 4pm (around the time the governer announced a driving ban) and settled in for the blizzard.   Around 6pm the snow (and wind) really started picking up.

Luke, showing off his moves -

Paige looked the part and gave it her all...but I can't say she actually "skated" per se.  Not too bad for her second time on the ice.  She loved it out there.

Fluffy Hat

One of Paige's little friends at school has a fur hat.  Paige has been obsessed with it since she first saw it.  She attacks it and the unsuspecting poor little boy every time she sees him.  She even started calling the little boy "fluffy hat" in place of his real name and announced that she would marry him because - you guessed it, the fluffy hat. 

So, you can imagine Paige's delight when this little boy's mom showed up for a playdate with a present for Paige.  Her very own fluffy hat. 

She hasn't taken the thing off since she got it.

She pokes on the IPAD with it -

She sleeps with it every night -

She even eats with it -

Super Bowl -

We went to our friends again this year to watch the Super Bowl.  The kids are always very excited to have a "nighttime playdate"

Don't let the picture fool you.  The kids sat for 38 seconds of the first half.  Then we smartened up, went home and put them to bed so we could watch the second half.

Luke's 6th Birthday Party

A bit after the real event, today we had Luke's 6th birthday party with his friends.  He said he wanted to have it at home and with his neighborhood friends so that is what we did.  He picked a pirate theme as you can see down to the cake and decorations.  Luke gets VERY excited for parties, especially ones in his honor.  We basically duplicate the party we had for Paige, much the same friends, pinata, pizza cake and threw in a game of "pin the patch on the pirate" to spice things up. 

 

This and That...

Paige and I were driving to gymnastics and I was zoned out thinking about something.  Paige sneezed.  She waited for a minute then said, "god bless myself."

Paige came running up to me today and said, "Mommy, mommy, I have a HUGE muscle in my back!"  I didn't have the heart to tell her that was her shoulder blade and no it isn't a muscle.

Luke and I were talking about something the other day, I've since forgotten the subject.  He didn't like my response and said, "you have more rules than my teacher"  This was not meant as a compliment but I took it as one of the nicest things he has said to me in a while.