Snow day

We had some cold weather earlier this week, and we even got a light dusting of snow Thursday night! It was mostly gone by Friday evening, but it was enough for us to enjoy during the morning and early afternoon. Oliver remembered the last time it snowed at our house, but Buttercup didn't know what snow was -- all she knew was that Oliver was really excited, so she was excited about it, too!







We're not used to this kind of cold (and also don't have the appropriate type of clothes to wear in snow!), so we didn't stay outside for long in the early morning. We ventured outside again after lunch, and made a snowman. By that time, most of the snow on the ground had melted and what was left was turning into slush. We ended up having to scoop up the snow off of the patio, dump it in Oliver's wheelbarrow, and bring it to a shady spot to build!



Supposedly we're getting more snow next week . . . I can't wait!

Spin yourself silly!

When it's literally freezing outside and your kids are going stir-crazy inside, what is better than turning on some fun tunes and spinning on the floor?

I remember being a kid and spinning on the floor on my belly, like Oliver is doing in the picture below:


Buttercup had trouble spinning on her belly, so she opted for spinning on her bottom, which turned out to be just as much fun! Whee!!

You Capture: Red

This week's You Capture assignment is Red. We have a lot of red things at our house, but our swirly energy efficient light bulbs made all of my red objects come out orange-ish red in the pictures. Any idea how to fix that??

Here is the best of the orange-red pictures:


And here's the best one that I took outside:

And now, for your musical entertainment . . .

Yesterday afternoon, we were playing in the backyard the kids were playing in the backyard and I was sitting on the patio with my feet up, and Oliver was struck with the urge to sing. And he sang, and sang, and sang. I eventually hauled myself out of my chair and went to get the camera to take this video of him. :-)

So without further ado, here he is singing "Fix It Time." Enjoy!

What a difference

Warning: proud mama post ahead!

About 11 months ago, we joined our local YMCA, mainly so I could try my hand at swimming in the lap pool. I took the kids to the family pool about once or twice a week for them to play in the water. Oliver was not quite 3 1/2 years old, and Buttercup was 16 months old.

Buttercup loved the pool and would dive under and hold her breath, then come up giggling. She also refused to wear a life jacket, of course. ;-) But Oliver was genuinely terrified of getting into what he called the "deep water" of the family pool -- ranges from 3 1/2 feet to 4 feet. He would insist on wearing a life jacket, even in the shallow 1 foot area, and if we ventured out onto the steps that led to the deeper water, he would start crying and clinging to me or the handrail for dear life. When I would ask him if he would like to take swim lessons, he would become almost hysterical.

Over time (maybe after seeing his fearless baby sister in the water), he eventually let me carry him out into the deeper water, and we would float around and play until he got scared again.

Then, about 4 months ago (right before his 4th birthday!), he became more daring in the pool. He stopped asking to wear a life jacket, and he would walk to the steps and jump toward me with no problem! A couple of months after that, he realized that he could stand in the "deep water" (3 1/2 feet) and still have his head above water, and from then on he's been a total daredevil in the pool. He jumps off of the steps and swims to the wall, he tries to do somersaults in the water, he dives to the bottom of the pool to touch my feet. He'll even ask me to stand about 6 feet away from him and then he'll swim from the wall to me.

Today he stood on the ledge in the 4 foot area and jumped into the water over and over and over. After a while, he figured out how to hold his knees to his chest (kind of like a cannonball) to make a really big splash, and then he would sit on the bottom of the pool for a moment before popping up again!! He is even starting to get excited about taking swim lessons in a couple of months! It's just amazing to me, and I am just so proud of him! What a big boy. :-)

A treat for the birds and squirrels

Last week I found this fun activity idea on the Totally Tots website. To make it, you'll need:
-- peanut butter
-- bread
-- cookie cutters
-- bird seed
-- a straw
-- string
-- some cute helpers! :-)

First, use the cookie cutters to cut the bread into cute shapes**. Spread each side with peanut butter, then top with bird seed.




Use the straw to punch a hole in the middle of the bread, then use the string to hang it from a tree branch. So far, we haven't had any takers, but hopefully soon!



**Our bread folded in on itself after I hung it, so the shapes didn't really matter for us. In hindsight, we should have either used less peanut butter or made toast instead.

A visit to a new museum

Today we went on a mini road trip! There's another highly-recommended children's museum about an hour from us, so we visited today to see it for ourselves. There are some exhibits/play stations very similar to what is available at "our" museum, but there were some really nice, new-to-us exhibits that the kids and I really enjoyed exploring. Oliver had so many favorites that he couldn't choose just one (although I think he liked the outdoor water play area the best), and Buttercup's favorite was the grocery store (complete with child-size metal grocery carts!!). It's a great place, and we are definitely going back some time in the (near) future!

Here are some (okay, a lot of) photos from our visit: