Navigating the hilly terrain of motherhood
It snowed today. A lot. Mostly we stayed inside and played Uno and Yahtzee, read books by the fire, and created some art (puzzles and heart paintings). But we did spend some time outside, shoveling, sledding and playing. The girls even did a snowy show with dancing and falling down. It was fun, but a warm bath was required afterwards to rid the snowballs from their hair (check out those rosy cheeks!).
Winter in Maine, we love you, but how about a tiny break from the snowstorms?
We went skating on our neighbor's backyard pond again over the weekend, only this time we brought friends. And I was totally impressed by our kids' ability to entertain themselves on the ice for two hours straight. How cool is it that Gracie skates well enough to tow her little sister around, and how cool is it that Tess can skate – period? Last year that kid didn't even like to be out in the snow for more than ten minutes. So this crazy winter can keep bringing us more snow and more really cold days — it won't keep us from getting out there and laughing!
[Note: As I write this at 8:00pm on Tuesday, I see that school has already been cancelled for tomorrow. We're expecting 10-14 more inches of snow, on top of the 4" we got today. It's a good thing we stocked up on books today at the library!]
On Sunday, we had a stay-at-home family day, and we decided to take a walk together in the snowy woods behind our house. The easiest place to walk was on the frozen stream, and very soon it became apparent that it was not the walking itself that was fun. No — it was the climbing, resting, pretending and general frolicking that one can do in the deep snow. In fact, such things are so fun that our little wintry jaunt turned into three hours of playing in the woods. And the girls would have stayed out even longer, but the grownups started to get cold. And I have to say, the next hour spent by the fire, with hot cocoa and a family game of Uno, was better than almost just as good as the snowy play time.
[And now we know why he has a bad back…]
Today was Mommy Day, and Tess stayed in her pajamas until it was time to pick Grace up from school. Among other things, we did five puzzles together, and Tess painted a mural on a big piece of paper placed on the floor. She wanted Penny to paint too, by dipping her paws in paint, but I had to say no to that idea.
Yesterday after school, the two sisters made bracelets using paper, markers, and a hole punch. Interesting technique. Grace, being the sweetheart that she is, also made a necklace for each of us, featuring a paper "bead" on a piece of string. Yeah, we're all looking good.
Last weekend we spent two magical afternoons ice skating at our next-door neighbors' house (who, by the way, are definitely the best neighbors ever). They have a man-made pond created specifically for skating, as both of their (now college-age) children are ice hockey players. It is large and well-maintained, and even has spotlights for night skating! Even better, there aren't any crowds, and we got to hang out with our neighbors and their very cool son, who showed the girls just how much fun you can have out on the ice. So now we're hoping that this cold weather continues — we have more skating to do!
This is Moose, our newest family member, and the only male in our household besides Adam. Moose's bowl sits on our kitchen island, and the girls take turns feeding him. He watches us eat with great interest. All in all, he's surprisingly interesting (and low-maintenance) pet. And he's also the subject of a lot of beautiful artwork.
A couple of weeks ago, when school first started back up, the girls were still recovering from the excitement of the holidays and would put their pajamas on immediately when they got home from school. And then they'd play dress-up, leading to a hilarious combination of fleece footie pajamas and elegant princess dresses. But when it's winter and you live in Maine, warmth comes before fashion. Even if you're a fairy princess.
On Sunday, a smart, resourceful friend of ours came over with her son (a classmate of Grace's). Together, we shoveled the snow off a section of the brook behind our house and lo, a skating rink was born. They came back over on Monday and we had a little skating party. How awesome is that?! [Also, Penny hung out with us and ran her short little legs off — there is quite a bit of snow back there!]
Travelingjenny 