Deep Winter

We have had an unprecedented amount of snow up here in the last couple of weeks. It has been great for sledding and playing outside in monstrous piles of snow- and even though the shoveling has been a little crazy, it is actually nice to get out and commiserate with the neighbors. I have been trying to take cues from my neighbor about when to shovel (NOT before the ice storm, but after) when to raise the wipers on the cars so they don't freeze to the windshield, the best kind of gear etc. It has gotten so high next to our houses that we have had to make a little tunnel so the dryer vent can come out from the basement. Its been drastically better than last year for getting the boys into doing stuff outside - James will even stay out and play by himself for a while when everyone else has had it.
We went with a group of friends to an AMC cabin up in the Berkshires this weekend and it was a blast. There was a monstrous wood stove in the newly renovated main house  and a great industrial kitchen to cook in. We mainly refereed kids activities and went sledding- right outside the back door. Keska was able to follow some of the group cross country skiing and she had the best time. Our friend Jeff took some great video of the kids sledding:


And Katharine went sledding for the first time ever! She was pretty into it. We also created a new group of domino players which we are hoping will become a Sunday afternoon regular thing to replace our Saints/NFL neighborhood weekends.

Here is James and BFF Sadie on the back porch-

 This is in our backyard after storm #1:

 Storm #2 buried the basement hatch completely-

 This is from the cottage at Noble view-

 Daniel got up early and was inundated with eager acolytes for his solitaire seminars:

 Sadie and Willy posing-

From the back @Noble view-

Reading Rainbow

James has been making leaps and bounds this year with reading in Kindergarten. Mostly he just memorizes short books, but it is still amazing to watch him work his way through the process. Willy also likes to chime in, and is always prepared with his 'reading glasses' (goggles from his toolbox).

SEE our new bookshelves

Over at Kat's writing blog.

This was just one of the little projects Mike managed to eke out over his break.

We are anticipating a big ole snow day tomorrow. It's been crazy to hear that a lot of the east coast has been dealing with snow the last few days.

Ahhh the cabin fever is really setting in!

Willy's eye

What a weekend already! Willy went on his first ER trip Friday. After getting slammed at school by another kid (it was an accident), he was listless and not eating or drinking. We called the doctor, who suggested taking him to the ER. So we did. 

We are thankful that Willy is fine (the doctor checked his eyes, and said if he's not stumbling or throwing up, he will be fine). 

We are dreading the ER bill...but after some tylenol, rest, and his favorite show (Dora) he perked right up. 

The first photo below is of his eye yesterday, the second two are from this morning. Not only has it developed into a really beautiful aubergine color, you can also see it is not bothering him AT ALL today.

Flashbacks

Okay, we recognize we were awful about blogging this fall. With both of us on a school schedule, time just flew by too fast.

We will try to play catch up over the next few weeks.

First, some shots of James being recognized for SURFs behavior (SURFs is the school theme, and stands for things like Self-responsibility, something, something, and something.) It's a good thing.
James and his friend Quinn were the first recipients from his class. Parents are invited to a reception before the assembly, then asked to come forward to stand with their student when he/she has gotten the award. James' was the first name called, and it kind of freaked him out.

He didn't understand what was going on, but mom managed to get up there and stand with him before too much time passed. When all the other kids were standing he understood more, and was more comfortable. I can see, in the first shot, that he's not completely at ease. He's definitely more relaxed when Quinn joins him, and I love this photo of the two of them.

Now some shots from Halloween.
This gem came home with James one afternoon. We thought it might be more appropriately titled "Remember when James didn't want you to take his picture."

The kindergarten classes get to wear costumes on Halloween and have a parade through the school.
Good times.

Below are shots of mom, James and Willy before going out to collect. Then one of Willy with our friend Mia, clearly already in the first stages of extreme sugar dysfunction.

We caught Willy at one point hiding under the piano and sneaking candy. Literally jamming chocolate into his mouth.

That's our boy!

Updates and Christmas Morning

The boys go back to school today after about 10 days at home.

To be perfectly honest, Mom and Dad are really excited. We've had a great time, but we value their teachers more than ever now. Trying to keep two active boys busy when the weather is mucky can be hard.

Kat is looking forward to some time to write, research, and plan classes for next semester.

Mike is hoping to work on some small projects around the house.

We have two weeks until we both start back at the University of Hartford.

We hope to catch up on some blogging in that time... so here goes.


Here are some shots of Christmas morning. First, James working on his paleontology projects. He got several gifts that required excavation. He had so much fun working on these. After the first ten minutes chipping away with no results he said "Actually, I don't think I want to be a paleontologist."
With a little encouragement he rallied and eventually uncovered 2 small dinosaur models and some "jewels" (actually different colored rocks).


This was one of the favorites this year: Criss cross crash. Kat had some trouble with it, because she just wanted to get the cars to all drive around nicely. As Mike pointed out, it's not called Criss, Cross, Let's all Drive Around in Circles.
All the boys were much more into the crash element.  The kitten also LOVES it, which makes it interesting, let's say.
 

Also, check out Kat's writing blog to see how Mike redid her office-- our Christmas gifts to each other for the most part were home renovation projects. Painting and setting up Kat's office, and some bookshelves are up next.

If you are a regular reader of Kat's blog, do sign up to be a follower. You don't have to do anything, it won't deposit emails in your account, it simply makes it look like people read that blog, which will be a good thing when she starts trying to look for an agent again. On the stats tracking for that blog it shows that 90% of the traffic comes from this blog, but almost no friends and family "follow".