Bits + Pieces {long weekend}

  Snow day carpet picnic for my three birds: 

Yellow peppers, Reserve NY State cheddar, grape tomatoes, 

Anjou pears, dried cherries, Back to Nature crackers, crushed Brazil nuts.

 Today I'm reading The Dangerous Book for Boys with Buby

and The Royal Book of Ballet with Bleu.

Three beautiful cookies arrived from our the kids' God mother.

Thank you, Debbie!! You spoil us.

Bleu and her friend Ava getting a lift from Ava's dad after sledding.

Every few seconds one girl rolled off into the snow. Hilarious.

The most attentive audience. 

Marie Pepper, Scarlett Black Beauty, and Daddy Dog.

The older kids started their classmate valentines.

Lots of heart tracing and paper cutting.

Bleu and her favorite pink pants. They are size 5 hand-me-downs from Baby Gap.

 Note to self: Buy my girl some iron-on knee patches.

Bleu and her girlfriend Ella making snow angels on Saturday. 
This scene still shocks me. She really enjoyed herself.

Bleu telling us an elaborate bedtime story.

She used her horse drawings as illustration.

Jonas' mom and I laughed out loud. And we vowed to never get into a car with our boys.

The 2nd grade gang: Buby, Indigo, Jonas, Dane, Benjie, Phoenix.

 

Nemo the snow storm meant no school or work on Friday.

The kids cracked walnuts and almonds at breakfast.

Almost two feet of snow against our in-ground pool fence.

No school due to icy roads.  Miss Bleu held class at home.

 P.S. The floating wooden structure is a doll bed Ollie is carrying.

Buby went to Grace's on Saturday. They really missed each other!

Thanks for the photo, Allison.

First friends hiking through snowy fields.

Bleu never stops drawing and coloring. "One more thing, Mama, one more."

The last four days were unexpectedly blissful. 

Friday we waited all morning for Nemo to hit our part of New York. When the snow finally came it didn't stop for at least 24 hours. It fell heavy and wet and beautiful. By late afternoon our village had become a winter wonderland.

We made no plans for the day. I sipped my coffee, fed the kids breakfast and snuggled under blankets with them on the floor. It was a sweet change of pace for all of us. We entertained the troops with chess games, obstacle courses, dance parties, reading sessions, horse play, mommy climbing, and castle building. That was pretty much it. Low key and perfect.

Saturday morning I stripped all the beds, did a few loads of laundry, showered, and played with my wee ones for many hours until it was time to bring Buby to a friend's birthday party. Tom stayed home with Ollie and Bleu. Later that night we watched Salmon Fishing in the Yemen. Good movie.

Sunday we hung around the house again. At 2:30 I dropped Buby off at his friend Grace's house for a "big-kid play date" and then brought Bleu to a little-known sledding hill to meet her two besties. She actually enjoyed the snow. When we got back in the car she said, "I did good, Mama. And I didn't even cry!"

We returned home to pick up the boys for dinner with Grace and her family, and I found Tom and Ollie in the playroom putting golf balls. Real putter. Real balls. The tot shows promise :) Dinner was a warm and delicious pot roast feast, thanks to Allison, and it afforded us adults time to catchup. 

This morning we woke up to a two-hour school delay that by 8:30 was declared a full-on snow day. The roads were covered in ice. Tom went to work while I (rather successfully)  staved off cabin fever xs 4. Bleu held school in the playroom. She was the teacher and lead us through circle time, show + tell, art class (where I was the student and my preschooler made me draw pictures of all her friends), and a play-silk dance party. The kids climbed all over me, we laughed a lot, and Ollie spent much of the morning balancing (way up high!) on my legs.

The downstairs fireplace is on the fritz again -- meaning the kitchen is freezing. So at snack time I offered up a carpet picnic in the playroom. Buby dug into the 17 books he borrowed from Grace, and Bleu put on a horse show starring "Marie Pepper" and "Scarlett Black Beauty." Later I moderated a real-life quiz game and flagged projects in books. Bleu went through my closet and dressed me up in a too-short pink dress I bought in Paris when I was 15. I was also draped in headbands and necklaces, which paired nicely with my red-white striped knee socks. Even after we finished our "romantic dancing" she wouldn't let me change back into my jeans :(


While I made soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner the kids worked on their paper valentines and helped Ollie with his modeling clay. The best thing about (mostly) staying home for four days was the consistency it gave Ollie in his potty training. He's doing AMAZING. We are almost ready for phase 2, which is leaving the house without a pull-up.