Goodbye Winter!

And good riddance! Of course, I write this with some irony as it's still stinkin' cold here. So cold that yesterday I witnessed some of the falling precipitation come in the form of snowflakes. And our yard this morning was covered in frost. So much for this Spring season we're supposedly in. However, forecasted sun and warmer weather are in store for the weekend and we're ALL looking forward to that. Plus, we got back Sunday from a week long vacation in the paradise of St. John, USVI so I don't really have any place to complain. In any case, what I'm here to write about today is our "official" last weekend of winter which happened a few weeks ago, just before St. Patrick's Day. We hosted our friends, the Meyers, in NH and had a seriously fun weekend.

I decided to go all Pinterest and do some special things to celebrate the green leprechaun holiday. Before we left, I created these little green rocks for a fun activity for the kids. More on that later.

Leprechaun Rocks

The weekend got off to a rough start as we all encountered a ton of traffic on the way up. Then, as Mike got to our condo in the afternoon with the boys, he discovered a goopy eye on Cade. Luckily, it wasn't enough to deter our brave friends from hanging out with us. But, it did vastly change our plans the next day when the 4 adults were supposed to ski while the 2 older kids were in ski camp and the 2 younger kids were in daycare. We did get medication for Cade, but we couldn't in good conscience put him in a room of other kids until we were sure the conjunctivitis was a little more under control. When you have kids, you just have to go with the flow! Mike volunteered to stay home with Cade and our friends Kate and daughter Caroline stayed with him as well. So, Matt and I got to go skiing together.

Me and Matt

Caroline and Cade ended having a great morning playing together.

Cool Kids

The 4 adults and the 2 youngest all met up for a really nice lunch at the lodge. Since I had pushed Matt to his novice skiing limits and had taken him on some runs he wasn't quite ready for, he was ready to call it a day for his bruised body. He and Mike went home with the little ones, I skied with Dylan for some of the afternoon, and Kate got to watch Libby in her afternoon ski lesson.

Here's my Dylan (green helmet, black\green\yellow coat) showing off his mad turning skills during ski camp:

I am SO PROUD of how hard Dylan worked in his lessons and how much he improved in his ski skills this year.

Dylan and Libby

After a long day at the mountain, we were brave (crazy) enough to take this big ol' group out for dinner. Given that it was a pretty long wait for the food, the kids did pretty well....thanks to Kate's great Mom foresight of providing cool coloring sheets for them to work on and the restaurant's provision of popcorn.

Dylan and Libby

Cade, Mike (watching the game), Caroline and Matt

Kate and I!

Kids With The Bear

And for dessert, another pinterest idea - Lucky Charms Crispies. Big thanks to Kate for actually executing the deliciousness. In sad news, the kids didn't like them. In happy news, there were plenty for the adults to pig out on.

After the kids went to bed it was time to party. Check out this super cool\fun bunch:

Yeah, the mountain pooped us out too.

The following morning we opted for some time at the pool in lieu of another day of skiing. While the Dads took the kids, Kate and I cleaned, packed up, and got the post swim snack ready for the kiddos:

Rainbow Twizzlers with Gold, Rainbow Goldfish, Rainbow Skittles

Then we got to have fun with the leprechaun rocks. I quickly hid them while the kids were distracted. Then they had a leprechaun hunt. After finding them, we "washed" them in our "special water" which disintegrated the rocks to reveal the gold coin inside. It was really cool (for kids and adults)! I will have to keep this baking soda rock\vinegar trick in my arsenal to use in the future for fun and science lessons.

Watching Them Bubble

Discovering the Gold Coin Inside

It was such a fun weekend to close out or winter season in the mountains! Having said that, getting back to our weekday routines, super cold temps and bleak snow covered landscape for the next 2 weeks before we left for St. John brought back the winter doldrums. That's the thing with winter....it can really wear on you. I definitely do appreciate all that the changing season have to offer. It's just that we're a little overdue for Spring. Come on Spring!