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!
Alright, stop! Collaborate and listen! (Sorry.....couldn't resist.)
On my winter bucket list this year was visiting the Ice Castles in Lincoln, New Hampshire. I initially tried to do it on MLK weekend but apparently everyone and their dog wanted to do the same and we were stuck trying to get off Loon Mountain, out of the small town of Lincoln for over an hour. Each time we tried to do it since, something else has happened.
A couple of weeks ago, poor Cade got a nasty stomach bug which Mike cleaned up\dealt with all day while I was at work. Then Mike was down with said bug a couple of days later. By Friday, it seemed like all were well and we were going to give the Ice Castles a try. I took off work early to make the drive up. I got home, was greeted with a very long from Cade who said "I don't feel good" then proceeded to puke all over me, my bags and himself. Yuck!
After much clean up and debate on next steps, against my better judgement we went ahead and stayed with plans to head north. Thanks to our late start and ridiculously heavy traffic, we missed our timed ticket window. Was I doomed not to get this item crossed off my bucket list?
By some miracle, we finally got there (after the kids' usual bedtime), they let us in even though we were overdue, and the kids really enjoyed it despite the very cold night and the extenuating circumstances. Cade wanted me to carry him through most of it, but since that was the worst problem we had, it really was a great time. And the ice castles were really cool (no pun intended)!
Ice Bench
Entrance Tunnel
Fountain
Moon In The Background
Small Ice Tunnel (Weren't Quite Brave Enough to Go Through This One)
The Lights Were Really Cool
This is how they looked to us...without the camera flash.
Looking up at the icicles was beautiful!
Ice Slide
Love This Pic
Me and My Boys (No Flash)
Me and My Boys (Flash)
I loved seeing the ice castles at night. Seeing the rotating colors coming from within the ice was really mesmerizing. However, if time had allowed, I would have loved to see them as well during the daytime to get to really SEE the ice formations a little clearer. Alas, we won't be able to do so because rising temps mean this tourist attraction is now officially closed.
Ice Castle Selfie
Mike was happy to be our official photographer that night and stay out of being in the paparazzi. So all credit to the gorgeous pictures above go to him (except the selfie of course). And in other good news, that last bought of sickness really was the end of it for Cade (yay!). Nothing sadder than seeing your usually energetic, happy kids down for the count.
6 years ago, when I was driving a sports car with rear wheel drive in Boston winters (bad idea) and pregnant with Dylan, I traded it in for Mommobile 1.0. It was an SUV with all wheel drive, a roomy back seat for those huge bucket car seats infants use and plenty of trunk storage space for lots of baby gear.
Fast forward to now, I have a 5.5 year old in a booster seat, a forward facing car seat for the 3 year old and we rarely take the stroller places with us anymore. Still need to tote some diapers, but no more kid gear really needed than I can fit in my purse (or in Mike's case, a small backpack). And, let's face it, I am a sports car driver at heart. I want to go fast, zoom in and out of traffic but, with the kids, keep a high safety rating and still need slightly more than a trunk's worth of storage. My needs have changed so I did lots of car shopping at the end of last year to find a car to suit them. Now it's time for Mom Mobile 2.0:
She's the perfect combo of both worlds - 325 horsepower, nice trunk space, and built in booster seats! I ordered her 10 weeks ago and FINALLY got to pick her up on Sunday. Still have a lot to learn about the many features the car offers, but commuting to work this week has definitely been a bit more exciting this week.
This week has seen a serious amount of snow melt around here. As of this morning, I can finally see over the snowbank at the end of my driveway in my tiny little car! Woohoo! There has been a lot of hate circulating towards the extreme cold and snow we've had the last few months. When I moved here, I chose winter so I really do my best not to complain about it. I really do. And I think of all years, I've had to take that to heart the most this year. We found lots of ways to enjoy the snow. But, I will say the end of winter is a mixed bag of feelings for me. I am very much looking forward to the arrival of spring, warmer temps, more sun, and reclaiming our world from the snow. However, I'm also a little sad because I feel like we've just really gotten to the meat of our ski season only to see it abruptly coming to an end.
To celebrate the end of winter, I wanted to share with you some of the beauty\fun of it that we experienced the last couple of weekends. Mostly they were glorious weekends because, although everything was still covered in lots and lots of snow, we were finally given a break from freezing temps which made it enjoyable to go out in. You'd be amazed at what 40 feels like after enduring the temperatures we've had. It was like summer!
Beautiful Cardinal Against the White Snowy Background
Cade In Snowshoes
Dylan and His Snowshoes
My boys have become quite adept at getting around in their snowshoes. Probably because they've had LOTS of practice because that has been the only way to access our backyard. I haven't been out to the backyard since last Sunday, and there's been lots of melting since, but I certainly found it much easier then to get around in my snowshoes....and we haven't had snow in weeks!
Of course, we've been enjoying the winter fun in NH as well.
Snow On Our Mountain View
Me and Dylan
And Mike's Gloved Hand Made the Pic Too
Dylan Graduated to Runs Accessed By a Lift He's really improved a ton this year.
Even though we certainly have had lots of snow, we really haven't had many snowman making opportunities. For one, most of the snow we got from the storms was really light and fluffy. It made for easier shoveling, but it didn't stick together well for snowmen or snowballs. Plus, getting dumped on repeatedly created a lot of work for the grownups to try and prevent home damage and do a lot of snow removal (even with the plow guy doing the bulk of it). Last weekend, we took our stale, sticky snow and made ourselves some snowmen!
Cade wanted the snowman to have feet, hence the single monster foot on this one.
I dug a pit for the boys. See how deep the snow still is after weeks of settling and melting!
This snowman was bait to capture the Joker in the pit (obviously). Complete with spooky eyes and horns.
Dylan had a thriving frozen pizza business going.
The kids have been great. We have made sure they got outside to play in any way possible as often as possible. Their good spirits and active imaginations have made for lots of fun snow play. They may be sad to see it go too...especially when our yard turns into a mud pit for (potentially) months. Should be an interesting spring!
