Art of the Brick

About a month ago, I was given tickets for an exhibit that a friend wasn't able to use. I went in not really knowing too much about it other than it was something about art and legos....one that I want the kids to love and one they already love (guess which is which). Well, turns out it's a legit artist, Nathan Sawaya, who has a dream job for most kids - building stuff with legos! (Perhaps 2nd only to being a video game tester.) Ok, he doesn't "build stuff with legos" as much as he "creates art with legos as his medium" (sounds fancier, right?).

American Gothic

It was apparently a crazy popular exhibit. The tickets were really pricey and entry by tickets were at timed intervals. We had to wait quite a while before going in, despite arriving just after our timed window started. Luckily, that was perfectly laid out right in the middle of Cade's nap. Joy. However, he stayed pretty happy being carried around on my back so there were no major meltdowns. And he was super stoked to see the legos. Every time he saw a new piece of art he pointed and loudly said "lego!" Truth, kid.

Dumb dumb, me want gum gum!
The boys knew this one from Night at the Museum.

A good amount of the art was a recreation of other famous artwork. Some of the recreation of paintings were made to look more 2D (like a painting but of course being legos it was still 3D) and others took the 2D painting and gave it a 3D sculptural look.

Mona Lisa

Us being the super cultured people we are (HA!), I felt pretty proud that the boys recognized some of the pieces from their touch the art books. And also from cartoon movies (you can't tell me they don't learn from silly cartoons).

Girl With A Pearl Earring
This is one that Dylan recognized.

This one too.
Dylan can even tell you that this painting (Starry Night) was
painted by none other than Vincent Van Gogh (parenting win).

The Scream
It was pretty crowded in general but there always seemed to be a
a lot of folks around this one. A true crowd pleeser.

Dylan's love of ancient Egypt made him excited about the Great Sphinx.

The legos built like famous art was in the first few rooms. Then we got to see some of his original creations.

Face Photobomb

The Swimmer
This one was probably my favorite. The light effect on it was really cool.

Not surprisingly, Dylan loved the skulls.
Or in this case, this guy peeling off his skin to reveal his skull. Nice.

Tree Huggers

Lego Guts

Lego Dinosaur Skeleton

Going slowly through the exhibit itself took a little less than an hour. It was a really cool thing to do with the boys and I was thankful for the opportunity. Also, the fact that it was downtown made it into a nice little half day trip. It was a really cold day so we didn't hang out a lot outside, but we did do a little shopping at the partially indoor kiosks around Faneuil Hall and the boys loved looking in the window of the Christmas Shop as well.

If this exhibit comes to your town, I highly recommend it. Just try and find a groupon or something to purchase tickets. I really did think the entrance fee was a bit ridiculous and was glad I hadn't actually paid that much for our family to spend an hour of time.

Christmas In Dallas

Not much has changed around here. It's still really cold. There's still a lot of snow. Life goes on. On Sunday, the temps went above freezing for the first time in about a month. If you're wondering, after the winter we've been having, 40 degrees feels like summer! Mike and I spent a couple of hours on snow clean up. He was on the roof and I broke packed snow\ice on the driveway. We can see pavement on the driveway! Amazing! And, so far, our luck with no roof leaks is holding out. Hoping for it to continue. 

As for the kids, they are enjoying winter just fine. We brought Cade's snowshoes home from NH when we were up there a week ago and he and Dylan trounce around the back yard in them. It's really the only way they can play in the back yard. While I broke up ice on Sunday, I also helped them up to the top of the snowbank at the top of the driveway where they made a snow slide. And sledding is always fun too. They finally both got brave enough to take some runs solo over the weekend (as opposed to being in our laps). March will be full on ski weekends for us. We've done a few (which I'll have to tell you more about another time) but our plans are to be NH snow bunnies for the next month. Stay tuned for that. 

But now, here are some long promised pictures that I'm sure my Mom has been waiting to see. The day after Christmas, we flew to Dallas for the long weekend. It was a weekend of watching and listening to cousins play together, lots of food, a ridiculous amount of cookies....oh, and presents too!

These guys played and played and played.
Ryker, Cade and Dylan are cousins and best buds.

Mike and Jody bonding over something silly I'm sure.

Blanche and Cade

The Whole Gang that Gathered
Top - Mimaw, Me, Mike, Jody, Marcy, Presley, Reece, Aunt Pam
Bottom, Ryker and Cade on Pipaw, Dylan, Blanche, Uncle Kerryn

We did actually leave the house on a few occasions. One was for a trip to the arboretum to check out their 12 Days of Christmas displays.

Too Cool

Adorbs

These Guys. So Sweet.

And there were flowers there too...in winter! Crazy.

Love

Love Time Three

5 Gold Rings

Seven Swans a Swimming

Cade and Pipaw with 11 Lords a Leaping

12 Pipers Piping (Took this for you, Uncle Joe!)

Cade just loves his Pipaw.

The Crazies

The boys, while not playing all around the house indoors, went outside and pooped out cute Ginger.

Cousins Snuggling

I also got to see my old friend Rachel....old because, well, we're getting old and old because I've known her over 30 years. Wow! Who knew when we met and played Barbies and PayDay (board game) together for hours on end that 30 years later we would be getting our families together.

Rachel's Kids - Payton and Ainsley (Rachel's the short blond one! Ha!)
Me and My Kids (I only have a few more years to be taller than them!)

Rachel and Me

And as I speak (well not technically this second since I can't type up a blog and search at the same time....but this very day), we are making plans to get together again. This time not so much in winter but in island paradise - on her new home island, St. John. I really hope it pans out. An island adventure to look forward to definitely is something that will help us slug it through the long cold month of March.

So We've Kind Of Had A Little Bit of Snow......

If you don't live in the Boston area nor have a lot of facebook friends, there's a small chance you've not been inundated with pictures of folk's snowy yards. However, it has come to my attention that media coverage of our historical snowfall of late has hit not only national but world wide news (since my Australian friend emailed me about it last night). Yeah, it's definitely been a lot of snow. You've surely seen what the media has shown which is likely in some sensationalized version of the truth. The local truth is we've been seriously dumped on with snow. It's been a pretty big inconvenience. You've either spent hours upon back breaking hours shoveling it or paying out the wazoo for someone to do so.....or both. Even if you have a plowing contract (which we do), there's still been removal to do around mailboxes, off decks (at this point the weight of it is a concern) and off roofs. And that's just the basics.

The snowbanks are so high that a driving is now called car roulette. Since you can't see over the banks out the ends of your driveway and at intersections, you sometimes have to close your eyes, cross your fingers, hope someone's not coming, and step on the gas. Boston has had to step over their rule of not dumping snow in the harbor because there's just no where else to put it. Never have I been happier to not live in the city. Even with our large amount of space in the burbs, we are packed full....I can't imagine how it must be at our old house where a double wide driveway was flocked on both sides by houses...where would one move all that snow?? 

So, for those of you down south that might have had a sprinkling of a few flakes the last couple of days, I thought I'd let you know what a ridiculous amount of snow looks like. I only wish I had non snow pictures to put right next to these so you'd get a better idea of how much the white stuff has taken over. 

In Front of My Garage
Note, this is usually a large, sprawling area with plenty of room
to back out, turn around and head nose first out the driveway.
As you can see above, the snow has encroached so much that
almost have of the 2 end bays are covered. Now, it's about a
10 point turn to get the car turned face first into the street.

The View Looking Out From the Garage

My Front Walkway
Now Known as "The Snow Tunnel"

Snow Tunnel to My Side Door

This is How High the Snow at the Side of the Tunnel Is
My arm reaching out parallel to the ground grazes the top.
Granted I'm not the tallest person in the world, but that's high.

My deck which Mike and I had completely cleared 3 plus feet
of snow off of before last weekend's storm.

Those 2 little peaks on the other side of the railing are where we dumped
most of the snow from the previous clearing.

Anyone want to swing?
Anyone seen the swings?
At least you don't need the ladder to get into the clubhouse anymore.

Cade sweetly volunteered to be my snow model.
So you can see from a smaller guy's perspective how much snow there is.
I mean, from his perspective, ALL you see is snow!
Oh, and this is the snowbank you have to climb to get into my backyard,
which, by the way, can only be traversed with snow shoes.

Cade in the Snow Tunnel

Cade Yelling Snow Tunnel

I couldn't convince him to do so, but I'm sure he could
have reached the end of that ice icicle if he had reached up.
We've been clearing the icicles constantly and breaking up ice where possible.
Ice Damns keep the water from meltage flowing off the roof and makes it flow up under
your roof shingles. That's been the major issue for lots of folks.
We haven't found any leaks yet but we're far from being out of the woods on that front.

This is at the end of my driveway. What I have to try and
look over\around when exiting my driveway out onto our
sometimes busy street.

My Poor Mailbox
After it survived the first few storms and got dug out, it finally
succumbed to the power of the plows. I think getting a new mailbox
is going to be a spring ritual for us each year (this one was new last year).

Definitely a ridiculous amount, but it's still pretty.

We have yet another nor 'easter in the forecast for the weekend. At this point, they think it's going to be primarily rain but that will cause a whole other slew of problems. The last few weeks have been relentless. We would love to see a day with no snow and temps above freezing...that hasn't happened in a while!