The Big Thaw Is Coming!

It's takes an absence from something to really appreciate it sometimes.  I appreciate grass, dirt, flowers, being outside without having to do any heavy lifting (shoveling)!  

They boys, as you can see, made the most of the snow.  Instead of having them wrestle inside and threaten the safety of our furniture, the front lawn became the wrestling arena. Frankly, it's about as good as a padded room!  It's soft for landing on and there's not much to break - except for each other!
  






I think my snow shoes and cross country skis appreciated this winter as well because they got more use than any other winter!

Ted is now in his second week of work at his new job, Senior Director of Human Resources at Enobia. So far he is really enjoying it.  Even traveling to Montreal was enjoyable.  So much easier than flying for 17 hours. Plus, there and many more food options around for him! ha ha

Ted did not take any time off in between jobs, however his last week at Boston Power happened to be the same week as February Break.  He was able to take a couple of days off and play with us.  We explored the Acton Discovery Museum one day and another day went snow tubing.


As you can see from the following pictures, we had a theme for February break. We found a Space Crafts book at the library so we spent the week making other worldly objects out of our recyclables.

Mickey Mouse in an astronaut space suit.

A pom pom planet mobile.

Cal is ready for travel in his cool space helmet!

Alien puppets in a space ship. Aren't they scary?!

It's a ball of aluminum foil and ribbons...  I mean, a comet!

Comet Ball quickly became the new game!

  

Wow!  The parachute man really works!

The star sun-catcher.

This is a space-themed snow globe (I used corn syrup!)

Cal's Pine Derby Entry

That's me in contacts.  I haven't worn them since I scratched my cornea with them in high school.  But they've changed a lot since then so I thought I'd give it a try again.  The best part is wearing fun sunglasses!

Running in the rain is so much easier with contacts!

The thaw is coming!  The roads are clear enough for a scooter ride!

Big news with the swimmers!  Cal won his first race this last Saturday in the back stroke!  Yeah!  Also, Wilson did not finish last in one of his races - this is a first for him!  Yeah!

The quote of the week comes from Cal when he told me, "Mom, I'm a girl fan."

New Beginnings

Meet our new friend, Toby!  Cal, Wilson and I made him this week.  

We are celebrating a full week of no snow storms!  The first in a long time!

This month brings about a goodbye and a new fresh start.  Ted is saying goodbye to Boston-Power.  He gave his resignation this week.  He will miss the friends he has made there.  

He is very excited though to be saying hello to Enobia.  enobia.com  This pharmaceutical company makes a drug for people with a rare disease called Hypophosphatasia that causes them to have soft bones.  They are headquartered in Montreal and have an office in Cambridge.  Ted will be doing some traveling with this new job but he won't be gone for 2 weeks at a time on the other side of the world!  Congratulations Ted!

Cal finished up Basketball this month so our Saturdays are a little more free.  At least until LaCrosse starts up!  The boys are still on the swim team for one more month. 

This video is from one of their many meets. Cal is on the far left and Wilson is on the far right.  All of a sudden one day Cal just "got" the belly stroke and away he went.  There's a lot of coordination that goes into this swim move and he's doing very well!  Good job, Cal!

When I pictured myself going to my kids sporting events I never pictured them coming in last. Swimming has changed that vision for me.  I now know how one can be so filled with pride, hope, and a little pain all at the same time.  You'll know what I mean when you watch the whole video.  You'll notice that an older boy jumps in and swims next to Wilson. They do this with the young swimmers who might be struggling a bit (it's pretty common for Wilson). They are in there to guide them and help in case drowning looks like a possibility.  (Now does the "pain" I mentioned earlier start to make sense?)  We are so proud of him for his strong efforts.  I am moved to tears by the cheering of the crowd every time I watch this.

I hope everyone has a Happy Valentine's day!

What To Do On A Snow Day

I remember thinking this first snow fall was so pretty!  I didn't have the same thoughts today.

The Infamous Path

So what do you do when you have a snow day every week for 5 weeks in a row?  Create a blog, of course!

There are some other things we've been up to as well.  Since Cal's field trip to see the penguins at the Aquarium was cancelled because of snow, we decided to make our own penguins!

I had to do something since he was hysterically crying!  Poor Cal.  He's had a tough time lately because he hates to miss school, and with all the snow days, we've had many sobbing mornings.

We're very pleased with our On-the-spot craft. It's not hard to imagine what life as a penguin is like lately with snow banks twice our size and slip sliding everywhere we go!

 We also tried to make the most of the snow by making Snow Ice Cream!  It's so easy!

























Snow Ice Cream
Ingredients:
8 cups packed, fresh, WHITE snow
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 tsp vanilla
Directions:
Stir together and eat quickly!

This is the best part, of course!

    

  Yum!

Eating snow ice cream is so much more enjoyable when you eat it on a picnic blanket in your living room with your favorite stuffed animals!

And last but not least, we've done a lot of playing in the snow!!!!

The quote of the week:
Wilson runs in to the room and pinches me on the arm, gives me a look, then leaves.  Wait a minute... I had to know what THAT was about!  So I called him back into the room and asked him why he did that.  He said he was just checking to make sure I was his "real" Mom.  Hmmm... too many video games perhaps?