Ending Winter

We started winter with a bang visiting Mark's sister in Buffallo. Remember December, the falling snowman?

 Yes yes, well why not celebrate spring in the same way? Annalee and Andy came down to DC for Spring Break--to visit us. Of course winter was not quite done. So instead, we celebrated the ending winter of 13'-14' because it's been a doozy--more for the Buffolonians, but we feel ready to move to the next season also.

In honor of touring as many sites as possible, the Dad's built a tower, and our master craftsman Andy, shaped it into the "Washinton-u-monument-u" (as Jackson still says).

Seriously, Annalee and Andy said they hadn't played in the snow since Thanksgiving because it's always below 10 degrees outside! They found the weather quite balmy down here. 

 We did have a blessed 70 degree day show up right before the snow,

And then we started adding layers

(Cole and Jackson ready to climb stairs at the Lincoln)

(Allie and Sam pensive at the MLK memorial)

 And kept them on through the snow fight.

The snow made for fun family playtime, an extra day off of work for Mark, and lots of other Spring-break tourists joining us at one of the 2 museums that stayed open: (luckily it was the 3 year old [and Dad] friendly, Air and Space Museum).

And unfortunately, despite the date, and our celebrations, Snow is in the forecast tonight. AGAIN!!!

Perhaps the brave daffodils will knock some sense into the weather. Hopefully it's not the other way around.

Thanks Annalee and Andy, for helping us try to push winter out. We shall reconvene in the summer and see if that snow dares to come then!
 (knock on wood!)

Playing with Frozen

Goodness, has Elsa the Frozen princess been acted out by too many little girls in DC? I'm sure I am not the first person to notice the coincidence, but since I haven't seen the movie (and still managed to see more covers "Let it Go" than I can count) I feel ok pointing out the winter wonderland seems to just keep coming! I'm blaming the 3-10 year old girls.

Most of our snow storms have seemed to hit during the week--invoking a fury of cancellations [at least once a week]. Lucky for us, Mark works for the government and does not have to ride his bike to any weekly night classes this week. We've had a few moments of #cabinfever #toomanypeopleinthishouse and #shouldwewatchanothermovie, but overall it's been really quite nice to have Mark home and have lovely white blankets shrouding all the trees. Incredibly it's still magical to look out the window and see the snowflakes.

With all the snow, we really haven't played much in it. Our trip to Buffalo back in November fulfilled our snowman needs, and the snow seems to have been too wet, too dry or too icy for prime playing conditions.

Amazingly at the beginning of the season, we found a mini snow shovel on the side of the road. For most of the storms, that has been the main mode of snow entertainment. Jackson and either Mark or I head out with the big shovel, and we clear the walk. Allie usually toddles behind in her XL coat and boots, and falls over face planting and waving her arms around until someone picks her up. This is totally my type of entertainment--good hard work that you can see!

I was coordinating new schedules based on our latest storm this week, and my friend wrote, "Have fun playing in the snow." This totally took me off guard. I had fun shoveling the snow, but hadn't really played much, and the kids certainly had not.

The day after the storm, Allie took a really early nap, which freed up our post-lunch time. After coming in from an errand we realized the snow was perfect outside. Not too wet, not too dry, and no icy top. On top of it the sun was out and it almost felt warm! So, we headed out to build a snowman. After poking around a bit, I realized that the kids hadn't ever been sledding, and though we didn't own one, we had a perfect bunny hill and plenty of cardboard.

I had to show Jackson how to do it, which was a bit tricky on a hill that was nearly the length of my body. But, after one run, he got the hang of it and exclaimed, "MOM! I have never done this before!" It was one of those thrilling parent moments.

Jackson concluded he really liked sledding, and was great a carrying his "sled." I concluded sledding must be more of a future priority... but we'd be happy to wait until next winter. We'll be onto bigger hills and some plastic!!

And little girls playing with Elsa, find some love and give us all a break!

I may or may not have read most of the plot of the movie to help with this post. I promise I won't reveal anything Mark :)