Chinese proverb

"An invisible red thread connects those who are destined to meet, regardless of time, place or circumstances. The thread may stretch or tangle but will never break."
(ancient Chinese proverb)


Sunday, January 31, 2016

the celebrating continues...

Because celebrating your birthday just once in a year is never enough...

this weekend we continued celebrating Maura's 8th birthday,
on both Saturday and Sunday!

Saturday was Maura's birthday party with friends at a gymnastics center.
 This sign above at the gymnastics center reminded me of Maura's very first "Happy Birthday" sign at the hospital on the day she was born!

Maura and her friends had a blast tumbling, climbing and jumping!

Followed by some delicious fun...
pizza and cake!




Then, on Sunday we had some family over for dinner and cake to celebrate again!
(please excuse the painfully plain white walls...
ahhh....some day I will get around to painting!)

She was surprised that she blew out all the candles on her first try!


Happy, happy birthday sweet girl!

Monday, January 25, 2016

The Blizzard of '16

Winter Storm Jonas came and left a mess of over 2 feet of snow.
Torture for the adults,
but bliss for the kids!

{disclaimer: picture overload below!}

Saturday morning:
Only about 12 hours into the storm we woke up to over a foot of snow!
Of course Aidan and Maura wanted to go right out and play.
But it was still snowing and the wind was blowing it around in circles,
so they didn't last too long.

Sean did his first run with the snowblower soon after waking up.
We had just gotten the snowblower back from being serviced earlier this week, 
thank goodness!

and he taught Aidan how to use the snowblower...


Saturday afternoon:
About 6 hours, and 6 more inches of snow later...

Aidan and Maura convinced Riley to go out in the blizzard!
And Sean made his second run with the snowblower.
It was really windy now,
the snow was coming down sideways!
 


Audra wore her snow pants all day but watched the blizzard from inside:

Maura brought some snow inside for her to play with...

Sunday:
Perfect weather for playing in the snow!

One of Maura's Christmas gifts from Aunt Brownie was a silly string gun...
I wasn't sure when I was ever going to let her play with it!!
But then the Blizzard of '16 came along...



An innocent snowball fight between a brother and sister...


until daddy gets involved with the snowblower...

I took Aidan and Maura sledding at the big school hill...



A few days before the storm be bought a cheap snowboard at Walmart and Aidan couldn't wait to try it out.

Now he says he gonna join the Ski/Snowboard Club at school next year!

  Sunday afternoon Riley was up for trying out the snow again...



and he got buried in it...

Audra's first time out in the snow this year...




Monday:
The kids had a scheduled day off school and I didn't have to work which meant there was nothing else to do besides play in the snow some more!
At each corner of our driveway there are 5 foot tall mounds of snow from the plow that the kids turned into sledding hills!
And because our cul-de-sac is surrounded by tall pine trees the sun doesn't hit it so there is still a thin layer of snow covering the entire street.  When the kids sled down the little hills they keep sliding straight across the cul-de-sac to the other side!








Maura and her friend trying to help Audra get on the sled and go down the curved hill...

Until oops...she fell off the sled and slid down the hill
...on her tummy
...ohhh, that was kinda fun!

Audra actually LOVED playing in the snow this year!
She kept signing "more" and didn't want to go inside.
My tropical girlie is becoming a bit of snow-bunny!