Charley and Jackson: February 2011

Try them, try them . . .

. . . and you may. Try them and you may I say.

Another foot-plus snowfall blanketed our world yesterday and overnight. So we took to the backyard in our snowshoes and made some discoveries, like the massive snow pile that allows us to look over the six-foot privacy fence and tell our neighbor all kinds of fascinating stories while she shovels her driveway.

Sliding down a snow hill is not a new discovery, but sliding down THAT snow hill and into our snow-covered play house is a new discovery . . .

. . . and a pretty awesome one at that.

We had more fun and spent more time in the play house in the snow this morning than we did all of last summer. Oooooooo, summer, warm, water slide . . . soon, hopefully.

C'mon snow, melt!

It's not that we're opposed to riding our bikes through the snow and ice, it's just a lot easier to cruise around the block on the pavement.

Not to mention Hairy has an unfair advantage in our races . . . four-paw drive.

Spring is in the air

Sure it's been a little warmer lately, but the real reason it's spring . . .

. . . pitchers and catchers reported to Twins Spring Training today. Full squad workouts start on Wednesday.

We're ready . . . are you?

Entering a world of science

Another trip to the Science Museum, another day of discovery. Check out these musical stairs. Now, not ALL of them are musical, but now know which ones are and which ones are not. Now we just need to figure out how music is science.

Waves as science we get, poor duck . . .

. . . and the science of the healing hand, a little gross, we have to admit.

Snow snack

We took another romp through the snow on our snowshoes. This time, hiked through a park near our house. Lots of open snow and trees to explore.

We found a perfect for a snack spot under a huge pine tree.

After our "gorilla" bar snack, we headed on our way.

We're getting better at it. We hardly fall at all, but snowshoeing is really hard work.

The also happens to be a playground at this park. We frequent it during the warmer months. It looks and plays entirely different when there's two feet of snow on the ground.

We had a pretty great time exploring the park on creepy, foggy morning.

Weather around the world

Step aside sports report, the weather report is the new morning ritual.

Overheard: February 11, 2011

THUD! Crack!

"Ooooooooowwwwww, my head, oooooooowwwweeeeeeee!!!"
-- Jax yells after falling of the arm of the couch and hitting his head on a chair.

"What happened? What happened? I'm sorry you hurt your head buddy. What can I do to help?"
-- Daddy replies, trying to calm Jax down while not strangling him at the same time for doing something he's been told, numerous times, could hurt him.

"I need you to put some ChapStick on it."
-- Jax says in all seriousness.

"What?? ChapStick?? Why??"
-- Daddy asks, a little confused.

"I need it to stop the bleeding."
-- Jax answers, again in all seriousness.

Overheard: February 8, 2011

"I slept all night on my sheet to stay warm."
-- Charley informed us in the morning

"I slept all night on my donkey."
-- Jax countered, misunderstanding that Charley said sheeT not sheeP.

Monkeys in the morning

We're getting better and better at helping in the kitchen. It's been a long time since we last made monkey bread, but we picked it up pretty quick. We cut the dough into pieces . . .

. . . rolled each piece into a little ball . . .

. . . and tossed the balls into the bundt pan after rolling the balls in cinnamon and sugar.

Mommy topped it off with "monkey sauce" before we cooked it. It was fun to make and even funner to eat.

A little ditty

It's pretty great having a piano in the living room. We continue to expand our repertoire.

We need torches

So inspired by the Torchlight Parade, we decided to have one of our own. We were a little colder than they probably were. Despite needing our own torches, we had lots of fun parading around our driveway in the snow.

The best part . . .

. . . "burning our eyes." Wow was it hot at the Torchlight Parade. We watched it from the skyway and we could still feel the heat from all the torches, especially the giant ones.

It was life they were trying to melt all the snow in downtown.

Hopefully they didn't melt the ice throne.

Our first snowshoe adventure

For Daddy's birthday, Mommy got ALL of us snowshoes to do some wintertime exploring. We finally got a chance to use them at Grandma and Bumpa's house. We trekked out onto the pond in their backyard . . .