seventy

It took longer to inflate the snow tubes today than it took to discover that the snow was decidedly not sledding compatible. The warm weather made the snow wet and sticky and it was impossible to glide more than a couple feet, even with a running start.

An outing that could have ended in tears of disappointment turned out to be a great time! We explored the melting, and puddling, snow first. Then we trudged on to the Children’s Barn and visited the animals. Snowballs were thrown, guinea fowl were observed from a camouflaged hide, pinecones were collected, drawings and cryptic marks were made in the mud and soaking wet feet weren’t noticed for well over an hour.

I love when failures turn out to be wins!

sixty nine

Is there anything better than a baby at church? Esme and I agree: the answer is no!

sixty eight

Peter and Rebecca: Celebrating 12.5 years of watching stuff on laptops in the dark.

sixty seven

I knew that I was going to pay for it later, but I did it anyway. I took the girls to Boston in the middle of the snowstorm this morning. My punishment, at 2pm, was that I had to shovel the driveway a second time today and this time is was so that I could get the car back in!

What was so important today that I would get up, shower, dress, shovel the walk and driveway and hit the road at 8am? Today was the second of five Free Film Fridays at the Museum of Science. Neither of the girls had been to an Omni/Imax film yet, and I was a bit hesitant to take them, considering the size and the volume of the movies, but I figured that a free movie was a great time to give it a whirl.

We arrived at the museum and had no problem scoring our tickets for the 12pm showing of “The Last Reef”(unlike last Friday when we showed up at 9:30 and it was sold out. And the museum only opened at 9!). The desk attendant asked us if that was all we wanted…I was surprised that he was offering us a second free movie, but I took him up on it and we also got tickets to the 10am show “Journey into Amazing Caves”.

It turned out to be a great morning of movies. Thanks to the snow there were only 25 or so people in the first movie! The girls got a kick out of “Who put the bomp in the bomp sha bomp sha bomp” and they enjoyed both shows. They did both cover their ears at times and some of the ‘big screen money shot’ scenes were a bit much for them, but they both walked out chattering away about how awesome it was.

I was happy to see the “New England Time Capsule” short before the first film. It is a series of flyover shots of Boston and New England done specifically for the Omni Theater in 1987. I remember seeing it on visits in Middle and High school and it was fun today to reminisce about the Boston’s Upper Deck and elevated Central Artery! There is one bit that was filmed from a car zooming on the Lower Deck and around corners and into a tunnel…I gripped the armrests as a kid and I did it again today!

Thank you, MOS, for some new (and and not so new!) experiences! It was worth the extra shoveling.

sixty six

Official documentation of the semi weekly, post dinner, running of the Cheetahs.

sixty five

Mama won major brownie points this afternoon for signing the girls up for accounts on magictreehouse.com. They both love the Magic Treehouse books and were super excited to explore the website, design their own tree houses and to complete the missions that Morgan Le Fey sent them on.

If only all parenting wins were this simple!

sixty four

“Though she be but little, she is fierce!” ~William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Our Esme turned four today. Sometime today, in between breakfast pancakes, candles, matching nightgowns, friends at the MOS, birthday lunch, a wander through the Container Store, a screening of Tangled and dinner out, I came across the Shakespeare quote above.

How perfect for our birthday girl! Petite, but feisty. Generous, yet protective of her rights. Sweet and snuggly paired with loud and wild. She throws her all into her passions and in return we see her bear her soul, through song and dance and whispered words. She is amazingly determined, and unfailingly polite. Though she be but little, she is fierce!

And we love her so incredibly much.

sixty three

We don’t spend every day hanging off the sides of bridges. But, rest assured, if we happen to stumble upon a bridge spanning a quickly moving stream (as we did this afternoon) we will definitely stop and hang over the side.

We will also throw rocks from it and play Pooh-sticks. At least one of us will attempt, or at least contemplate, building a dam. We’ll want to explore upstream (where does the water come from?) and downstream (where is all this water going!?). We’ll wonder who built the bridge and follow the trail just over that hill to see where it leads.

This bridge was found just a few steps from the parking lot at our skating rink. Four months we’ve been skating here and we had never even peeked through the trees to see it. Once it was spotted no force of tired bodies or wet feet or cold noses could keep us away.

One wooden bridge in the woods makes me wonder, What other things have I been missing?

sixty two

Driving home tonight we commented on the large shadow that our car was casting. We were impressed by its size and darkness before we realized it was due to not one, but both of our headlamps being out.

A quick stop at AutoZone and we were back in the light.

sixty one