Snow(ish)

We are in the process of experiencing winter storm Jonas, a storm that is supposedly about to pummel the DC area.  For us, it is about an inch of snow followed by a whole lot of sleet and freezing rain.  Since we are safely at home, have no where to be, plenty of supplies and are still currently with electricity, we are riding it out with no problem and even a bit of fun. 
Stephanie got a sled for Christmas, and while the ground isn't completely snow covered, the roads are, and no one is out driving, so we availed ourselves to the neighborhood hill this morning.  It was actually super fun because of the icy nature of the snow, and I was able to pull Stephanie all over the neighborhood.  In fact, she even pulled me for a while.  In Kansas, I HATED to play in the snow with her, and I always felt lame about refusing or went out and suffered greatly.  It turns out that seems to be related to the bitterly cold weather that always accompanied our snowstorms there.  Don't get me wrong, it is plenty cold out today, but super tolerable and I didn't even feel a little miserable.  Also, as an added bonus to North Carolina, the entire state is super jumpy about bad weather, and I got canceled out of work after an hour Wednesday night because it was really cold and starting to rain.  I had a totally dry drive home and was back hours early. 

Speaking of snow, the Museum of Life and Science has a pop-up ice skating rink (indoor, not real ice, kids in socks), snowball fights and an icicle forest (made of blue pool noodles dangling from the ceiling- a LOT of pool noodles).  And of course, I have the pictures to prove that we have managed to blow another few days there in the last couple of weeks...

Extracting DNA from a strawberry

Christmas 2015

This year we kicked things off by taking a short drive to Charlottesville (WAY easier than any drive from Kansas we ever made!).  I dropped Kevin off in the woods (technically a trailhead) to go winter hiking and camping with his college buddy and drove to Alaina's (and I would like to thank TomTom for a really adventurous suggestion as to how to get over the mountain from the trailhead-  that gravel road was loads of fun).  My mom and dad picked up the kids and hauled them back to their house, and Alaina and I preceded to have dinner out with no little people and really enjoy her annual ornament exchange party.  Stephanie was over the moon to stay with the grandparents, but I was pretty sure Gwen would stay with Alaina and I.  I am not sure if Gwen just caught her sisters enthusiasm (she literally got into the car seat in my parents car and tried to buckle herself in) or if she thought that I was coming, but, either way, Alaina buckled her in,  I loaded her stuff in the car and we sent them on their way, for their first ever overnight trip away from the parents.  Stephanie had a blast, and Gwen was apparently just perfect for them (only to keep us up nearly all night the next night we were back), and Kevin and I got some very enjoyable R&R- each in our own (and in Kevin's case, unique) way.
We stayed with my parents for several days, got to visit the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens Christmas light display, and had a Christmas celebration on Christmas Eve day with both of my sisters!  We headed up to NJ late Christmas Eve afternoon and were able to enjoy record travel times with no traffic.  We spent Christmas day at Kevin's grandmothers house with just his mom, grandma, aunt and uncle.  It was a very nice quiet day... with raspberries on her raspberry bush... this weather has been outrageous!  The next day, we got to enjoy another Christmas tradition, seeing Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat on stage in New Brunswick.  Stephanie has enjoyed the show since she was 2, so we were hopeful that Gwen would not be difficult and also enjoy the experience.  Gwen, not that surprisingly, slept through the show (despite sleeping in EVERY day of the trip), and the rest of us got to enjoy the show without interruption.  I also had a chance to see Mary's house (sadly, no actual Mary) as she lives only a few miles from Kevin's mom! 
In a mere few days, we were headed back down the coast.  We made the travels fairly easily, except for a traffic jam outside of DC (which we probably should have anticipated, except that it was midweek, 3pm, on a holiday week, so we were optimistic to have a traffic free trip- but Northern Virginia... well, you know Northern Virginia). 

Shortly before packing them up!

Jared got ahold of the silly string...

Gwen and her eating buddy

Christmas Day at Grams

Kevin and Dave had tons of legos as kids- to which we availed ourselves for hours during the visit... Stephanie built a gas station and car wash.  The gas station had a green roof with a party deck.  And a roof bon fire... at a gas station.

Santa visited NC while we were traveling.  Gwen really enjoyed ripping into the presents, and really had the hang of it by our arrival home.  This one was from Mary... Thanks Mary!  They loved them!

Blast off!

Let's do a quick review of Birthday themes past:
1st- "First birthday fiesta!" Alaina came out to Kansas, so we decided to throw an actual party, with mostly our friends, and their kids (if they had any, and many did not).  It was mostly about us, Mexican food and some cupcakes.
2nd- I will call this one "We were about to drive across the country for Christmas and our two year old didn't need a theme- theme party" We heated pumpkin pie up from the freezer for dessert.
3rd- "Dora the Explorer" complete with a giant Dora wall hanging and the tragic butterfly mountain cake.
4th- "Ladybugs? I think I can make a lady bug cake".  Turns out, I can't
With the exception of the first year, no other children or families attended the birthday party (Mary did, of course, but she is more supportive than even Stephanie, and they were both really enthusiastic about butterfly mountain), so I never really had to do it well. 
We decided to go a different route with year 5, and did a full theme birthday with neighborhood kids.  In Lawrence, we had some great neighbors, but only one child Stephanie's age.  All of her friends were from daycare, which was 40 minutes from home, where I worked, so there wasn't really a good way to invite her friends.  Out here, we mostly only know neighborhood kids, and most families with kids have a girl between the ages of 4-6.
Stephanie chose the theme "Space" which we could really get behind.  Alaina was planning on being here for her birthday, and also threw herself fully into the theme, taking responsibility for cake and photo booth.  I started cleaning and preparing weeks before I thought I needed to, because I always run out of time.  I did, of course, run out of time, but in a normal day of the party, I wish we had thirty more minutes kind of way.  We decorated with stars and planets, made a rocket-themed bean bag toss (giant, wooden bean bag toss that required jigsaws, spray paint, etc) and spent a good bit of time adding glitter glue to invitations and decorations.  In the end, we totally pulled it off.  Seven kids came and everything went smoothly.  There are certainly things I would do differently, but I would never have had the foresight to know what those things were (for instance, the incredibly popular balloon pop game would have worked better if I had hired a bouncer to keep the kids in line from cramming into each other [though Kevin thinks putting some tape on the floor to stand behind was the solution]). Oh, and I didn't even mention the weather!  Warm and sunny in mid December.  I had to get some extra T-shirts out for the kids because it was too hot to play outside in long sleeves!
A BIG THANK YOU to Alaina, as she provided some extra special touches (and a lot of help), and it wouldn't have been the same without her.

The balloon pop game was just so popular!

That evening, in her new space jams from Mom and Dad.

Alaina got the background and dress-up items for the photo "booth".  I wanted it so that I could include fun pics with the Thank You cards, but it turned out to be really popular with the kids and a great activity.

Happy Birthday (or maybe Merry Christmas) to me!

I have been wanting a DSLR camera for a while, and after many years, I am finally done talking about it and pulled the trigger on one earlier this week.  Mom always gives me birthday money that I am not great about assigning for a particular special item, so I am calling this one a very late birthday present from her.  Kevin is thrilled as well, as he will not, at least in the conceivable future, have to spend anymore time talking about camera specs and sales, only to have me order nothing and then strike the conversation up again two months later.  Not to mention that he too enjoys nice pictures!  My hesitation was cost (of course) but also size.  I am hoping that because the camera is so large that it has a neckstrap, it will always be handy when we are doing something fun rather than buried in a diaper bag.  Time will tell.  The downside that I had not fully thought about was the fact that a 3 photos a second, it is likely that I will have a lot of photo sorting to do than I am accustomed to.  However, my sole desire to have this camera was speed, as no point and shoot comes even close to the speeds of the slowest DSLR, and speed I now have.  I can now stop looking to upgrade my point and shoot every few years with the unrealistic hope that they have finally developed one fast enough to keep up with these kids.
It arrived sooner than expected, and waited on our doorstep for a day while we made the Thanksgiving trip from NJ back to NC (during which I took exactly two pictures- a sad story I hope to not have to tell anymore).  Since it was pushing 1:00 am when we rolled in last night, I resisted the urge to open it, and instead got it out this morning.  I wanted you, my faithful readers, to be the first to see my the products of my new camera.  These were unplanned just to test the new camera: