A second winter

You know it's a serious snowstorm when the whole city of Sioux Falls shuts down!!  You'd never know it's the middle of April when you wake up to 18 inches of snow coming in sideways!  Most stores shut down Sat, all our community classes and sporting events were canceled - and church was even canceled for Sunday!  We were grateful to have two days home as a family with nowhere to go!  We took advantage of every minute! 

Of course - you'd never know it is winter by the way Grins dresses!!

Saturday: Daddy built shelves in the garage, Mommy painted the living room and the kids built forts inside, out of the box of our new treadmill, and then snow forts outside once the snow had stopped!  Their snow fort had 3 "rooms", each connected via "underground" tunnels.  They also created a throne for "Sire Scratch" as well as an Igloo for the neighbor boys!  They are quite the talented sno-architects! ;)

Angel working on the tunnel!

Wiggles in the Igloo

Wiggles modeling the "throne" :)

Scratch LOVES the forts!

Sunday: We had our own little "church meeting", lots of quiet reading/journal/letter writing time, and then had a Family Bake-off!  Since we were left with no eggs (thanks to the snow storm), we had to get creative!

Daddy and Wiggles made the Harry Potter Chocolate Toffee Trifle - RUNNER UP!

Grins and Angel made their own creative Chocolate PB Truffle / Salted Pretzel Chocolate Cupcakes - WINNER of both Best Presentation and Best Tasting Awards!!

Mommy and Scratch made white chocolate macadamia nut cookies!  Not pretty, but pretty tasty. ;)

While we are ready for Spring, we thoroughly enjoyed the snow days, home together as a family!!

A couple more pics of our fun:

We love seeing Angel and Grins creatively working together in the kitchen!  They are so talented and creative!

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The kids worked out a throne (Wiggles as the seat) for "Sire Scratch".  He sure runs things around here! ;)

The snowfall was crazy - all this overnight!!

Snow

I have really been enjoying the snow this year - more than usual!  So much so that I haven't even minded the hours of snow shoveling!  I know one day I am really going to miss this beautiful white wonderland, and the hours of sledding, skating, building, etc it offers us!!

This little one dug herself a little cavern and cozied right up while her brother worked on his snow fort nearby...

Grins in his snow fort.

Maine Maple Weekend

Keeping with tradition, we headed up north to visit some local maple farms for Maine Maple Weekend.  It was a bright, sunny day - but don't let that fool you into thinking it was warm! :)

Of course, face painting is always a big hit!

Two puppies and a kitty feeling the bottle of fresh, WARM maple syrup.  Literally just poured - it doesn't get much fresher than that!

Tour of the factory:

Everything's more fun when you're sitting atop a tractor!

We love the free maple samples, including maple syrup on pancakes, maple fudge, maple cotton candy, maple syrup on ice cream, maple cream, and maple baked beans.  Yum!!!

And, of course, things always taste better when you can sit on a teeter-totter. :)

And our visit wouldn't be complete without a sap lugging contest! :)

Angel's off.....will she beat the time?

She did it - Angel won! For the second year in a row! :)  Maple whoopie pies are the best!

 Grins tried his hardest....maybe next year!

  The Mr. beat Mommy by .1 seconds - winning the whoopie (while Mom lost by .1 seconds!)

Then Wiggles gave it her best shot....

Here she comes!

Uh-oh- that face means it's time to go home! :)

What a fun day!  We love New England!  

Winter Storm Nemo

With the 98 degree temperatures we've been having lately, I thought it might be interesting to look back on winter - to remind myself that, as uncomfortable as the heat may be, I still prefer summer to winter any day!!!  In doing so, I realized I never posted pictures - and I certainly want to preserve these memories, so here we go:

This past February, a winter storm (or "Nor'easter" as they call them here) named "Nemo" came through Maine (and much of New England).  We had a record 32 inches fall within a matter of hours, and the fierce winds made for even deeper snowdrifts.  The Mr. still biked to work in this, if you can imagine that!!  And with him working, I got the joy of trying to clean up the driveway and walk with our snowblower - which proved difficult, since the snow was taller than our large snowblower!  It was actually quite a challenge to even get outside, as the snowdrifts came up several feet on all of our doors!  I ended up having to dig a path out the back door and climb over our fence (normally 7 feet tall, but only about 3 feet tall with all the snow!) to get to the front, since I couldn't open the garage door.

Here's a picture my neighbor took in the middle of the storm.

When the winds calmed down, the children and I ventured out to take a look around, and enjoyed some prime sledding time at a hill near our home!  Here is Grins, standing up!

A view out our front window - it's a miracle those poor bushes survived!

A view out our window (sorry about the screen - I couldn't get out of the house to get a better picture!)  Can you believe there are 2 cars in our driveway?!

The girls standing in the snow - Angel is wearing a helmet because we went sledding/snowboarding.

The view out my bedroom window (first floor of our house).

Here's how the kids spent their snow day: playing 'airplane' with their 'jet packs' on their backs - and parachuting off the couch!  I love their imaginative play!

Here's what the deck looked like...

Fortunately, Grins is my great helper!