The Winter Highlight Reel

Winter is making it's final plea to stick around today, while all of us in the C household are longing for the warm breezes of spring.  Opportunities to take an evening walk around the lake and to visit a different park every day for a picnic lunch are just around the corner.  We simply cannot wait. 

Here are some of our favorite memories from winter:



Disney on Ice!  Grandma came up and treated us all to a very exciting night of family fun.  Despite Chloe's high fever and oncoming case of croup, she thoroughly enjoyed herself.  She still talks about all of our fun adventures that night!  We started the evening at Michaelangelo's, our local Friday night pizza place (serving a large 2 topping pizza for only $7.99 after 4pm and fountain drinks for $1!) and had our usual pizza and drinks.  The kids received special cups to kick off the night.  Then we headed to the pre-show where we got to meet Cinderella, admire all of the princess's gowns, and gaze into Mirror Mirror on the Wall.  The show was simply amazing.  The talent that it takes to skate and dance around while wearing large, ridiculous costumes astounds me.  The scenery was wonderful, too.  We saw Mickey and all of his friends, the cast from Cars, The Little Mermaid, The Lion King, and a grand finale with Tinkerbell.  After the show ended we finished off the night with a run to Krispy Kreme for some fresh hots, since we happened to be "in the neighborhood."

The girls and I with Cinderella.  Melissa screamed "I love you!" to her and received a very sweet "I love you, too!" and a blown kiss.

Tinkerbell. So cool.

This is the doll I made for Chloe for Christmas.  She named it Chloe and loved it to literal pieces.  I am now trying to learn to mend.  I didn't think the girls I made them for would love them so much! I envisioned shelf-sitting dolls!

 We tried to start new traditions of homemade gifts, baking parties, gingerbread houses, and advent.  For the first time, I think we can truly say we savored the season and worshipped Christ while looking forward to the celebration of His birth throughout the entire month. The kids also received fleece blankets made by Patrick and I during the evenings when they were asleep, and bikes from Craigslist.  They were absolutely thrilled with all of it.

Chloe and Dolly on Christmas morning

During our holiday travels, the kids got pretty much everything they wanted from all of the various grandparents.  Chloe began her My Little Pony collection thanks to generous gifts from Nana, and believe me, it has flourished!  The girl is nuts for Ponies!  She also received a laptop and a tiny vacuum cleaner that are played with daily.

This season we received three ocassions of snow much to Chloe's delight.  Every morning that she woke to find it outside of our front windows Chloe would exclaim, "He was right!  Mommy! The weather man was right!!"  She had much fun catching snowflakes on her tongue, eating snow cream, throwing snowballs at the boys, and making numerous snow angels.