Snow Fort

We built a snow fort in one of our snow drifts using a frying pan, some spoons, and a butter knife. It may look small, but then you need to realize that a seven year old and a five year old the size of a seven year old fit into it together.

Mural

An inside whistle blower came into our room one Saturday morning telling us Gillian was coloring on the wall. I dismissively yelled for her to clean it up; I couldn't imagine it was really a problem, just a tiny spot at most. I mean, come on, Gillian is 5, knows the rules, and hasn't colored on a wall in over three years.

We went back to sleep only to be woken up by Gillian's escalating wailing sobs. We rush into the room only to find Gillian before the wall, confronted with the fact that she couldn't clean up her mess.

It turns out that she was coloring a mural. When I saw it my initial shock was surpassed by my pride at the scope of her vision. You can see that she has penciled everything in first and was making mountains, fields, flowers, a sun and starts. The moon and an escaped balloon decorated the ceiling.

If we owned the house I would have told her to keep going. As it is, we started thinking about buying some paint.

***This is the Important Part***

We looked online and discovered baking soda removes crayon from walls. It worked like a charm with very little scrubbing. Once again, the Internet saved the day.

The ironic part was that Eleanor had gotten into the paint that morning (I don't know why we think we can sleep in) and she was very good about painting only on paper (a first).

Snow Day Continued

We did also play in the snow. Can you imagine all this snow came with just one snow fall? It was also our first Massachusetts snow fall. You can imagine our dismay when the snow plows came by later and pushed all the previous snow drifts they piled up further into the middle of our lawn. I finally figured out that it was to make room for subsequent snow falls. Yikes. That is a lot of snow.

Our First Snow Day

The kids finally had their first snow day where it actually snowed. It was awesome. Tim was sent home from work too, so we had a fun surprise day together.

We watched the snow fall.

We taught the kids how to play Spit.

We made fun crafts

(cupcake crayons)

We played computer

What are Little Boys Made Of?

James was listening in as I read nursery rhymes to the girls at bedtime. When I finished reading the "snakes and snails and puppy dogs tails" vs. "sugar and spice and everything nice" he looks at me and says, "Are they saying that boys are bad and girls are good?"

Oops. Some things really shouldn't be repeated despite tradition and this rhyme is obviously one of those things.

Sike!

I knew I had more pictures from visiting my family. They were just hidden in the non-Christmas section of my blog folder. Pretty sneaky photos, pretty sneaky.

James, determined to win Uncle of the Year, sent his phone into the atmosheights with this gaggle of balloons so we could see what we looked like from a bird's eye view.

He even let James drive them for awhile.

(we lowered the balloons for the photo, they really went much higher)

Crashed out watching Despicable Me.

The West part of the West Bunton Visit

Okay, so we were obviously too busy visiting to take pictures. I can't help it, my sister-in-laws are just too fun to talk to and the kids were just too busy doing their own thing in parts unknown.

I did get a picture of me with my "I'm getting so old" birthday cake.

2nd Day of Bunton Visiting

The second day we went up to the Bunton Land, Sara and her family were there as well.

I personally think we look all look awesome together.

(I am always trying to convince Sara that I am totally taller than she is :-) She always insists we are the same height. I offer up this picture as Exhibit A. Where's all your power now Sara?)

Okay, so you are now about to see and whole lot of pictures of Gillian. I can't help it. I love pictures that capture her personality. She is so funny and comfortable with her body. I love watching her move, she is so graceful and yet active and powerful. I love her expressions and joy.

In this picture, I also love the interactions between El and Andrew.

She is getting so old. I can totally see the future 12 year old in this picture.

I added this picture because of the awesome background. The land really is lovely.

What a perfect jumping shot of Gigi in the background.

Another great action shot of Gigi. I love how it totally captures that "whoa, don't hit me" move.

Bunton After Christmas Visits

The day after Christmas, the West Bunton clan jumped in the car and made the 14 hour trek to North Carolina to do some serious visiting. We were able to spend a couple days at the Bunton land and the rest of the time was spent visiting all my siblings and siblings-in-law.

I have to say it was the best all-around visit we have ever made due in large part I believe to the age of our children. We are finally at that point where visiting family/friends actually makes our life easier since the kids spend the entire visit in parts unknown with their cousins and we can just sit back, enjoy, and smirk at all our siblings and sibling-in-law who are still harried and stressed because they didn't have the foresight to start their families seven years ago or to stop at just three :-).

(i hope you all realize the obvious joke in that last statement).

I love this picture of Jim and Amanda. They both seem happy, well-rested, companionable. I would have cropped it to just them, but I had a hard time cutting out Eleanor.

When holding the egg, Eleanor was instructed to gently put it in the basket. I think further instructions were necessary because she very slowly and carefully "dropped" the egg into the basket where it promptly shattered.

Christmas Morning

Christmas Eve

Pictures of us at our Christmas Eve Dinner (a little less formal than last years). The centerpiece is compliments of the kids. I love having kids who love doing crafts. It is so fun to watch their little hands and brains work.

7th Annual Sleeping Under the Christmas Tree Party

Everything is much more fun now that the kids are getting older. I wonder when that trend starts going in the opposite direction.

Unbeknownst to us, Eleanor had snuck some of the energy drink Tim had left on the counter after his commute home. She started bouncy around like a crazy person. She was laughing and giggling and wrestling with James and G and just jumping everywhere. Now, she is my most active and rambunctious child, but this was way more than I have ever seen any child act. We finally figured out that she was hopped up on the glorious combination of caffeine and sugar.

She was really adorable. We couldn't get a great picture of it obviously because she was just moving too fast.

Strange Little Thing

So when Tim comes home, the kids favorite thing to do is run and hide. Eleanor will shout out "Come find me Daddy!" but James and G are much more adept at hiding.

The picture below is Gillian hiding in the laundry pile. She fell asleep. We actually had to uncover her. It was a pretty good hiding place.

Not the Baby

While at the library, Gillian got a toy down for Eleanor and depositing it in front of El said, "Here you go Baby."

A boy of similar age (3ish) sitting at the same table, looked at Eleanor for a few long seconds and finally said in a very firm voice, "That is NOT a baby."

His mother sitting close by chuckled and agreed, "No, that is not a baby."

Looking at this picture, I can agree that she is really no longer a baby. But still, she is our baby.

One of the funniest things about the conversation is how confused Gillian was by it all. She couldn't understand what the boy was talking about and several times on the way home kept reiterating that "She is a baby."