a great hurry for snow (as dictated by Jonah)

After the sledding, we decided to do one of Daddy's ideas that sounded like a lot of fun (and it was). Daddy went to the store to pick up some juice for syrup and then we got snow in a cup and put the syrup over the snow and made slushies! Or, kind of snow cones. We've been having them one at a time every day because the snow is melting. We don't really want to eat them as fast as we can, but we do want to eat them at all. So, every meal, Caroline and I go outside with a cup and a spoon and start gathering snow. And then, as always, we put it in until the cup is full and we pour the syrup juice over the snow in the cup. The first time we had slushies, I chose watermelon flavor. The funny thing is, I was going to choose strawberry and everyone else was going to choose watermelon except Caroline. But then, everyone except for me had strawberry except for me and Mommy, who had both. The watermelon has a nice tang (in the words of Daddy when he tried it). From then on, I had strawberry. And then one time, I tried both of them together, which Mommy calls "combo" (I think that's a funny word for it). And I really liked it. So now every day I have combo instead. The watermelon has the nice tang (like Daddy said) and the strawberry has a darker flavor that goes together nicely. There is just a little bit of strawberry left because Caroline really likes it. She gobbles it up as fast as I can even get a spoonful of snow.

Today is Thursday. We have some sort of P.E. group and we are going to the bouncy house. We really liked it last time. It's indoors. Well today is cold, so that's a good thing. Even Miriam loves it because there is a little baby bouncy house in the corner with all kinds of baby chairs, a baby slide, and a table. And, where you go inside, there are small steps just right for Mims. Miriam was having a blast, and I could hardly get her out when I wanted to show her one of the slides. There's one giant slide that might be half the size of our little house. Caroline decided she might like to climb on it. There were little steps you would climb on and then we would slide down the other side. And then, of course, since the slide was so high, Caroline got scared so we went down. But then there was something we had to climb up. It was slippery. The bouncy house says we have to keep our socks on. But we did not know how to get up the slide. So we took our socks off and climbed up the slide. When we got to the other side of the slide, we decided to put our socks back on. There was a little basketball place in the bouncy house, except it was full of teenagers so we didn't want to go in there. One time a ball came out and I threw it in. I don't know if I hit one of their heads, but I like to believe that.

sledding, day 2

After the snow stopped, the sun came out. For some reason, schools were closed on Monday even though the high was in the 50s. We didn't complain. Josh took the kids outside and spent the morning sledding before the sun melted all the snow away for good. (The snowman, by this point, was already on his way to puddle form.)

Jonah and Josh, as filmed by Caroline:



Miriam and Josh, as filmed by me (what's especially great about this one is Miriam's excited squeals, especially since she spent the first 2 snow days crying anytime we went outside):



Me, as filmed by Jonah (while I nearly crash into him at the end):

it snowed! here's proof.

I know, I know. The internet is overflowing with snow pictures. It's just that it's been such a warm winter. Plus in places like NYC, the snow is so deep that it makes for some crazy pictures. We only got a few inches here, but are still reveling in the fluffy white stuff all over the ground.

(Everyone except Miriam, of course. She was not impressed.)

snow day (dictated by Jonah)

When I woke up, it was snowing. I wanted to go outside and play in the snow. I put on all kinds of warm things to go play in the snow. It was very cold outside. The snow was both soft and crunchy. We made a snowman. He is beheaded. He doesn't have any arms yet. We got the sled out.

lemon orzo chicken soup

Sometimes, a favorite meal falls by the wayside because we just get tired of it. Or, most often, I get lazier and lazier in the creation of said meal until one day we sit down to eat it and it is so far from the original that no one really wants to eat it and we just leave it out of the rotation for a while. Meals we love (in theory) but don't eat very often these days include chicken piccata, lettuce wraps, and Italian vegetable soup. (Although just in writing this, that soup sounds really delicious. Maybe we'll have that next week.)

Someday, this soup will fall out of the rotation, I'm sure. We've loved it each time we've had it over the past two months, though. And I hope that someone will remind me to make it again once I've forgotten all about it. We had company for dinner tonight and someone asked, "do I taste lemon in this?" Little did he know that I would regale him for at least 10 minutes on the virtues of Arizona citrus.

Until then, I do have the leftovers to keep me warm when it snows tonight and the whole state shuts down.

Nothing below 5' is safe.

Tonight, while we were visiting with the Morrisons, we heard some weird noises coming from their kitchen. A quick count made it clear that Miriam was not with the other kids (and the likely culprit). Sure enough, she had pushed a chair over to the counter and was scooping powdered sugar into the butter.

This chair scooting is a daily occurrence around here these days. It is at once cute and exhausting. Case in point, this is how I found her last week:

And this is how she got there:

life wisdom by Jonah

J: Mom, do you know what the secret to happiness it?
me: Well, I suppose you could say a few different things. I think the secret to being happy is to be grateful for what you have.
J: I think it's curiosity. Because first, I was sad about (something, I can't remember what now), but then I started getting curious about (something else that I can't remember) and now I don't feel so sad.

Good point, kid.

(dictated by Caroline)

Last Christmas here, I had fun opening presents. And Mim loves to Skype and watch videos. And always, I say hi to Miriam. And Dolly needs to say something too! And 7 years ago, we lived in North Carolina. And Yoda Star Wars videos are now in question. And 2 and 3 are also going to be the next.

And tea. Tor. May. To. That is the thing on Young Justice that Miriam can't watch. But I can watch it. And two years ago, Christmas is over. So we threw the Christmas tree away in the forest. Daddy did that. And 2 years and 7 years and 3 years and 4 years ["Where is the 2 and 7 and 3 and 4?' Cut to me changing the words to digits. "Oh. I see them now."] and 2 years ago was Christmas and next year I'll have an owie still.

Look. I have a hangnail right there. And 2 years the Power Puff girls but no years ago be 3. And the t.v. was and 2 and 3 and 4 and 5 and 7 but left was 6.

extra long break (dictated by Jonah)

Christmas break was long as usual, but this time it was extra long because Grandma Hunt came over and we couldn't do school and play with her at the same time, so we had that off. And those two weeks were packed with fun. We finished the book of Harry Potter #2 (because Mommy makes us read the books before we watch the movies), so then we got to watch the movie. We watched it like five times because it was so good. We went to the library a couple of times. 

Grandma and I played Bonanza and Labyrinth all the time. Sometimes Caroline would play with us like a little bounty hunter. We would give her our cards and she would look for our treasure. Bonanza was really fun because four times in a row I got all four cocoa beans, and one time I got the cocoa beans and the garden beans. I also beat Grandma a lot with those just by luck, although I think the cocoa beans and garden beans probably helped a lot.

I don't know if I said this in another blog, but long before that I got another game for my Wii. I'm surprised they only sell them for $20. It was Harry Potter. It was 1-4, not 1-7. I haven't even gotten past 1 yet. It takes a while. There is a lot of extra detail. So far, I have gotten to Christmas in #1. If you see #2, you probably saw Hagrid with his little bow and arrow. That's one of his spells when I play him. It is magical in a way. It is very powerful.

Then we started school again. It does get in the way, but it is also pretty fun. Right now, of course, is Friday. So we have had about a week of school so far. I think that's all!

This oldest child of ours is a grown man in a child's body. Here are a few things to support my statement:

1. His favorite lunch is tuna fish on wheat with blueberries.
2. He is obsessed with being on time. (Sorry, kid.)
3. This week, he asked me when he should start saving for retirement.
4. He has never believed in Santa Claus.
5. He is a cautious skeptic. He is careful and likes to consider his options before he makes a decision.

And this kid wants more than anything for Hogwarts to be real. I get it, being a huge Harry Potter fan myself, but I am totally enjoying watching him fall in love with the HP world. The other day, he announced at lunch that maybe magic really is in our world. We'd be Muggles, after all, so how would we know? They keep it hidden from Muggles. "Well Hogwarts could be real," he said. "I mean, we don't actually know."

NC Zoo! Friends! Rain!

I think I already mentioned that on Caroline's birthday we went to the zoo. It was raining all day, so the zoo was more or less deserted. I may or may not have already mentioned that we had friends in town from Ohio, so it was a double celebration.

The zoo has a free shuttle that we rode to one end before walking back. This was at the suggestion of a nice couple we met near the zoo who said we'd be walking downhill that way. Since we had 5 kids, a double stroller, and it was raining, this seemed like a good option. While it did keep us from doubling back (the zoo is more or less in a straight line, so you'd have to see everything twice if you walked from the entrance to the end and back again), it was not downhill. In fact, it was primarily uphill until about 2 animals from the entrance.

Miriam did not want to ride in the stroller (which worked well for the older kids who were "too tired to walk") and could not be convinced to leave the Bison sign to view the actual bison.

Remember the rain? We finally relented and let the kids play on the wet playground as we were preparing to leave. That way their cold selves could go straight to the car rather than continuing to trek around the zoo. We knew they'd be getting a little damp. What we didn't expect was a giant puddle at the bottom of the slide and Miriam to be unwilling to leave said slide. We ended up having to strip her down to a new diaper and wrapping her in my sweatshirt. She then proceeded to cry the whole 2-hour drive home any time either of her hands got lost in the long sleeves.

Mat and Jonah spent the week's visit practically inseparable. After late nights reading and long days running around like hooligans, they were pretty worn out by zoo day.

We miss our friends already. As for the zoo, it was adequate. Some parts (the playground, the polar bear, and a few of the monkey exhibits) were really great. Others were sort of lame as far as zoos go. We'll try the Columbia zoo next, but this one will do too.

um, Christmas

Christmas was so nice and quiet. Plus we talked to all the grandparents either on the day of or shortly thereafter, so I sort of forgot there would be any reason to document the day.

That is until I was looking through pictures on my phone and noticed these pictures. Then I remembered that Miriam spent the whole day (including through her nap) with a bow stuck to her bottom. That is certainly worth documenting after the fact!

Four years

Our little llama turned four this week. On Caroline's first birthday, we had pizza and cake with some good friends.  This year, we had pot roast and cake with some good (albeit not the same) friends. I like this tradition.

A few notes on the meal:

This was Caroline's first real year picking a week's worth of meals. The last few years we have done our best to choose meals that she would like, but this time she carefully selected each meal herself. The week included spaghetti, pizza, cereal, toast, tacos, and pot roast. Also, the cake was delicious. It was hideous, however. Pinterest failed me on multiple portions of the process, but she told grandma today that she had "a beautiful cake!" so maybe all was well after all. She certainly loved having us sing to her.

For the daytime celebration, we made our first trek to the NC zoo. It wasn't bad as far as zoos go. They have a polar bear, which was neat. I haven't seen one of those in a while. They also had a few really neat playgrounds. I may not drive two hours for just a playground, but it was a nice addition.

Not pictured: the never-ending rain and the photographer (Josh).