First Day in a New School

Gregory started at a new school today, and here's a picture one of his teachers sent to me.  She said he was just having such a great day!  And when I picked him up, he told me it was the BEST DAY EVER of school.  A hopeful beginning, to be sure!!

School is back in session, so Mom and Henry head for the museum!

Henry never, ever gets tired of this little car.  He could probably have a happy day at the museum if we never left the lobby where this car is located.  It doesn't DO anything, but he just loves to pretend he's driving it.  Every time.

Lunch in the museum cafe is always one of Henry's favorite parts of a museum visit.  He always eats a huge lunch here - I don't know what it is about the museum that inspires a giant appetite, but it does seem to.

We had the carousel completely to ourselves, and Henry just rode so happily, chattering sweetly about all kinds of things - things we had already seen at the museum, things he still wanted to go see... He liked it so much that we rode the empty carousel again right away.  As we were finishing the second loooooong carousel ride, a thundering herd of high school kids on a field trip arrived to ride ... we just barely escaped with our lives.  Imagine the dramatic giggling, flirtatious posturing, ultra-cool teen boy shenanigans, and OMG's!!



Henry wanted to sit in this rocking chair for a while to watch those strange, alien creatures (high school kids) screeching and acting out.  His commentary was that they were acting naughty and wild.



If that little car in the entryway is Henry's favorite thing in the museum, this horse-drawn trolley is his second-favorite. 

In the Streets of Old Grand Rapids permanent exhibit, the general store has this bin of plastic veggies designed especially to captivate 3-year-olds :-) 

I asked Henry if he wanted to sit on the super-tall bicycle but he said, "No, I'm too little!" 

In every way, this was just a delightful trip to the museum.  We watched a planetarium presentation about the current night sky right here in Western Michigan.  And basically we just wandered around the museum looking at whatever caught Henry's attention. 

Pictures From Our Snow Day!

HELLO from the Wintery North!

First thing in the morning, the kids were pretty excited to see this big pile of snow against the deck door.  It was a sign of fun to come, for sure!

Lily got right out into the snow, even before breakfast or anything!  She was the first to make tracks in the abundant fresh snow.

Gregory and Rudy watched for a while, before deciding they needed to get in on the action.  Rudy never did really have much fun, because the snow is completely too deep for someone so short.



Here's Gregory taking a quick break in the early-morning snow play to fuel up with some nice, hot, whole-wheat blueberry muffins. Yuuummmmm!!!



I think this is the effect people are going for when they spray that fake snow stuff on windows at Christmas time.  Here's the real deal, delivered straight to our home courtesy of (dramatic voice, please) "Blizzard 2011"

Here's a very cute and rosy little Henry on his way in from a nice, long stint of fort-building with Gregory.  The snow is a lot deeper than it looks in this picture.  Henry has had a really hard time moving around in it, because it's up to his thighs in the shallow spots.  In this picture, he's walking trails blazed by the bigger kids.

After two long play sessions in the snow, and a nice lunch of Sneaky Chef chicken tenders, it was time for some cuddles on the couch and some Playhouse Disney.

Lounging Lily can't decide whether to read her new library book or watch little kid shows on TV.  Maybe a little of both.

A rosy little face with a totally smoochable dimple and a friendly dog too!

The kids tried to excavate and use the swings, but it was a no-go. 

Here's a fort that has been under construction on our deck all winter.  It uses the deck table and chairs for part of its structure, and it keeps getting added to and fixed and changed with every new snowfall.