The Zoo

Pittsburgh has lots of things to do.  Last year we had a membership to the Carnegie museums and I am still mourning the lapse in that membership.  The kids chose a membership to the Zoo this year so on one of the warm days in March we went to the Zoo.

I always hear about the disappointment of going to the zoo:  animals inside, in the shade or just sleeping and kind of boring.  We were prepared for anything.  It was a day to enjoy being outside and maybe we'd be surprised.

It was a great day for the zoo.  The animals were up and moving and it was exciting.  The lions and tiger roared.  The flamingos squawked, loudly.  The monkeys played games with us.  It was pretty fun and the kids loved it too.

President's Day

For President's day we didn't really do anything except plan on spending the day together.  We went outside early and played in the snow.  It was nice to spend a day together.

My snow babies.

Spencer doesn't really care for the snow but he'll push the baby stroller all over.

Finally, a clear driveway.

Happy Birthday to me!

In February, I turned 30 years old.  I'm not a big fan of my birthday because I feel like it's suppose to be a special day but I'm the only one who knows that.  Most years I try to make it a good day for my kids thinking if they are having fun I will be having a good day too.  It always back fires. This year I decided to have a party, just for me, no kids and no husband either.

A few friends came over and we crafted and ate popcorn--four different flavors, crafted and painted toenails.  I had a good time.  I made party favors and everything.  Of course I failed to take many pictures.  At the end of the party, Hyrum arrived home from a week long trip and my parents pulled in the driveway for the weekend. 

Saturday, we celebrated with a birthday dinner and Hannah's first piano recital.  It was fun to have friends and family all together to celebrate Hannah and I together.  We topped it off with cake and presents.  It was a good day and finally a good birthday for the books.  I think I need to celebrate more often : )

Ice Skating lessons

A few miles away from our house is a huge park--at least for being in a well populated area.  It has a large lake in it, swimming pool, boathouse, tons of playgrounds, trails and an ice skating rink  In the winter they have two, four week sessions of free

ice skating lessons.  Hannah and Jonathan wanted to give it a try so we signed them up.  They have loved it.

Jonathan testing the hardness of the ice within 5 minutes of getting there.  He did eventually stay on his feet for more than 10 seconds at a time.

Hannah was slowly but surely making her way out to her group.

Right now their metric for success is whether or not it hurt when they fell down and how much ice they have on their pants when they are done.  It's fun to watch them.  Next year, I think we'll try for both sessions.

Cold . . .

This month has been so cold.  Apparently there are huge polar air masses that keep finding their way south, it drops our temperatures well below zero with the wind chill.  The first one was a couple weeks ago and last night another one came our way. 

We left the heat up that night and opened all the cupboard doors.  We forgot to leave the spigots dripping and our kitchen pipes froze.  I was a little panicked but thankfully nothing burst.  We were patient and at about 3 pm the next day they started to drip and were soon completely thawed. 

The wind chill was around -40 so Hannah had the day off school and since I pretty much knew it would happen, I was ready.  We invited a friend to come over and she was willing to brave the cold.  In the Friend--a magazine for children published by our church--this month they invited children to print out a "passport" and get to know a little bit about children all over the world.  They include stories, recipes, and crafts.  This month was about Mexico, so we made cascarones.  They are essentially died egg shells filled with confetti.  You are suppose to crack them on someones head to give them good luck.  Let me say though, those egg shells are pretty hard. 

I spent a good hour, carefully breaking a little hole in the end of the shells and emptying the inside out. (We had scrambled eggs for breakfast)  We let them dry and I made homemade egg dye.  The kids enjoyed coloring their eggs though it took those a long time to dry out.  

Later, we filled them with colored paper I put through our shredder.  We sealed them up with a piece of tissue paper and later I found confetti all over the basement.  I'm still finding it : ) 

Along with that the kids and I made a fort.  This was a cherished memory from when I was a kid.  Every year for Spring break my siblings and I would make a two room fort and we'd sleep in it for a few nights and my mom would let us leave it up for days.  Well the kids tried sleeping in it but the noises were a little too much for them and around 9 pm they came trudging up the stairs. 

We had fun.  Unfortunately this time we only got a two hour delay in school but no frozen pipes so we celebrate and move on.  I hope this is the end of the frigid weather.  We're almost through January, ahh the joys of living in the northeast.