Recapping the last few days at our house- lots of pictures

Another snow here.  So far, at least 6 inches on the ground (7:15 pm US eastern time) and another  inches due over night.  I shoveled the driveway, with some help from my little man.  I know from experience that it is better to shovel multiple times instead of waiting for it all to end to shovel.  moving 11-12 inches of snow is incrementally harder than moving 6 inches of snow.  And today's snow was wet and heavy.  It was hard work.  We have not had a snow plow on our street since early this morning.  I am not expecting one until very later tonight or tomrorow.  So we are house bound again tomorrow.  Hijo's very red cheeks after 1.5 hours outside playing and shoveling.  He has agreed to a ski mask hat for next year.  So that is on the list now. Since the stores have switched to summer clothes, there is no chance to get one this year.  Hijo finally gets the snow shoveling process.  I think I can take him to Pap's on snow days and he will be a help.  He defintiely was a help me today.

Hijo tasting the snow flakes and me, exhausted after  1.25 hours of shoveling. And I showvel the end of driveway at 3 today (4 inches on the ground) so that the snow plow did not plow us in when it came down the street.hijo falling down as he tries to climb Mt Cole in our front yard.

This is Mt Cole, the red shovel is at the top.  The blue shovel is sitting on the ground and is perpendicular to the pile.  Hijo is the measuring stick.  He is 41.75 inches- so 3 feet  5.75 inches.  the snow pile is above his head by an inch or 2.

 Al close up of the pile and hijo on top of it.

being a good home owner and digging out the fire hydrant.   Now we are sure not to have any fires at our house.

Picture of me taken by hijo.  I got my hair cut on Friday and I absolutely hate it.  The dude completely ignored me.  His first cut was so drastic, there was nothing to do but sit and let him finish.  I will not be going back there again.

Since we knew yesterday that this much snow was coming, I preplanned some activities for hijo while I worked.  first up was finger painting.  A success!!!

next up was dry rice and beans for hijo to play with.  I felt bad that I was "wasting food" so hijo could play, but according to lots of blogs I read, this is a huge hit with other kids- occupying them for hours.  Hijo spent 30 minutes playing with the rice and beans and then flung it around the floor.  So that ended that activity for him.  I was not a happy momma with his choice to throw the beans and rice around the living room. 

Hijo found his own activity next- he decorated his face with stickers.  This kept him busy for an hour.  Go figure.

Saturday, J and N came over for play time. 

N and Hijo in the backyard. Hijo wanted to pull N onteh sled so badily.  Ni was having none of it.  Hijo was so proud that his grandpa gave him the sled.  He kept telling N all about the sled and begging N to get on the sled.we worked on the snowman again- that would be J and me while the boys played.  The snow was very dry, so another squat snowman.  But the boys loved it, which shows, it does not have to perfect, it just has to be done.Then the boys decided to slide.  They liked whizzing down slide - it was slick with water after they went down it once - the snow on their boots metlted on the slidethen hijo found the "kyrptonite"- AKA the green ice from the time we used food coloring on the snow and it froze.  It was like the treasure to hijo. 

The boys- 2 cuties.

Friday- I took a day off work and took hijo, Mam and Pap to the aquarium

Hijo preparing to take pictures of the penguin parade.  He was less then impressed with the wait and the other kids.The penguins: Simon, randy, Paula - yes named after the idol judges.

Much happier to be near the penguins.  they don't let them out becuase apparently penguins go to the bathroom every 20 minutes!!!  mad at me becuase I was taking pictures again.  He was showing  Pap where we were on the map of the aquarium. 

playing in the frog bog.  He loves this area- mostly becuase of the video game-where he accidently manages to get the frogs across the road.  It is always an exciting event when he manages to not kill the frogs with the first car in the video game (frogger).

playing in the jellie area.    I like the chandelier.

Sizing each other up.  Pap at over 6 feet tall, hijo right at 3.5 feet, Mam and I right under 6 feet (despite the picture).

It was a good few days.  Hijo will home again tomorrow and I am not holding out hope that he will last through my work day.  I really want it to be Spring, I am tired of snow, cold and the genral greyness of the days (we did see sun this weekend).  We are closing in on 30 days to Spring and Lent starts on Wednesday.  I was thinkking about giving up personal email and facebook for Lent and only blogging once a week.  But I thought better of that.  Still thinking about what I want to give up, I do feel the need to give up something.

hasta pasta,

Momma