Spring is...No Where in Sight

Summer will eventually be here, long and hot, right? We can delay our warm weather hankering a bit longer, can't we? Bah, those are just platitudes; we can't do a damn thing about this awful winter...except enjoy it!

Easier said than done for me, but the kids seem to have a better time of it. I'm glad some neighborhood kids will sometimes stop over and Julia and Finn will go play as a group.

Giant piles of snow alongside driveways seem to be a common wintertime gathering place for kids. Julia and Finn first built a fort in ours and then they kept fixing it as more snow fell and temperatures fluctuated.

A solo hike along the Kinni when the temperatures weren't terrible allowed for some nice cold-weather views.

We do a pretty good job of staying busy in the house too. Finn's been finding computer games to play online as often as he can.

Skippy is always on the lookout for sunny patches. She likes to bring something to chew on to pass the time soaking up the warmth.

Sometimes family time in the living room works wonders. All three ladies are somewhere on the couch: Amanda, Julia, and the dog. Meanwhile, Finn enjoys an umpteenth perusal of his Lego magazine.

Finn participated in the Westside musical this year for the first time. And for the first time, Julia didn't. She decided to take a year off and just enjoy watching it. The pictures taken during the performance were quite pulled back and so you can't see Finn individually very well. Instead, you get to see him getting his makeup done by a 4th grader.

The kids are usually ready in the morning well before I am. Not only are they surprisingly on top of things on school days, but they aren't at each others throats either. I sometimes find them sitting in Julia's room like in the picture below. Julia playing on her tablet and Finn perched behind her eating breakfast and watching.