The First of Winter...I mean, March

Winter finally arrived on the first day of March.  Over a foot of snow dropped from the sky over the course of the day, and it was howling and wild outside.  School was closed, so Aiden and Haley settled in for a day of indoor adventures.  We made our own recycled crayons for starters that morning, involving peeling,  melting down and re-molding all the little bits of broken crayon in the kids' art bin.  They came out pretty well, i think, for our first try.  The kids certainly seem to like them more than the bits they came from!

  

The snowstorm came on a Thursday, and there was perfect powder and sunny skies on the Friday following, but (of course) it rained buckets on Saturday and put a big dent in the snow quality.  While it was raining we went to a chocolate fest and then spent a few hours at splash park pretending we'd never left Florida.  On Sunday, though, we finally go to enjoy the snow.  Micah, Becky, Pheebs, and Fisher came up for the day and we got ALL the kids (with the exception of Fisher - please, we're not crazy) skiing at Mt. Sunapee.  Aiden is progressing really well, making good turns and handling the runs all by himself now...no hand holding or parental micro-management required.  It's very cool to see.  Haley and Phoebe...well, that was a bit of an experiment taking two 1-year-olds up the slopes!  The rental place had a good chuckle trying to outfit them, as the smallest boots and helmets they had were definitely too big for these two little munchkins.  But whatever, live free or die, as we say here in the granite state.  No time like the present!

Sacked out at Splash Park

Oh, yeah.  We can ski too!

The ski team

In the end Haley and Phoebe made about 5 "runs" down the smallest bunny hill...with lots of hand/jacket holding and heaps of verbal encouragement.  We learned that it is totally possible to tell a one-year-old to make a pizza wedge with her skis, and to lean forward and bend her knees slightly.  It's just not possible that they'll have any clue on earth what you're talking about.  Still, there were no tantrums or major wipeouts, and they definitely got the idea of what it feels like to slide downhill on skis.  Mission accomplished.  I'd say they even enjoyed it, for the most part.  And as with any good skiing excursion, hot chocolate and brownies were enjoyed in the lodge afterwards.  They definitely enjoyed that part.

Micah feeding Fisher 

Happy Fisher...still has a few months before he can hit the slopes too.