The Accidental Boilermaker

Yesterday we did something a little crazy and went to an ice festival in Richmond (a 2 hour drive south).  The reason was my (mom's) cousin was participating in the festival and his family was going to be there too.  And my cousin is a pretty amazing ice carver.  For example these giraffes he carved. Nate and I were hesitant to go because we would have to be outside for long periods of time and we just weren't sure how long Evelyn and Jameson would last.  As it turned out, we didn't really need to worry.  The festival had several warm-up stations with kids activities, free hot chocolate, and snacks.   And even outside Evelyn and Jameson never seemed to mind the cold.   There was a family play zone with an ice slide, ice ping pong, ice checkers, ice corn hole; you get the picture.  Once we caught up with my cousin, Evelyn ran off to play with the big kids.  Jameson watched my cousin Aaric bury his son Wyatt in ...

On Wednesday kids skate free at the outdoor rink and since the temperature was actually tolerable yesterday we went ice skating. The rink was almost empty and the kids had lots of fun. Evelyn took a couple of good falls and ended up with a big bruise on her knee. Nate and JJ took a good tumble too but got up, took a break, and then got back on the ice.

Jameson is 3 years old!  He is a smart, goofy, strong willed child.  He currently thinks it's the funniest thing to hide especially in his car seat by covering his face with his hands the minute we arrive at our destination.  He also loves Spider-man, helping in the kitchen, reading, and watching PJ masks on tv. He also loves to bug Evelyn, but I think it's because he just likes to be near her and wants to do the things she does. He asked for a coffee cake for his birthday breakfast.   We opened presents.  Evelyn got Jameson a new Spider-man t-shirt. We played with new presents.  Jameson got a fort building kit from Grandpa Paul and Grandma Pat. We went out to eat.  Jameson's birthday falls right around Savor Fort Wayne, so it's a great opportunity to celebrate at a local restaurant and get a good deal on a meal.  We went to Hop River Brewery (Jameson's only 3; he doesn't quite realize that on his birthday maybe he...

We babysat Bella and Millie tonight.  The kids decorated a box because you know in a house filled toys, a big box is the best thing ever. While Evelyn and Bella went upstairs to play, Jameson and Millie did their hair and makeup. We played with Legos. And we decorated cupcakes.  I am not planning a birthday party for either kid this year, but I thought if two of your friends are going to be here the day before your (Jameson) birthday why not have cake and sing happy birthday. Jameson picked out strawberry cupcakes and the sprinkles he wanted on top. Happy almost 3rd birthday Jameson!

Warmer temperatures today meant melty snow and melty snow meant time to build a snowman. The snowman reminded me of when I was in elementary school, we would roll these huge snowballs.  A bunch of kids would work together to see how big we could make it. So I made two big snowballs for Evelyn and Jameson.  The big snowballs gave me the idea to make a bunch of slightly smaller ones in the backyard and build a snow fortress.

We got about 5 inches of snow over the weekend (with maybe more to come this weekend!).  Evelyn and Jameson had a blast shoveling the driveway on Saturday before Nate got home from bike practice. We have a big shovel and a little shovel so that meant I just stood around and watched most of the time.  They very much wanted to shovel by themselves.  I stepped in if someone got tired or wanted to make a snow angel.  I would describe Evelyn and Jameson's shoveling technique as nontraditional but overall effective. Sunday was a perfect day for sledding.  It was very busy but everyone seemed aware of sledders going down the hill and sledders walking back up.  There were very few collisions. Evelyn did a great job sledding down both the little and big hill.  She'd go down, pull her sled back up and go again.  Jameson is too little to go down the big hill by himself.  He happily went down the little hill alone, but when he...

Christmas in Holland was this past weekend. Everyone had fun.  The cousins all played well together and Jameson is finally big enough to do some of the big kid activities.  We did a countdown to New Years as an excuse to drink some fizzy grape juice. We went to the Hope workshop to build card holders for the kids It was Jameson's first trip to the Grandpa Paul's workshop. We opened presents, played games, and met the new kittens. We also went to the super cool indoor playground that Jameson was big enough for this year. The cousins did more cute things together like all sleepover in Isaac's room and listen to Isaac read a book.