The Accidental Boilermaker

Evelyn had a snow day yesterday. First we shoveled and played in the snow. Next Bella and Millie were coming over but not till after lunch so to past the morning we had fun with Legos and Duplos.  We made a lego catapult and a duplo ring toss game. Then when Nate got home we went ice skating.

We traveled to Decatur Friday night to celebrate with my Mimi her 80th birthday. Jameson really wanted to make his birthday coffee cake for Mimi and he made sure it had plenty of powdered sugar.  Evelyn worked really hard with Nate to do a 300 piece puzzle.  Mimi got the kids a piñata which was of course a lot of fun and just a little bit dangerous.  Sunday morning (Mimi’s actually birthday) we went to church and then drove home. 

We got to go to a Blackhawks game last weekend! Meredith and Jeremy flew up from Baton Rouge. Kate and Tom came too. The game was a lot of fun and the Blackhawks beat the Red Wings 5-2. Jameson slept through the entire 3rd period. We also got to meet Kate's adorable foster puppy Buddy.

Evelyn and Jameson had their 5 year and 3 year check ups. Evelyn weighs 42 lbs (66th percentile) and is 43.25 inches tall (67th percentile).  Jameson weighs 33 lbs (63rd percentile) and is 37.75 inches tall (56th percentile).  The doctor said they were the best kids he saw all week but that may have been before Jameson had a meltdown because I wouldn’t let him open his umbrella (or as he calls it - rainbrella) in the exam room or let him mark all over the forms I had to fill out for the front desk. Evelyn had to get 2 shots so even though Jameson’s behavior was just ok we still got a treat. Pictures from the father daughter dance were up today too. 

Evelyn is 5 years old!  Evelyn is a sweet girl with a big heart. She loves to dance, ice skate, and run. Lately she has really been into coloring and likes to use lots of bright colors. Nate said it last night at the dance, she is a little social butterfly. She is very excited for Nate’s bike friends to come over for the super bowl tonight. She woke up early so she got to help me make donuts for breakfast.  The recipe I picked said these donuts taste just like ones from the donut store. Well I don’t think any donut you make at home tastes the same as ones from the store but some recipes taste better than others and this wasn’t one. But Evelyn said she thought they were good so we went ahead and made the chocolate ganache which helped the donuts a lot.  Evelyn added the sprinkles. Then it was present time. Evelyn got some legos, new ice skates, and this awesome My Little Pony shirt that Jameson picked out all by himself. 

We survived our 3 snow days. It really wasn’t so bad. We did a lot of legos and puzzles and played a lot of sleeping queens.  The worst was the Friday snow day because Evelyn was really looking forward to celebrating her birthday and didn’t want to wait till Monday. Tonight is the father daughter at school.  Jameson asked for pancakes for dinner and gets to watch Cars 3. 

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 ...