Post Blackout

Early Friday morning our power went out and there was no conclusive news on how long it would take to turn back on. Rumors hinted at a few days to come back online and without a fireplace or any gas appliances, we had no source of heat. We decided early in the morning to make a hotel reservation, just in case, and boy am I glad we did. By Friday afternoon, there was no hotel room to be found anywhere reasonably nearby. Some hotels were out of power, with no backup generators, and we were looking at the biggest power outage in Hudson Valley history. We stuck around the house to see if perhaps the power would go on. The kids were napping and the temperature downstairs gradually dipped below 60 degrees so we got our things packed up to head out the door.

Snow Storm Surges on...

Make a Smilebox free digital slideshow

Gabriella was exhausted and went down for an early nap and there is so much snow that she would absolutely not enjoy playing in it, so we decided to head outside with Tomas while she was asleep. With the storm from earlier in the week, the snow in the side yard easily came past Tomas' waist and he just did not know what to do with himself. With some trepidation, he made it over to a clear area to build a snow fort. (Tupperware to make bricks. Good times.) Tomas started to help me, but it was a bit too much for him and there were entirely too many distractions, so the snow fort was mostly a Mommy creation. Pretty soon, there were lots of neighborhood kids around. Our neighbor from down the street was snowmobiling in the street (it was just too deep on the grass to get very far.) Mackenzie and Heather helped us make the snow fort, and Yvette brought out the snow cone flavors and the kids ate flavored snow (hilariously enough, some of it was yellow).

You can see in these pictures just how big some of the piles are, and now, an hour later, it is still coming down steadily. Since I don't have snow pants, I was getting pretty wet and went inside after about an hour. Pete stayed outside with Tomas and hong out with the Heaths. Tomas climbed the "snow mountain" and helped shovel their driveway. He earned his first quarter ever for that and he was very ecited. I'm enjoying some tomato soup and we are definitely done for the day, although later I might partake in some adult hot chocolate and a snow walk with friends.

Bath time fun

These pictures are from yesterday, so a bit out of order, but I just had to share! First, we are working on potty training Gabriella...it begins again. AYE!!! She has, since yesterday, gone from peeing in her big girl pants and being totally unaware to looking at me afterwards with a concerned look saying, "pee." Progress....I'll take what I can get!!! (on a side note, right now she is wearing sunglasses upside down with a goofy little smirk on her face and trying to put them on everyone else too)





The kids ADORE bath time. It is an opportunity to play lots of pretend and just enjoy splashing and making a big wet mess. They play tug of war with the wash cloth, pretend to swim, and splash mommy so she has to change clothes afterward. Gabriella likes to pretend to swim. She even puts her little head sideways in the water like she's getting ready to learn how to take breaths. Tomas likes to use the washcloth to wash Gabi's back. They both like to stay in the bath till theyir lips are blue and there fingers are little raisins. It is also a fantabulous way to get everyone upstairs and make for an easy transistion to bed.

Winter Wonderland

We are getting slammed with snow today!! We are expecting about a foot. It started at about 7 am this morning. this picture was taken about 2 hours later (I do have to mention that there was already about 8 inches on the ground when it started.) It is absolutely gorgeous out there. This is what winter is all about. We have nowhere to go today, so we are going to stay home all day, probably go for a snow walk and watch it fall.

Right now I would say it is coming down at about 1 or 2 inches an hour...The trees behind the houses across the street look like something out of a fairytale. I tried to capture it on camera, but everything is somewhat the same color with the sky and all of the snowfall right now, so it didn't quite come out as I wished.

This snow truly makes me feel like a little kid. So many people complain about winter, but I truly find it magical. I'll try to take more pictures today and capture some of it.

Winter and New Options

I have been absolutely terrible at keeping up with totsites as of late, and then I let our subscription run out so we are out of picture space. Therefore, I am hoping this will be a better option that I will maintain with more regularity....

It has been a pretty middle of the road winter around here until recently (Washington DC had more snow than us??). Then yesterday, out of nowhere we got 10 very wet inches. We rushed into the snow before it got dark to play our hearts out. Gabriella is still uncertain about this whole snow thing. Walking is tough!!!!! At one point, she decided to just lie down and call it quits. Tomas had a blast, chasing his friends around and having his first snowball fight... What a blast, although the snow was so wet, they were more iceballs than snowballs (thanks goodness 3 and 5 year olds don't throw very hard!).

Tomorrow we are set to get MORE (12-18 inches)...so if anything needs to get done, it needs to happen today.

Our neighbor Michelle called this morning and said that a few moms were planning to go to the local bounce house place, so we headed over there to get some play time in before the real craziness hits tomorrow and we can't leave the house any more.

Gabriella is officially in love with the bounce houses. She is starting to jump (although falling is still very frequent) and she climbs up the ladders all on her own so she can go down the slide. It's fantastic to watch!

This is Tomas with his buddy from across the street, Owen. He loves playing with him, and here they are pretending to drive a race car. Owen is working the pedals and Tomas is steering. Watch out NASCAR, these guys are good! (There were no quarters in the machine. Only pretend here!)

Gabi was crawling in one of the play structures with some of the girls. In the second picture, I was trying to get Syrena, London and Gabi to get together for a picture. Gabriella just ended up hidden in the background.

Gabriella climbed into this ride and said, "Mommy!! Ba Ba Ba!!!" Translation: Mommy, Bob the Builder! This face is what she does lately when I ask her to smile. Cutie pie!!!!!!!!