Moffat Pond Fun

One of the families that hosts exchange students through me has a pond and we have been working to see that enough people are skating on it to make shoveling all these huge piles of snow off of it! They are so generous to allow us to spend time there, and it is so perfect for the kids because it has skating, lights, bonfire, sledding, and a bathroom! We're pretty lucky. We had such a fun weekend with teenagers, tweens, and toddlers! This is what living in Maine is all about! It was pleasantly warm this weekend, which helped.

A little bit of Liam and a new phase

We spent a short window of time with Raph's cousin, Christian, and his wife Mags this weekend. Makili loved spending time with 6 year old Liam, their son. The two of them latched right onto Makili's new favorite toy - legos! And he built his current favorite thing - airplanes (Lightning is still very popular around here, but once in a while we get a little break). It was fun to watch them build together and fly their airplanes around the room. And Liam, the Florida beach boy, seemed to enjoy the snow and sledding too. He had us in stitches at time with some of the funny stuff he said, like when he told us about his girlfriend, Megan, who he described as "fun-size."

Thank you husband

This time of year I have a tough time. I know I should take the kids outside everyday, but it is such a struggle. I can get past all the snow gear (we seem to have that figured out) but once we're outside, Remick pretty much cries the whole time and Makili loves it for about 10 minutes, but the snow is so deep he can barely play in it outside the driveway, and while I'd love some exercise, I can't really do much with the two of them when I'm home by myself. So this a long drawn-out way of saying of excusing myself for doing other things. Mostly curling up by the fire and immersing myself in work, which is plentiful right now.I have my little "helpers" in the kitchen.

And we come up with really quality projects:
But today, being the third snow day in the last 8 days, I allowed Raph to coerce me into dragging the kids on a snowshoe adventure. We went showshoeing last weekend on a trial basis just to see how I liked it - this being the first year we both had snowshoes. It was a little different towing children while snowshoeing not only because of the added work and weight but also because of the non-stop crying from a certain little one who is a bit neurotic about snow touching him. Makili thought being towed around on his carriage was great and would have kept going all day except for his "pants sticking to his butt." And now that we've adequately recreated for the day (weekend, month) I'll feel okay about hiding by the fire for the rest of what appears to be a frigid weekend!

Seeing the Beauty

I have a hard time this time of year. The tunnels to dig to the driveway, to the shed, the compost pile. But it really is beautiful if you can lift your eyes.

Life in Maine

Life in Maine includes snowy days, blizzards, feeding the fire, etc. But with those things come absolutely breathtakingly beautiful days like yesterday for sledding with friends. Makili was fairly fearless and adorable. And Remick was happy as long as we let him eat as many cookies as he wanted:)Raph teaching Makili to go down backwards...

Blizzard

We got hammered with snow yesterday. Raph's school is still closed again today. Wimps. (That's what Mainers say about closing school for a 2nd day.) I wish I could say that it was a great day, but honestly I woke up in a grump. I had stayed home with the kids the entire previous day and yesterday I just wanted to get out. I envisioned a really awesome hike in the snow together as a family on snowshoes, if I was lucky. I didn't count on 50 mile/hour winds. And while we were forecasted to get less than a foot of snow, we definitely got more than that. With the winds, we ended up with huge drifts that are closer to 3 feet deep. (Don't ask Raph about how much snow we got though, cause he's like the Hawaiians with their waves - a ridiculously conservative estimator.) So our hike was a strike out, though we did venture out there a few times for a break from the inside craziness. It was nice to have a bigger house though. I made Makili run up and down the stairs for a while.

We painted a lot, which we've been doing for two day, and Makili did surprise me by mixing up hi subject matter a bit. He painted a really beautiful apple tree. I find it interesting that whatever I paint he paints. I painted a picture of Makili and Remick in the bath, and then he painted one too. Maybe that's how they start? I should take a picture of them cause they're awesome.

We ended our day though with a really awesome night hike together as a family. The wind had died down substantially and Makili was able to walk on our snowy road without wading through waist-high snow. We all had a flashlight, even Remick who was in the sled being dragged, though we were able to turn them off for a while and just be in the silent woods with a yellow sky. It was a much better ending to the day. And today we woke up and Raph made waffles, so it's getting better already.

Oh well.

Raph was messing with the computer tonight, and now there is tons of space on the harddrive and NOT A SINGLE PHOTO - and he's at hockey? I'm sure there some fancy computer business behind the lack of photos, but, I mean come on, what can I write about if I don't have cute cherubic faces to lure readers in with?

When I woke up today I had a note from Makili's school asking if I could sub. Lately, there are plenty of days when getting there by 9 is a stretch, much less by 8, with three lunches instead of one, extra clothes for 2 instead of 1 - they get so dirty!, and myself in some semblance of order. But we did get there by 8! And then the teacher was there? She hadn't gotten my message, so had come anyway, so my day just started extra early.

Our buddy Laird came over after school, and it is so fascinating to watch Makili and Laird play (or any other group of young children I suppose). The way they have to work everything out and invent their own rules and all that. It has really changed Makili to be around other kids regularly. Laird is good for him, I think. Laird is the youngest of three boys, so he knows about all the big kid stuff (like bad guys, shooting, jail, being dead, monsters, etc.), but he's wildly creative. Makili is pretty literal. It might be his age (Laird is a full year older) or it might be partly a first child thing, but he is not prone to stepping outside the box. It drives my crazy since I define myself by my creativity at times. Makili wasn't interested in drawing AT. ALL. until quite recently. I was lucky if I could coerce him into drawing his favorite letter - H, but he certainly wouldn't draw people or anything else. Lately he will draw nothing but Lightning and Mater, which was sort of interesting at first, but I mean come on! We have made play-doh lightning countless times, Mack, Mater a gazillion times. It just doesn't end. Right when we moved into our house he did spice up my life with a few house drawing and some really quality drawings of our new potty, but he got over that quick.

So anyway, Laird has no lack of creativity. It is fascinating to see the two of them work this out, because for many things, Makili sees one way to do something. "No you do it this way." I hear that a lot. He certainly hasn't learned that there is more than one way to skin a cat. (What a weird expression, huh?) Today though, I heard Laird telling Makili that his people can't fly. In my head I'm thinking, "really Laird, you're going to squash the single creative flicker in Makili's imagination?" but they quickly worked it out. Makili's people could fly over the pillow, but only over the pillow (magic pillow?). I think their peoples were at war, sadly, even though I tried to get them to work together to build something? I guess Makili's peoples had an unfair advantage with their flying capabilities.

This story really goes nowhere except to point out that kids are weirdos, and I actually had half an hour of free time on my hands.

Hard Drive Space (and everything I ate yesterday) Revealed!

Raph made some room for me on the computer so I could download pictures again, including a photoshoot of my little love. I am so completely enamored with this little guy. So full of personality you wouldn't believe.







In other news, I spent six hours puking my brains out last night (take it back, EMMA!:). Which would have been followed by blissful sleep except poor Makili starting puking for six hours almost the minute I stopped. Poor Ann was here and not a one of us got any sleep last night! Makili is in fighting condition today, though my recovery hasn't been quite so quick. Hopefully tomorrow things will look up.