Winter Fun

I'm getting a bit behind again in the ol' blog posts so this will be brief but include lots of photos.

We've been busy preparing for baby (more on that in later blog) and, in the meantime, we are trying to spend lots of quality time with Jack.

A few weeks ago, I took him for our first visit to the Leslie Science and Nature Center (just a few miles from our home) for one of their toddler programs. The day we went, the focus was on trees so we got to make leaf rubbings with crayons, stack towers with pieces of tree trunks, look at tree rings with magnifying glasses, read stories about trees (Jack chose a children's version of a Laura Ingalls Wilder book which made me SO happy because she was, hands down, my favorite author as a kid!), decorate & eat tree cookies, and take a hike through the woods. The day we went we had a beautiful, fluffy snowfall - the kind with huge snowflakes - so it make the hike even more enjoyable. Every once in a while, the hike leader would tell the kids to stop and ask what they could hear (usually going for something like "a bird" or "the wind"). Jack enjoyed answering her question by saying things like "an airplane!" (which yes, he did hear) or, a bit more strange, "a dinosaur and a monkey and a lobster!"


When the program was done, Jack and I took a walk to the back of the nature center to see some of the resident owls & birds, particularly Jack's favorite, the bald eagle. (He saw this particular eagle at our neighborhood high school's homecoming game in October and hasn't stopped talking about it or asking to see it again... so this was a HUGE hit for him!)


We've had a bit of snow so have also been trying to figure out good indoor activities. These have included spending quite a bit of time doing artwork (notice the green and blue (washable) markers that have made their way to the sides of Jack's mouth) and baking. Jack LOVES helping us to cook and he's becoming a decent little sous chef. He and I spent an evening making cupcakes and this was certainly a highlight of the winter for Jack. He keeps asking me to do it again, but the problem with baking is that you then have yummy treats around that are just begging to be eaten!



All of these pictures (and more) have been loaded into our Snapfish photo albums, along with photos (overdue) from Christmas. The Christmas pictures include Papa (my dad) as Santa at our family party (Jack was a bit leery), cutting down & trimming our Christmas tree, opening presents on Christmas morning, and our time with Marcus & Deagan the week after Christmas. For Christmas, we hosted my family here in Ann Arbor: 11 people and 3 dogs in our house (and some pregnancy-related emotional meltdowns from me) over the course of three nights made things crazy, but fun! We also had lots of fun with Marcus and Deagan after the holidays and enjoyed quite a few activities including: making personal pizzas, creating a gingerbread house, going to Xtreme Bounce Zone (to bounce all the energy out of the kids!), making & devouring a birthday cake for Landon (who would have turned four on Dec 28), and having fun play time with cousins Braden & Addison. Let me know if you need a reminder on how to log into our group room to see the photos!