Despite my saying that outside toys must always stay outside, I broke my rule the other day due to the fact that the kids were going absolutely nuts being trapped in the house and it was way too cold to play outside.  They had to go slow and be careful (which mainly applied to Matthew because Meredith only has one speed on her princess ride-on: slow) and when I said it was time to put the toys outside they needed to do so immediately, which they did.  They thought it was jovial to break a rule and ride their outside toys inside.  What can I say, I was in a good mood that day

During the time that Matthew is at school, Meredith and I enjoy some one-on-one playtime.  She is already taking after Matthew in the sense that she likes to take things in and out of bags and Legos are one of her favorite toys. 

Very much like her brother, Meredith has some organizing genes in her.  She will take a pile of toy cars and one-by-one open the car's doors and then line the cars up in a tidy arrangement.     

Scientist Matthew

For over a year now Matthew has been saying that he wants to be a scientist when he grows up, so he was buoyant to discover a chemistry set under the tree from Santa this Christmas.  We did two experiments this morning.  The first involved putting one penny into water and one into lemon juice to discover what would happen and then discuss our findings.  Matthew thought it was neat that lemon juice turns dull pennies into shiny pennies.  The second experiment we performed was a simple but delightful task of searching the house for small items, predicting if we thought each item would float or sink in water, and then finding out if our guess was correct. We tried items such as Legos, a nail, chocolate chips, goldfish crackers, candy hearts, pennies, a key, a gummy bear, a marble, and a key chain, just to name a few of the multitude of objects.   

Using the tweezers to pull the objects out of the beaker was one of the highlights of the experiment 

Merebear was a cherished dolly bird during the sortie with Brittney to handpick her wedding dress, which I feel inclined to add that the dress she chose is unmistakeably enchanting  :)

Citizenship Shindig

Aykut is now officially an American citizen-congrats to him!  To celebrate we got together and got clamorous. 

 While we were focused on taking group pictures, my sneaky children pulled up chairs and started eating the frosting on the cake :)

Aykut, Dan, and Matt took a shot (followed by many more shots) to commemorate the occasion 

Amanda, Brittney and I stayed away from the shots and stuck with champagne and wine 

 

There was some definite sillyness occurring during the evening 



Sledding at Gillie Lake

We have a fabulous backyard, however it is flat and thus not sled friendly.  We woke up to sunshine and decided to take the kids to a park that had a big hill perfect for sledding.  We bundled up as it was only in the mid-20's and savored in some quality, cold, jovial family time

 

  

I want to interject with this:  although the hill was an ideal sledding spot, walking up the hill was quite a strenuous work-out, especially when pulling/carrying kids.  It was completely worth it though :)

I went over a little jump and got some air 

Fun Playtime

A slapdash of photos from different playtime sessions.