Snow Day

After a very warm fall, we've had a sudden burst of freezing cold weather. FREEZING!! It started snowing on Thursday morning and it didn't stop until Friday late afternoon. It just snowed and snowed and snowed. By the end we had about 8.5 inches on the sidewalk and there were 11 inches on top of the car. Whoa! I've never seen so much snow ever. Boise even cancelled school which I guess they seldom do.
It's very beautiful and very fun and it makes me awfully grateful for our heater and waterproof gloves.

We spent a lot of the day watching the snow come down

And then we went out to play! 

She was so happy to get icicles. She remembered playing with them last year and couldn't wait to do it again.  She tried to use it like a telescope like Olaf does.  It didn't work.

Here she is burying herself in snow.  She's wearing her footie pjs under all of this, with a snow bib on, boots on her feet, a parka, and waterproof mittens that go halfway up her arm. She stayed dry, and apparently warm. Those darn mittens kept coming off until I finally put rubber bands around her wrists and everybody was happy.

Look at the snow on the roof of the clubhouse!

Beautiful view down the street. The roads were so covered in snow and ice. By the end of the day the cars were just lumps of white along the edges of the road.

It wasn't great snowball snow, too cold and powdery, but that didn't mean we didn't try. We threw a lot of snow at eachother. 

Snow swimming. 

Here she's building a snow fort with the neighbor kids. The icicles go all along the edges for defense. Amy used the icicles as "levers that make her machine go"

jumping off of the stump into the snow

oooof.

And rolling onto the sidewalk. So much for shoveling. 

Halloween

Two weeks ago, Amy wanted to be a blue kitty for Halloween.  Are you sure, we asked, you definitely want to be a blue kitty? Yes, absolutely. So we made a blue kitty costume. One week ago, she tells all her friends she will be an anglerfish with a real working light-up lure. And she will be orange. 

Sigh. 

I'm not really a pushover and I don't usually cater to whims, but an angerfish is much much cooler than a blue kitty, and frankly, I'm thrilled to have made it one more year without dressing her as a pretty pretty princess or a damsel in distress. So, angler fish is was. 

She digs it. 

The hat is from a baby costume, probably a pumpkin or a carrot or something, that we sewed dangly bits to and a ping pong ball cut in half and colored to look like googly eyes. And we added teeth and most importantly, a lure. The lure is a coat hanger (thanks Pop Pop!) with a little light-up jewel attached to the end.

Swiiiiiiiim into my moutttttthhhh

The body is a grown-up sized T-shirt sewn like a onesie with added scales and fins made out of the scraps from her blue kitty suit. 

Daddy the demented teddy bear (Dad, you look.....AWESOME!!!) takes her down the street. She can hardly contain herself.

First stop, Elliot's house. Candy! Score!

Then, around the block, trying to keep up with the big kids.

She always remembered to say Trick or Treat! and almost always remembered to say it after the person had opened the door. 

She sometimes said thank you, but mostly screamed "Fishy Light!!!" which obviously means, "Thanks for acknowledging that I'm super cool and rewarding me with candy!!!!"

Pumpkin Patch 2014

We have a whole summer's worth of pictures to share because we haven't been blogging very reliably. I might share them kind of randomly, but meanwhile, here's some more recent pictures from Amy's class field trip to the pumpkin patch at Linder Farms. 

The kids rode a hayride behind a tractor to get out to the pumpkin patch. The farmer's rule was that the kids could choose any pumpkin, but they had to be able to carry it themselves.

Amy's only goal was to find the tiniest pumpkin in the patch for her very own.

I think she found it. It was super tiny and had a long curly stem. She was very proud.

The kids added their pumpkins to a class wheelbarrow to bring back to the farm. 

Then they got to play on the playground of a huge hay bale pyramid and lots of tractor tires.

Amy is so little, she could almost get lost in this hay bale maze. It was a little more than knee high.

Our girl likes any small place to crawl in. This was her "raccoon den"

Can you see me?

I got my pumpkin!!

Best neighborhood ever

We have been spending a lot of time with our neighbors lately. We loved Boise already, but with this recent bloom of friendship, it feels like such a very good fit for us. 

Tonight we had a super fun (and DELICIOUS!!!) cookout at S and T's house. After dinner we took a little nature walk with the kids. 

This adorable little path goes around the pond and is full of tracks to look at and rocks to throw in the water.

BIG rocks

O, E, and Amy chucking rocks in the lake. They scared the shit out of a great blue heron.

 Along the edge of the lake, they're clearing land for the new park that is going in. Right now, there are some glorious dirt piles. The big kids scrambled up them. Amy used a little boost from her friends, but she worked so hard to get up.

Thanks Shana! 

She really was using all her little might

Looking back from the top with surprise and pride.

I did it!!!!

This is the path through the neighborhood to the pond. Suddenly there's green green grass there. It's been so grey this winter, and it's dusty dry in the summer.

nature girl

What a fun way to spend the evening.

A Capital day at the capitol

Today we had an outing full of Boise adventures. We started at Edwards greenhouses where we watched a painting class and Amy showed us how to moonwalk.

We tried out the adirondack chairs for as long as we could get away with it.

We bought some hyacinths and then headed over to the co-op for lunch. Rob had a burrito (of course), and Amy and I hit up the lunch bar. And the cookies.

Then we walked over to the statehouse to tour around.

It's very pretty close up.

Looking down under the dome is a cool open rotunda.

Amy liked shouting YooHoo!! at everyone below.

Inside the dome. How can I get to those little stairs up there? I really really want to.

We checked out the house side which was all blue.

Even the doorknobs have the state seal on them. Cool!

This is the gallery of the senate side.  All red. 

This is a funny door in the basement marked "lobbyists" but it has this huge bank vault outer door. I don't get it, but I think it's funny.

This is outside the statehouse. It's just a modern office building but it reflected the building nicely.