"Swim" Party

G's swim team had a sledding party this afternoon. Almost too many daredevil stunts for my heart to handle, but everyone had a great time and no one ended up in the ER.

Sometimes the downhill trip was a success ...


... and sometimes it wasn't!

D takes a group down

D & G race a swim mom down the hill

Snow Train

Guess who organized this ...

Eclipse

Last night at 7:30 p.m. it was a beautiful, clear night for viewing the total lunar eclipse. It was also minus 3 degrees! Luckily for us, the moon came up directly east of our picture window, so we had front row seats without having to go outside and freeze our noogies off.

G uses binoculars to watch the lunar eclipse from her Papasan

Cupid's Wish

Snowshoeing

The stars finally aligned ... G is not sick, she doesn't have a ton of homework, it's sunny and in the 20s, there's lots of snow on the ground ... so we went snowshoeing after school. We're supposed to get a few more inches of snow tomorrow, so we're hoping Dan can get out with us this weekend.

G & Maike blaze a trail

Maike waits for me

Maike's favorite pastime

Less Than Zero

Yesterday started another patch of subzero weather. It should break tomorrow afternoon, when the forecast calls for it to warm up enough to dump another 3 to 6 inches of snow on us.

Dan & Maike brave double digit negative temps and blowing snow to get the Sunday paper

More of Same

It snowed for more than 24 hours here, and finally stopped about an hour or so ago. No idea what the total accumulation was ... deep and drifting. There was no school today, but G has been sick *again* so it didn't really matter. Spring cannot come fast enough at this point.

Maike loves snow. She and I plodded around in it for a while this afternoon

Subzero

No school yesterday in this part of the state because of high winds/sub-zero weather. Because the front was out of the east, our house was freezing. The only warm place was G's room. She & I spent the day there, playing games and watching Discovery videos.
P.S. That isn't a beard or a kitten around my neck as some have inquired ... it was so cold I borrowed one of G's faux fur stoles and her Barnard sweatshirt.

Perfect Winter Day

We had perfect winter weather on Sunday. Temperatures were in the upper 20s, there was no wind, it was sunny and there was lots of powdery snow over a snow/ice base. We spent two hours sledding, tubing and tobogganing on our front hill with some friends. We finally gave up not because we were cold but because we were so wet.

G breaking in a path

Paths got faster as time wore on

You can stay out a lot longer when you're not slogging up the hill with your snow craft!

Animals

No trip to the Kalahari would be complete without checking out the wildlife.

G with a joey

G with Jasmin, a 5 1/2-week-old lion cub

Talking with the naturalist about rescuing exotic animals

Other Fun Stuff

Ripplin' Rhino

Lazy River

FlowRider

The Kalahari has a FlowRider, which shoots 50,000 gallons of water a minute uphill to simulate a five-foot wave. During the day you can boogie board (no standing, but just about anything else goes). Dan and G both tried it.

Catch a Wave

First one in ...

... but not for long

Suite Life

G had a winter break, so we spent two days at the Kalahari Resort (indoor waterpark) in Wisconsin Dells. Although we had a confirmation for Thursday and Friday, when Dan went to check in, the computer had us in a room on Friday and Saturday. Because all regular rooms were totally booked, the reservations manager bumped us up to a suite. It was larger than my first three apartments in D.C.!

Kitchen

Living room with fireplace and plasma TV

Sitting area with balcony and view of outdoor pool and Dells countryside

Cannonball Run

Coexist

My pantheist ...

Plugged In

Geometry, made palatable with the Christmas iPod.

Gingerbread House

Today's activity: making a gingerbread house. Didn't occur to me until after she started that there's no place to display it, because Luna respects no boundaries and loves to pull things apart.

More fun with friends!

Working hard

Finished product

O Tannenbaum!

The tree is up at Grandpa's. He and G made their annual pilgrimage to a local tree farm and picked out a balsam this year. You can smell it all through the house. The highlight of the tree is always the hand-crocheted stars we have from Grandpa's cousin Sr. Theodora in Germany. Like snowflakes, no two are the same!




Before

After

(G in her annual tree skirt ensemble)

Plowing Out