Stowe, VT

This week we went to Stowe, VT for a little skiing/snowboarding and fun! First stop after arrival....the heated indoor pool! Hannah was so excited to go swimming!

And Emme was happy when it was time to cozy up in a towel!

We arrived Monday, Tuesday was spent doing all sorts of things...Hannah in ski school, Mommy a spa day, Emme daycare, Daddy skiing. Wednesday was Daddy and Hannah skiing day while Emme and Mommy hung out and took a nap.

Ready to go! Hannah was excited for her special Daddy time!

Hot dog lunch! It was bigger than her!

At the top of the mountain! Hannah is amazing and has little fear skiing! She has moved onto intermediate runs by her second day of ski school.

After skiing, we visited some of the tourist attractions Stowe has to offer. Ben & Jerrys!

The best part of the factory tour....ice cream!

Yummy!

Family picture.

At the Cabot Creamery where we tasted all sorts of yummy (and some not so yummy but interesting) cheeses.

Thursday was another day of skiing for Joe and Hannah, snowboarding for Mommy, and outdoor snow play for Emme. By Friday, we were all tired and ready for home!

Sledding

Finally some pictures of our weekly sledding excursion at the end of our street. Hannah just loves to go sledding. Emme not as much. Every week we ask her if she wants to go and she always says yes. And every week Emme goes sleds down the hill but one time.

Mommy: "Did you have fun?"
Emme: "Yes"
Mommy: "Do you want to go again?"
Emme: "No"

Every week is the same....but this week she surprised us and went....twice!

Not the most graceful end of the run.

Hannah and Daddy.

A much happier end of the run.

Hannah got a little scared going by herself as she normally does as the snow is a bit more compacted these days and so the ride down a bit faster...thank goodness for Daddy and Mommy. We took lots of turns going down with her.

Emme and Mommy sitting at the bottom of the hill watching Daddy and Hannah.

Joe and Hannah were pretending they were penguins. The picture looks kind of fun, but in reality they both went nowhere fast and had to keep pushing themselves down the hill.

Hannah and Mommy's turn.

Another super fun sledding adventure.

Pre Valentine's Day fun

Today was all about some pre Valentine's Day fun.

While Hannah was at school, Emme and I went to a Valentine's Event with crafts, a sing a long, and snack at an assisted living facility. The event is geared towards the little ones, but the residents come to the sing a long to watch the kids and well, sing along.

Emme at craft time....Really, she just likes to use the glue stick and Mommy comes behind sticking things on where she put the glue.

Mommy and Emme.

And then this afternoon, Hannah's friend Elizabeth came over and they made and decorated heart shaped sugar cookies!

Cheese!

Hard at work.

The finished product! I thought they did a great job!

Chinese New Year and Ice Skating

Every year Hannah's nursery school does a parade for Chinese New Year through the town center. All three classes make up a "dragon", Hannah's class being the head of the dragon as they are the "big kids" of the school.

Getting all of the kids ready for the parade.

Conditions for the "parade" were definitely not ideal. We have had a lot of snow this winter and though it was a beautiful day (relatively speaking), the sidewalks were still pretty icy...not to mention the snow banks that the kids can barely see over, but they did it nonetheless and everything turned out fine. The parade of kids.

Silly Hannah.

I went across the street as I thought they would eventually cross (they didn't)...the chaos was fairly funny and because of how narrow the sidewalks were and the height of the snow banks, the kids could barely be seen.

On the walk back to school. Still smiles.

And then on Sunday, we took advantage of the beautiful weather (again relatively speaking, to us over 40 F is terrific for winter) and went ice skating at Frog Pond. Emme was in a very active mood that day. She insisted on walking the entire way by herself, rarely even letting us hold her hand (only when Mommy deemed it necessary) so when I saw that they rented ice skates in her size, I asked her if she wanted to try it. Yes! And for all of 2 seconds her ice skates touched the ice. Not even long enough to take a picture. Maybe we'll wait another year or two.

Hannah meanwhile really enjoyed ice skating as usual.