Kenz in the Hat

This kid was made for hats. She loves to wear them and she always picks hats that are fun and funky. We found this hat over the weekend and though I spent more on it than I normally would like, it was made in the USA-in Colorado in fact and it is made out of recycled wool products. And it is totally adorable on Kenzie.

The hat came in handy this weekend when she decided to brave the cold and put on her skates to skate in the driveway. It's true we had a couple of days of gorgeous weather where everything started to melt and then of course it got cold again, turning the driveway into a skating rink.
Not a very good skating rink either but it didn't stop Kenzie or Dom.

Wacky Winter Weather

About two weeks ago we had some crazy weather that included snow, rain, flooding and hurricane force winds. The winds were the worst part uprooting trees, bringing down power lines and blocking roads. We got lucky and only lost electricity for about 16 hours and with a generator it wasn't really all that bad. There wasn't any damage to any trees around the house. There are several branches down but nothing to cause any trouble. A trek out to the river and we found a tree blocking the trail as well as several more branches. We'll have plenty of clean-up to do once the snow melts!



Here is a picture of the girls on Valentine's day sitting on an ice jam on the river.

And here is the same spot two weeks later after some warm weather and rain!



The river is usually just a trickle over these rocks, actually you can't really see most of the rocks.
These are the same rock that are in the blog title for comparison!

Here is an almost perfectly rectangular piece of ice that washed up on the shore of the river. It shows just how thick the ice was at one point.

First Snow

Saturday we got our first real snow of the season. It definitely made it feel more like Christmas. As soon as the ground was covered the girls wanted to got out and play in it.

This is the "I've got a snowball and I'm not afraid to use it" face.

Kenzie tasting the snow. Just watch out for the yellow stuff.

And here is Boomer who loves the snow too. That is not an orange he is eating. It is one of those mini pumpkin gourds. We threw then into the woods and guess who found one. Apparently they make a good snow day snack.

Got Snow?

In case you don't have any snow and you forgot what it looked like I'd like to share what we woke up to yesterday morning. Now newly fallen snow is pretty. At least it is pretty until you
have to spend hours moving it out of the way just so you can leave the house. I estimate we
prpbably got at least 16+ inches. It was blowing around a bit so it was hard to tell. Anyway enjoy the pictures and be grateful it's not you!

Poor birds had a little trouble getting to the feeder. I still haven't got the snow out of the way

to get to the feeders yet. I usually snowblow a path but with all the drifting of snow it won't go through, which means I'll be shoveling it. Hopefully the birds will be patient with me today.

Mr. Snowman

We have a two hour delay for the second day in a row. No Kindergarten for Kenzie and Becca woke up with a fever so it will be a quiet day round here.

But yesterday the girls and I had fun making a snowman after Becca got home from school. The girls wanted to name him but couldn't agree on a name. Kenzie wanted Joe. Becca wanted Diego Santiago Carquez, quite an imaginative name for a snowman in the middle of New England.

After trying to get them to compromise with Jose, I remained neutral and will call him Mr. Snowman.

Mr. Snowman is a great photography subject. He doesn't move around, or complain when I want to fool around with camera settings. Actually I didn't really want to fool around with setting but I had changed the exposure compensation when I was taking pictures inside and forgot to change it back and it took me a little while to realize it, hence my first pictures were coming out too dark. Always good to check your settings before you start taking pictures!

Close-up.

Here Mr. Snowman watches the kids playing in the distance.

Here is a facial shot, He's starting to crack a little smile here I think.

Yes, a definite smile!

And before you think I am totally cracking up, Kenzie was the one who said he looked bored and replaced his mouth with a smile. But yeah, I am definitely ready for Spring.

A Walk in the Woods

Over the weekend we took a little walk out into the woods. It had been awhile since we had walked down to the river, since before the ice storm in fact, and we were curious as to wether there were any down trees or anything that would need to be removed from the trail.

As is often the case when Dom and I suggest a walk to the river the girls put up resistence, once we get them out there we ususally meet with resisitance getting them back. This time was no different at least for Becca. It took a ton of coaxing to get her out there and then she didn't want to come back. And as for Kenzie she really is not a big fan of the cold but in short bursts she does okay. It is a given that she is the first one that wants to come in. But she and Boomer kept us amused in the meantime.

Here Kenzie practices her balancing.

And down she goes, narrowly missing getting run over by Boomer.

Undeterred she continues to climb on the downed tree and gets stuck.


Still stuck. Please notice that is her sisters leg in the lower left and she is offering no assistance just giggling at her. Wonder where she gets that, not that I was standing there giggling and taking pictures. Daddy ultimately came to the rescue.

Becca was very busy gathering sticks and leaves for some great imaginary adventure.

Dom the snow Ninja.

Boomer playing his favorite winter game, steal the mitten.

And here is the famous "I'm freezing" face.

Ice Storm Pictures

Here are some pictures from around the yard of the ice storm. This is one of my favorites:



In this one the goldfinch is resting on a cherry tree that has fallen into the yard, that is why the icicles appear to be pointing upwards.

Another snow day.

Yesterday we woke up to this:
Which then turned to sleet and freezing rain like this:

Which built up on the powerlines like this:

Which means we spent the evening like this:

Walking in a Winter Wonderland

We had our first big snowstorm of the season today, actual it is still snowing. We probably have close to ten inches. There was of course no school so we spent the day playing in the snow, watching Christmas movies, drinking hot cocoa and eating chocolate chip cookies. What better way to spend a snow day?? We did some snowshoeing too.

We have close to 14 acres of land behind our house and way down in the back is a river. The land was logged long before we ever bought it and many of the downed trees are still in the way making walking kinda rough. Because of this we haven't done much exploring back there. This fall Dom took on the huge task of creating a trail to the river which he just finished a week ago. Yesterday we took a walk out to the river before the snow and today we did it again in the snow. It was fun. We all used our snowshoes though the girls abandoned theirs about half way through the walk and alternately walked and rode in the sled. It was pretty fun though Boomer was an absolute pain in the butt!! Boomers favorite winter activities are "steal the mitten", "Knock the kids in the snow" and " sled tug 'o war". All of them are kinda funny the first time. By the fifteenth time it's not funny.

It is still hunting season so that is the reason for the very fashionable bright orange.

First Snow

We got our first snow of the season yesterday. Not a lot, maybe an inch, but enough that Becca couldn't wait to get outside in it once I picked her up from school. Kenzie was excited to see the snow and wanted to know how many days until Christmas. She had no desire to go out and play in it though.

Wagon Hill

After getting about a foot of snow on Friday. Saturday was a beautiful day. The kids did some snowshoeing in the yard. After lunch we met up with friends and headed to Wagon Hill in Durham. We intended to do some snowshoeing and sledding but as we headed east we realized that they got a lot less snow than we did. So we left our snowshoes in the car and took a short little hike down to The Great Bay. The girls had fun in the snow and when we got to the ocean they enjoyed throwing rocks in the water and we even found some mussels still alive! After hiking back to the car we a had a little snack then headed over to check out the sledding. Not too great but worthy of a few runs. It started misting a little bit so we headed back to the car and over to the UNH horse barns to visit the horses. By this time it was getting late and we were hungry so we stopped at Dante's which has excellent italian food. They were very accomadating to the three girls and we ended up with our own cozy little room. It was a very busy and fun day spent with friends!