February 16th, Snow Hill @ Burchfield Park

Today we enjoyed temperatures all the way up to 40F!

After church, we were going to retrieve Alice, but she was eating lunch with my mom and her church ladies.  So, we stopped at Arby's for lunch first. Juliet "found" a heart shaped French fry.

From there we picked up Alice and headed to the park to sled.  Sadly, there was a two hour wait.  We opted to go hang out at the library and try again in two hours.

The kids all enjoyed playing, it was a pleasant enough way to 'waste' two hours.

Alice did Alice things.

William was so proud of his structure that he wanted to take some pictures!  This is one of four.

I got about halfway through a murder mystery book, only to find out tonight that my library doesn't have it, and it's $13 to buy the kindle version on Amazon. = (  I might have to make some time when the kids go back to school to finish it.

After the two hours, we went back and it was still a two hour wait.  So, we drove out to the park closer to us.  They weren't open when we tried to go last year, but this year they were!  They don't have the "magic carpet" so you have to pull up your tube on your own.  This was really tricky for the twins, and Billy and I wore out quick (especially since I fell on the ice on the way to the hill.) = (

But all five had fun, and the big three trudged up and slid down the entire two hours we were there!

Eventually I took the twins down to the smaller hill.  It was more manageable for them, and while they still needed my help, I only had to go about halfway down to help them bring up their rings.  They enjoyed this arrangement much more.  If we go again, we will bring our own, lighter, plastic sleds for them.

It was a fun way to spend the afternoon.  And not a bad way to kick off their break!

later days

Tubing in the Snow

While this winter has seemingly lasted forever, one of the things on the to-do list was to rent some tubes at our local park.  We took the opportunity on what, so far, has been our final snowy weekend to play out in the snow!

Sadly, the park nearest us was either closed for the season or no longer rents them. So, we headed into Lansing.  

Alice, despite having never done anything similar before, was up and down the hill before Grace and I even took our first ride up the hill. = )

Emily, William, Juliet and Grace all stuck close for a bit, but as the day wore on, William and Emily wanted to ride on their own.

Eventually, we allowed the twins to pull their own, but they still had to travel down with an adult, since the end hill at the bottom is tough to navigate for them.

It was an enjoyable winter activity, though still colder than I prefer.  I expect that next year, all of them will think it is old hat, and will be ready to go after the first snow!

later days