A birthday weekend for Nathaniel

I spent a long weekend in Naples, FL to celebrate

Nathaniel's (#3) eleventh birthday.  The temps

were wonderful, the humidity low, the sunshine great

and the welcome...warm.

 We started the weekend at the Naples Zoo.

If they take one good group photo, they get to

take one goofy one.  Guess which one this is:

Chad & LoriAnn

The birthday boy

A birthday smooch

Floridians don't often go to the beach, but for me,

it's a necessity.  We caught the sunset on Monday.

Some photos of a "friendly" tag football game.

It was great to catch up with the boys...all of them,

and their mom.  When I got home on Tuesday,

it was -1 at MPS.   ahhhhh....

A tale of Two Snowmen

There have been exactly 2 days since Mid-December

that it was WARM enough to be outside to

make a snowman.  So, on one of those days,

Everleigh, Briggs and I went outside to make

these 2 little guys.  The one on the left is a regular snowman.

The one on the right is a cat (obviously).

Then...a week or so ago...another somewhat mild day.

Andrew & Ethan and I headed outdoors and came up

with this little guy.  Weird hat, I know...but

I was scrambling.

The weather here has been brutally cold so I'm glad

we actually had the opportunity to do this...twice.

But otherwise, cabin fever is definitely setting in

Except for getting where we must go, we haven't

been out and about for weeks.  

So...we've been...baking cookies,

eating cookies,

painting (even in our jammies),

doing "projects",

trying to keep up our spirits,

playing "fireman" with superheroes Batman, Superman

and the Green Lantern,

playing farm,

and reading stories to each other

Pray for temps above freezing....