so here are pics from our second day in the snow… again with this snowsuit?  really? this time, we busted out the sand snow toys and the kids loved it! this made all the difference from the first day! want a snow cake? there was a snowball fight. which first required sculpting the perfect snowball… which then landed smack on his baby sister.  she cried. and mikey’s gotta learn that when you throw ’em… they get thrown back at you, too. mikey wasn’t a big fan of this cause/effect relationship. but that didn’t deter mikey for long. here’s phil trying to shield his baby. somehow, it didn’t work and lauren…

just wanted to give a quick shout-out to my allie girl who turned four.  birthday pics coming soon (after i get caught up with the big bear recap).  but here’s a picture of the newest four-year-old in our house from tonight…

when i was growing up, everyone used to say they were “going to the snow” or “going to see snow” when they were headed up to the mountains in the wintertime to, well, see snow.  it was nice and simple, you drove for hours to visit the snow, have fun in it, then turn your car back toward home and leave it behind.  that was the kind of snow i liked.  now, when we lived in minnesota, NO ONE ever said they were “going to the snow” for fun.  no, no, the snow there was meant to be lived in, shoveled out of driveways, scraped off of car windows, but…

the kids and i were talking this morning about allie’s upcoming birthday party when this little gem took place… mikey:  allie, guess what i’m getting you for your birthday? allie:  what? mikey:  a pink barbie with a pink car! allie:  yahoo! mikey:  allie, what are you getting me for my birthday? allie:  race cars! mikey:  ooh, you mean the hot wheels with the racetrack? allie:  yeah, and a spoiler! mikey:  yeah! allie:  spoiler race cars! mikey:  guess what else i’m gonna give you?  a pink barbie house, too! allie:  oh my heavens, how can i carry all that? yep, it appears that birthday season is upon us tsais once again!…

oop, i totally forgot about posting about this back when it happened, but figured better late than never.  so…  back at the end of january, the grandparents drove down for a short visit.  the main purpose was for grandpa to be able to attend “dad’s day” at the kids’ preschool.  being that both mikey and allie go to the same school and so had this same event happening in their classrooms and since phil wouldn’t really be able to give his full attention to either kid if he had to split his time between them, i asked my dad if he could come.  much to the kids’ delight, both grandpa…