Our Visit to Winter

Ah, President’s Week… and a trip to the snow.

In all the times I’ve been to Lake Tahoe, I’ve rarely found myself by the lake itself. We always had our eyes on the mountains on the slopes. So, this year we stayed in Tahoe Keys in a rental a short walk from the lakeshore.

It’s always a bit if a leap when you blindly choose a place to stay, but how can you go wrong when there is a trout *or* bass lamp?? Really, the home was well-appointed, and usually if we could not find something we wanted it was just because we’d not tried enough drawers.

A walk in nearly any direction was rewarded with beautiful sights.

We got in after 1 a.m. the first night and were too tired to organize ourselves the next day, so it was nice that we could just walk out the door and play when the urge struck.

When you’re only learning how to stand on a board, you don’t need much of a hill.

The next day we did get to Adventure Mountain, and we all careened down the hill a few times, but the kids really just wanted to play in the snow. Paul hit the nail on the head at one point when he said he felt the snow had the same value proposition as sand to our kids. But it was cold, so.. different! ;)

Parking lot tailgating, Paul’s request.

Bunny made a little snow bunny with pine ears.

We brought our Atari and ultimately, once again, let our cities perish in Missile Command. (Note: Paul finds it unhelpful when you randomly cry out for the people of NY, LA, etc as the nukes fall.) Carter remains the household Centipede champ.

I helped the kids make this fort with the slushiest of “Sierra cement”, and it held together with a wish and a hope until it froze solid-solid-solid overnight and was perfect the next day as fresh snow fell.

Bunny was lucky enough to meet up with a close friend and spent the night with that family, so the boys had the snow field all to themselves the next morning. They made use of that freedom by concocting a game big sister would have denied—knocking the head off the snowman as target practice.

giggling because he just nailed me…

Chalkboard Welcome Wall

Last week I decided to change things up a little and add a chalkboard wall across from the entry.

I can’t make a straight line to save my life so I carefully measured and marked off the area, then I cut in the edges.

And because I am 12 I had to have a little fun for a moment. (“That Buford's a sly one. Already knows his ABC's.”)

A couple of coats later we had ourselves a chalkboard wall.

It’s already been used as a reminder list to help me pack for our trip to Lake Tahoe this past weekend, and the kids love it. I’m thinking I’ll let Carter practice his spelling words here, since it’s more fun to write on the wall than on paper. I only used half the quart of paint I bought, so I might just do this again somewhere else in the house.

4.0

This year my birthday fell on a Monday, so Paul and Bunny worked on the cake while I shuttled Cole to and from karate and picked up some burritos for dinner (YUM). Bun wanted to decorate it all by herself, and I let her loose in big old Target with a time limit to choose what she wanted in the cake aisle and make the purchase away from my eyes.

 

It was delicious!

Making Friends

When I was pregnant with Cole, knowing Carter and he would be 26 months apart, we were on the receiving end of a lot of forecasts proclaiming the closeness in spacing to be a boon to sibling closeness, especially when the gender matches. They would be at the same stage, more or less, and able to be treated as a unit! Two for the effort of one (I knew they were full of it when they’d pull out that one—it’s like how your friends with 4 kids tell you a bunch a bologna about 4 being easier than 3 [LIARS, they are all liars!!])… it was a nice story!

Guess what? Newborns and 2 year-olds are, by nature, going to be into different things. Not all the time, though – sometimes they are into the exact same thing: mama. What I am saying is, the whole ease of two children two years apart (with a 3rd thrown in just to keep me on my toes) had eluded me for, oh, the past 5 years or so.

I’ve never doubted that the boys love each other. Friendship is different. Now, they’re both small children, so the altruistic qualities of friendship are tenuous at best. However, they clearly value each others’ company and seek out playtime with each other. It’s not only the youngest initiating play, either—far from it. Seems Cole is finally an acceptable playmate.

a weekday morning, after breakfast, before ‘time to get dressed’

Last month, when I took down the tree, Paul suggested I leave the corner empty and allow the boys to play there “for a while.” I have no clue what that means in Paul-time, but I figured it’d help keep the middle of the floor tidier at least. The boys LOVE having their knights and castles set up ready to play ALL THE TIME. I sucked at remembering to put away toys as a child, and I am no better at remembering to tell others to put away their toys. And I am just fine with it, honestly.

Being completely different people, the boys’ interests have not lined up with other activities. Cole wants to learn karate and play soccer. Carter is more interested in skateboard lessons and basketball. That’s okay. At least they’re friends.