Welcome to My Web

The boys love mastering the new challenges at the elementary school playground!  James loves the spider web climbing structures.  (And they both have great fun on the spinning toys, not pictured.)

Zoo Two

 For our second trip to the NC Zoo (the first was almost a year ago!), we started in the North America section.  Matthew was just as enthusiastic about his map this time around!

Although some things are closed for the winter season, there was still plenty to see.  My favorite was the polar bear -- she was putting on an aquatic show when we were at the underwater viewing area, swimming around and doing flips!  Mattie and James liked the playground the best.  (Just before we left, Mattie wanted to see the red wolves -- but then was a bit disappointed that they weren't bright red.)

For dinner on the way home, we stopped at  sports bar, which happened to have both LSU basketball and Gator gymnastics on the TVs -- what are the odds?  :)  James was quite an enthusiastic basketball spectator!  I don't know how much he cares about the game, per se, but he likes to see the numbers change on the score and he likes when his team is winning.

Lego Club

 The library has a monthly "Lego Club" where they read a story, and then kids can use Legos to build things related to the theme of the book.  We went for the first time this weekend, and it was pretty fun!  Of course, the week's theme was "farm", but Matthew and James did not feel constrained by that.  :)

Sledding Video

Video from Wednesday.  (The girl pushing James is E, who babysits for us occasionally.)

Muddy Melting

 The snow is not gone yet, but it's on its way!  We took the boys to the park this afternoon, and much to their delight, there were plenty of puddles and mud puddles.  (It wasn't a super-long outing, because as you might imagine, their feet got cold after all that splashing around!)  Next time we will plan ahead with a change of clothes and shoes!

Happy Valentine's Day

The boys' new babysitter did a great project with them -- decorating the doors with hearts that say the things they love to do with us and with each other.  Very sweet!

I hope you all have a wonderful Valentine's Day!!

Rocket Upgrades

 We got a layer of ice on top of the snow yesterday, so the boys were home again.  They did quite a few upgrades to their rocket!  (In fact, there are now several more paper plate and cup additions even than pictured here.)

The bottom pictures are from today -- the melting has started.  I was supposed to be flying to a conference this weekend, but the roads were bad this morning when I was supposed to be catching my rescheduled flight, so I just cancelled completely.  It was a bit disappointing, but it turns out that many of the friends I was most looking forward to seeing there also had to cancel due to weather problems, so it's not quite as sad as it could have been.  And I can't complain about a nice Valentine's weekend with my family!

Ye Olde Sledding Hill

 Another snow day in Chapel Hill!

I ran some errands in the morning and arrived home around 1 PM, just as the first flakes started to fall.  And lucky that I did, because the snow came fast and stuck quickly -- the roads were a mess within just a few minutes.  (A bunch of cars went into ditches down the block from us, and the news was filled with stories of people whose ride home took hours.)

A bunch of the neighbors were out sledding, too, which was fun. The boys had a great time, even though the snow wasn't quite as perfect for sledding (it was softer, so the sleds didn't go quite as fast).  

Cardboard and Duct Tape

The boys are very pleased with their new spaceship.  (It may not look like it from the picture, but it required most of the roll of silver duct tape -- I should have stocked up more when it was on sale!)

He Shoots, He Scores

James at B-Ball.  :)

Blending

The assistant teacher in Matthew's class is a nutritionist, and so they have nutrition units every so often.  Mattie brought home a smoothie recipe and wanted to make it.  The boys loved pushing the buttons on the blender, and the smoothie was tasty, too!  (Mattie loved it; James took the world's tiniest taste but didn't want more.)

Of course, tonight's drink -- milkshakes -- might not have scored so well on the healthy eating scale.  :)

Card-Carrying Members

 Mattie and Jamesie now have their own library cards!  They brought home a selection of dinosaur and Curious George books.  :)

Daniel Weekend

 We enjoyed our weekend with Daniel and co!  (James said that we should move to Virginia so that we could live next door to Daniel.  Aww...)

The spider-looking sculpture was the boys' spaceship.  :)