Happy WINTER!

Happy WINTER?!

Can you tell what the above picture is? January, in Wisconsin.....we went on a family walk one evening this past week. It was spring-like!!! Of course, it got dark early, so we banked on flashlights and reflection off the kids' jackets...and we stayed on the sidewalks! The above picture is of the children laying on the sidewalk, gazing at the moon and sky full of stars! It was a fun end to our warm weather...the next day, the snow started!

But before we get to the snow, let's back up a few days....

I've written before how much we love our babysitters.....and 2 of them are related by marriage. I still haven't accepted the fact that they are moving onto the next stages of life and that they don't exist to babysit the Glynn kids whenever needed....(I'm working on that acceptance!). Perhaps they have not accepted that either, because again, this Christmas season, they had a fun afternoon planned for the girls....they wanted to teach them how to scrapbook!

The above photo shows what the girls created during their 2 hours with Amy and Cindy. They loved it. Ava especially loved it...she came home and you could hear all sorts of scissors hitting the table, tape being torn off the roll and markers rolling around. When she came out of the gallery, she said "MOM! THIS is scrapbooking and I made it for YOU!" Precious.

Thank you, Amy and Cindy....we LOVE you!

This past week, the 5th grade band students from 2 Neenah schools provided "pre-meeting" music for the Neenah Public Schools School Board Meeting. This was something that was rescheduled from just before Christmas. These children have only been playing their instruments since October and had NEVER played as a collective group before! Ellie LOVED it. Looks like we're on the "buy the flute...not rent it" plan now.

If you are interested in hearing the students play Good King Wenceslas, click HERE.
To hear Jingle Bells, click HERE.
To hear Jolly Old St. Nick, click HERE.
I love Ellie's music teacher/band instructor. From the first correspondence with her, I was impressed---she is passionate about music and about teaching the kids to love music. Prior to the school board meeting, I was reading the posters that were outside the administration building...Mrs. Shebesta was voted teacher of the year! Looks like others have noticed her passion too!

Finally...we get to the snow that "Snowstorm Angela" dumped on us! Oh, it was so exciting to see it fall down and so exciting to anticipate finally getting to play in it. We had lots of talking about what snow can be eaten and what snow should be avoided! Ellie came up with an awesome idea, seen here below--she filled a soccer cone with snow and then turned it over--perfect clean "snowcone" for Colin to enjoy!

Since the snow last week, the kids have been out playing in the snow almost everyday. Our house is in the perfect location--we get a lot 0f the cul du sac snow dumped in our yard and there is very little traffic from the 5 houses in the court. Currently, we have a stage created for a Wiggles type show, a fort, and a path forged in the snow. There are a lot of rosy cheeks coming inside looking like this:

We love winter!