February 9th snowstorm...

Well, winter finally reared it's ugly head in MI and it really wasn't all that bad. 10 inches of snow and finally I was able to put my snow shoveling expertise to use. Remi and I went out to help mama shovel snow and while I think I may have heard her mutter under her breath that shoveling takes 3 times longer when I help, what I think she meant to say is that it goes 3x faster when I help. As you can see by the photo's, Remi had a great time. She kept moving around so much that we had to put her in the recycling bin to keep her contained, luckily, recycling had already been picked up that day, so we knew she wouldn't be taken by the big green truck!

Remi in the recycling bin

Hey, that looks like fun, I think I'll do it too! We got lots of honks from people as they drove by

Shovelin'

Remi enjoying the snow

Mama even let me bury Remi in the snow, just her legs, but it was still fun and she loved it

I decapitated my snowman with my hockey stick (mama is a bit concerned what that means for me later on...) and loved climbing on what was left of my snowman and jumping into the snow

Return trip to the Natural History Museum

Well, I loved the "dinosaur" museum so much that I just had to take daddy there to show him all of the fun stuff. I loved showing all of the great exhibits and this time I even explored some of the other floors. Remi, as always, had a good time and even took her first two steps in the museum. Mind you, I wouldn't call her a walker yet, She has more of a stagger, stagger, fall, scream, type of thing happening....

Remi and I just relaxing in the giant clam shell

Roarrrr!

Hangin' out in a canoe carved out of a tree!

Come here Remi, c'mon, you can do it

Playing leap frog with Remi

he he, I look like a monkey...

We are now fans of ice dancing...

Well, in case you weren't aware, the Olympics will be starting on Friday. Why the sudden interest in the Olympics you ask? At school, we've been learning about the Olympics; The different countries and their flags, the Olympic rings and what they mean, the different sports and about the Olympic spirit. Pretty cool stuff... Since I've been jabbering nonstop about the Olympics, mama decided to take us on a little adventure... It turns out that two Ann Arbor locals qualified for the Olympics in ice dancing, and mama did a little investigating and found out where and when they practice. So Monday morning, we headed off to the Ann Arbor Ice Cube in search of our own Olympic hopefuls and guess what, we found them! We got to watch them practice, talk to them and I even got to wish them good luck. Evan, the guy, wasn't too impressed with my gesture, but Emily, the girl sure was! She adjusted my stocking cap, tweaked my chin and said, "thanks honey," and then she kept waving to me. Yeah, I'm thinking about asking her out after the hulabaloo is done.. I watched them quite intently and even tried to copy a few of their moves, and then I asked, "WHERE IS THE HOCKEY?" as loud as I possibly could, alas no hockey could be found that morning, but I did find something else, something big and loud and awesome, THE ZAMBONI. The guy driving the Zamboni waved at me several times and even honked, that's when I decided to make my move... I headed down to where he had parked the Zamboni and asked if I could look at it and he said YES. Wait, it gets even better. HE LET ME SIT ON IT AND DUMP THE SNOW. Let me repeat that for you people, HE LET ME SIT ON IT AND DUMP THE SNOW. I may only be 3 1/2, but I've already started my bucket list and driving a Zamboni is on that list, guess I can cross that on off. Below are a few pictures of our outing, as well as a little movie, starring me and co-starring the Zamboni.

Sledding!

It's snowed a few inches overnight and as a surprise after nap, mommy suited us up and took us sledding. We did some sledding on our own for awhile and then met up with my friend Aaron. Remi went sledding for the first time and we think she liked it... Apparently the jury's still out on that one! Remi is kind of cranky today because she is sick, AGAIN. So, I would now like to officially change her name to goober face, as that's what mommy calls her most of the time anyway. Hopefully we'll get some more snow soon, I've been practicing going off some jumps with my sled and I can't wait to show daddy some of my new tricks.

Remi, in her snowsuit. She literally, can't move!

Remi, hangin' out at the top of magic mountain

I am working very hard to get up this slippery hill. I would make it half way up and then slip and slide all the way down to the bottom. It was tough work!

Remi's first sledding experience. We all went down together and screamed really loud as we were zooming down the hill

Remi and mommy taking Anya on her first sled. She looks kind of freaked out!

The ladies got tired, so we put them in the stroller and let them watch. They both look kind of suspicious of each other. Remi wanted to know why Anya was on my side of the stroller and Anya wanted to know what the heck she was doing in a strange stroller

Playing with Aaron at the bottom of the hill

The Firehouse Museum

Saturday was a fun filled day! First we woke up and mommy made us Belgian waffles for breakfast. I like mine with sprinkles and Remi likes hers with fruit on top. Then we piled into the family truckster and headed to Ypsilanti, to the Firehouse Museum. There were tons of old fashioned firetrucks and other firehouse paraphernalia. While we weren't allowed to climb on the trucks, Remi and I both gave mommy and daddy a workout, as we were running from new thing to new thing, pointing and asking, "what's that?" and "How is it used?" After an hour or so at the museum, we headed down the street to Sidetracks, a local pub that is filled with train stuff. First firetrucks and then trains, I was in heaven and guess what, a train went by as we were eating and the whole place shook! It was awesome. Remi flirted with the men and I concentrated on eating my 4 "mini" hamburgers. Yup, that's right, all that running around the museum made me hungry. We went home, Remi and I took a nap and then we were off to the Y for some swimming. I haven't been swimming with daddy in a LONG time and it was fun to show him all of the things I'm learning in swim lessons. We played a game where mommy and daddy would throw both of us up in the air at the same time and we would make giant splashes on the way down. So much fun. After swimming was dinner and bed, in order to get ready for brunch at Sam's house on Sunday. I have recently discovered lox and look forward to any occasion where I might get to consume my weight in it!

Ringing all of the different fire bells

Even Remi got in on the action

There were trucks EVERYWHERE

I thought this was a funny looking light and couldn't find the switch, then I learned it was lantern and FIRE actually lit it up!

Comparing my hat to all of the other firemen hats

Remi tried on the firemen coat, not me, I was too busy looking at things

This old fire wagon as very shiny and beautiful

"What are those?"

Remi, eating a grilled cheese at Sidetracks

Daddy apparently has a death wish...

Hi ho, hi ho, off to the Natural History Museam we go...

Well, now that Remi is only taking one nap a day, our lives have become MUCH more exciting. Instead of sitting at home, trying to play quietly, we are able to take new adventures to places, new and old... On Friday, mama took us to the U of M Natural History Museum, and guess what! They had dinosaurs there, I'm not kidding, big ones, and I even got to see the bones of a T-Rex head! Below are pictures from our adventure, we had lots of fun and we'll be going back there lots, not only b/c we like it, but it's FREE, always a plus in mama's book.

"look mama, a lobster!"

"I don't see clams this big on the beach in Gloucester."

"look at the mussels. Mama, can we have mussels for dinner?"

Remi and I in front of the mastadons

Remi, checking out the fossil footprints

Hanging out on the Rainbow tree. You should google it, it's pretty cool

"Look at that giant snail.

Maybe I'll be a plumber...

Last Saturday, I awoke early, ready to take on the day. Ok, actually I woke up early b/c I knew daddy wouldn't be going to work that day and I wanted to squeeze in as much daddy time as possible... Well, I had big plans for that Saturday morning and all were dashed when I came downstairs only to find a pipe broken, underneath the sink in the kitchen. So, needless to say, I pushed aside my thoughts of living room hockey and flashlight reading, got out my tools and set to work. Apparently, the S trap was leaking and while that was being repaired, daddy managed to "tweak" (his words, not mine) the connection to the disposal. After further investigation, we found that our 19 year old disposal had ground it's last food... So, a trip to the bagel store and 3 trips to the hardware store later, we had a working, non leaking sink, and new disposal. Thank goodness I was home, I think daddy really would have struggled with this on his own...

This is what the pipe looked like before I repaired it

Helping daddy out, I kept trying to give him little hints, so he would think he figured it out on his own!

Doing a little "tweaking" of my own when daddy ran to the hardware store AGAIN. Thank goodness I as able to fix his mess without him knowing!

"You see that S trap there, it's not supposed to look like this..."