While we were stuck indoors from the blizzard, the kids and I found many, many fun things to do. The boys mostly played with Legos, thrilled that I allowed them to spread them all over the living room and dining room instead of the cold basement playroom. Louise helped me make the dough for gingerbread cookies that we'll bake later this week and practiced cutting things up with her scissors. (Is that a 3 year old thing? She could spend hours cutting!)
I needed a little break from kid play, so I pulled out the laptop at the kitchen counter. Louise walked in and asked if she could do facepaint on herself. I think she was expecting to hear no, so when I told her "yes, as long as you take off your shirt and promise to take a bath afterwards," she was astonished. I gave her permission to paint. Permission to paint her entire body. And paint she did.
I'm keeping the Christmas decorations minimal this year, mostly because I think I really dislike putting them all away after Christmas. With my birthday in early December, we usually wait until afterwards to put up the tree. Ron's birthday is in early January, so I like to take things down before then. The time is so short... so I'm focusing on my mantle this year. Er, my piano, since we have no fireplace. (Please excuse the scratches on the piano.... it was once used religiously as a race track for match box cars. We did buy it used, however, for its great patina, so I don't mind a bit.)
We spent the weekend at home, trapped by the snow! It is beautiful and was wonderful to play in, though a bit tall for Molly-dog's tastes.
Gus wants to be famous someday. We told him that it might happen if he joined the Mexican Dance and Cultural club at his school, a great fit for a kid that loves to sing and dance. He was excited about it for a day, then begged me to tear up the application and my check. With a little extra prodding, he made it to the first session and hasn't looked back. He danced this week at a fundraiser at a local bookstore. Look out world, here comes Gustavo. OLE!
His favorite kindergarten friend Celia stayed to watch him dance. He was thrilled! 
Every year since Carl was born we have taken him to Bachman's to see the annual Santa and Albert the elf skit. It is a 25 minute show, filled with magic tricks by Albert, a little back and forth banter between the two of them and a sing-along at the end. This year, I was very brave and brought my two nephews along with our three, by myself. All were well behaved during the performance, but getting five kids dressed and ready to go on a cold and snowy day? I was ready for a hot toddy!
Gus volunteered as a magician's assistant. He's excited, really.
Louise's doll Dalla got to come along in her matching dress. The doll dress was my mother's doll dress, hand sewn by her childhood neighbor. It was mine as a child also and found itself in Louise's doll clothes box to her utter delight!
No trip to Bachman's is complete without a visit to the koi ponds. It is the ultimate bribe... "If you _________ (fill in the blank), we can go watch the fish at Bachman's!"
We've been enjoying the wildlife here lately but weren't sure just how the turkeys would fare. Imagine our delight a few days ago after a big snow storm when these funny birds came fluttering down the block. Poor guys... they were so hungry because all of their food is hidden under the snow so they started hopping up and down, trying desperately to get the few remaining crab apples off this tree. One fell down. I nearly did too, laughing.
... though not for the holidays. Carl was in charge of this from-scratch cake, a volcano!
Some fancy cake layering and serrated knife carving skills were needed here to shape the volcano just-so.
Over a year ago I began a lovely project with my friend Kristine. I think I'm finally finished. Today it went up on the wall. As pictured, the kids hadn't yet visited to hang day one of the Advent Season.
The Shadow Ninja, Witch and Anakin Skywalker are all in bed after a warm evening of trick or treating. I'm coming down off of my sugar rush. Must get to bed. Maybe just one more Almond Joy? They won't notice if I sneak another one, will they?
Last weekend we were joined by in-town and out-of-town college friends for a beautiful fall day. Kevin and Julie came up from Des Moines with their kids and asked to take a little road trip from the big cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul. We joined them and Jenn, Charley and their daughter on an excursion to Axdahl's pumpkin patch and market and then to beautiful historic Stillwater.
If you've never been to Stillwater before, please add it to your "must-visit" list, any time of the year. Antique stores, crafty gift shops, restaurants galore, the St. Croix River, an ice cream store just steps away from the water! 
We hadn't yet visited the Teddy Bear park and were quite impressed with it. It was tough to figure out exactly which part of the day was the best part for the kids: pumpkin patch fun, Teddy Bear park, or walking with our ice cream cones down to the flooded river and watching the historic lift bridge let the waiting boats pass by. Have you ever seen light posts that are supposed to be lining a sidewalk.... submerged in a river?
