Wednesday, February 18, 2015

Walking in a Winter Wonder-when-it's-going-to-end Land

As this is supposed to be a journal of my life, I guess I would be remiss if I didn't discuss and show pictures of our wonderful winter wonderland.  

It snowed a little at Thanksgiving - then it didn't snow for the next two months.  Phew! We all said.  It's going to be an easy winter, we all said.   Idiots!   This winter is going down in the record books as one of the worst winters in the history of the world!!!

We've had two major blizzards .......three or four other significant storms........a total of probably 6 or 7 feet of snow.  We are looking at another "significant" snowfall again this weekend.  We are winter weary!

Our front porch. The wild winds are just blowing things everywhere.  It seems like a long time ago that I sat on those chairs in my shorts and bare feet to read my Sunday paper.


Those two mounds are our cars.


Digging mine out....Hubby's is still buried.


The wind was whipping the snow around so badly I couldn't even wear my glasses.  During the first blizzard we went out periodically to "keep up with the snow".   On the second one, we slept in, relaxed, had some breakfast and went out after the snow stopped.   It was much better that way.


It takes the two of us working together 2 or 3 hours to get everything cleared away.


So far our mailbox has been spared from the plow only because Hubby made it "removable" and takes it down before each storm.


Our fire pit is a sad, sad sight.  Hubby tries to shovel it out after each storm in the hopes we will get a day warm enough to have a winter campfire.  The temperatures, however, have been in the teens or even the negative numbers!



We have some little birds in our shrubs that don't fly south for the winter, but I doubt they want to go bathing in this!


We've kind of given up on our back door.  We don't use it anyway and I think trying to cook on the gas grill would be difficult.


Here's hoping for an early spring!



Saturday, February 14, 2015

Play Day with Emily

The weather in New England has been just terrible this year - a subject for another post - and we've been remiss in making plans to see our granddaughters.    So we invited Miss Emily over for a playdate:

Emily came prepared with some "Shopkins"  (her new obsession) and her Barbie, who apparently shops for the Shopkins.



But first we helped  Pepere finish his puzzle.   


Emily really enjoyed hearing Pepere tell the story of the Beatles and the Yellow Submarine.


Then Emily showed me the Shopkins webpage on the computer 
and we watched a couple of short Shopkin videoes.


Then we went upstairs into Memere's art room where Emily showed us how to make pop-up cards.   She made me a purple penguin because she knows I love purple...and penguins!


Our creations


Then I reminded Emily that she gave me a Poppin' Penguin game for my birthday and we never really got to play it.   We played two games and Emily and I each won one.   Pepere did not win any.


Emily takes delight in knocking my penguin out and sending me back to the start.



Then downstairs to make some chocolate chip cookies.   She asked to crack the eggs, then reminded me that I was the one who taught her how to crack eggs! My heart just melted!  She even got to use the electric mixer....and lick the batter off!


Enjoying the cookies of our labor


Finally she got to play in Pepere's room with her Shopkins and my penguins.



We had a wonderful time with our sweet, beautiful, energetic, imaginative granddaughter.  Thanks Emily!