Winter...Finally.

So Iowa decided to try to stave off winter, but alas, January prevailed and we finally had some weather that could be considered winter. I forgot how much fun winter could actually be. There's tons of energy for roughhousing in the living room, playing hide and seek in the bedrooms, and occasionally taking a foray into the cold. Granted, we try to also pretend it is not winter by swimming indoors as much as possible (Tuesday night trip to Bettendorf Y, Friday night trip to Bettendorf Y that was ruined by another child puking in the pool, and a birthday party for a friend at an hotel with an indoor pool). June also prefers to wear tank tops whenever I'll let her.

Here the kids are sporting their winter digs. Ruben actually does love this hat (despite the bottom picture).  He chews on that chin strap like it's his last meal. It's actually quite disgusting. The gloves June is wearing are a hand-me-down from her friend Abby. Pretty much anything Abby gives her is awesome but these gloves made the top of the list.  She'll have very vivid conversations with Elmo when we're in the car.

Roughhousing is quite the work out. June loves to rest her head on my knees while I hold her body up.  She just giggles and giggles in this position.  Warning. When roughhousing with June, Ruben will insert himself into the fun no matter how awkwardly.

We froze some colored water to create ice blocks.  The kids had fun playing with them on the kitchen floor (although Ruben had more fun playing with the red food coloring container he hid while we were making the colored water. He found it later and managed to get the lid off.  Thankfully only his fingers turned bright pink.  Our carpet was saved by the grace of God.

June has given up her nap and so spends more time with me while I make dinner. She has her own knife and has started to help me cut up vegetables. I thought this would be one of those "teaching moments" that actually ended up being a lot of work for me to help her learn a skill, but truthfully she gets it and is very cautious and is actually quite helpful.

We love Monday mornings. Everyone gets to sleep in.