The Sun is Back!

The sun has made a reappearance this week, and it feels so nice!  This is what we do when it's above 30 degrees and the sun is shining:

It's funny how 35 and sunny feels like spring now!  We had the car windows down the other day when it hit 40. (I've become one of those people I wondered about when we first moved here 5 years ago. The ones that had their windows open when it was 40 degrees in March.)  We've already broken out the bikes, scooters, and sidewalk chalk. Owen has a lot of faith in the groundhog that predicted spring is soon to be here.

The varying temperatures have led to some different scenery, like hoarfrost in the mornings and lots of icicles hanging off of roofs all over town.

These icicles are on our back porch almost directly over the sandbox.  The longest icicle here is probably close to 3 feet long!

And the sandbox could be an ice rink for mice.  Brr!

This icicle formed between my car bumper and the ground over the course of 5 hours or so and actually connects the two! You can also see all of the yucky dark muck, pebbles, and salt that build up under our cars in the winter from the roads. You can imagine what our garage looks like...

On a side note, this week was Spirit Week at school, which basically means that you are supposed to dress with a different theme in mind each day. The first was "Decades Day" where you pick and dress like your favorite decade. Since I'm a minimalist, we went with a cowboy from the 1880's, because that's what we had. The gun stayed at home, of course.

One day at the end of quiet time, I was visited by a beautiful princess and her obliging prince brother. Glad to see that dress is getting some use after all!

I mentioned that Owen has been doing indoor soccer this winter. He loves it! We like it too, except that it's been at 8 am nearly every Saturday since November. It just feels wrong to get going earlier on the weekend than you do for a school day. Hopefully next year, we'll get a later time slot.

Owen and I rented some cross-country skis from the local ski shop this weekend.  He tried them out in the backyard a bit last night to figure some things out.

And this morning, we ventured 5 minutes to a city park and went 1.5 miles around on tracks with friends. I think he enjoyed it, but he doesn't like to fall.  Who does?

I have to mention that all of the snow we've been getting has been great for downhill skiing!  I have gotten to go to our local ski hill a couple of times on their Ladies' Day, which only costs $26 and includes lunch!! That's me in the white helmet.  So fun!