Visit to Carlisle, PA

We made the drive down to Carlisle for the day to visit Cristina and the boys.  I don't know how they do it for just the day when they come here.  Granted they do get on the road earlier and spend more time here, but it was pretty rough for me and the kids to do the 2.5 hours there and the 2.5 hours back.  My back just does not appreciate it when I drive for any longish distance.  We did however enjoy our time there with our family.

Jack has recently become very interested in trains and cars, through no encouragement by me.  He was very excited to play with David's transportation toys.

Isabella had a great time too.  It is always fun to play with new toys.  She especially liked the monkeys that fly through the air and make noise when they land. She and David are holding them in this photo.

Aunt Cristina was trying to show her how to do it...wasn't that easy for her though.

Aunt Cristina was also gracious enough to let the kids use chalk and color on the chalkboard.  I am sure she had to do some cleaning of the nice white frame after my kids were done.  Jack didn't do the best job keeping the chalk on the black board.  It was fun though!

Boxes, boxes, boxes

Who knew boxes could be so much fun? Okay, everyone! But we have really been enjoying the boxes around here lately. We made a rice box after seeing Aunt Cristina's brilliant (yet messy) idea for turning the water table into a sensory (aka rice) table. The kids love this thing and we mostly use the dinosaurs in it. Lots of fun and lots of clean up work, but since it keeps them busy so long, it is worth it.

We also used our recent Diapers.com order box to make a little house for the animals and then my two animals decided to flip it over and make their own house. It wasn't the biggest box ever so it was fun to see them try to squeeze side by side.

Yes that is a rare glimpse of sunshine you see streaming through our windows.

Indoor Playtime!

Jack is loving this gift that he got from Grandma a while ago.  He liked it when he first got it but it has recently become his "go to" toy each day.  He heads right for the cars and pulls out the track.  He just loves it!

 I am trying to incorporate more Mature Dramatic Play in to our day. I have been reading a book lately that made me realize that I need to come up with more meaningful ways to do imaginative play.  Yesterday we made an iceberg and we dressed in our hats and scarves.  We pretended to be penguins and then used her animals and had them playing and living on the iceberg.

 Then we brought in a bowl of snow and played on the iceberg and then we though better of getting our iceberg wet and moved the snow play to the table.

 We really had fun with all the snow

 Then Jack woke up from his nap and joined in the fun!  He kept asking to make a baby snowman.

More Snow!

We got about a foot of snow on Sunday night.  Crazy!  We already had snow on the ground.  I am eagerly awaiting the Spring!

Crystal Cabin Fever!

On Saturday we headed out to Crystal Cabin Fever east of Scranton.  It is a large barn where ice sculptors from  Sculpted Ice Works create a themed indoor interactive ice display.  Their theme this year was the wild west.  They always have a big ice slide.    When you enter the door you go through a sort of winding maze of ice and there are little sculptures along the way.  Unfortunately the day before it was in the 50s so some of the smaller sculptures were damaged due to melting.  

A cactus

A boot 

Entering in to the main area:

A covered wagon made of Ice.  I think the little man here lost some of his features due to melting.

Just so you can see the horse and carriage

Jack sliding out of the back of the covered wagon

A bull and a picket fence

The saloon (inside was a concession stand with hot cocoa and a wine tasting)

A poker table in the saloon

The ice slides

 Video of Jack and Daddy going down the slide:

Jack enjoying his hot cocoa with Mommy.

Isabella warming up with some cocoa.

The bank and the jail behind Nick and Jack.  Jack was ready to go! It was cold!

A first time for everything

Well I must admit that I don't think I have ever played in snow in 55 degree sunny weather.  It was nice!  I definitely prefer it over playing in the snow when it is cold out.  Isabella and I headed outside during Jack's nap because I just couldn't stand seeing the beautiful sun and feeling the warm (relatively speaking) breeze.  We took some guys outside and had fun.  Here are some pictures of all the fun!

Then Jack woke up...he didn't enjoy being in the yard that much but it was windy and he (for some strange reason) absolutely HATES the wind!  So we played on the porch instead.