The excitement of the week was going to the newly renovated nature center. Whoa! The place is AWESOME! A night theater, a replica of a Lenape bark lodge (with fake fire and benches to sit on), a children's exploration room that held the kid's interest for a half an hour and they only left because we were running out of time. Three stories of stuff to do and see and look at. And a library! The third floor has the tiniest little library with books for kids and adults and really comfy chairs where you can sit in front of a picture window overlooking the woods and read. And it's all free! It seriously blew me away. They must have been left in some billionaire's will or something. We're definitely going back often.

The next day (I think?) we finally got some snow and it melted in hours. Bummer. I'm not really into snow anyway, but it sure is weird not having any this year. Owen went out in the yard and played in the snow for a half an hour or so. It was so pathetic. he was making a "snow castle" out of the dusting of snow. His snow castle was mostly made of dirt but he didn't notice or care. He's so cute :)

Then Bridget got laryngitis and of course that meant she had to use sign languge. The three of us ended up watching signing videos and googling how to sign "pizza" and "egg" and various other words and phrases. Her voice is (mostly) back but we're still signing.

Tonight the kids were bouncing off the walls and I suggested to Robert we take them out somewhere and run the energy off. So we bundled them up and took them (in the dark and 20 degree weather) to the well lit school parking lot down the street to ride bikes. Bridget zipped around on her bike and Owen really made some time on his trike. He refuses to use the bike his Grandpa got him a year ago but that's ok. What's the rush, right?

After awhile, Bridget and I tried our hands at jogging a bit. I had told her about a half mile kid's race in March and I mentioned that I *think* the distance from one end of the parking lot to the other and back again might be 1/4 mile so if she did that twice without stopping she'd be ready for the race. I didn't mean right then but my girl just took off and did it. This after she and I had already jogged it once. By the time she was done her throat was hurting, her face was bright red and her nose was running but she did it! Of course I'm probably wrong and it isn't 1/4 mile but whatever. It was certainly more than I could have managed.

It's been a slow week otherwise. Everyone is in hibernation mode and no one seems to want to get together for playdates or anything. The kids don't seem to mind. At least they haven't mentioned anything. Life has been pretty good around here actually. Mellow, nice, quiet. I like it :D