The new year has brought many new adventures, but the one that blows my mind the most is that Elena is now SEVEN years old! How did that happen???
She is so much her own person. She knew exactly what she wanted for her birthday, and it was all about food. She experienced donut holes on our Florida drive, and so she requested those for breakfast.
Shells and peas was the obvious choice for lunch, and for dinner, she wanted mussels. Luckily, Safta took that one on.
Of course, there were presents too, toys, books, and a finished puzzle.
Since her regular birthday was on a Friday, we had a birthday "party" on Saturday with more presents and some special cupcakes.
But Sunday brought the best birthday present of all, SNOW! I came downstairs to find Elena sitting in front of the kitchen door in her pajamas just looking at the snow.
We got her into her snow gear, and she was out enjoying it in no time.
After playing with every bit of snow she could find on the back patio, she came in for her chocolate.
Vivian had spent the night at her friend's house, so she spent her snow day with them. Luckily, her friend's mom took pictures and sent them to me.
Vivi wanted to stay and play with her friend, and Elena wanted more snow, so Elena and I went on an adventure.
Eventually, we found ourselves at a familiar house. Safta watched Elena's snow antics through the door.
I decided to channel some of Elena's energy into being helpful, and we cleaned the snow off of my mom's car.
When you put positive energy into the world, sometimes it comes back, and one of my parents' neighbors rolled a big snowball for Elena, just the right size for a snowman base.
Challenge accepted! We rolled the middle and a head.
Mom had a lime we could use for eyes, a carrot for a nose and grapes for buttons. I got some fallen twigs for arms, but we weren't sure what to do about a mouth until another neighbor walked by and offered us some pink yarn. Our snowman was complete!
Luckily, Safta and Grandpa have the ingredients for hot chocolate too.
The next day was Monday, but it was a teacher grade prep day, so the girls didn't have any work to do. Instead, they got outside to play in what was left of the snow.
I think at least 50% of their motivation to go out is that they can then claim that they NEED hot chocolate when they come back in.
Elena was really sad that the snow was melting, and she must have had some birthday magic left, because the next morning we woke up to a world of snow.
Unfortunately, there no longer seem to be real snow days, so the girls still had their regular online classes, but I let Elena play with her birthday present during class, and then take a long break "between" classes to play in the snow.
Vivi got to a break in her classes and joined Elena outside.
Since the girls were mostly just rolling around in the snow, Jeff went out to help with snowman construction. This day's snow was very wet and wasn't sticking as well, so Jeff inserted a stick "spine" and "neck" between the sections to give the snowman some stability.
We used Fruit Loops for the face, and Snowman II was born!
The weather is getting warmer now, and the snow is melting, but it's been a great few wintery days for the girls to remember in what will probably be their only winter for a decade of their lives.
I can't call January properly documented though with noting several other big things that happened. Jeff and I were all excited for January 6, because we were doing a cheese tasting and my parents were watching the girls.
But we ended up spending most of the day keeping an eye on the news as an angry mob stormed the Capitol. When the governor of Virginia declared an emergency curfew, we had to ask my parents to rush the kids home.
The next day, as we were recovering from all of that, our friends called us to say that they were heading to the hospital to have their second child, and could they drop their two year old off with us? Sure! So we had three kids for a few days. The girls were really great about helping out, and they were eventually repaid with baby snuggles.
WE were repaid with a cheese tasting with the parents to celebrate Inauguration Day. It was a triple cream class with a sparkling Sauvignon Blanc. It was absolutely perfect.
Jeff and I agreed though, that with such rich delights, it's probably best to take a break from cheese tasting for a while. The best bonus news from January is that both of my parents got their first shot of the Pfizer vaccine, and, as a teacher, I got my first shot of Moderna. We can see the light at the end of this long tunnel. Hopefully we get there soon.
