Let's Go Sledding

 We had a lot of fun while our daughter was in town. She hadn't been home more than an hour when she sat down at the piano.  It was a duet ;)  She has had each of the three little brothers play piano with her when they were little.  The now 9 year old had the luxury of having his high chair pulled right up to the keys.  I guess she likes company.

 We did all of our decorating and taking down while she and grandpa were here too.

We had a lot of fun - we did three different puzzles and attempted a fourth.  We (She) did a lot of baking and made cookies and candies.

 She really went to town with the crafts (which is hysterical since that was always my thing and she had a slight aversion to it).  I'll do a separate post with all the fabric flowers and scarves she made.

We also went sledding.  It was quite a production to get everyone ready and suited up.

 Grandpa was the camera man, but he got in on a little of the work too.

 The two year old was pretty sleepy when we started.  It had a lot to do with it being naptime, and the fact that he was bundled up so warm.  He really liked sledding and went down the hill in his little sled several times.

He wrecked at the bottom of the first run, but we all laughed about it so he wasn't upset.  And he made several more runs after that.

 The nine year old and his sister tried a run together.

 It was a pretty nice day but we still bundled up really well.

 We made the mistake of sending the five year old down alone the first run and it was a big hill.  So he was terrified and didn't want to sled anymore.  We had him go with his sister, but one run was all he would do.  We'll start him on a smaller hill next time.

 His sister thought dragging her feet would slow them down to a nice pace ... but instead it sprayed snow in their faces.  Oh well. Live and learn.

 The nine year old spend most of his time trying to conquor a challenge.  The big hill he is on heads for a parking lot below, to where there is another hill where the snow has been piled up to clear the parking lot.  He wanted to go fast enough to pop over the top of that hill.

It was a really steep, long hill so he carried quite a bit of momentum.  The first few times he made it up onto the pile, but not over it.

 If you look closely you can see a trench where a snowmobile came through.  That is what he was trying to come over.

He finally managed to make it over the top.  His sister got the whole event on video on her phone.

The landing wasn't so smooth.

  He didn't care. She was still recording and asked him, reporter style about the run.  His response - AWESOME!!

 Meanwhile, the non-sledding five year old was having fun doing his own thing.  He found "a snowman head."

 Clearly those go on top.

 It started snowing s the two year old was turning around in circles with his tongue hanging out so he could catch the flakes.

 The five year old noticed a gap in the snow where it had been plowed from the parking lot.  He said, "A chair!"

Sure enough. A chair.  It fit perfectly.
  

 It actually looked pretty comfortable.

 While we were waiting for the nine year old to climb back up the side of the mountain to make another attempt at his goal, we stumbled across this - a perfect snowman lined up completely by chance - it was just three balls that happened to land this way when the parking lot was plowed, and it was leaning on the hillside where the nine year old popped over.

 The five year old and his sister (I should say especially his sister) had fun decorating it and giving it hugs.

We had such a great time.  It was an afternoon well spent.

The minion even got to go for a short ride.

I'm so glad we had a chance to have our daughter home over Christmas break.  We made some great memories. ;)
  

The hat stayed on the rest of the evening.  Too cute!