Happy 8th Birthday Zoe!

My little muffin chose to do a quiet weekend in the country, playing with a friend’s cats (and Louie) for her long MLK weekend birthday.  She has a new interest in karaoke and singing, so we added a mic to the scene and had a lot of fun.  Today is really officially her birthday, and she is toting 20 gluten free cupcakes to school to celebrate with classmates (and may even convince us to have a 3rd party with ‘the Hazels’ as well).

I am so proud of this fearless, funny, constantly surprising little gal who is growing too fast!  We love you Zoe!

thx for the Mia and Zoe pix,  Ina Seow!

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And back to the snow..

Happy New Year!

We got back from sunny Florida and headed to Connecticut for a great NYE party.  By the next morning there was enough blanket of snow to go out for a New Year’s Day fat burning snow hike.  We had our new friend Jem the rescue dog in tow for a walk (owned by our friend Tom) and explored the snowy fields and frozen lake, and a tree full of frozen-in-time icicles!  Back to the grind..

walking the road with friend Brad

 

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A new Snoopy Sno Cone Machine!

I think I already mentioned that a dear friend of mine passed a vintage Snoopy Sno Cone Machine on to the kids a few weeks ago (thanks Amelia!) They love it but this toy comes with its frustrations. One is that the shaved ice melts so quickly when you pour flavoring/juice on it… and there’s a lot of sweat and labor that goes into shaving the ice (and it yields little for all that work.) We’ve discovered that freezing juice in ice cube trays first really helps. Not only are the ice cubes a bit softer and easier to grind away at, but the juice is already right there in the ice!

And once again, here are some ways to dress up and eat snow and shaved ice. Maybe we will try to freeze cream next!

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The frozen lake

The lake in Cornwall was so frozen, we could walk all the way across it. Here we are sitting on docks half way across. Some nice neighbor came along and made a bonfire and the kids made hotdogs and roasted marshmallows. Ezra even found a way to eat them without taking his gloves off.

See what the lake looks like thawed, here.

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