A weekend at a cabin

Over President's Day weekend we went up to Strawberry, AZ to stay in the cabins where Evan and I spent our college-student-budgeted honeymoon.  These cozy A-frames were perfect for a weekend to reconnect.  

And there was snow.  Not a great deal as the week had warmed up since the last dumping, but there was still enough on the ground the first couple of days to really have a good time.

Amelia made a Kirby snowman.  

Simon made all sorts of footprints in the snow.

Dylan worked with Evan to get the snowman started.

 Amelia and Simon helped, too.  

And eventually, we had this:

Simon wanted to hug him, but this was as close as he got.

We decided that he needed some hair, so we punked him out with a green spiky Mohawk.

And then there was a snowball fight, boys against girls.  Amelia and I were laughing too hard to throw many balls and then the boys took over the table with all the ammo. So I have to say with a sad salute, that the girls lost.

Then there was sledding...We had so much fun that my camera died.  With all of the nearly melted snow, it was tough to find a good spot and the snow play area was closed.  So, we kept driving down the woodland roads with Evan's ever lucky radar in high gear.  Finally, we came upon a closed off road in the shade with the perfect width and slope to slide down on our somewhat flimsy plastic sleds. It was awesome.

Annual Rogers Leaf Festival

Amelia did play in the leaves this year, but, apparently, not when I was taking pictures.  So she will not appear below.  But Dylan and Simon, on the other hand, played in them daily--multiple times.

The neighbor kids informed us that we have the best leaf pile on the block and some even asked if they could take a few bags home to play with.  I am not sure that a few grocery sacks provided the desired effect, however.

Random winter stuff

The Mario Bros. obsession extends beyond Amelia.  She has discovered that Jacob is one of many cousins who also loves the mustached plumbers.

And then there was ice...

It was a little nutty, but we actually had four days of freezing temperatures earlier this year.  For the desert, that's pretty significant.  And the evidence of the freeze is still visible this spring as there are dead brown chunks of leaves mixed in with the fresh new leaves of very tall trees all over the valley.

Simon in his "not-a-box."   

He's holding a Power Rangers phone, actually called something like a Power Ranger Super Samurai Mega-Morpher.  

When you ask Simon how old he is he still replies, "I'm a Power Ranger." Confused? Obsessed? 

Or just two and a half?

I found more Christmas pics

And one more shot of Amelia on mismatch day for school.  Her socks were neon yellow...

Here's the giant gingerbread man that my mom brought over.  The kids decorated and ate him in one felled swoop.

And then here's a bit o' Christmas morning...complete with pajamas, presents, smiles and nonsense.

  

December

A recapitulation...

The winter roses that grow in our back yard...

Dylan in his red and green garb that he selected especially for the Kindergarten Holiday Concert....

He sang boldly about candy canes and jingling bells with gusto and pizzazz   It was hard to find his little face in the sea of Kindergartners, so this photo in front of the tree will have to suffice.

Amelia and Dylan dressed up for twin day at school.  This is the first year they have attended school together and we thought it was pretty cool that they decided to be twins with each other.  

Amelia was so committed to the idea of being twins with her brother that she even tried to wear a pair of jeans to match Dylan's, but she just couldn't do it.  We decided that navy blue yoga pants were close enough.

The Skinners gave us tickets to Childsplay for Christmas so we took Amelia and Dylan to "Jingle Bells Batman Smells." Dylan is showing off his Junie B. Jones glasses that they made at intermission.

I have to admit that Amelia feels a little left out of the bathtub boys club.  Yet, she admits that her brothers splash and toot way too much for her to even consider bathing with them.  And lately, Simon has been notorious for expelling other bodily substances into the tub that even grosses out Dylan.  Sooo....the bathtub boys club is likely coming to an end.
(We may start bathing Simon on the back porch with a hose when the weather warms up.)

(OK...not really.)

Simon and play dough...

Trimming the tree!  I don't think I have ever posted pictures of this yearly event...
And, these are pretty much the only pictures I have of Christmas festivities this year.  It was that busy.  

But here is evidence that we did, indeed, celebrate Christmas in 2012.

Lost tooth

It has begun once again.  We've had a lull with visits from the tooth fairy as Amelia has pretty much lost all of the teeth that she can lose, save a molar or two that won't come out for a couple of years.  Dylan has been waiting and waiting because Amelia was barely five when she lost her first tooth and he is nearly six and a half.

So it is not surprising that he was ecstatic at his last visit to the dentist when it was announced that his two bottom teeth were loose.

A month or so later as he bit into an apple, the first tooth fell.  Since then the other one has come out and his first adult tooth is edging its way into his mouth.  

It's all very exciting.

Simon didn't want to be left out of the fun, so he asked Daddy to take a picture of his teeth as well.

Dylan is officially approaching the messed-up-grill, dangling-tooth, and plenty-of-space-for-drinking-straws era of his life.  And there's nothing like it.