Sledding video

We got about a foot of combined snow in the last week --- 6" or so last night. Ava and I enjoyed some sledding time outside in the back yard. Dad's plowing has created a nice extra bank of snow that adds some height to our sledding hill. We were having so much fun, we didn't quite realize how cold it was until we got back inside...a whopping 8 degrees.

Below is a view from the other morning. The sun had risen just enough to showcase the white snow on the trees in the valley, and we hadn't seen the mountains in a few days. It was a nice change.
Below are some pink clouds that I've started calling "beehives". We've seen them a few times. They only appear in the mornings and are often pink like this. There must be some wind phenomena that causes it. The photo actually came out pretty blurry, but you get the idea.

The sledding video. It's from my camera so not great resolution, but it was clear she was having a good time. The last storm was very fluffy snow, so we both got pretty coated in it while sledding. Having the warm radiant floor in the mudroom here is such a great clothes-dryer. We simply toss our wet stuff on the floor and it's dry an hour later. A nice luxury!

Ice, ice, baby!

This was quite a storm last Friday morning...worst ice storm in this area in a decade. Some people in NH are still without power, and the governor there declared a state of emergency. I drove through NH on Saturday afternoon, and even after a full day of cleanup, everything there looked like a crystal palace. I wish I'd taken pictures during that drive.

Miraculously, we never lost power at home. Here's a photo of our back yard ("view" - ha ha). Alien-looking, isn't it?
Our cable rails handled the ice just fine...the loose ones at the bottom aren't broken - they just hadn't been attached yet (now they are).

Change of subject...on to my favorite photography girl, Ava. She's been pretty excited about Christmas and recently created a "Santa Throne" (her words) out of couch cushions and pretended she was Santa. She listened to her two stuffed teddy bears about what they wanted for Christmas (interestingly, they wanted the things SHE'S been asking for! :))

Ava tried on her new jumper from Auntie Michelle and immediately said, "let's pose for a picture!". I had to jump on it. Usually she's a pretty unwilling subject!

Ava (overtired) modeling her new favorite jammies. We call them the "meteor jammies" because, well...you can figure it out. The kid loves anything to do with space!

Some Ava pics!

It has been a very long time since I updated this blog...and I have a ton of pics of Ava, so here are a few...

Ava with one of her art creations:
Halloween night. Ava's best friend, Willow, is the princess in the middle. As you can see, she LIVES the part! :) Needless to say, Ava was pretty tired (as was mom!) and we made it a short night:

Ava and Willow on a hike up Sabattus Mountain in Lovell (10 min. away from us):

Feeding the baby goats at the Fryeburg Fair:

Ava modeling her Halloween costume. She elected not to wear the helmet on Halloween itself, but has had a ton of fun playing with it at home:

Pics from last few weeks

Ava and Willow enjoying swimming lessons on Kezar Lake in Lovell. It's a gorgeous lake beach, surrounded by picturesque hills and mountains. While it's not obvious here, the girls are really having fun with their lessons, much more so than having their picture taken! Mom and Ava participating in the Bridgton 4th of July parade on the "Crime Watch" float.
Lily in the sunset light at the new house.
Willow and Ava having a comfy (?) sleepover at our house.
Ava got a new outfit in the mail from Grandma Jo and Grampa John. She was actually more excited about receiving a package in the mail than anything else.

A mix of photos from last few weeks

Ava and mommy climbed the "Jockey Cap" trail in Fryeburg. We were seriously outnumbered by swarms of black flies at the top but still had a nice time.
Ava took this awfully cute picture of Lily.
Speaking of awfully cute...is this creature cute or awful? Not sure. This is Denise's apartment mate's cat, Charlene, with her "summer haircut". Little lioness.
Ava got a new top in the mail from Auntie Michelle and is modeling it here along with her own little garden that she planted and has been watering diligently.
A porcupine that we saw along the side of a road. It wasn't particularly afraid of our big truck and munched on stuff as it sat on this rock.
Ava modeling my headband. We called this the "mushroom head" look.
Ava's preschool got a new batch of chicks!
Ava won the "dirtiest face" award the other day!

A fun day with Ava's friends

Mom & Ava met some of Ava's friends for a fun day last Sunday. First, the kids all went bike riding at Fryeburg Fairgrounds while the moms & dads walked around (and yelled at them to stay in sight). We saw lots of other kids, bikes, and especially dogs.

The moms then took the girls to Burger King in North Conway (NH). The moms got to talk and have some peace & quiet while the girls played in the indoor play tube area. Everyone had fun.

Finally, we wrapped up the afternoon at Ava's friend Willow's house. Her dad is a huge outdoor enthusiast and has a rock-climbing wall in their back yard. The kids took turns getting a harnass on and getting rock-climbing lessons from Willow's dad. They all had a ball. Ava slept like a stone that night!

Alas, here is our last gasp of winter...a huge snowbank in the back of our house finally just melted today, after 2 weeks of sun, no rain, and 60-80 degree temps. However, there was a sad surprise under the snow: a crushed garbage can half-full of sand, which was supposed to be used for sanding ice last winter. Now that I see it, I vaguely recall trying to move it out of the way last November, but Chris was away in CT and it was too heavy for me to do myself. I'm sure I said to myself, "I'll get Chris to move that next weekend" as the snow gently fell outside and completely buried it. Famous last words. Sorry, Mr. Bucket!

The Easter Bunny came!

Ava and Lily both had fun on their respective candy and kibble hunts!

Ice storm this morning

Short video. Make sure you turn the sound up and you can hear all the ice pellets hitting the house:

Ava's ice skating recital

Actually, it was cancelled due to icy weather; however, we didn't get the message and neither did one of Ava's ice skating friends, Amanda. We arrived to the bad news. However, the ice rink management was nice enough to let the two of them get on the ice for awhile and skate around while the moms snapped pictures. All the pics came out kind of dark, though, but you get the idea.

After the "recital", Grammy Linda and Grampa Basil gave Ava a pretty pin with silver figure skates on it as a congratulations gift. So, it turned out to be a nice evening.

Completely buried in snow

They are calling this a "classic Maine winter" (as if it's a nice, nostalgic thing...riiiight). The front page of Bridgton News today let us know that we have now surpassed 12 FEET of snow this season, with an average of a plowable storm every 3 days for the past 3 months. It's getting surreal. Pretty much all the windows on the first floor look similar to the one below. The view's gone, but we're pretty well insulated now! Here's a taste of life these days...

Entombed on the first floor:

Ava emerging from the igloo, a/k/a our house:
The one below is a house on the way to Ava's school. I think the snow sliding off the roof looks like melted fondant on a fancy cake.

Nina, The Movie

Below is a quicktime film that Frederique sent to me. Francois put it together. It's a huge file so I didn't want to email it around. It's about 3 minutes long. Enjoy seeing this precious little angel!

Absolute Silliness

Need I say more? Ava and her friend Willow got up to some silly fun while the adults enjoyed margaritas and a mexican feast (c/o Chris) at our house last weekend:

Valentine's spirit

A few recent pics - enjoy!
Ava hand-wrote 22 valentine's cards (boxes) in one sitting. She was pretty tired by the end, as you can perhaps tell here!
Examples of Ava's handiwork. We are so proud of her!
Our side door. It's still technically a usable fire escape as the door opens easily, but the mountain of snow beyond would take some climbing to pass over!
Ava put on a valentine's "show" for me, Daddy, and Tiki (Ava's green teddy bear). Everyone got a pillow for a seat, with personalized seat reservations in their name. Here is Tiki's special seat.
Sleepy bed buddies.

Snowbound

Another 10" of snow last night. This is a picture of our living room window, which is getting snowed in. While the insulating qualities are nice, the screen is starting to bulge ominously (our house did not come with storms for all windows, hence the shrinkwrap on the inside).
Snowdrift by front door is now approaching the height of the door (and there are 3 steps up to the door from the ground). Front window is only a hint behind the snow at this point!
Lily was so confused, she pooped in the driveway this morning. I didn't come down too hard on her. All surfaces now look the same - snow, snow, and more snow.

First snowman of the year

Ava's been waiting patiently this winter for wet, sticky snow to make a snowman, and it finally arrived...to her delight and my chagrin as I got some major sweat going trying just to shovel out the walk. We had 4" of snow and then a bunch of rain, then 2" more snow, then more rain...you get the idea. Yucky, heavy, wet stuff! She did this little snowman mostly by herself - her friend John showed up at the last minute and helped her with the finishing touches.

If you look behind them, you can see that the snow mound to the right of the front doors has reached the height of the middle grill of the front window. If I stand in the path to the door, even I can't see over it. Shoveling has become really tough - you have to throw it high and then it really has no place to go and often comes showering back down. And we have 6 more weeks of winter?!? I almost (but not quite) yearn for the upcoming signal of spring - mud season.

Musher's Bowl Weekend!

This is one of Bridgton's big winter weeks, called "Musher's Bowl Winter Carnival" - lots of events all week. Today we took advantage of some of them. This morning, Ava and mommy went on a dogsled ride across the frozen lake. The dogs were a riot...they barked like crazy because they just wanted to run. As soon as we set off, it became very quiet and peaceful...a lot nicer than a loud snowmobile engine.
Box full o'sled dog puppies. Adorable!
Bridgton was home to a regional ice sculpting contest this week. This one is called "medieval dragon".
This crazy event is called "Freezin' for a Reason". Volunteers raise pledges and earn them by running into the local lake. Ava and I had watched some of the lake prep the day before - they sawed out the "pool" and hauled off big chunks of ice. As for the event itself, it was a balmy 26 degrees at this very moment! Luckily, a hot tub company provides a way for them to warm up after the plunge. The money goes to a local animal shelter. This event was VERY popular (for spectators, I mean!). We had a hard time finding a spot to see the jumpers, but managed to scale up a snowpile. Ava was tickled by the insanity!

To top off the day, Ava and I went to a friend's birthday party at the candlepin bowling lanes. Ava's never bowled before but took right to it. This is her "champion" look after knocking down several pins. Fun!

Even more snow...and a trip to Boston

Here are John and Ava atop the massive snowpile next to the front doors. I think from the road it's actually approaching 8 feet high. It's quite a bit taller than me. It's getting hard to shovel the front walk because it's difficult to throw the snow so high!
View from the breakfast table. You used to be able to see the neighborhood. Now we just stare dumbly at the snowpile and watch "snowvalanches" fall down from the metal roof. If you live in a snowy place, definitely have a metal roof! It is miraculous how the snow just slides right off.
Ava on our trip to Boston last weekend, doing a science experiment under the expert direction of Dr. Denise. They made giant jellied crystals and color-changing volcanoes. Very cool! Ava insisted on using the test tubes and got really good at drawing up liquid into the pipette.