Exploring snow-covered OSV with my man Merrik!

With Jonah in school all day, every day, our adventures w/ both boys are getting fewer & far between. But Merrik & I stay busy! Last week it was a trip to Old Sturbridge Village amidst the snow BUT it was about 60 degrees out. YAHOO!
Here they have a great sledding hill. He made a few trips up & down before surrendering to the slushy track. We'll return when it's frozen again - shouldn't take too long!

M loves to look down at the "water fall" as he calls it. There are several small dams that they use for the mills. This one had some great icicles which you can see on the upper right corner of this photo, attached to the bottom of the wooden base of the mill. Brr!

Trudging through the muck towards the covered bridge.

M & this 2&1/2-yr-old ox had quite the little play session going on. While M was up on the fence, the ox kept nosing his boots. M thought it was hysterical. Then they were 'talking' to each other & giving each other the stare down. TOO cute.

It's the little things that make me smile...

"SURE, why wouldn't there be a super hero perched on my candle holder?!?" Compliments of Merrik.

In honor of President's Day, Jonah had a thing or two to say about it. LOVE it!

Jonah's self-portrait. This is his "Flat Jonah" -- for his "Flat Stanley" project at school. I just thought this little guy was so adorable.

I Feel The Love!!

This is what my sweetheart came home with on Valentines Day. What a guy!!

Bee-YOO-tee-full roses from him!

And he always gets flowers for the boys to give me, too. So sweet! And the house smells so good with them scattered around the downstairs!

Boston Children's Museum

Jonah & Dan on the huge hanging climbing structure thingy. :)

Merrik the Hop Scotch King, outside of the bus Jonah was 'driving'.

Ben going wild in the Bell Room.

The view out one of the windows. Not bad, eh? Hello, Boston.

Well, everyone asks so here's the official report. Jonah is 4' 9"-ish. And he is 6. OK, well, he will be 7 tomorrow. But still. Yikes. :)
Jared & I were talking about how tall Jonah is & he said, "He must've gotten the Burton height genes." And I said, "Well the Cowdens aren't shrimps either." And Jared said, "Yeah Hon, but we're not off the charts & setting records. We're average." ...OK. He does have a point.

I found Dan amidst the chaos of the hanging climbing structure thingy. It's like a giant hanging maze crawling with kiddos. Not an easy feat.

After the Boston Children's Museum, we all walked to Faneuil Hall Marketplace in downtown Boston for lunch. And let's see, Dan fell asleep in my arms during the walk there. Tyler fell asleep on Tim's lap the moment we all sat down w/ our food. And Jonah slept 11 hours that night. I think we managed to wear them out! It really was a super fun day.

Boys, boys, BOYS!

All the boys watching "Lightning McQueen".

A rare moment of 'down time' with all boy the cousins. They are Ben (2), Merrik (4), Tyler (4), Jonah (6) and Dan (2).

At the window of the Boston Children's Museum!

The North Carolina COUSINS visit!!

My brother & his family made the trip from North Carolina to come visit us. In the dead of winter. They are so brave. And we were SO happy to have them here. Their visit did wonders for our winter cabin fever.

And we happily shared our snow with them, too! :)

Here's my brother Tim getting a good workout in - compliments of Mother Nature!

Ben w/ shovel in hand. This is his, "Say Cheese!" face! :)

Kat (my sister-in-law) with Daniel, one of their twins. I still can't decide if their boys liked our sledding hill or not. :)

... although Tyler seems pretty happy here on the hill!

If it's going to be cold, as least let there be SNOW!

I do not particularly love the subzero temperatures of Massachusetts in the dead of winter. However, if it's going to be cold, I say 'at least bring snow'! The snow makes everything much prettier! And this winter I have not been disappointed! I really don't mind snow as long as I don't have to drive in it. Thankfully the boys have snow days off from school & Jared is blessed to be able to work from home on those days, so it all works out. :)

A panoramic view of our driveway & side yards.

Just a cool tree after a new snowfall.

One of our trees. This may be more of a bush but from this angle, it looks really tall. I must've been squatting to get this shot.

And the view looking out our front entryway. We recently had a layer of freezing rain cover the already-snow covered yard, which made a great reflection of the full moon that night!

Greetings from the Arctic Northeast!!

Yep, that's our mailbox. I'm fairly certain that our mail carrier gave an audible chuckle as she passed our house for the next few days following this storm, as it took that long to muster up the energy to dig it out. Needless to say, we missed a few days of service here.

And it's a snowy walk out the front door! Careful, that first step's a doozy!

"Igloo Sweet Igloo"

A view from our front steps.

These steps were becoming the bane of my existence. On either side of them is a build up of snow that the snowblower flings there from the driveway. So as you can see, it took a lot of muscle to shovel that snow up & over the huge mounds. Phew!

Digging out!!

And here is the snow almost up to the top of my legs. Yes, it's really fun to walk in. Well, it's a good workout at least. That's one benefit of record snowfall is that dealing with the aftermath burns a LOT of calories!

Dealing with Cabin Fever!!

This photo got out of order but this is Jared's handy work w/ tattoo markers. Yes, it's been a LONG winter!

Snowflakes on my mitten. :) One morning at the bus stop, I was showing Jonah that when it's cold enough, you can see all the details in the snowflakes just like the little paper snow flakes you cut out. He thought that was SO cool. I have to admit, I thought it was too!

Yeah, we've had a little snow. This is right out our front door.

More flame tattoos! Compliments of Jared.

It is a wonder that M let this photo be taken. Usually he's hiding from the camera. BUT he was very proud of his 'tattoos' so he's showing them off!

And who hasn't seen camo-sleeping bag "worms" wiggling around the kitchen?!?

Motocross Adventure!

Jared's brother won free tickets to the Motocross in Worcester, which he gave to us. Yay!
(I finally figured out the right setting on my camera just before the batteries died. SO these two photos are the best I could do. :) Everything else was just a blur.)

It was a pretty fun night. It's amazing what those guys can do with a motorcycle while flying thru the air!!
Merrik of course fell asleep on my lap around 8:30pm. Jonah was still wide awake & going strong when we left around 9:15. I think he would still be there watching it if we'd let him. He is a man for adventure!

Wintering at OSV

...off the beaten path.

This is one way to get around The Village!

Our frozen walk through OSV.

Cloaked boys on a giant sleigh.

AND ...

What's wrong with this picture???