And it snowed and snowed and snowed some more....

After last year, I thought we had seen the most snow in any given winter that we would here in this area. But NO, this year has definitely topped that. I feel like I am in Montana! We haven't seen clear ground in over a month now. We had done plenty of shoveling, playing in the snow and sledding. The Kids Castle and Central Park are behind the school my kids go to and there was great sledding and playing there last weekend as you can see from the pictures.
We might get our mailbox dug out by the end of February but who knows!

Fun in the Tub!

Let me preface this post by saying that my younger kids LOVE taking baths. Jacob likes his bath really hot though, which earned him the nickname" Hot Master" from Evan.

Above: Evan with spiky hair after his bath

Jacob in the tub

Matth swimming like a fish!

Matthew with his clothes on in the bath! This was so funny! Jacob had taken a bath earlier in the afternoon and left the water in the tub. Matthew discovered it and climbed in and Ben found him as he went upstairs after work. The video is funny!

Matthew sings "Don't You Want Me Baby?" as he is fully clothed in the tub





Evan being a Rock Star after his bath

Fun in the Kitchen!

Ben and Benjamin had to make a cake for the Father-Son cake contest at the Gold and Blue banquet for Cub Scouts this year. Benjamin has been all about Pacman and so they made a Devil's Food Cake and covered it with Marshmallow Fondant that they made from this recipe in this blog post: http://atsecondstreet.blogspot.com/2009/10/mario-kart-birthday-cake.html

This was a great recipe that I got in my King Arthur Flour email and had to try. It turned out so delicious. We made a few substitutions but were very pleased with how it turned out (and so were the friends that we gave the second loaf to:) Here is the recipe: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/jan-bretts-crunchy-whole-grain-bread-recipe

Homemade Marshmallows are so fun and pretty easy with this recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/homemade-marshmallows-recipe/index.html
We love to experiment with colors and flavorings. The key is really to coat them well with the powdered sugar-cornstarch mixture.

Matthew Discovers that Snow is Fun!

Matthew has never had any interest in going out in snow and the couple of times I tried to take him out, it ended in tears. So I was surprised when he came trotting out the door one day last week as Benjamin and Evan were getting home from school. There was a light snow falling and Matthew actually verbalized "Snow", "Snowflakes" and "So fun!" I was so glad that I could capture it!

Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service

Our community and the general Philadelphia area does this great day of service every year and our church always has something available to do at our building. This is the first year that we have gone as a family and it was great! The kids had so much fun coloring and filling the boxes and it was cool to see what people were drawing. Benjamin and Evan had fun drawing video games on their boxes, Jacob just loved filling them and Matthew just had fun running around once he got bored. All in all, it was a great family activity with friends!