Snow Fun Filled Weekend

We hope that all of our family and friends had a fabulous week and weekend!  Addie was not feeling well during the first part of the week due to her stomach bug but she was well enough during the weekend to have fun outside!

 

We have what appears to be a baby opossum that has been hanging around our yard.  Thunder is checking out "George"  :)

On Saturday we went for a hike at Tinker Falls

Cool fungi on the tree that we hiked by!

Check out the large "wheel" of snow that rolled down the hill!

Adam and Addie rolled more snow balls down the hill.

Ayson pretended to be squashed by a snowball.

Caught in the act!

It made it down the hill!

We chose Tinker Falls so that we could check out the ice at the waterfall :)

As we were leaving the waterfall, Addie rolled one more ball down the hill.

And then the kids decided to make a snowmen :)

Saturday afternoon was Winter Fest at Stafford Park - hosted by the Optimist Club

Free food, a sledding hill, sleigh rides, broom ball, ice skating (but the weather was too warm for skating), music, and fireworks!!!

Adam serving hotdogs and hot chocolate while wearing his Zinc International shirt!

A Polka band :)

Adam captured a great picture of the fireworks.  Unfortunately, Amy had to take the kiddos home WAY earlier because the kids were cold and cranky :)

On Sunday, Amy and Addie went ice skating while Adam and Ayson cut and stacked firewood!  Addie did a great job and did not need to use the "skate helper" for very long.  We hope to go skating again soon!!!

February Snow

 A quick week for the kiddos with a snow day on Friday!  Unfortunately, Addie did not really enjoy her extra day off as she threw up early Friday morning in a specular fashion all over her bedroom floor - poor baby doll!  So, we had a pretty low key weekend around the house and yard.  We hope that all of our family and friends are doing well and staying healthy!!!

Pictures of 4 month old Sage.  Our friends that breed leopard geckos wanted to see what she looked like so we had to send more than one picture  :)  

Ayson and his creations.

Three boys watching the birds

Goodbye January!

Hard to believe that the first month of 2022 is almost over!  Nothing new and exciting with A^4 and we like it that way :)  We hope that everyone is doing well, staying healthy, and making time to get outside!!

Second bloom on the amaryllis

On Thursday, the elementary school had a visit from a children's book author Gordon Korman.  He has written 99 books and his 100th book will come out this summer.  He wrote his first book while in the 7th grade!  Ayson has read 3 of his books, Addie has 1 book, and we all hope to read more of his books!  He signed all four of our books :)  

Shadow insisted on sitting on Ayson's shelf - which meant a few things had to be knocked down (by Shadow) for him to fit in the space.

Amy and Ayson went down hill skiing on Friday afternoon but no pictures.  We tired a new ski run and the view from the higher ski lift was incredible!!!  

Another successful cross country ski trip for the family on Saturday at Highland Forest.  Addie had a slight difficulty with a turn and Adam had to help her up!

Brrr it was cold (2 degrees) but it was fun and the kids did fantastic on the skis!

Ice crystals on Addie's eye lashes

The kiddos had fun going fast on a gentle downhill slope.

Sunday was gorgeous outside so after chores were done, we all went out for fresh air.

Congrats to Mrs Oliver and Fun in the Snow

A quick week for the A^4 with lots of fun outside.  We hope that everyone is doing well and making time to RELAX!!! 

On January 15th, Amy found out that our friend, Mrs Beverly Oliver, is the 2022 recipient of the Martin Luther King Jr Unsung Hero Award, from Syracuse University. The University has honored MLK Jr for 37 years with celebrations and Mrs Oliver has been working with kiddos in LaFayette and Syracuse for over 35 years!  The ceremony will be on 1/30/22 at 7 pm and held virtually this year BUT everyone can participate for free by registering here.  We are so happy for Mrs Oliver - she has given so much to the families and she absolutely LOVES the kiddos. 

Amy and the kiddos had Monday off for the MLK Jr Holiday, so we slept in and then played outside after wishing congratulations to Mrs Oliver.

Sledding in the side yard.

Fort building time!!

Hi Addie!!

Full bloom on Wednesday

Ayson purchased a new game console that lets him play retro games that Amy and Adam grew up playing.

On Saturday, we investigated the animal tracks in the snow.  We had possum, squirrel, cat, dog, deer, White-footed mouse, bird, and fox tracks!!!  Also, Adam saw a SKUNK on our backyard security camera (purchased mostly so that Adam can see the outside world while he is working in his office:) So cool!

Of course after we looked at the tracks the kids wanted to play outside again :)

We started off sledding in the side yard and then graduated to the park across the street.

The kids are fearless and had so much fun!

Saturday evening, Amy and Addie joined Mrs Oliver at another friends house to help Mrs Oliver prepare for her interview on Tuesday and for the ceremony on Sunday.  While the adults were chatting, Addie and Piper had fun giggling and playing:)

On Sunday, we took the kiddos cross country skiing for the first time at Highland Forest (has a ski rental shop) and the kiddos did a fabulous job on x country skis!!!  Yay!  Now we have more than winter hiking as an option for the entire family.  Adam has no interest in downhill skiing and Amy is always afraid she is going to wipe out and hurt herself...hahaha.

Adam showed Ayson how to make pizza from scratch on Sunday afternoon: prepping and rolling the dough to adding toppings (cheese is still the favorite type of pizza for the kids :)

Meanwhile, Addie and Amy played with Addie's horse farm set.