Love Notes from a 5-Year-Old

On the days when Ramsey doesn't have school (Fridays or lately snow days!) or when he's not feeling well, Ramsey watches TV, plays toys, or hangs out with me in my office.

When he's in my office, lately he has been grabbing markers, pens, and anything he can find to draw or write on.  Then, he writes me love notes.

"💓 Mom"

 "Ramsey Loves Mom"

 "💓 Mom"

 "I Love Mom"

After I was gone for a few days, I came back and was given these:

"Ramsey Loves Mom"

 He made one for Connor too!  "Ramsey loves Conner".  We'll work on spelling Connor's name correctly.  😉

I treasure these and will not throw any of these in the garbage.  They're now tucked safely away in a file folder (that Ramsey drew on) and I'll keep them forever.  💖💕

Prayer Pillow

With the many snow storms in February and March, we hadn't been able to get to church for a LONG TIME!  Thankfully, the weather was beautiful on the 24th... the day Ramsey's Pre-K Sunday School class was to receive their prayer pillows and prayer booklets.

 The parents and Pre-K kids were invited to go in front of the congregation for a blessing and to pick out their very own prayer pillow.  I thought Ramsey would take forever to pick one, but he just grabbed one (it happened to be pink/purple with My Little Pony - somewhat of a different choice, but he liked it!).  Prior to church service, we spoke with the youth administrator to talk about the prayer pillow and teaching children about prayer at home.

The prayer booklet that was given fits nicely in a little pocket that the pillow has.  There are prayers for meal time, morning, night time, when "I'm sorry", for friends and family, etc.

 A previous project was to glue this little foam Jesus and friends art piece with the Lord's prayer.  It hangs in his bedroom, right above his bed.  Ramsey's known the Lord's prayer for quite some time, but now he reads it almost every night.  I think seeing the verbiage helps a little, especially the longer words.

Ramsey now has his booklet at his bedside and the cute little squishy pillow on his bed.... another soft comforting addition to his plethora of stuffed animals, babies, and bedtime pals.   💗💚💓

Darth Snowman

While I was gone for a few days, the rest of the family had "boy time".  :-)   Part of that time was spent outside, playing in the snow.   It was the perfect type of snow for making snowmen; rather damp and malleable.

Ramsey played with Connor outside for about an hour and a half, building a snowman.  Eric said when he came in, he was DRENCHED, like he'd been swimming in the lake in his snow clothes.

Connor remained outside for another hour and a half completing said snowman!   He used sticks for arms, then covered the sticks in snow.  The "force choke" hand took several attempts to perfect (when I say perfect, I mean he had to redo it repeatedly because it kept falling apart!).   This was quite a dedicated effort by our 17-year-old.

Rise.... Darth Snowman!

 The black spray paint was a fun touch, as were the Darth Vader mask and the red light saber!

Sunday - Cabin Fever!

We all had a bad case of it... cabin fever.  The sun had been shining for the last few days and it was above freezing!   It seemed like a great day to go sledding, make snowmen, and throw snowballs.
Ramsey was chomping at the bit.   Riggs was going even more bananas to get out the door (though he had to remain inside while we were sledding)

The snow was a bit spongy from so much sunshine and thaw, so sledding wasn't the greatest option.  I tried and didn't get very far. 

Eric had a better idea and decided to buzz down the hill.

 I think he decided that was a bad idea.  Or, as Ramsey would say, he "made a poor choice".  I think he wrenched his back pretty good.

 So, of course the snowball fight ensued.  "Boys against GIRL" (thanks Ramsey!).   I don't think I'd laughed that hard in a long time.

Since we couldn't sled, I let Riggs out of the house so he could bound around too.  That dog is so fast.  He ran through the snow like a flash of lightning, even though he was sinking in.  I envied his enthusiasm and energy!

The Latest Blizzard

I suppose I could have entitled this post "ANOTHER Another Blizzard", but geez, that gets to be so redundant!   But, it's apropos, considering the way this winter has gone.  Blizzard... dig out.... blizzard... dig out...   Ramsey has been learning about patterns in school.  That is definitely a pattern - one that we're hoping comes to and end QUICKLY!

Eric left work at noon on Wednesday, with the assumption he would not make it home that evening.   Needless to say, all of us were housebound until Friday evening, when the snow plows finally arrived at about 6 PM.

The ferocious storm, given the name "Ulmer" - and considered a "land hurricane", proved fierce and constant winds, up to 55 and 60 mph!  We didn't have a massive amount of snow, only around 6" or so, for a total snowfall of around 70" (twice as much as we usually get, but not as bad as the winter of 1996-1997).   Amidst the chaotic state of nature, we were lucky and did not lose power once.  Others were not so lucky and were without power for days.

The pics below were of another road on the lake that got hit bad.   We couldn't make it 50 feet up the road to see how truly awful it got.

 Some drifts got to over 12' + tall.   The highway department was only able to get one lane open on our main road's curves, just West of the bridge.  It's days later and I've heard they're STILL digging.

So here was our super fun Friday night:

Ramsey and Riggs had MUCH more fun than Eric did.  I just came out to move my vehicle... and look around, in awe.

This was a big and slippery pile.  I was quite impressed that Ramsey was able to make it to the top!

The drifts in front of the house and garage were more impressive and were rock hard.   Riggs enjoyed himself.

And Ramsey did too.  They played for a long time.  Ramsey even let Riggsy have his "sword".

And Ramsey found a really cool spot by the garage, just on top of the wood pile.

Another Blizzard

It's the weekend.... we're confined to the house (yet again).  What the heck is there to do?

 Ramsey sneaked the rest of the donut holes (with his mouth full, he admitted to eating the last five when we weren't looking!)  The trickster had quite the set-up going.

Eric put on a little talent show, to prove his mad juggling skills.  Notice the awestruck audience, nicely sitting with legs crossed, taking it all in. ha!

 Cookies were requested, so we whipped up a batch in the Easy Bake oven.

 And, once the snow had stopped (we got 10"), the boys went outside (at bedtime, no less) and play a game that Daddy invented called "Endurance" to see who could last the longest in the snow before crying "uncle".   (Although when Dad created the game, the dare was to go outside in your underwear - no one was up for that!) 
Prior to heading outside, Connor sneaked away for a few  minutes.  When he returned, he was wearing six shirts, five pairs of pants, then topped it off with Eric's parka, a face mask, polar boots, and gloves.   The kid was determined he was going to outlast his little brother!!  (We weren't quite sure why he didn't just put on his snow pants and a fleece as base layers, but it was humorous, nonetheless.)

 Connor won!  (Ramsey called it at about 10 minutes.)  He had found an icicle to munch on as well.  Meanwhile, Ramsey couldn't see any longer, as his glasses had fogged up to the point of no return.

Ramsey later exclaimed, "This is the best day of my life!! My brother is here!"

Message to Old Man Winter

This winter has been continuous snow and ridiculously crazy winds, causing wind chills in the -40's and even -50's!    For Eric, his personal time has been consumed with countless hours/days of snow-blowing, only to then hear the wind pick up, signaling that it needs to be done all over again.  I hear the grumbling daily (and I GET IT!!!).

It snowed again on Friday (Eric cleared the walkway and driveway...again) and the wind blew like mad on Saturday and Sunday.  Last night, when Eric was done snow-blowing, he told me to go outside and look.

Curious, I bundled up (it was a balmy -8° at the time) and shuffled outside to see his handiwork yet again.    Eric had a message for Old Man Winter:

 I wondered why he asked me for a can of red spray paint!!

Fun fact:  We broke another record on March 3rd.  According to the news, it was -20°, breaking the -15° from 1916!  The wind chills that day had reached -46°.  BR-RRRR!