Writing From the Frozen Tundra

School is closed...again. It's our fifth snow day this year (we were off yesterday too). And While Ava is excited for the immediate mini vacation,  I'm pretty sure the snow days now need to be made up at the end of the year which is going to be a bit of a bummer when that comes around...in Ava's words, "Why should we have to make the days up? It's not our fault!"

I kind of agree babe. But school is school and there are rules...and so sadly, the poor kiddos will be writing their ABC's when the sun is finally shining in Buffalo. Seems kind of unfair in my book too, but what can you do?

For me, I feel like I'm writing from a cave in the frozen tundra of Antarctica. When you have three kids to bundle up, in addition to yourself, it's really easier to just stay inside. And probably safer.  So we do.

Yesterday we made cookies and colored pictures. We listed to the Frozen soundtrack 42 times...so much so that Scott and I laughed about the fact that we woke up singing the songs in our heads this morning. The girls are cute. They like to put on dresses and plastic shoes and turn the music up and pretend they're in their own movie or Broadway play in our living room. The actual movie happens to be about two sisters, just several years apart, who both happen to have big blue eyes, so our living room version is well cast and a good fit (:

And quite frankly, what could be a more fitting soundtrack to our current days at home?  Frozen songs in the frozen tundra. Perfect!

We spent part of yesterday morning making new bracelets on the Rainbow Loom (for those of you who don't know (which probably means you don't have kids!) the rubber band looms are the new craze in bracelet making for the school kids). Ava tried a more complicated pattern and Ella made a simple fishtail which she has been wearing around the house with great pride.

They're at it again this morning with the new rubber bands I picked up last night!

Here are a few photos from our cold, frozen days:

The backyard.

The front yard.

Ava's book and the case we picked up for her rubber bands. 

Drumroll please....the bracelets! 

Ella's read along Frozen book. The girls sat on the couch and read together...so cute! 

Ava's book that I've been reading with her. 

I had to add this. Aubrey's INCREDIBLY cute thighs. 

Aubrey has made it to the very confident and mobile crawling stage and is starting to get into everything. EVERYTHING. The DVD cabinet, the girls toys, the garbage can, the dishwasher, drawers, cabinets, laundry baskets...you name it. If it is not an age appropriate toy, she's interested. If it is an age appropriate toy, it mostly gets left sitting untouched in her wake. You know, a house full of plastic toys and all they want is the box of pampers wipes or a piece of cardboard.

She's still gumming food with her two bottom teeth (which is nothing less than adorable) and likes to babble with long strings of "ma, ma, ma. ba, ba, ba. da, da, da."

Sometimes she goes on about "Bob" too..."Bob, bob, bob, bob" with her chubby cheeks. The girls have taken a note from Scott's book and like to ask her who and where Bob is.

"Aubrey! Bob's not here you silly girl," Ava will say. "Whose Bob?"

It's quite funny.

The house is pretty much trashed at the end of most days. I like to say it looks like we had a frat party at the end of every day and Scott and I get to be the clean up crew, minus the beer bottles which have been replaced by Avent plastic bottles filled with water for the baby at meal time.

 Between Aubrey's insistence on pulling out everything she can find and dumping every basket she comes across, and the girls incredibly creative imaginations and play times, we're starting to accept that it is simply the new landscape of our life. A little messier than one I would have painted, but I'm pretty sure that's an excellent metaphor for life in general, right?

There was so much stuff scattered around the living room and kitchen table the other day that Scott thought he would be funny and make a point of it all. He started taking random items, a box of granola, a paper towel, his hat, and threw them willy nilly on the floor. "Look, let's just throw this here. Why pick it up? And this, let's throw this over there," he says as he launches the paper towel over his shoulder. "I'm not going to pick up at ALL tonight. Not a thing. And neither is mom!"

The girls looked on with mixed alarm and amusement. Probably a very justified reaction."Dad, you guys aren't going to pick ANYTHING up? But...but...but...You have to. You're the parents!"

It must have made an impact. Within a half hour Ava started putting blankets away and picked the box of cereal up off the floor. As a matter of fact this morning she told me that she cleaned up the entire living room while I was out last night. AND thanked us the following morning when, in fact, the downstairs was picked up and she was thankful to be able to make it to the breakfast table without tripping on a shoe.

Reverse psychology. I guess it really works!

And while I've been brewing on some posts on more significant subject matter than snow days and Disney movies, life with three girlies has been marching on so fast that not a whole lot is getting written...Or, when I sit down to actually write, my brain seems currently incapable of deeper thoughts.

Here's my take-- the current snow is deep enough, we don't need anything else deep right now, right.

So...we'll save the deep thoughts for a sunnier day.  And if you're one of my friends living down South...feel free to start sending real estate listings. I'm ready!!