The Cahill's

Yesterday we had a cold front blow in with snow and ice. It’s 18 degrees as I type and our sliding glass door is frozen shut. Brrr!!!

I spent most of yesterday baking in an effort to warm the house but later that afternoon I bundled up the kids to go and explore the ice.

Lance thought it was great fun to have his feet slip and slide – especially if I was holding his hand so he wouldn’t fall. We also enjoyed watching the cars attempt to park on a small incline; tires spinning helplessly as they lost ground.

Ivy took the experience in her typical straightforward way. Caution is not her middle name and she didn’t want to hold my hand. Fortunately she had enough clothing on to pad her falls.

Back inside I searched about for something to slide on. I found a cardboard box that had formerly served as a “tunnel” and set about converting it into a toboggan.

Duct tape held things together while clear packing tape served to make the bottom slick as…well, ice!

Riding in a sled is cold even if it is fun. So we warmed up with some hot chocolate and remembered why we don’t live any farther north than Dallas!

Lance is quickly developing into a little man. He is very curious about Daddy going to work and shows rapt attention when Daddy does projects around the house. He even recognizes which jobs are man jobs and will volunteer to do them: I was unloading the sleeping girls from the car after running errands and Lance reminded me there were groceries to unload and insisted on taking some in himself.

Early last week our washing machine started to leak. Brian opened up the machine to find the problem and both kids watched in wonder!

Lance  stuck by Daddy for the entire project and even dug his drill out of the toy box when he saw that Daddy was using one. He kept telling me “Lance is working” in a very serious voice.

Lance also believes in working smarter, not harder. Or maybe it’s because this was Mommy’s project of gathering leaves to mulch in a friend’s garden.

Here Lance shows his manliness raking leaves – maybe you just have to give a guy tools to inspire work.

Or maybe it’s the presence of another man.

Saturday at breakfast Brian said he needed to take the car to have the tires rotated and oil changed. I asked Lance if he wanted to go to work with Daddy and suddenly breakfast was forgotten and he was sliding out of his chair to find his shoes. He was one proud little guy waving goodbye to Mommy and the baby as he “went to work.”

Ivy often tags along but her idea of work is a little different. That and the lift at the car place was a little scary.

And here’s Flora working up an appetite – this is how she acts when it’s almost time to eat!

We were at home Sunday morning due to illness and around noon I stepped outside to get something and discovered it was snowing!

We bundled the kids up and took them outside to enjoy it. They were awestruck and Lance got the cutest little grin on his face.

Out in the parking lot there was enough accumulation on the car to make snowmen. Over Christmas the kids really got to liking snowmen (or at least the pictures and decorations) so when we actually made one it took a few minutes to sink in. However, they soon got into the process and helped to stack the snowballs we made.

Lance would count them “1…2…3!” No matter how many we made he always came up with that number.

Of course, things eventually degraded into a snowball fight. I think Lance takes after Daddy 🙂

Finally we made some tracks in the snow.

Lance and Ivy walked hand in hand. Good thing we enjoyed it right away because several hours later it was melted!