End of January: snow and more snow

The kiddos are cute.

In mid-January, so long ago now, Oliver reached the 17-month-old milestone.

As usual, he was happy about this.

He's also begun following in Maddie's footsteps and experimenting with fashion ...

... and the potty (usually fully clothed).

He's also become a very energetic and chatty little guy.  He is really working on expanding his working vocabulary, taking particular delight in identifying animals in books: cows, ducks, chickens, sheep, cats, dogs, and, especially, owls ("WHOOOO! WHOOOO!") and goats ("GOAT!!!!!!").

One snowy weekend, we attended a birthday party at an indoor space full of giant inflatable playthings.

Then that night, I tried my hand at Rhode Island-style calamari for the first time.  In fact, it was my first time deep-frying anything.  It turned out so well that we decided it had to be documented.

Oliver approved too.

Another day, Madeline made a "snowy owl nest" out of a discus and a mop head.

Still another day, she asked, "Where do potatoes come from?"  We illustrated the fact that they are plants by pulling some sprouted potatoes out of the pantry.

Then, after dinner, Madeline fell asleep looking particularly adorable.

During the week, we were hit with a blizzard.

Out of curiosity, we went out in the snow midway through the storm, before the snow was too deep.

It seemed to make sense to attempt sledding before the snow was two feet deep.

But the snow was already too deep for really good sledding, the winds were blowing hard and, before we'd spent too much time outside we fled back into the house ...

... for some hot cocoa.

Then we had a fire.

And our little house was a picture of coziness in a sea of snow.

The next day, the state was still closed down but the wind was no longer blowing, so we went out to explore the snow.

A friendly neighbor with a snow blower helped make it possible to walk on the driveway.

Oliver was impressed by the three-foot snowdrifts ...

... and by shovels (another favorite word right now).

I hid behind a snowdrift and we had a snowball fight until the kiddos ended up plowing through my fortress walls.

Then, again, we got toasty inside ...

... with a nice fire in the fireplace.

(For the record, this post catches us up to January 28, so we're still over a week -- another very snowy week -- behind.)