The Ice Storm 2010

To commemorate the 1 year anniversary of our move to Arkansas, history decided to repeat itself by hitting us with an ice storm.  The weather forecast called for 1/2 to 1 inch of ice, way more than what Fayetteville got last year.  With the prospect of power outages like last year, we left town and headed up north to Springfield, MO.

The kids, especially Desmond, were so excited at the idea of spending a night (possibly more) at a hotel.  Des was just beside himself all day saying "I'm ready to go to the hotel.  I want to go to the hotel."  He would go over to our garage door and wait there thinking that we were going to depart right at that moment.  Sometimes I couldn't appease him at all while we waited for Dada to come back from work so that we could leave town.

But eventually we did and we made it safely to the hotel and after dinner settled into our room.  The kids watched Kai-Lan on Dada's iPhone before bedtime while we kept checking the weather forecast.

We went to bed early, with Stella and me in one bed and Dada and Des in the other.

When we woke up the next day and checked the weather forecast, we found out the ice storm of 2010 lacked the punch that they were predicting, which was good news.  Because the temperature was so cold, the storm produced a lot more snow and a lot less ice.  Our house never lost power.  So we basically drove up to Springfield, MO and spent the night in a hotel for no reason.  Although, the kids would disagree :=)

So after a leisurely breakfast, we drove back and driving was fine up until we crossed the Arkansas border.  In Ark, they had not plowed the highway at all, so we had to drive very, very slow to make it home.  And when we finally made it to our street, it was another challenge to make it to our driveway because we live at the very top of a really steep hill.  The neighborhood kids were using our street as one big hill and sledding down from the top of our driveway all the way to the bottom of the hill.

These pictures above of our deck and front porch shows you how much snow we got.  Dada and the kids went out today to play in the snow.

Since we don't have a sled, we had to improvise.  Here's Stella sledding down the small hill in our backyard on the lid of our recycling bin.  She loved it!!!

Des sled down once or twice, but didn't seem to care for it much.  He much preferred to dig and stomp around in the snow and scoop it up into his sand bucket.

We sure are very happy to have power and a warm house!

My Puzzle Masters

The other day, I saw Des doing puzzles backwards, meaning the puzzle pieces are flipped over so that the picture side is down and he pieces them together just based on fit and dimensions.  Stella used to do the same thing back in the day when she was just 2 years old.  I am amazed at how quickly Des is catching up, despite starting on puzzles much later than Stella.

Today, I also saw Stella and Des working together to complete a giant floor puzzle.  They were working well together for the most part, but no interaction between these two are ever argument and tussle-free, as you can see from the picture below.

Lady In Red

Along with the dress up costumes, Ommy had included some outfits for Stella in the package she sent us...like this gorgeous red crochet sweater and black pants.
I just absolutely love the crochet sweater and its beautiful red color.
And since it was such a nice day here today (in the 60s) Stella wore to her piano lesson.
Trying to take pictures of her in the outfit was difficult as she did not want to stand still or stop from making silly faces.
And I can't forget about my handsome little man, when taking pictures.

We hung out outside and "popped" berries (squishing the red holly berries with our feet, one of Des's favorite things to do) while Dada and Stella went inside for her piano lesson.

Here is another outtake with Stella making silly faces and Des trying to do the same.

The Adventures of Shark Boy and Cat Girl

Stella and Des got a  package in the mail yesterday with all sorts of fun hand-me-down dress-up costumes from their cousins.  When they opened up the box, it was like Christmas morning all over again with all of the neat costumes that were in it.  Stella and Des had lots of fun this morning trying on all of the different costumes.  Here they are dressed up as Shark Boy and Cat Girl!

Another fun costume was this horse outfit.  You put it around your torso with suspender like straps and the horses head and front legs hang in front of the body while the horse's rear, tail, and hind legs dangle behind the body.  They each got a horse costume:  Desmond's horse is tan and Stella's horse is white.

Stella also got a lot of princess dress-up costumes like this Belle costume.  (Stella didn't want to take pictures anymore and thus her sourpuss expression in the pic below).

A big thanks to our cousins for sending us some great costumes to play with!

Chicks Rule!

One of Dada's colleagues, Gisella, who Dada had collaborated with last year, works with chickens studying autoimmune mechanisms in disease models like vitiligo.  Apparently, chickens get vitiligo as well!  Anyway, she had told Dada that when her chicks hatched in January, we were more than welcome to come see them.  Well the chicks hatched and we all went out to her lab to see the 3-day old chicks as well as adult hens and roosters. 

Stella did not care too much for the smell of the feed and shavings on the floor so she stood there initially holding her nose and complaining about the smell (see left pic below). 

But then Ms. Gisella gave her a mask to wear (which was very loose on her) which abated her complaints.  She was then all excited to hold the little soft chicks.

Stella, eventually lost the mask and was fine with it because she had gotten used to the smell by then.

After we were done with the baby chicks, Gisella showed us her hens and roosters.

Desmond's favorite part of the whole visit were the roosters.  He got a kick out of how loud they were, especially when you talked to them, they would get all riled up and "talk" back all at once and all very loudly =:)  Gisella was kind enough to take some of the roosters out so that the kids could pet them.

Dada even got in on the action!

Snow Day

It snowed for the first time while WE were here in Ark this winter (It may have snowed while we were in NJ but this is the first time we have been here to enjoy it).  It snowed about 3-4 inches or so and since the kids have been dying to play in the snow, they got all bundled up to go outside.

Des making a snowball

Stella making a snow angel

Our next door neighbor's cat, Roo,came out to play with us for a little bit.

Dada made a tiny snowman for the kids.

Des lasted a good 30 minutes out in the snow, probably because his footsies were cold (he didn't have snow boots and had to use his rain boots instead).  Stella could have stayed out in the snow for hours but came inside once Dada came in, after about an hour or so.  Once they got inside, they warmed up with some hot chocolate.  Des is fighting a real bad cold that he picked up from Stella, who came down with it the day after Christmas.  Stella is almost better but is still congested and coughing.  So playing in the snow was a nice distraction from thinking about their yucky colds.