Hawaii - pictures now, talk later
It seems a little weird to follow up the last icey post with pictures at the beach but that is about how it went. We left Columbus with new snow on the ground on the morning of the Japan tsunami, spent nearly two weeks in paradise with lows reaching 68 and highs of 83, and then came home to barely above freezing highs and a broken furnace. I want to go back! Details to follow...

Winter Blahs
I've been in hibernation this winter. The ice and cold had me a bit blue and not wanting to leave the house. Today's sunshine and the promise of an upcoming warm vacation has gone a long way to improve my attitude. Gratefully, we've had friends and family with fun invitations to convince us to get out.
In January we went on a shortened version on the Hocking Hills Winter Hike with friends and about 5000 other crazies. The normal version is a 6 mile snow trek in the forest past waterfalls and caves with a lunch stop along the way- free bean soup and corn bread. Our version was a leisurely walk around Old Man's Cave with plenty of stopping for pictures and fun and an awesome lunch at a BBQ joint on the way home. And of course Cadie's highlight: riding the school bus that was shuttling people from the parking lots to the hike start. The frozen waterfalls were spectacular and it was great to be in the woods.




In February my brother came to the air force base in Dayton for a week. We were able to head over one evening after work and have dinner with him. Cadie convinced him to play the arcade games with her and now wants us to save all of our quarters for Micah's next visit.


Here's to warmer weather and more happy sunshine.

Laundry
I need an intervention. My laundry pile has now backed all the way up the laundry chute to the first floor.

Trains, Gingerbread, and Snow
We went to a faculty member's home for a holiday party and there were a zillion trains set up in the house - most of them kid-friendly for grandchildren. There was even a train in the basement that Cadie could ride! She was in heaven - best work party ever in her view. This prompted us to head to the downtown library on Saturday where there is a train set up for the holidays - we hit the library just in time for a train story time.


Last week we had playgroup over to make gingerbread houses (out of graham crackers). The houses were totally for the adults, the kids just wanted to sneak candies and then go back to playing.


We finally got some snow on the ground last week (lots more today). Cadie was so excited when she woke up - she wanted to make snow angels. I had been explaining the concept and we had been practicing on the carpet indoors so I couldn't let her down. We pulled on all of our snow gear to go roll around in the lightly dusted grass. Snow angels were ok, the snowman did not work out. But C was happy. There is supposed to be a few inches on the ground tomorrow morning, so I think we'll go for round two.

Turkey with the Eric(k)s
Turkey Trot time! I ran the 5-miler this year and finished fast enough to get a pumpkin pie (given to the first 1000 men and 1000 women finishers). Anything for pie!
Cadie ran the tot trot and unlike last year, she really enjoyed it (no sitting down in the middle of the road in tears as soon as the horn went off). She especially loved jumping in the puddles with Dad while waiting for mom to finish the race.


We headed to Cincinnati for Thanksgiving with Summer and Erik, friends from Brighton High. They had other friends over as well and that husband was also an Eric! Poor Gunnar (age 9) was the only male not named Eric and he had 6 little girls following him around. Eric T spent some quality time with him on the Nintendo 64.

We chopped down our Christmas tree at a local tree farm. Cadie loved a little tree a little too much and got a scraped face.
Luckily there was a farm cat to make things better.

This girl can not get enough of cats. Notice the kitty hat (with it's own sunglasses), and the hello kitty gloves. Unfortunately she, as well as both Eric and I, are allergic so she's stuck with boring old Molly-dog.
Carrying the final choice back to the car.

A Birthday Post
Kitty cat birthday party! Cadie turns 3!
There were strawberry mice:

Kitty cupcakes:

And lots of kittens:




With all eyes on her, Cadie refused to blow out the candles. We'll have to practice that one.

And someone, who will soon have her home toilet-papered, gave Cadie makeup (just you wait until W's b-day!).

Please, don't grow up any more sweet Cadie.

The Halloween Post
I spent some serious time preparing for Halloween this year and then didn't document much at all. Here is Cadie the dragon and Eric the black knight, "none shall pass."

We won the family costume contest at our community Halloween party! $25 in an account at the local credit union. AND a way cool plaque that Cadie has been carrying around:

Next year I'm sticking to store-bought outfits.
We had 256 goblins, ghouls, and cheerleaders (next-door neighbor's scientific count) show up for treats within the 2 hour designated "beggar's night". A little crazy but fun. I may post more pictures if I can scrounge any from friends who were more organized than myself.

As promised
I had a hard time getting this video to post - finally had to downsize it but hopefully you can tell which ballerina is Cadie (the one who wouldn't take her jacket off).

She is also taking tap lessons because a) her friend Kelsey is in the class, b) the shoes are really cool and make lots of noise, and c) it didn't cost anything extra! Ballet and Tap are back-to-back and it is a struggle to keep her in line for the full hour but Ms. Irene does a great job.