North Creek and Syracuse --

A couple of days ago, I took Calvin to get his first set of skis at Garnet Hill. He and Isabel are both enrolled in the "trade-up" program now, and thus are safely supplied with appropriate-sized ski equipment no matter how tall they get.



Calvin is inordinately happy about this. Here he is in his Invincible Cold-Proof Power Ranger Suit, enjoying a quick jaunt behind his grandparents' house.

Today Sarah picked him up from daycare and took him out again -- helped stabilize him a little on the downhills, but he's clearly well on his way to independent skiing.

Thanks to the aforementioned Invincible Power Ranger Suit, Calvin has been getting outside a lot, even in the coldest weather. We're working on two projects for this next weekend. In the front yard in Syracuse is Calvin's Castle, which is a work in progress using all the snow from the yard, sidewalk, and porch roof.

And in the back yard is Isabel's Igloo, constructed by piling all the snow in the back yard on top of our two plastic play structures, and then carving out the entrances again after the pile solidified. Here is the beginning of the project...

And the final result, after the big snowfall that closed Isabel's school for three days at the end of last week:

There's currently a tunnel through the back part, and access to the front part through a window -- but we're waiting for Isabel to get back to dig out the connecting room between the two, at the igloo party this weekend.

It's also possible to climb up one side of the pile and slide down the other, as Calvin demonstrates here on an early stage of the Igloo -- Uncle Patrick (and Harley, of course) were here to help out with laying the foundations: