Winter Activities

This winter the girls started an indoor climbing class at a local rock climbing gym. Sophie loves it, and Lauren likes it, but "it isn't really her thing" (in her own words). 

Lauren making her way up the wall

Sophie looking proud after climbing all the way to the top. 

The girls have also been skiing - Sophie quite a few times, and Lauren for her first time. Sophie is totally comfortable and can bomb down the mountain (green and blue runs) by herself. Lauren needs to get her ski legs still - but there will be time for that. 

Goofballs on the ski lift

One of Lauren's first times down the bunny hill. 

Christmas 2016

The year we hosted Christmas for the first time! We had a relatively quite morning with Mom Mom, Pop Pop, Dave, me and the girls. And around 1pm a crew of both Sharps and Rainers came over for a total of 26 people. We successfully we pulled it off! Here's what the house looked like before the madness:

After Santa left off of his goodies

Table for 26

And the table filled with family! Everyone fit! 

Sophie's big present was a set of skies that she got to use right away. Dave took her the day after Christmas to Spring Mountain. 

The hip ski chick

Doing a pretty good run down the hill

Winter Fun

We've had a pretty mild winter until the end of January, when we were slammed with over 2 feet of snow. Sledding in the back yard was in full swing with all of the neighbors coming over to enjoy the hill.

Lauren with some neighbors

Snow bed.

Sadly, Lauren ended a day of sledding by slamming right into our swing set. She knocked three teeth loose, but not stitches were needed, thank goodness. 

Dave has also taken Sophie skiing a few times this winter. She's getting pretty good. They moved from the bunny hill to a green hill during their last trip. 

Sophie Skiis

This winter Dave took Sophie to Spring Mountain (more of a hill) to try skiing. She got the hang of it pretty quickly, with Dad as a guide, and enjoyed 2 days this winter skiing down the mountain.

Sophie Skiis 

What we're up to these days...

We have found ourselves in a very cold, very snowy winter. In the last month school has been cancelled at least one day each week. On two occasions last week I took Sophie into the office with me. She was actually really great and an office hit - a good distraction for everyone :) 

Here's a shot of a day where I had to pick her up early from school. All of this snow fell between 9am and 2pm! 

Last weekend we decided to take advantage of the weather and went to Camelback Mountain in the Poconos for a mini ski vacation with our friends Don, Ally and their son Oliver. We enrolled Sophie in ski school for the first time. Here she is before getting on to the skis. Unfortunately she lasted about 45 minutes in ski school before she was over it and Dave had to go pick her up. I think it was a combo of the cold, not knowing anyone in the group, and being uncomfortable on the skis. We'll give it another try next year and see if it takes... 

Now that she's in the Primary pre-school, Sophie has to make Valentine's for her entire class of 22 kids. We got started on the project early so we could work on them all week - and we definitely needed to. Of course, tomorrow is Valentine's day and school is already cancelled, but I'm assuming they'll reschedule the exchange, as I'm sure we're not the only family who has spent a good amount of time on these! 

And Lauren is becoming a real little kid. She's eating with a spoon now, and definitely wants to do it for herself, rather than being helped. Ready for Montessori I guess.