I started this post last week in the midst of an extreme cold spell here in Minneapolis. Temperatures had hovered in the teens and twenties below zero F – actual temperature, not even counting windchill – for several days. The girls didn’t want to go outside, I didn’t want to go outside. We stayed in the house except to get to and from school and one quick trip to the grocery store for eggs.
It was so cold outside that you could see the frozen water particles sparkling in the air – not the ones you get in front of your face, but up in the air the tiny bits of humidity that are normally invisible were actually sparkling in the morning sunlight as I stood with Julie at the bus stop before school. That was something I’d never seen before, and I didn’t realize what it was till my native-Minnesotan neighbor explained it to me.
I love living in Minnesota – there are many great things about the Twin Cities, especially the lush green (way too short) summers. Winter is pretty with the snow, but when it gets that cold, it is fairly unbearable. Even staying inside the house, there are constant little drafts and cold radiating off the windows – things you don’t notice when the outdoor temperature is above zero.
The good news is that the cold spell has broken, and today it was well above zero, warm enough that the snow turned slushy in the parking lots. So I can talk about this as an afterthought rather than a miserable mid-experience whine.
During the cold spell, the girls and I spent a lot of time in the basement. Pretty much every time we go down there, I spend the first fifteen or twenty minutes picking up toys and sorting bits and pieces back into their bins. And pretty much every time we head back upstairs, it is a disaster area again. I don’t mind too much about the mess down there – as long as the girls get to go wild playing and it stays under control enough for it to stay fun.
I took these pictures one morning when Julie was at school and it was just me and Sophie amusing ourselves. It’s great for her to occasionally get free reign at the toys without big sister to boss her around.
Yeah, we have a lot of crap down there, and these pictuers are *after* I did quite a bit of picking up.
Also, while we were down there, I finally hauled the bins of Christmas decorations back down from my office room to the secret storage hallway behind the playroom.
When we bought the house, this hallway amused me to no end, and it kind of still does. It’s such a strange, narrow little storage space, and you’d never know it’s there with a casual look. It’s totally where I’m going to hide when the zombies come. 
I’ll leave you with a video of the girls putting on an impromptu puppet show entirely of their own creation.
I’m loving this age with my girls.
The puppet show is cute! And Sophie did great with the words of “Frosty the Snowman”. I am impressed!