There's no business like snow business

Sorry for the bad pun, but we are in a state of hyperactivity at the impending snow storm tonight. They are predicting 5-9" and the girls are almost seizing with excitement. Poor things, to grow up in Michigan and then move here... I can't say I miss it, or the accompanying gray skies, but I'm happy they can have a nice big storm to sled in. We also got a snowboard on clearance for Bub to play with, and a couple sleds. Have I mentioned how hard it is to come by a regular sled in our neck of the woods? For my part, the long-range forecast is calling for the 40's in a couple days, so I can survive a few days of snow...
I can't remember if I posted anything about the conclusion of Domba's gymnastics class. She took it with her best friend, T, and T's older sister. Unfortunately, you could never see them because they were mostly doing tumbling on the trampolines in the very back of the warehouse. Here' s little video for the grandparents.

We kept busy playing and doing homework during her class.
Of course, she was beaming at the awards ceremony following her last class.

We've also gone swimming a couple times at the county poosl. Mini-Me is still begging daily to go to the swimming "cool", so we may have to pull out the swim diapers again soon.
This pic shows our favorite pool: it has a recreation pool w/mushroom, a 2" deep toddler zone, water slide that goes into a pool that the water falls from, and two hydrotherapy pools (code for hot tub) on either side. My only complaint is I wish they had a little more zero depth space, but over all, it's a great pool.

I had to throw this one in--all the girls enjoy plucking Bub's harp, but Shrimp & Mini-Me actually compose songs...

We had fun at Domba's school Valentine party a couple weeks ago. The cookie decorating/inhaling was an especial hit.

And let me not forget to post a blast from the past: when Dh was much, much, much younger :), he and a friend used to buy Diet Chocolate Shasta and make themselves drink it. Must be masochists at heart. Anyway, I one-upped him and found Canfield's Chocolate FUDGE pop. He said it tasted the same and just as bad. What a weirdo!

One of our most recent expeditions was to the Maple Syrup Festival at the local Nature Center. It was lower-key than I expected, which was good... We started playing in their Discovery Room.
Then we watched a movie and filtered outside to see the actual sap boiling over a wood fire.
They made tiny little pancakes over an open fire in an authentic old cabin nearby that we dipped in Vermont syrup. They also gave little tastes on Popsicle sticks of the syrup the Nature Center made last year. I personally thought it had a bit of a chocolaty taste, but I'm preggo, so my observations may not be valid... :)
Finally, we walked up to see the actual tapped Maples.
They had a jug of sap from which they gave little samples. It wasn't very sweet at all and I can see why they have to boil it down so much to get syrup and sugar. I think they said it was about 40 gallons of sap to make one gallon of syrup.