Winter Silhouette

Caleb loves to sit at the window upstairs and look outside.  Yesterday we watched a snowplow drive through our alley and he was very excited about it!

Thankfully I was able to capture this curious little boy as he watched winter, all the while smoking Eli's pipe :)

Pay No Attention To That Man Behind the Curtain

I walked into the room today and saw this:

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"

But neither the Wizard of Oz nor my son could escape being caught.  Sneaky little fellow.  Charming, but sneaky :)

Because Few Things Are Cuter...

...than a baby getting ready for a bath!

Put That in Your Pipe and Smoke It!

"That" being drool...

Eli found this pipe in Turkey during his travels in college and was inspired to dig it out after seeing The Hobbit.  Caleb has decided he wants to be like Gandalf.  And Bilbo.  And all the dwarves who blow incredible smoke rings in the air.  (Eli wants me to point out that this pipe has never been used, so please don't report us!)

We can hardly express how hilarious it was to watch our son "smoke" a pipe.  He's got a new favorite past time:

Eli thinks he looks like a little old man here, lounging around, relaxing with his pipe and letting his cheeks hang low.  What a life!

Laundry

Today I discovered how much fun it can be to fold laundry :)

"Ooo, Mama, can I help?"

"I promise I'll be a really good helper!"

"I've even got a system that works great!"

"First, grab the flannel that needs to be folded, and then..."

"...whoops!  This basket's a little tipsy."

"Hehe, silly me!  I swear I don't know how I got here."

"Okay, let me just set this laundry basket upright again, and then..."

"...whoops!  This basket really is tipsy.  Hehe, silly me!  I swear I don't know how I got here."

"Maybe I'd better leave this laundry-folding business to the professionals.  Otherwise we might have a folded (or not-so-folded) flannel fiasco on our hands!"

Winter Weekend Fun

Some dear friends of ours came all the way from Chicago for a visit this weekend, and we had a great time holing up in our house, playing games, eating junk food, watching the Vikings, and laughing a lot with each other!  It was a fabulous way to spend Eli's full weekend off.

We played some card games, including Monopoly Deal.  It's one of our new favorite games!  If you've never heard of it, check it out.  It's a card version of Monopoly, with lots of familiar elements but some new twists too.  And it doesn't take twelve hours to play!  It's a fairly quick game and we love it.

Caleb really wanted to eat the cards, er, I mean, help Eli play his hand.

I couldn't resist sharing this picture.  

"Do your cheeks hang low, do they wobble to and fro....?"

Despite the cold weather, we did get out of the house twice.  Yesterday we ventured to the new Canal Park Brewery and loved it so much that we went back again today!  The food was fabulous and apparently the beer was something to write home about (although I can't attest to this myself since I still can't stand the taste of alcohol).  Dustin and Amanda are beer connoisseurs of sorts, however, and they raved about the brewery's offerings.  It's nice to know we can be proud of the fine brewed beverages here in Duluth!

Caleb really wanted those sweet potato fries...

Yay for good friends!

No yay for our Vikings losing badly to those mean Packers :(