Leap Year Snow

It is a testament to our mild winter that this much snow:

Brought so much joy to Henry today:

Party, party, party

We celebrated Meredith's 5th birthday this weekend at a semi gym/semi Star Wars themed party (a mash up!). Henry of course loved the gym activities:

Marvelled at the cake (hard to see, but it has a picture of Mer as Princess Leia on it):

And spent some time hugging it out with Jake:

Happy 5th birthday to Meredith!

Pancakes and Ice Skating

Today we joined Kate and Ben for an incredibly fun Boston morning.

We started off at the Four Seasons for breakfast. In honor of "National Pancake Week" (who knew?) they were having decorate your own Mickey Mouse pancakes for kids. It was quite a spread - Nutella, whipped cream, chocolate chips, berries..... The kids had a great time:

As you can see, Henry basically had chocolate chips, with a small side of pancake.

After breakfast we walked across the street to Boston Common and the Frog Pond for Henry's first time ice skating! The warm weather actually caused them to close the pond for skating today, but because our kids had signed up for private lessons they opened it just for us, and we had the place to ourselves.

We met up with the coaches and got started!

Henry was awesome! He had no fear and was soon skating all by himself across the ice, able to skate by and scoop up the stuffed animals they were throwing around for a game, turn around, and impressively was easily able to stand up again by himself in the middle of the ice when he did fall. We may need to buy him a Bedazzler and hire a private coach:

After skating we walked over to the Esplanade and the super cool new playground by the Hatch Shell:

Then, during our walk back to the car we got caught in a brief, freak hailstorm! It was a jam packed, incredibly fun morning. Many thanks to the Carlsiles for spending it with us!

Vacation Week

This week is February school vacation week in Massachusetts. Traditionally a skiing vacation week, the balmy temperatures and lack of snow have opened up different activities this year. Henry's one request for the week was to go to the Aquarium (Well, actually he also requested the Children's Museum, but I won't touch that place during a school vacation -sorry Henry), so Tuesday morning we set out to watch some fish:

Henry is an old pro at the Aquarium. We get there as it opens, head towards his favorite windows and exhibits, make a quick stop at the gift shop (because I am a sucker), and then back on the T in about 1.5 hours!

Today was beautiful - sunny and in the mid 50s, so we go to to spend the day at the park! It feels like spring - you can even see crocuses and some daffodils starting to poke out...in February!

USS Constitution

It was a lovely afternoon so we decided to head to Charlestown to check out the USS Constitution (which for some reason none of us have ever visited before!). Alas, we got there too late to board the ship, but we were able to walk around the harbor to look at her:

Then we headed into the Constitution museum where Henry got to check out model ships:

Try out the ship's hammocks:

And practice furling a sail:

Afterwards we made a brief sunset stop at the Bunker Hill monument:

(Henry is apparently no longer a fan of actually looking at the camera).

It was a fun, Boston-themed afternoon!

Playground

Nana and Papa are in town! Combine that with yet another unseasonably warm day, and you have playground time!