I came across a recipe for carrot cake pancakes and printed it off for The Banana, who was home from college on spring break, to try making. She made plans with Mr. TOF for a carrot cake pancake extravaganza, and they checked the ingredient list with me to see if…

We’ve been sneaking in as much outside time as we can manage, and this guy has been busy loading snow into his dump trucks and relocating it.

Last week Mr. TOF had a band concert. I brought Peanut Maximus to sit in the audience with me. This was a big deal. I started talking about going to the band concert a few days before the actual band concert, and it was a highly anticipated event. He counted…

Your mom might make you a balanced, healthy supper before you go to baseball practice. She drives you to practice. She picks you up from practice. You are grouchy. You are hungry. Again. But when you arrive home, your dad is also home! He takes pity on your poor stomach…

Peanut Maximus has entered the prime of pretend play. Imaginary creative scenarios fill the day. Last week one frequent babysitter spent at least six hours driving an imaginary school bus that they built and rebuilt numerous days out of play couch cushions, blocks, chairs, an old computer keyboard, a disconnected…

There has been a lot of snow shoveling, snow pushing, and snow blowing in the last week, and this little guy has been helping with his shovel. He also likes to pretend that he is running is “own snowblower.” It is surprisingly more effective than you would think. Also, he…

Peanut Maximus has been requesting an audiobook or two during rest time each day, and hands down his favorite stories are the Mercy Watson books by Kate DiCamillo. We’ve branched out to listen to lots of other stories too, but at least four times a week he’s asking for Mercy…

Here are some things that have been working well this winter:

While we were visiting YaYa there was a massive snowstorm that dropped 5 feet of snow on the mountain. That was a lot of snow! As the storm was beginning to settle in, I went on a long walk on a walking path that connects all the important parts of…

While we were exploring at Mono Lake, we came across a little hot spring that was feeding freshwater into the salt water. It barely even smelled, which was a far cry from the hot springs we were around when we visited YaYa in Colorado last year. It was fun to…