a big day for the claycamps

today was filled with big events and lots of fun times with family-

and luke was there too-getting bigger by the minute...

winter wonderland

so we only thought we had lots of snow last time. last night it snowed like i've never seen-coming down in a thick sheets that cleaned up all of our tracks and footprints. we woke up to a blanket of sparkles that called to us. we sledded some but mostly just trekked around, played king of the giant snowball and visited our giant snowman in the meadow.

king/queen of the giant snowball is a new favorite game

this is one of my favorites of the year so far...

and no adventure in the snow would be complete without a yummy cup of hot chocolate...

the snow fort

It is warmer today-which means the snow is finally wet enough to pack together-and we discovered another wonderful use for hills. I don't think I have ever rolled large snowballs down a steep hill-it is great exercise and very strangely satisfying to make such large mounds of snow. Bobby, Anneliese and I made a snowman at the bottom of the meadow, but I didn't have my camera for that trip...
We recruited Emily and Grant to start the process in the front yard-but the mounds were so heavy they were impossible to lift-so a snow fort was born. I'm looking forward to lots of fun times in the snow fort-but the rain cut the playtime short today. Maybe it will turn to freezing rain and we can have another snow day tomorrow-we can wish...

Grant had 2 basketball games this weekend-vs. the same team. Bobby surprisingly still has a voice after coaching the boys through some intense games-having to use use PE voice to carry over the cheerleaders :) Grant claims his favorite part is being a point guard-I can just picture Bobby as a first grader looking very similar :) My favorite part is watching him play defense-he usually gets put on the best player because he does such a great job-and he got called for a moving screen, which made us all laugh-really-first grade?

happy martin luther king day-
Grant and I had a thoughtful discussion last week when he was asking about his behavior score on his report card. He received an S and was wondering why he didn't get an s+. He said he always followed all of the rules-this morphed into a conversation about how Dr. King didn't always follow all the rules-because he knew the rules were wrong.
Thank you MLK for knowing when the rules are wrong and making such a lasting impact on all of us.

snow, snow and more snow

the snow is sticking around-and I think I could really get used to it-because it has provided so many fun outdoor adventures. it has the consistency of sand-so still no snowmen-
today we discovered that we could get some great echos off the barn-thus grant yelling... and him hearing the echo captured his true happy face :)

Grant has started playing basketball with a group of 1st graders from Sunflower. Bobby is coaching-I don't know how he does it, but I'm so happy he does-always with the amazing patience and positivity that makes the kids actually love to play.

more fun in the snow

emily was waiting for grant to get home from school-so she could sled with him

anneliese had a hurt foot-and watched from the window

they figured out how to tie the sleds together to make it even more of an adventure...

snow days