Snow and Flowers

 This week started with the most pleasant of surprises: a snow day!  And a completely unexpected one at that.  Went to bed to light flurries on Sunday, and woke to this view:

And our luck continued when the snow tapered off and the roads cleared by midday, so we could join every other family in Cleveland Heights on Coventry Hill. 

 What a magical afternoon!

Perfect powdery snow. friends to the right and left, and a happ dog running up and down the hill alongside...

 This boy was catching some serious air over a jump the big kids constructed, and learning to sled standing up.

 After sledding, a whole troupe of friends came to our place for cocoa and conversation.  A gift of a dy indeed.

The littles had themselves a second snow day on Tuesday while I slogged through the snow to work.  The roads could've been worse and to tell the truth I really hate to miss too many days during the 3rd quarter-- so much to cover, so little time...

Thinking of time flying-- spring (??) conferences were Thursday at Boulevard.  We were duly informed that the kids are all right. Jack walked us through his data folder and Mrs. Bellini sent us home with a stack of books for our "too fast" reader to keep busy with in his free time.

Ivy showed us all of the centers in her classroom with great precision and in great detail, and  Mrs. Saad left her in charge of the room when she went to dinner!

 A quiet, chilly rest of the week, with lots of time snuggled in watching TV...

And today, flowers!

 Orchid Mania has come to town and we had a marvelous time amid the profusion of blooms.

Ivy dutifully completed a scavenger hunt, holding her paper up against me to color in the squares.  Jack tried his hand at focal point photography, happily catching shots of the "exotic pigeons" as well as a cluster of ants eating bird poop.

He's a natural.

The Gardens were truly fantastic, festooned with architectural elements to showcase the architecture of the flowers.

 An indoor pool and fountain!  And more of the same in the entryway, complete with fog machines.  We are hoping to make it there at night sometime.

Aren't they just unreal!!

 My favorite flowers of all.

Enjoying Rice Krispie squares the size of their heads...

 Sometimes they are a little intense....

 But always just perfect.