Go away, Winter. We clearly have run out of things to do.

It is officially the snowiest winter on record for Central Illinois, and we are close to setting the record for the coldest winter as well. AND CABIN FEVER IS RAMPANT.  We have, however, been forced to become very creative when it comes to finding new sources of entertainment.  After all, you can only send your Matchbox cars down the same ramp so many times.  So although this winter has been one of endless hours spent indoors, it certainly has afforded ample opportunities to play outside the box.

One highlight of the winter has been the construction that started across the street.  In a moment of questionable parenting, I agreed to let Wes eat breakfast in the front room as to not miss the Big Scoop.

It was so exciting we had to have our friends over to watch as well!

We try to get out of the house at least once each day, and sometimes getting ready is half the fun (for some of us).

We were very lucky to have one of Wes' good friends, Gabe, available to play for a few months.  His family welcomed a new baby sister into the world, so we had many play dates while his mom was on maternity leave.

As always, Wes is incredibly fond of Bear.  She tags along wherever we are playing, and is often invited to join in the fun.  BIG SMILES when Bear joined Wes in his crib!

Apparently we still have a fish tank, and despite a general lack of (nearly any) attention the last 2.5 years, those fish are still kickin'.  Now that Wes is a little older and has started taking an interest in the fish, a new source of entertainment has been to go to the fish store.  He gets SO excited to bring a fish home and help Sean transfer it to the tank.  And admittedly, we're pretty proud of our little biologist :)

Every week I take Wes to a gymnastics-like class at the Jump Spot where he is able to burn off some energy.  His favorite activity, hands-down, is the trampoline.  He is by far the shyest kid in the class, but once he gets on the trampoline, he is all smiles and giggles.  So when we heard some friends were getting rid of their kid-sized, indoor trampoline, we knew it would be awesome.  Did we have room for it?  Absolutely not.  Our unfinished basement is already at capacity with my quilting business, a play area, and storage.  But with some clever rearranging and promises that it won't be this cramped forever, we brought a trampoline into our house while Wes was napping one afternoon.  We weren't sure how he was going to react, or if he'd even like it outside of the classroom setting.  But he did.  He does.  It's awesome.

No chance at all of getting him to stand still for a picture!

As always, we can rely on our neighbor buddies to cheer us up on the many days that we have felt too cooped up.  We often like to go to one of the schools where we work(ed) and just let the boys run, run, run...

One good thing about winter, though, is that it offers us a little time to slow down and enjoy the snuggles.