Jess and I have been bad bloggers lately. Sorry! we hope to post more and better photos soon, but in the meantime here are a couple bad ones from my phone. The other day Art was sleeping in a weird position, and then the blurry one of the kids around the table is from this morning at ECFE class. Art always asks to sit next to Lewis, and as I was taking the photo the teacher said they always play together and said it’s fun to watch them together and cause they’re very loving towards each other. What a wonderful thing for a parent to hear, you know? Make everything warm and fuzzy.

I’m in New Orleans for the big football game. Look for me on the sidelines Sunday, I’ll be wearing a lime green shirt with a red vest (all photographers wear red vests).

We were invited to a potluck at the house of one of Art’s best friends, Si, tonight. Spending time with adults is a great deal more fun when Art has someone to play with so intensely. They were wrestling, playing with dinosaurs, and otherwise were entirely self entertained. Laurel and Jeff, Si’s parents, are super cool people and have a weekly potluck as a way to stay in touch with friends.

Jess on the cookies her and Art and Lew made the other day: All three of us helped use the mixer, helped pour in the ingredients, and helped spoon the dough onto the cookie sheet. They came out looking like something our of a Martha Stewart magazine.

Cait and Zach bought a new house, and we stopped by to see it. It’s wonderful.

I never realized how important the hunt is to so many people in St. Paul. Each day (for up to 12 days if necessary) a clue is published in the paper that hints as to which public park the medallion (worth $10,000 to the finder) is hidden in. More than a hundred people line up each night outside the paper at midnight to get the new clue and then zip off in the darkness to search for it in deep snow in the middle of the night. Young kids, old farts, everyone. I sorta wish I didn’t work at the paper so I could look, too! anyway, the first video below is of late last night as people waiting for the clue. And the other videos below are of the newest clues (the clue writer, disguised, reads the clues–something new this year). For years people have thought Joe Soucherey, a cranky columnist at the paper, was the clue writer/medallion hider (hardly anyone, even folks who work at the paper, knows who writes the clues). So he played along in the last video.

Clue 2:

Clue 3:

Clue 4:

It wasn’t that cold today and we had plans to join Aunt Ashley and Uncle Josh for snow play, but Art has a sore throat so we opted for a lower-key nature day. We went to the Science Museum to look at the dinosaur bones. (And potentially infect lots of other kids, depending on how serious Art’s cold is.)

Ever since Art discovered the PBS show, “Dinosaur Train” dinosaurs have been on the brain around here. Especially for me! I’m just so curious about them! And there’s been a lot of new discoveries since even I was a kid. Heck, they don’t even call a brontosaurus a brontosaurus anymore! So I was especially excited to go to the science museum.

First we had to wait in a long line to get in.  (All the people observing MLK day with science, I guess.)  Art and Lewis wandered around in the big lobby and on this huge world map.  Art is offering to carry Lewis since I had refused to do it anymore.

I didn’t take a whole lot of pictures in the dinosaur area because I was so focused on the exhibit.  The triceratops was enormous.  I could barely believe it.  Here are the kids in a barrel that represents a diploducus stomach.

Then we went to a light exhibit. I told Art and Lewis that this was a special shadow wall. Art walked up to his colorful shadows and said, “I’m so beautiful! Why am I so beauitiful?”

This is part of an art exhibit using multicolored threads in intricit patterns. The installation was titled, “Is it science or art?” Art said, “It makes me dizzy to look at it.”

Today Arthur wasn’t feeling so good. He was horizontal most of the day, even when his friends were over this morning. And he took a three and a half hour nap. He didn’t have a fever though, but said his body hurt in different spots. He usually hangs out as Jessica cooks so she offered to make him a ‘bed’ in the kitchen as she cooked. What a great idea! Art loved it, too. We made him a little bed and he smiled nice and big as he laid down. And we made Lewis a little bed, too, even though he was the antithesis of sick today. In fact, rarely did he stop talking or moving his body all day.

This morning we invited over a few friends to have one last playdate in the cardboard box castle in our basement. Art and Lew haven’t been playing in it much lately, and we want the space in our basement back! It was a going away part of sorts. Here are some snaps.

Oscar shows Lew how to squeeze a balloon.

Evva.

Oscar.

Maura and her sister Noel.

Oscar.

leaving.