A view of the backyard from our porch.

Technically it is spring. But if you can overlook that, the Winter of 2012-13 turned out to have several good snowfalls. Yesterday we got about a foot of snow. Last year around this time spring was in full bloom.

And what great timing for the snow — Jadzia and Ludi are on spring break, so the kids have plenty of chances to play in the snow.

This morning I took Ludi, Josie and Joseph to Killer Hill. The snow was very thick and it was tough to climb the hill at first. There weren’t as many people out as there was last time, so the “easy” side of the hill wasn’t compacted at all.

After her first or second ride down the hill, Ludi got snow in her boot and started whining a bit. She did continue to sled, but insisted on riding in my lap for the rest of the time. Joseph was also riding with me. Josie continued to impress — she rode by herself most of the time, and walked back up the hill with no trouble. Eventually we built up a nice, slick track for our discs.

Joseph wanted to go play on the playground, but found the snow to deep to walk through.

Ludi wants to leave. But she toughed it out and sledded some more.

Kids having fun on Killer Hill.

More kids having fun at Killer Hill.

And it seems this is the season I am destined to finish off my snow boots. When we went sledding several weeks ago, I broke off the bottom of my right snow boot. Yesterday I super-glued it back together. Then today I broke the bottom of me _left_ boot. But I persevered, sledding until finally my toes were ripping through.

We came home, and Ludi and Joseph wanted to go in. Josie stayed outside with me and together we built a very nice snow fort. In fact, this is probably the best snow fort I’ve built in my life. The snow was perfect for compacting. I used a bucket to form the bricks, and we got it fairly tall.

The massive snow pushed our ornamental grass over the retaining wall, forming a natural igloo. Josie went inside, but decided it was too dark.

Early stages of the snow fort.

A couple layers later.

Trying to do something fancy here, but the camera kept giving me “out of battery” messages and I couldn’t charge them up enough to get the great shot I wanted.

New words

Josie writes “JTL” on her DoodlePad. Then she adds an “E” at the end.

“The ‘E’ is silent,” she explains.

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Birds of a feather

Joseph: “There’s a firebird! Let’s shoot it! BOOM!”

Josie: “Look, there’s a smoke pigeon!”

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The secret

Josie: “I’m gonna whisper something in your ear.”

A moment later she whispers: “‘B’ is for ‘beach.’ Don’t tell anyone!”

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Practicing phonics

Josie: “M. Y. … My!”

“… Like, ‘My Prreeeecioooouussssssss!!’” (in her Gollum voice)

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Must be the metal

Me: “I. Am. A. Robot.”

Josie: “Can you change your voice? I don’t like robots. I’m allergic to them.”

Residents come out to see Ferguson’s new fire house.

Saturdays are busy days for us now. Ludi and Josie have a dance class early in the morning, and Jadzia has one later on. Today, in between the classes, we took a trip to visit Ferguson’s new fire house.

It was fun to see all the rooms and talk with the firefighters. Josie had some pressing questions for one fire fighter that we met in the training room. She found a whiteboard with a diagram of the Christian Care Home (which is near our house) drawn with black, red, blue, and green dry erase markers. “Why didn’t you use the PURPLE marker?” she asked, picking it up and showing it to him.

Purple has always been an important color at our house.

Anyway, hope you enjoy the photos.

Yoli and the kids found someone cool to take a photo with.

Joseph became scared of the fire trucks after one of them had to leave on a call. He didn’t want to have his photo taken with the other truck.

What’s could be more American than a flag flying off the ladder truck?

We found a nice little playhouse.

Fancy kitchen table.

The firefighters have a pretty comfy TV room.

One of the firefighters’ bunks upstairs.

The pole! Alas, we were not allowed to slide down.

This has been another weird, warm winter. We have had only one decent snowfall all year, which I previously posted photos of. Since then we’ve had some slight sprinklings of snow, but it has been too warm for anything to stick around.

But this morning everything was blanketed in a very thin layer of white. Yoli and I took Joseph and Josie to Jadzia and Ludi’s school for a special program featuring storyteller Bobby Norfolk. When it was finished we came back home, and already the white was melting away. I figured I should try and grab some photos while I still had a chance.

Josie goes down the hill by herself!

Yesterday we had a decent snowfall of maybe 5-6 inches in North County. It was regular snow with some sleet and rain on top. Combine that with temperatures slightly above freezing and you have a recipe for sticky snow and slick hills. Perfect for sledding and snow forts.

The whole family went out to Killer Hill in Florissant to meet up with Tio Jonny. Jadzia didn’t want to sled, just play on the playground. But I force her to sled with me twice and she survived.

Josie and Ludi, though, were very brave. Today they sledded all by themselves, not on anyone’s lap. And they seemingly had no fear! I was very proud to see the way they were sledding and walking back up the hill by themselves. (And so glad I didn’t have to carry them anymore. That used to be hard work)

Joseph went sledding a few times, then wanted to play on the playground. Later on after Ludi and Yoli went back to the minivan, Joseph decided to come sledding with me again. He and Josie probably would have stayed all day, but Ludi and Jadzia were ready to go, so off we went.

Here are some photos:

Tio Jonny takes Joseph for a ride.

Climbing back up the hill.

Ludi is happy after sledding down by herself

Let’s have a race!

Sledding!

Moments after taking that last picture of Josie, she collided with me, knocking the heel off my ancient snow boots.

Jonny and Josh

Guess some folks needed a little liquid courage before braving Killer Hill.

Josie and Joseph relax in the little snow fort I built for them.

My own daughter is sending me junk mail.

Of course, one man’s junk mail is another man’s treasure.

Lately Jadzia has been sending out letters to friends and family members and has been very excited to get responses. Within the house she often likes to pretend by making menus, or clubs, or newsletters which she gives to Yoli and I.

Today I came home from work to find a solicitation from “Calvin and Hobbes Magazine.” If I’m reading the advertisement correctly, seems like the rates are 0¢ or $1.

Think I should subscribe?

Two things came up recently which spurred me to write a blog post one year sooner than I originally planned.

The first thing is that I created a new website called Break Into Chat, which hosts a wiki about the history of old BBS door games as well a blog about retro computing topics. You can visit the website to learn more about the reasons why I created it.

The second thing is that my mom has been scanning truckloads of photos from Christmases past, then sharing them on Facebook.

These two seemingly unrelated threads converge in 1993, the year my parents surprised me and my brothers with the greatest Christmas present ever: The Atari Jaguar.

Please take a minute to click the link above and relive the memory with me!

Unfortunately we didn’t get out soon enough. Our tardiness combined with the terrible drought this summer meant pickings were slim at the tree farm.

We walked for an hour or two looking for “the tree.” We never found one that was altogether perfect, but we did find a nice small one that had no dead branches or brown needles.

Yoli and the girls got it decorated Tuesday evening. Yoli had also taken some free scrap branches that the tree farm was giving away. On Wednesday she used them to make a wreath, and on Thursday to decorate the mantel over the fireplace.

Here are some photos of how it turned out:

Three years ago we took our first trips to Hermann, Mo in search of Springerle cookie molds and a fun time.

On those trips, we missed out on the Kristkindl Markt, not realizing how early in the day it finished. It’s a bit tricky for us to make it out there, with our church and work commitments on the weekends.

Anyway, Sunday we went straight from church to Hermann. Upon arrival, we drove to a town square area where the Kristkindl had been the last time we were in town. But it was empty. Yoli found a friendly older couple who explained the market was being held at Stone Hill Winery. The gentleman also advised us to visit St. George Church for its rectory tour, which he assured us was beautiful and full of trees.

Eventually we found the correct hill, parked the car, and wandered into the winery’s gift shop, thinking it might be the market. Lots of grapey gift items, but not what we wanted. At last we were directed to the right spot.

Inside we found plenty of lovely handicrafts and food items. If I was a lottery winner, I’m sure I could have bought a minivan-load of stuff, especially the beautiful hand-turned wood items.

Particularly eye-catching to me were some hand-painted clay Springerle “cookie” Christmas ornaments. Given Yoli’s affinity for Springerles, this seemed like a natural purchase. The lady selling them loved our little kids and let each of them choose an extra little ornament as a bonus. We also purchased some beeswax ornaments from a honey vendor.

We left the winery and made our way back downtown to St. George’s. We walked through the sanctuary of the church, which was beautiful but bereft of trees. The girls were quick to point this out: “Where are all the trees?” A lady directed us to the other side of the church where the rectory tour began.

What a beautiful tour! We only explored a fraction of it before the kids (nap-less and hungry) began to get restless, Joseph especially. Each room had its own theme, and all were striking. Yoli and I could have stayed all evening exploring it all.

Our final stop was the Deutschheim historic site. Time was running short (I had to get back home in time for work), but we browsed the rooms with old toys and Christmas decorations, transporting back in time.

And at last, we made it to the most important part of our visit: the Deutschheim gift shop, where they sell replica Springerle cookie molds. Yoli has been itching for some new ones to increase the variety of the cookies she makes.

The gift shop setup was different this year than the last time we were here. The gift items were being sold out of one of the old, electricity-less buildings. So all the transactions were being done long-hand. It took quite a while, and when it was done, the worker who was helping me realized he had the carbon paper in backward. So he had to copy the receipt again. Ah, the modern conveniences we take for granted. A nice Square credit card reader hooked up to an iPhone sure would have been handy for the gift shop folks.

And the proof of our purchase: Springerle cookie dough waiting to be pressed into molds and baked.

A weird morning. My tummy was rumbly, but I had promised to accompany Jadzia on her field trip to Little Creek. So she and Ludi and I walked together to school. When I got there, the teacher said chaperones would have to ride separately, not on the bus. Oh well. I walked back home to get my minivan.

After arriving at Little Creek I waited about 20 minutes for the kids to arrive. As a children’s ministry teacher for many years, I know that it can take a while to get them all rounded up. Just as the bus from Vogt Elementary pulled into the lot, I got a call from the school — Ludi had thrown up. So with quick apologies to Jadzia and her teacher, I drove back to Ferguson to take Ludi home.

The rest of the morning went well. Jadzia and her class learned about groups of vertebrate animals: mammals, amphibians, fish, reptiles and birds. They got to interact with real animals and do a lot of activities and games. It was a fun way to learn.

After the field trip was done, I headed home for lunch. The kids were in the backyard playing, Yoli told me. After spending some time upstairs, I was headed downstairs to do some work. As I looked out my bedroom window, there was Josie talking into the gutter extension pipe, making announcements to somebody. Across the yard, Joseph was standing at the old brick grill cooking a muddy concoction. I couldn’t resist.

I grabbed the camera and went to capture a few scenes from a lovely fall day in our backyard. Enjoy.