Sledding

Yesterday afternoon was a whirlwind.

Edith had preschool until 3:30, then after party til 4 -after party is basically her and a few friends sharing snacks and running around after class is done.

Get home. Throw girls into snow pants, boots, hats, gloves, jackets and back out the door to go sledding.  It is something we haven’t done before, but wanted to.

We have snow, but the temperature has been so low (low teens to single digits or less) that we haven’t done it yet this year. 

Yesterday though it hovered near 30 degrees.  So I wanted them to have that experience, especially since today it is supposed to get near 40, melting much of what is on the ground.

But Marceline has Robotics club at 6. 

Thankfully everything is within ten minutes of our home. 

Preschool to home – 6 minutes or less. 

Sledding Hill – 12 minutes due to construction.

McDonald’s – 6 minutes from the sledding hill.

McDonald’s to home – 10 minutes.

Home to robotics club – 7 minutes.

Somehow we got in 30+ minutes of sledding. The girls went from timid to over the top joy in one ride down the hill.  We could’ve stayed for hours.  No one else was there, just us.  It was a perfect sledding experience.

The McDonald’s we stopped at got us through their drive thru line in under 5 minutes.  Crazy fast for after 5 pm. Bonus is that they got some cool little toys in their Happy Meals, they actually remind me of the toys we used to get from Happy Meals when I was a child. 

Anyways, made it back home with 15 minutes to scarf down our food before rushing back out the door torobotics club.

Despite my thoughts on how the robotics club is run and the lack of any sort of structure or instruction to the club, Marceline has had a blast playing around with the motors, remotes, and knock off technic pieces.

Without any real guidance she built a small windmill last week, and a remote control car last night. And she gets to keep all that even after the club is done so she can keep building on her own.

It falls over a lot due to being top heavy.  But it works and she was zipping it all over the room. She was so proud (I was too).

Felt like cramming a lot into 2 hours in the afternoon. But the girls had a blast.

And I’ll readily admit,I had a blast too. The girls happily screaming running up and sledding down the hill is one of those moments that makes me just feel lucky to be a dad.

Last Night It Snowed

I don’t want this to just be a list of music I like, but there are worse things this blog could turn out to be.

Lately, as it’s been stupid cold outside and we have quite the snow build up, at least for Ohio, I’ve been listening to this song in the mornings, or evenings, on repeat.

Thanks to the wonderful Chuck Cleaver (of Wussy fame) for this song with his earlier band.

Same outfit every day…

I pretty much wear the same outfit everyday lately. It’s been extremely cold and they’re being sick for the last week and a half, I’ve been cold inside too.

Years ago Sam bought me for Hanes long sleeve shirts. They’re all the same color dark blue. Normally I put a short sleeve shirt over top this, feeling like I’m a high school student again.

But as I was sick and that didn’t feel warm enough. And a sweater felt too warm.  But a long sleeve shirt and a button down shirt over top of it, that was perfect. 

Not a look I normally go for but it was the right warmth. So I wore it daily since last Tuesday.

Alexis Ffrench

I like classical music. It is perfect for quiet mornings and evenings. Puts the girls to sleep quickly, although Kenny Loggins does that as well (big win for me).

I’m not sure where I found or discovered Alexis Ffrench, but his music is amazing. I like Songbird a lot, and sometime put it on repeat while walking in the woods.

Just thought I’d share.

4 Alberts

At one point in time there were four Alberts in my family.  Me, my dad, grandfather, and great grandfather.

I love this picture. Not for the fact that it’s 4 Alberts  although that is pretty cool, but that it’s 4 generations of Charpentiers.

Now I have two daughters.  So no new Albert here – although each time we were figuring out names I joked about Alberta. Honestly not a big deal at all, my daughters fucking rock. They are more amazing than anything I could have imagined before kids.

But it doesn’t make this picture any less awesome either.