Ames--Colder than Antarctica in January

Guest blogger Robby here.

Last Sunday I asked which of a long list of cities are colder than Ames (colder being defined by average January temperatures).

The answer: Two.

Here they are, listed in order from warmest to coldest:

Congrats to Marilyn for having the closest guess. Marilyn--we'll bring you the promised goodies when we swing by in June '09.

Our most faithful (read: only) Swedish reader, Victoria, suggested that the coldness of a winter might be better measured by something like how long winter lasts. She's got a good point (but my bet is that winter is just as long in Ames as it is in Stockholm).

Thanks to accuweather.com for the U.S. weather data. International data from the Washington Post Historical Weather Database. Leipzig data from weather.msn.com. McMurdo Station data from antarcticconnection.com.

Olivia adventures

The other day I took the kids to McDonald's for lunch as a treat. While we were there only one other family came into the indoor playroom, and they had a 3 year old little girl who played marvelously with Jenna. As Olivia sat in my lap and watched the girls play, she became more and more restless and wanted to go and play, too. The family who sat next to us struck up a conversation with me, and as we talked Olivia got wigglier and wigglier. I finally relented and allowed her to walk around near the entrance to the climbing tunnels (she has transitioned to only walking now).

A short bit later, Little Robby came down the slide, and I asked him to watch Olivia for me in the first little tunnel room that was on the ground level. I turned back to talk with the family next to me thinking that Little Robby would be fine with her just as long as he kept her right there in the first little room. I chatted and chatted for the next little while, until I heard Robby calling me from up above. As I turned to look up, I was surprised to see little Olivia smiling down at me from a bubble room in the play tunnels that were far above my head!

"Robby! You weren't supposed to take her up in the tunnels!"

"But Mom, she wanted to go! She started climbing all by herself!"

"Did she up there by herself?" I questioned.

"Well, no, I had to help her up the climbing tunnels. I supported her little bum as she climbed," he admitted. (Don't you just love big brothers!)

"When I asked you to watch her, I didn't think you would take her up there!"

All the while, Olivia was pounding from the inside of the plastic bubble with this huge smile that said, "Look at me! This is so fun!" (I actually wished I had had my camera to take a picture of her. She was so proud of herself!)

I thought about climbing up there to get her myself, but from prior experience climbing in these tunnels I knew that they were designed for a kid and not an adult (I may be small, but not that small!) I asked Robby how he was going to get her down, and he said, "I'll just take her down the slide!" I reluctantly permitted this idea because I thought it would be much safer than having him try to crawl down the tunnels with an extra 20lbs.

So off they climbed again to the top of the play tunnels, and Olivia got her first slide ride ever down the BIG twisty slide at McDonald's. And what did she think? Well, she was so excited she tried to go and do it again!

Unfortunately for her, Mom felt like we had had enough of McDonald's and the playplace for the day.

(Little Robby just read this post and said to me, "You make it look like it was my fault! It's not my fault she wanted to climb up there!")

Winter Wonderland

Sunday morning we woke to this beautiful scene...

Okay, first I will admit that I am not a cold weather person, but from the warmth of my house it was a pretty scene. It snowed again on Monday, and as you can imagine Robby and Jenna LOVED it!

We bundled each of them up as best we could. You know, coming from Arizona we had to improvise in a few ways.

Jenna didn't have any mittens, so we used socks with plastic sandwich bags rubber-banded over the top. Hey, they kept her hands dry and warm!

Olivia doesn't have any snow gear, so despite the fact that this picture makes it look like she is outside, she was just inside the doorway. And our other improvisation was using waterproof sport pants with pajama pants layered underneath for Robby. It works, right?!

Robby's first order of business was to begin constructing a snow fort in the corner of the yard. You know, to protect him from snowballs being lobbed at him by his sister.

They were both having a ball ... a snow ball that is!

The final order of business was to construct a snow man for Jenna. It was her dream to construct a snow Mama, a snow Daddy, a snow Robby, a snow Jenna, and a snow Olivia, but they settled on one snow man (with no mouth since they couldn't get the raisins to stick to the snow.)

Sometimes I get a warm, fuzzy, "it's great to be a parent" feeling when I watch my kids have a blast doing something. I had that feeling today as they were enjoying our winter wonderland.

One other thing is snow in the yard has brought new meaning to a lot of the Christmas songs we sing. You know, "Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow" and "Winter Wonderland" and others. I must admit that is fun, too!

So I guess a real winter isn't all bad.

Oh, and I did get Jenna a real pair of mittens, and both the kids snow bibs, so now they really won't freeze. I figure it's an investment since we will really need the stuff in Iowa!

(By the way, if you haven't posted a comment with your answer to the quiz in the next post you need to!)