snow day fun!

no school ... let's play!

the kids were amazed this morning to wake up to this! we are in the chicagoland area & received about 19 inches of snow in about 19 hours. the city literally shut down, but here at the chen's the party is just getting started!

this is my neighbor's yard across the street

(yes, the same neighbor who has amazing landscaping which i sneak over & shoot photos of in the summer time!) notice the yellow fire hydrant & how high the snow is?!

and, here are my 3 happy children,
waiting to explore & create in the snow

pumpkin-poos in a sea of snow out front.

she had followed in her brother's footsteps so she wouldn't sink in the snow.

my favorite little mister in the backyard on a huge drift

sunshine girl sits in a drift out front.

(btw, she LOVES her new coat i bought her because her old one was pink & puffy & she "was embarrassed wearing it because all boys think girls like pink, but she does NOT, but i made her wear it!" & she thought the puffy coat made her look fat. ugh. really?)

welcome to the chen library!

after the snow, their other fun was creating an entire library in their bedroom. they pulled out (almost!) all the books on their shelves, arranged them along with stuffed animals so that when you came in their room, you could pick a book & stuffed animal to snuggle (just like at school!)

another view of their bedroom, aka "the monkey room"

as of 2 months ago, all 3 kiddos share a room. we live in a capecod & my favorite little mister & sunshine girl have bunks (shown above) that cannot be bunked in their room due to the low ceiling. they have shared a room since they were almost 2 & 4 yrs old. pumpkin-poos moved in a couple months ago when we fixed all the cracks in her walls. she decided to stay.

we call it the "monkey room" for a few reasons: 1. they are monkeys. 2. we have a million ty beanie baby monkeys. 3. their bedding is hula monkey (girl) & safari monkey (boy) quilts from target. so cute. love them.

another interesting fact about their room: see those 2 awesome paintings (1 above each bed)?! they are ORIGINALS by laura huliska beith, one of my favorite children's book illustrators! you MUST go out & get her books. our paintings come from "the book of bad ideas" (very fun) & "favorite things" (very sweet, esp for you mommies :) i am honored to have 3 pieces of art created & signed by her in our home (the 3rd piece we have is of a crazy french chef which we have in our kitchen.. doesn't match anything else, but makes me smile every day!)

sunshine girl & her handiwork

notice her lipgloss?! she's into it. she bought it with some christmas money. i am talking real l'oreal lip gloss, not lip smackers. and she chose RED of course!

OH & 1 more cool thing about their library: almost ALL of those books (& magazines) were given to us for free! amazing gifts!

sunshine holding one of our favorite books

it's the "pumpkin-poo's book!" & we love it because it is what her teacher writes in every school day to let us know what activities she did that day. so important to me since pumpkins cannot tell me on her own, due to her speech problems. now, we have a better way to communicate about her day & she LOVES to get it out of her giant backpack everyday to show me what she did. then, i can ask her more direct questions. she is so proud of her book.

pumpkin-poos, my 3rd bookworm, in her new owl bed!

so, for the first month of her being in the monkey room she had a mattress on the floor (which she actually loved); then a good friend gave us their toddler bed (so sweet) & target had this adorable owl bedding. i had looked for the hula monkey on ebay, but could not find it. love the owl though & it still has the same art style & it is a quilt. her bed is at the foot of big bro's bed.

origami

last, but not least... my favorite little mister has a new passion: origami. it has even replaced LEGO's for the last 2 weeks (gasp!)

his 3-dimensional building skills just kill me. okay, he is 7.5 yrs old & making things i could never do: that panda in his hand, snake, bat, swan, frog, etc... his entire class will soon enough be getting his homemade origami valentine cards. i now wake up to origami creatures on my nightstand. so cool.

oh, & one more thing i want to always remember about this photo is that he gave me photography credit on his cute little note! love you my favorite little mister.

well, that's our day in a nutshell, along with hot chocolate & marshmallows, of course!

stay warm!

grace & peace,
julie